What we are up to.

Forgive me for not updating sooner. Mark pointed out yesterday that we have not posted pictures of any bugs in a while so before I give an update on where we are now I would like to point you to THIS post so you can remember the creepy crawlies we have here in Nam.

 Now I will give you a minute to get over the shock...

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Now what we have been up to!
I have been staying home with Reese. I never thought I would be a stay at home mother, but I am finding that being a mother is something I was born to do. I love spending time with Reese. I feel like I am still in some kind of honeymoon phase with him. Everything he does amazes me. I look at him sleeping next to me right now and I am again overwhelmed with the huge blessing that he is. I get out of the house on Sunday for church, on Tuesday for a YWAM family meeting and Wednesday nights we attend a cell group. We try to have a date night on Thursdays too. I also try to keep up with anything I can do from home to help with what goes on outside of the house :)

David spent the first part of January hiring new teachers and staff members for CHS. A big part of that was searching for someone to replace him. He found that person a few weeks ago and he has been spending the last two weeks training her. He also is getting things at school in order so that our transition out of there and into our own ministry will be smooth. So lots of paper work and meetings!

In other news we are busy getting everything together for my visa application so that we can visit the USA in May-July this year. We will have limited time in Colorado and Missouri, but if you would like to visit with us we would love to see you, just let us know! A huge part of our furlough this year will be raising support and spreading the news on our ministry here in Namibia. We will also be looking for potential recruits to join our team out here. Look for more info on here, and in our upcoming newsletter. If you don't get the newsletter then you can just leave a comment on here and we will get that straightened out!

So there you have it, a vintage bug and news on us. We cannot wait to see you all in the summer!

Wrapping paper and hot fudge!

Last night some ladies from school came over to wrap the children's Christmas presents. That's right, ALL 108 students get a book and a gift, and they all have to be wrapped. Last year I did not get to be part of this wrapping party, so I was pretty excited to get to help this year.
Marye, from Holland, Jodie, from Canada, Naleke from Kenya, and myself put on some Christmas music, set up a wrapping station, ordered some pizza and set off! I thought it would take at least 189723 hours to wrap that many presents. But we set up a good system I cut tape, Naleke and Marye wrapped, and Jodie sorted the gifts. There was a great selection, from board games to a couple of bedazzlers.
It was fun to talk about the kids as their gifts were wrapped. And to listen to Jodie and Marye talk about past Chrstmasses. How they used to have to buy a few gifts, to today when it is a whole operation.
We stopped for pizza after a while.The pizza guy took forever to show up though!

We then had home made sundaes, I made some hot fudge. Probably the best part of the whole get together, loads of hot fudge.
So right now there is one week of classes left, and then the last week of school. The last week will be full of Christmas parties, Disney movies, and the Christmas play.
It is crazy that we have been with the school for so long now. Pray for the leadership of the school, David has been interviewing some new people to fill the open teaching spots, and the open spots in the administrative team. It has been a fulfilling and challenging year, and we have seen God do some great things in the lives of the kids, and our own!

Encouragement.

There seems to be a problem at school. The kids like to tease each other all the time.  I think perhaps it used to be fun teasing, but it has gotten to the point where kids are tearing each other down. They are quick to point out flaws and problems. This has left some of the classes in a bad place, especially the older class. It seems the kids have become experts at hurting one another. David decided to focus his discipleship classes on encouragement and love. In the first week he asked the kids what their ideal class would be like, what it would look like to love one another. The kids came up with great answers, but the challenge is to get them to take it to heart and to act out on what they are saying. He challenged them to come up with a few encouraging things to say about their class mates. There were some rules though, they were not allowed to just say "Joe is nice"  "Jane is pretty"  they had to really think about it. This was last week. He said that is went ok, but that it seemed that some kids really were getting it.
Yesterday he came home from school with a great report. When he he walked into class he asked them how their week had been, and EVERY single student in the class gushed about a single boy who had gone out of his way to encourage everyone in the class. This boy is a known trouble maker, he likes to point out thing other kids are doing wrong to get them in trouble. But the kids could not stop saying how this week he had encouraged each and every one of them. He is helping to turn this class around. David said that many of the other kids now feel like they also want to be like Roberto.
I think it is important for us as adults, and especially as Christians to hold each other up, and to go out of our way to encourage one another. It is such a simple and basic principle, but it is easy to get caught up in our own issues and to forget that there are people around us who need to be encouraged.


