Quite the interesting past 24 hours

Hey there! Well, we sure have had quite a few "intersting" experiences these past 24 hours! Like I've said before, we've basically been without water (minus a couple of hours here and there) for the past 4 days. We found out last night that the entire village is without water as well- so when and how is it going to get here?? Well, we do have a large reserve tank, but that was half-empty from when we had to let the boarders fill up their water jugs. In case you weren't aware, the school that is on campus that I am working with has close to 300 students. There are about 60 students that live on campus, plus another 20 missionaries and their families. Then during the day, they have all of the staff from all of their different ministries on site...so you can imagine (especially since it's been about 105 degrees every day) that there really is a very high demand for water. We got the heads up last night that they would be turning on the rest of the water around 10pm, so be ready to shower and fill your jugs. Once it's out, it's out. So, when the water came on, we sprang into action. In about 20 minutes, 4 of us had showered, filled about 10 5-liter jugs of water, and did dishes from the overflowing sink. That, sadly, was such an adrenaline rush that we were up until well past midnight. Good times, though.

The other exciting thing that happened last night? We saw 2 spitting beetles in our house. Back story. A few months ago, there was a visitor staying at LBOM, and in the middle of the night, something fell on her head. She attempted, in her sleep, to wipe the thing away and was sprayed several times across her forehead. When she woke up, she had developed severe, painful blisters on her face that lasted for way too long. On to the story:

The first one we saw was around 7pm, running near our bedroom . We killed it quickly, but D and I were a little, shall we say...concerned. We spent the next few minutes (or hours, as Keturah might like to say) looking at pictures of them and discussing them. We tried to move on, but lets be honest...that's just nerve wracking. Well, when we were crawling into bed we both very carefully checked our beds and the areas around it to be sure there weren't any more creepy crawlies there. Good to go!

...until 2:30am, WHEN ONE LANDED ON ME. I flicked it off, because at that moment I could only tell that it was a huge bug. When it landed on my leg again, I jumped out of bed squealing (it would have been a scream, had I been healthy and not hoarse). That woke D up, who was out of the room in about 1 second. Keturah heard the commotion from her room, so within about 10 seconds she was standing in my doorway with her shoe. Turns out, it was a blister beetle. We spent the next half hour trying to kill it (we, being Keturah and me. D was sitting on the counter in the kitchen). We finally gave up, because it was in a position we couldn't reach, and I woke Brad up. Poor guy. Came out with his cowboy boots, ready to stomp. The beetle was finally killed, and we tried to go back to sleep. Keturah had to come and pray for us, because D and I were way too freaked out to sleep. We slept peacefully, once we bundled up enough to where almost no part of our body was exposed. Woke up without any blisters!! Jai ho! Needless to say, we are getting nets for our beds this weekend.

This morning we participated in prison ministry for the first time. We LOVED it! About 15 men joined us in a shaded courtyard at the prison. Here's something you need to know. Most of the men at the prison are not there for dangerous or violent crimes- you can get nine years in prison for stealing a goat. Imagine- you're a father, or son and the man of the house, there's no food, your family is starving...you go to your last resort (stealing) and end up in prison for 9 years. Justice? Nope. If you know me, you can understand that my heart is just breaking for these men. Since this was our first time doing prison ministry, we thought we were just observing. Mma Adjei (the gal who is in charge of prison ministry) thought we were going to lead it :) Oh fun. The ministry started with prayer and some praise and worship (in Setswana of course), then we introduced ourselves, and Ma Adjie gave the floor to us to preach. Brad went first and shared his testimony; while he was doing that, I leaned over to Mma Adjie to let her know we hadn't prepared anything. She just smiled and said no problem. So we all shared our testimonies, and then she preached a short message. After she was done, she asked if there was anyone there who had never received Christ in their heart. Two men gave their lives to the Lord today :) We can't wait to go back next week.

We had the afternoon off, and came back to find that "water" has sort of been restored...but as Kelly (one of the missionaries) put it- what percentage of water does it have to contain in order to still be called water? Note to future self: don't even bother washing clothes when the water is like this. Completely pointless and actually makes it worse. Live and learn! [ed note: I am starting to think that this river water is possibly worse than no water at all. Jury is still out.]

I am feeling so much better today! That's so huge. Thanks for the prayers! Love to all.