November
November is already gone and December is quickly passing as well. A few snapshots from November. Some friends came for two nights and spent a day with us. We didn't have electric and it was very warm but I had told them maybe we could make cut out cookies (so thankful for a gas stove and that electric outages don't affect our water supply). So we made Christmas cookies while we sweated!
January 8th and 9th we have missionary retreat. We are having it at a new location so Kenny and I have spent a bit of time figuring that all out. We found a retreat center that is very central to our mission so hopefully it works well! You can pray that it can be a refreshing, meaningful retreat. We will have topics, discussions with the board members, and times of sharing and games.
Three times a week Ernestina comes and does our washing. She is such a blessing to us and does mountains of laundry when we are hosting and also just because we have boys in this house! Several weeks ago her 12 year old son was hit by a car on the main road. He was in ICU for a week, not responding for several days due to a brain injury. We thank God for His healing power. Last week Mark had surgery to put a plate and screws in his badly broken femur, but they are predicting he will be discharged this week.
And while his mother cares for him we are learning a new appreciation for all the scrubbing she does for us! Not like we have never done our washing before, but never for this long of a time. Kelsey and Austin both really enjoy it and occasionally the whole family gets involved. Its actually been a lot of fun! But I will be glad to hand it back over to Ernestina!
A former missionary boy built a row boat and sold it to us when they moved back to the US. Kenny always jokes it is the largest thing he owns. It doesn't get used very often anymore but Kenny and the boys took it for a row up the river one Monday afternoon.
A beautiful evening walk with people raking salt at the salt flats.
It seems there are always bike repairs that need to be done!
Every Saturday evening we got to a nearby village to have a Bible Study with the children. It has been a challenge. I never know what age children will be there, if there will be any children, and how interested they will be. Planning a story or lesson has been hard! But its not only about teaching them. Some of it is about the blessing that God gives for faithful persistence. One night no one was there. The next week several young teens were there and genuinely interested in what we had to say. The picture from above is Kenny sharpening a pencil with a pocket knife for a boy.
This bike is one of their treasures. Someone is pretty much always on the bike although it takes several people to push it.
Their creativity for play never ceases to amaze me. From all the little wheels and cars made out of bottles and bottle caps to this high jump with a cement block propped up on an angle to give them more lift to jump off of.
This can be described easily; Boy + Dog = Happiness for both!
This picture above touched me to the core. A storm was brewing in the north and as the sun set the clouds covered one side of it. But it shone brightly over and above the clouds. So many times it feels like the darkness is too much, so close, so overwhelming. But praise God the Light is brighter in the darkness. It can never be conquered and unlike the sun that evening, it never goes away.
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Isaiah 9:2
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5
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