Not being at school has been difficult for me, but hearing things like this makes my heart happy. It is amazing to see how one child can make a difference just by pointing out the good rather than the bad. David is doing an amazing job with those kids. Please pray for him, and them. There is only four weeks left in this school year. Next year some of the kids in this class will move on to new schools. And David will not be teaching discipleship next year. This is his last few weeks to really make an impact on these boys and girls. Pray that they will catch a hold of the things that he is teaching them, and that this encouragement bug will bite all of them!

Eyes to see.

Remeber my post about Ricardo moving to America for his surgery? Well his surgery was done last week, and it was a great success.
This is an email I received from Suzanne this past week about his surgery:

"Ricardo's surgery was absolutely more than I had hoped for, the doctors were astounded, especially since the curvature of his eye was more severe than any they had seen before. His vision is now 20/80, the day after the surgery, he can read the 3rd line of the chart, quite astounding. His eye will continue to improve and he will eventually see 20/20. Quite a miracle after being blind!

   

We are confident that the prayers of you and so many others have helped to seal this boys future! Thank you for loving him and being a part of this effort." 

It is still strange to think of Ricardo living in America for now, but we are in awe of how this all came together. I am excited to see what God has planned for this little boy, pray for him as he is now in recovery and having to adjust to live in a new country.

Today I have been reminded over and over again of the love and sovereignty of God. His plans for us are more than we can hope or imagine. Ricardo now has the eyesight to see what God is doing around him the eyesight to witness the beauty and glory of what God has made. C.S Lewis said that "I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun, not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else."

Our prayer for you today is that you will see today, whether by your physical eyes or your heart, that God is good, and that He loves you more than you will ever be able to fathom.

Dr. Jim and his wife Molly. He did the surgery FOR FREE!

Ricardo with Suzanne and Dr. Jim.

Ricardo in America!

One of our students, Ricardo, has left Namibia for the USA. He has needed an eye surgery for the last few years now. He needs a partial eye transplant, as his left eye is slowly losing sight. An American donor had said that he would pay for the surgery to be done in Namibia, but it has taken almost two years of going in circles trying to find a dr. who could do the surgery. Finally it was decided that it would be easier to just take him to America and have it done there. After the surgery he will be staying with the Miller family in Boston, they visited CHS earlier this year, and he will be going to school with their boys.

We had a small farewell party for him at the YWAM base with the rest of his class. The kids seemed happy and excited for him, but also sad. Especially Chris seemed like he did not know how to deal with the fact that his best friend was leaving. Pray for him as he goes on this journey, and for the Miller family, and also for the kids that have been left behind.

Cross Cultural Guesstures :)

Today David played Guesstures in his Discipleship class. It was pretty funny, but also very interesting. It is amazing to see how the kids act out the words on the cards. At first I thought is was going to be a disaster when I saw how the kids were acting out the words. It seemed like "physical gibberish" to me, but the kids were getting it!
It was interesting to see the Namibian culture come through so strong on such a simple game. To my eyes "cat" looked like a dying chicken, "eating" looked like rapid face punching, "monkey" looked like a chicken dance, but "pound" was one of my favorites. The kid acting out "pound" was acting like he was pounding maize with a wooden maize pounder Of course here pound does not mean weight but making dinner. I would have failed if I was trying to mime pound.
David and I did each take a turn. It was not pretty. I mimed "mail box" but the kids stared at me with confused faces. Afterwards I realized it is because they don't have mail service here, only PO boxes. I bet most of our kids have never even seen a mail box, or received a letter. And I know that they have never sent a letter. It seemed to take the kids much longer to guess words we were miming, if at all.

I learned today how important it is to understand a culture to properly communicate a message. I was not able to communicate mailbox as it is not part of the kids lives. In the same way we are here to communicate the love of a heavenly Father to people who have mostly not even known they fathers, and most of them who have know fathers know them as violent drunks.

I think I am shown to that God's plan is perfect. If we came blazing into Namibia ready to plant churches without knowing the basic culture of people who live here we would have failed! So even if some days we feel frustrated by not being in a place of planting churches yet, we are in a season of preparation right now. And it is probably some of the most important preparation we will ever have. Please pray for us this week, to learn all we need to in this time, and grow where we need to!

First day of the last term.

Today has been full! We got up early this morning to meet with Brian and Pam Kinghorn, the directors of YWAM Namibia, to discuss our future in Namibia. I know I keep giving hints as to what that will be, but I don't want to announce anything before we know for sure, so sorry but soon!

We then came over to the school where I have spent the day doing little things that come up on the first day of school, including first aid :) David has been teaching P.E non stop today. From 10 until 2:30 he has back to back P.E classes. I do not envy him! It is so hot outside, and as it is the first day of school the kids have been quite, um, energetic.
 
We will have a staff meeting at the end of the school day, that usually lasts until 4 or 5pm and then we have to make a mad dash to the ministry of education to pick up some paper work. (Apparently all our teachers have to take a state wide English test tomorrow.) And yes, we were only told this today, it is a 3 hour exam, so now we are scrambling to try and find something to do with a 100 kids while their teachers are being tested. All and all a normal day around the school.

Reese has been kicking a lot today, I think he likes me being a little more active. Also a lady in the community when seeing my baby bump jumped up and down, giggled, and then ran over and kissed my belly. She is known to have a drinking problem, but I think she was quite sober today. It has been fun to see how people react to the news of us having a baby. I am already praying for God to use Reese as a way to open doors in the community and in the hearts of the people here.
I left my camera at home today, oops, so no pictures, but at least you have some idea of what we have done today.
As always we need and appreciate your constant prayers!

monday, MONDAY!

We are back in school, this week is teacher training and preparation and the kids will be back next week. This year has just flown by! As we start the last term of the year the weather is warming up, and we are getting ready to graduate the first grade 7 class from CHS.
Be in prayer for the new term, and keep your eyes on this space for more updates about the new term!

Spring break!

School is out! It is spring break for us, finally. We have two weeks off, then a week of teacher training, so it is not a super long break but it is welcomed. David has been working really hard, as has all the staff and teachers at CHS. We are going to the coast for a few days with Marye and her parents who are visiting from Holland, and we plan on working on the nursery too. I will be half way through my pregnancy in about two weeks! HALF WAY! Also I would like some book suggestions, as we are kind of out of the loop on books here.
I have not written much about the school as I have been on bed rest, but next term I will be back to school twice a week! I am very excited about this. David said he would like to write a post about his discipleship class, so keep an eye open for that.

A thousand gift.

It has been a while since I participated in a thousand gifts, but I am still a ways off from reaching a thousand, so I should probably get on it!

#66 X games outreach.

Last weekend out church hosted an outreach with an X-games theme. The church we are attending has quite outreach focused. They had short term trip to Angola earlier this year, and they are planning a trip to Europe! The church feels called to reaching out the youth here in the city. Namibia has a lot of young people, but not much for them to do outside of school. So this leaves a great need and opportunity for the church to fill. The church has a skate park on the premises and I believe they do skating lessons throughout the week. They also run a school.
So David has two kids in his discipleship class who have shown interest in wanting to become Christians. He has been taking time with them to further disciple them, we thought the outreach at church would be a fun opportunity and the boys loved it! They got to try and skate, and the speaker for the weekend was a old-Sprinkbok rugby player. It was a great weekend for us to get to know the people at our church better and for the David to get some more discipleship time with the boys.

Pray for the kids in his discipleship class, one of the boys who is ready is being held back by a hesitant parent. This is giving us the chance to reach out to his parent too!!


#67 People.
As I mentioned above we got to know some amazing people at church. Now that we are having a baby we seem to fit in more with some of the older couples, although I guess David is thirty and I am 28 so maybe we are one of the older couples! Ha! They are a wonderful group of people. They were so excited for us when hearing about our pregnancy and then praying for us on the spot. One lady said we could have her baby seat as she is done with it, and then prayed for us too! It was great to get out of the CHS circle and meet some other people. I also look forward to having the support and input from ladies who have already had babies.

#70 Second trimester
I made it to the second trimester and thought that everything was int he clear! Ha! After the weekend at church I woke up in the middle of the night with severe cramps. The next day I could not straighten up, it felt horrible. I called my dr. and his receptionist just told me to lay down until I felt better. (quality care!)
 Well the cramps continued for a few days and I was terrified that something was wrong. On Thursday they began to subside, probably thanks to the bed rest, and because of David who has been taking the best care of me! On Friday I had an appointment with my dr. he barely even looked up when I mentioned the cramps to him, and he said "maybe it was constipated."
When he put the wand on my tummy for the ultrasound I was terrified that something would be horribly wrong, but nothing was! In fact baby Echols was jumping around like a springbokkie. The dr. was struggling to get a clear shot of the baby. He did print us a 3d picture but it is just a blurry mess as our baby was doing Zumba. We received our genetic screening results back too. Initially we were told we have a 1:300 chance of Down Syndrome, but after adding the blood results our chance is now 1:13000. He may have said 30 000 but I was smiling too hard to hear properly. The rest of the results were good too!
The best part of the appointment was that my due date was moved up to the 21st of Jan, which was my original due date. This means that I am now 16 weeks along! Since finding out about the pregnancy I have been waiting for week 16. I am not sure what made it the magic number, but now I feel more relaxed and confident. I am ready to shout from the rooftops that I am having a baby! I keep crying thinking about what it will be like to hold our baby for the first time. David is also been getting excited about the nursery. We are quite excited about the nursery theme we have picked!!

After this last appointment we have also decided to switch doctors, we will now be going to one who is in network (this should save us about $7000), and who has time to see patients and talk to them. Dr. V who helped us to get pregnant is a very busy man and will only talk to patients during scheduled appointments. Please pray that we find the right dr. who will know how to deal with the fertility issues that we had, and who is just awesome.

#71 Friends.
We had a birthday party for Marye at our house a few weeks ago. A bunch of people came over, I got to make this peanut butter cake. There was almost a stampede when people all tried to get a piece! A fun day!
And no, there are no peanut butter cups here. I made them from scratch. So if you are thinking about sending a care package make sure to add some peanut butter cups. And a Big mac.


#72 Linda Spilman
Linda Spilman has been sending us letters for months now. It has gotten to the point where I can count of finding a letter from her whenever I go to the mailbox. She tells us of things going on back home and even includes the church bulletin and sometimes newspaper articles. She encourages us with words and with love. I cannot tell you how much it means to us, and missionaries all over the world, to receive things from home. Linda has made us feel loved and remembered, prayed for and cared for! Thank you Linda, we are truly grateful for you, for the time you take to write to us, and for the blessing that you are to us!!

What David did today.

Since I am home on bed rest, I can live vicariously through David, and that way you can still get updates on what is happening out there. Today David worked with a short term team to move Martha's kaya. A kaya is a tin structure, like a shack I guess. Martha has finally saved up the money and with the help of the Hunters is building herself a brick house! They had to move her shack back out of the way so the house can be built. She will still stay in the shack while her home is being built, so David said they had to tear it down carefully, and tomorrow they will be rebuilding it.
I think David really enjoyed himself today, with the school there is a lot of office work, and sitting inside. David was made to be outside, so he really put his heart into it. He kept sending me updates all day saying how much he was enjoying what he was doing. Pray that they get it done quickly and that the new structure they build will be strong enough to stand until her brick home is finished.

Thanks to everyone for your congratulations and messages about our pregnancy. We can feel your love and prayers surround us. At first going public with our infertility struggles was difficult, but I am happy I did as now most people know what an amazing miracle it is for us to be having a child, and it was reflected in the messages that we received. So again, thank you everyone!
While you are here go on over to the little poll on the right hand side ---------------> and vote on whether you think baby Echols is a boy or a girl! 

Day of the African child.

Has it really been ten days since my last update? Yikes!
Today is a public holiday, the day of the African child. So we are having some African children over, we are planning on playing games and just spending some time visiting with them. The boys that are coming over are in the seventh grade, that means that this is their last year at CHS. Only six months left of seeing them almost every day, this is an important time for the seventh graders!! One of the boys coming over has also expressed that he would like to become a Christian, so it is a great opportunity to disciple him a little more!

I also had my birthday this past weekend, it was a lovely day. I spent the morning shopping with Marye and later in the afternoon some people cam over for cake. It was very low key, I am still trying to get over the flu. But it was a fun day. Adam had all the kids in grade 2 make some birthday cards for me, it was great! I will post some pictures of my favorites :)

 

Andila's card has an interesting "bite out" design. I think he used scissors, but he could also have just taken a bite out of it. The kids love to bite things, in fact Donevan's desk has bite marks all over it. More interesting than that is the note that Andila wrote on the inside. We have an issue with Andila just looking around the room and just writing down whatever word he sees or that pops into his head. So here is his birthday message to me: 

"From Andila: HAPPY BINTDAY Mrs. Echols. Grabe2 miss you Mrs. Echols feel back to Grabe 2 come will kind to day Mrs. Echols will just in to Love is Mrs. Echols and Jesus love you Mrs Echols Andila love you Mrs. Echols  Saturday your happy bintday Mrs. Echol and nams of Grabe 2 classa nams and Andila and Jesus and God. 

From Andila."

 

I had to include Ladiwa's beautiful cupcake card. 

 

This card is from Otniel, a quirky smart little boy who really lives on his own little planet! His card warmed my heart, he talked about a day when we gave him a ride home, and he got to share his sister's ice cream cone.

" I miss you and happy Birthday mirs Echols do you have a bad time or good time Thank you for your time t6hat you have ben bot me in your car and it was a good time. That Rosa came back to kids camp and eat ice cream in the car. It was vare good and you just make me happy i love you. Thank you."

 

Revival's card had a simple message: "Is from Revival." Quick and to the point, and some brightly colored art work. Perfect for a birthday card, or should I say bintday card.

 

This card made me laugh and laugh and laugh. Shaun is a little boy who likes to day dream in class, sometimes it seems like he is actually asleep. There are times when he surprises me with facts that I gave to the class a while back, he really seems to like Science and Geography. Anyway this card is hilarious, as all is says is: "Shaun." I think he spent most of his card making time drawing lines for a long message, and then he ran out of time. Too funny. 

Please keep the kids in your thoughts and prayers, it is winter now and the mornings are freezing cold! We are doing well at CHS, forgive me for slacking in updates! :)

Quick update..

In case you haven't noticed, it is June, as in half of this year is gone! We are barreling through 2011, and racing towards 2012. It is true that the older one gets the quicker time goes by. I turn 28 in a few days, I think that is probably why I am surprised that it is already June again. There is not much to update on right now. I have been sick with a nasty bout of the flu. I have stayed home from school for 5 days now, and will stay home tomorrow. Hopefully I can kick this soon! Samantha, the Wright's daughter is also sick with flu right now, pray that she gets better soon too.
At school it has been interesting, I have been off so Adam and other teaches have graciously filled my spot. As you know Jan was denied a work permit, and another teacher decided to take a post in Zimbabwe. If you are keeping score then you know we are hurting for staff right now. I don't even know what the kids are thinking! David has been coming home from school exhausted, he has a lot of things to deal with as the school administrator.
This past weekend we were privileged to be able to "attend" and speak at three services at Pike's Peak Christian Church. Mark who visited us a while back set it all up, we Skyped straight into the services! On Saturday night we got up at 2am, we think everything we said was coherent :)
It was a privilege. It is always amazing to see people who are invested in what we are doing here. We are so far away it would be easy to forget about us, but with PPCC we have never felt like that.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as our team gets over the flu of 2011 and as the school tries to find the right staff to fill the school's need.

A thousand gifts.

It has been a while since I have participated in "a thousand gifts" Monday. Needless to say we have been very busy, but this is not something I like to have to push to the side. At school things are going crazy, the grade 6 and 7 teacher did not get his work permit, there is some kind of fly going around again, and it feel like we are running around with our heads cut off. It could just be me though ;) It could be that after the break it is taking me a few days into getting into the swing of teaching in so many classes again. Last week I mixed up Wednesday and Thursday, AAAAH! Jodie has taken over two of my art classes and that has been an absolute blessing.  I am moving into teaching health in grade 6 and 7 this term, and with Jan leaving I may be picking up more of his classes too.
The weather has turned here, it is officially winter. Last Thursday the high temp was only 32 Fahrenheit, and in Namibia that is very very cold. Kids and staff alike were walking around shivering all day. In fact it may be worth it to ask the snuggy company to donate a snuggy for each person at school.
Remember that you can join at any point, just begin listing things that you are thankful for. 
This week I am thankful for:
#51 I am thankful for friends from CCCB, this past weekend we were able to Skype with Doug and Mary, our dear friends from school. It was great to catch up on what they have been up to, but more than that. They were such a HUGE encouragement to us. I don't think people understand how much a phone call, letter, or comment means to us. Thank you guys!!

#52 I am thankful for each of my students here at CHS. On the first day of school we were overwhelmed with hugs and declarations of love. It was very obvious that they love us, and missed us a whole bunch. It is very humbling that think that we get to be here for them, and that they are really touched by the things that are done for them at school.

#53 My winter coat. My awesome mother in law bought me a thick long winter coat when we were in Colorado, it has saved my life this week.

#54 Sunshine. When I was a kid I used to sit in our door way in the afternoon, the sun used to filter in warming the kitchen. I have found that our doorway here does the same thing in the morning, you can find me sitting there!

#55 Soup season! Enough said.

I want to leave you with a verse from my devotional this morning. It comes from Psalm 121: 1-2.

"I lift my eyes up to the heavens, where does my help come from?

My Help comes from the Lord. Makes of heaven and earth."

Pray.

Yesterday Jan's work permit was rejected. He has seven days to get out of Namibia. This prayer request is for a new teacher to fill his spot. It would be best if it were a national teacher. Home affairs is beginning to push the school to hire more Namibians. So we are SCRAMBLING to try and cover our bases now. We only just got all of Ray's classes covered. The money is there right now to hire new teachers, we just need to find them!

Please be in prayer for this, and for the students too, this is really hard on them too.

Back to school!

The new term is here! This morning all the staff, teachers, and students arrived. Some bright eyed, some bleary eyed. David and I have worked at CHS for one year now, it has flown by!
The kids were absolutely excited to be back at school, and we were quite happy to see them all again. It is amazing how fast they are growing up! This morning was spent hugging and laughing and talking about the past break.
Surprisingly it was quite cold this morning too, I think the rain has finally passed and now winter is moving in. Just last week it was still hot, but today I had to break out my winter coat.
I should be blogging regularly again now that we are back on a schedule.

Thanks for the prayers, Asser is out of the hospital and doing great!

Lots of love.
The Echols

CHS!!

I feel like it has been a while since I update with a picture story, and yesterday I took my camera to school and the kids were having a bunch of fun with that. So some pictures seem in order :)

 Spot the cheesy grin!

 We told Mark that Namibia is a hot country, I guess we were mistaken. He was freezing at school so David gave him a Donkey Blanket to wrap himself in. It still has not stopped raining, and this week the rain seems to be accompanied by a cold front. Brrrrrr!

 Sebastian is one of the best photo bombers I have ever met....

 See what I mean!?!?

 I think these pictures need to be on here to show the lighter side of the kids. They come to school with so much baggage and issues, but we do have fun times where they just let loose and act like kids! It was especially wonderful to see Issa have fun like this, he is usually such a somber and quiet boy.

 

Issa also happens to be one of the most photogenic kids at school :)

Jump!!

 I love this picture of Mark and Rodriko. Look at Rodriko's face, he just looks like he belongs to Mark.

 Ladiwa is a serious little girls with some anger issues, so we had some goofy fun with the camera. One of the other grade 2 kids acted as the photographer. Fun was had by all!!

The kids in grade 5 made a card for the school, and presented it to David as the Administrator of the school...

...We would like to wish you and your family a blessed and happy Easter. This is one of the best times of the year. People all over the world will remember the death and resurrection of Jesus this weekend. May you be reminded of the endless love God has for you during this time!

How we are doing here at CHS.

Things at school seem to getting back to normal. We will have a memorial service on Wednesday morning for Maria. Her mom has decided to have her funeral in the north of the country, about eight hours away from us. None of us will be able to attend. This is what her mom needs though, she will be around more of her family there.
There has been a few scares with some students showing the same symptoms, but those have all been a cold or flu. Right now one of our grade 3 students is on her way to the dr. with the same symptoms.
It is really scary not knowing if a headache will turn out to be fatal!
The second grade class seems to be doing ok, they are staying busy. Today we will work on goodbye cards to her for the memorial service, so we shall see how they deal with that. Tomorrow they will see the first picture of her too, so that may bring up some heartache too.
Some of our kids have also just lost parents or other family members so this death is bringing up those memories and scars. Especially for Jessica whose mother passed away in December.
We will be having some counselors from the life-line group here tomorrow to help with counseling the kids.
This has shown that there is a need for a counselor on staff, so if there are any counseling majors out there looking for internship opportunities let us know, there may be a great  ministry for you here.

I want to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been thinking of and praying for us and the rest of the people touched by this tragedy. We are especially thankful for all the precious emails that were sent by you. It was amazing to see the body of Christ come together to hold this little one up in prayer, and to offer further prayer and condolences when she went to be with Jesus. 

"I am with you always, even until the end of this age." 

Matthew 28:20

Maria.

Maria died today.
I know in my head that "death has no sting," but today it sure does sting. It is so surreal, we are their teachers so we teach the kids to read and do math. But we are here with so much more in mind. The school is called Community Hope School. We are here to change the whole community through training these kids in the ways of God. We have poured ourselves into this little girl, and just like that she is gone.

Maria won the academic award last year. She was one of the smartest girls in our class. Maria liked to talk, sit sideways in her chair and chat with the girl who sits next to her.
Maria loved to answer questions, she excelled in spelling class, and was also a whiz in science.

Her desk sits empty now. The kids cried today, they made cards for her yesterday writing things like "I love you, I miss you, please come back soon." Please pray for us and the kids as we grieve the loss of this little one. Pray for her mother too.

They still suspect meningitis, but will know for sure after they do an autopsy. They have ruled out the extremely contagious strain of meningitis so we should all be fine. Maria had a vaccination a few months ago. I just cannot wrap my brain around this. No class at school or church prepared us for this.
Of all the kids in the class I was sure that Maria would go to college one day.

Tonight we turn to God for comfort. The kids are busy memorizing Psalm 23, and they are able to cling to it now. If you have any suggestions on helping kids deal with loss, we are open to hearing it!

Thank you for all the prayer!

Urgent Prayer Request!

Please continue to pray for Maria. Maria is in grade 2, on Sunday she had a headache and a fever, on Monday she was committed to the hospital to the ICU. They did a CT scan today and found that her brain is swollen and is surrounded by fluid. They suspect meningitis but it is impossible to do a LP in her condition. They already think she will have brain damage if she survives this.
We know that God can heal her, please pray without stopping. Add her to your church prayer chain. Get your friends and family to pray for her.

Pray for her family too, her mom is beside herself and is by her side in the I.C.U.

This really looks bad, pray pray pray!!!