Busy Week and Busier Weekend Ahead!

Dumelang!

First things first.  We still do not have internet at our houses on the plot.  It is working over at the offices, though, and the missionaries have been very generous with letting me use their offices to get online for emails and to SKYPE with Roger.  I'm very thankful :)  I am still praying that they figure out how to get it working for the rest of the plot, though!

It has been a busy, but very enjoyable week.  I don't know if I can ever say this enough: I LOVE my placement.  I have been able to get more and more involved with many more kids from the primary school, and it is such a treat.  Today, for example, I spent an hour working with the Standard 3 kids for reading, then another hour working with two students from Standard 4 on their creative stories.  Besides that, I still had 3 hours to spend with the kids in Reception and Standard 1.  On days like today, when I am gone for long periods of time, they get so excited to see me again.  "MISS ASHLEY'S BACK!!" followed by 4 or 5 group hugs can certainly raise my spirits any day :) 

I actually have to make this a very short post.  I have to run home in a moment to eat a quick dinner, and then we're off to church.  After that I am going to prepare for our trip this weekend, and then hit the sack.  We are heading out tomorrow at 2pm for Etsa 6.  This is a branch church of All Nations Village Church that is about 3 and half hours away.  I will have pictures (unless my camera gets stolen while we are there- v possible), and will tell you all about it when we get back on Sunday.  Pray for us! 

Last thing before I go...I am teaching my kids some important phrases:  "Oofta!" ("Miss Ashley, what is that word you say when it's hot?") "Okey-dokey!" (just for the little kids.  it really is so cute to hear them say it.) I am working on "It's going to be zoppity." (that's a reference to the show The Office, for those who have no idea what I am talking about.  it's not really catching on yet.)

Blessings to you all!

Cobra Sightings and More from the Weekend

Well, I finally saw my first snake out here!  Unfortunately (fortunately?) it had been killed by the guards earlier that day.  It was a spitting cobra!  It was well over 5 feet long- probably close to 6 feet.

eeeeeewwwwwwwww.

So, yeah, these guys are on our property.  You better believe that Dietra and I have been wearing boots ever since we saw this guy.

Yesterday (Saturday) we spent our morning doing prison ministry.  This is one of my favorite forms of ministry that we do out here.  The men are so sincere and so sweet.  We all love it.  Even when the internship portion of my time out here is completed, I plan on continuing with this ministry. 

In the afternoon we participated in evangelism ministry for the first time.  This is something that is definitely not my calling or my gifting, but it was a wonderful and amazing experience, and very helpful training for next weekend's trip to Etsa 6 (the branch church).  Four people came to the Lord!  We saw 3 of them in church today- we hope to see all four of them next week (well, actually in 2 weeks, since next week we are out of town).

Ok, my battery is about to die.  Working on your computer in a restaurant isn't ideal, but boy, am I thrilled to have this option.  I hope you're all doing well!  Pray for this dang internet to get fixed on our plot!

Oh, Africa's Internet..How I Loathe You.

Hello!  Well, as you can probably tell since I haven't updated my blog for a while, we have been without internet again for almost a week.  We are still without it on the plot, but today I finally had the opportunity to go into town to at least check emails for a bit.  I am sitting in a restaurant that has free wireless and am almost shaking with excitement.  It's tough to have no communication with people back home.  My housemates can attest that I have been a little bit irritable this week. I think that the most commonly used sentence out of my mouth this week has been "I just want to email my husband!"  Needless to say, I am very happy to be online right now. 

This past week has been so much fun, work and ministry wise.  Monday-Wednesday I was the substitute teacher for the Standard 4 class.  I was a little nervous about it, because I had been warned that this class kind of had a reputation for being difficult.  While they were a little bit on the noisy side, they were absolutely fanstastic kids.  Very respectful, very helpful, and really quite funny.  It's a small class, with only 9 kids.  The first day I was getting a bit frustrated because they were very loud and had trouble paying attention (and we had some issues with swearing that day).  The next day, though, they really stepped it up.  I enjoyed actually teaching instead of just playing and working on art projects all day.  I told their teacher that I would be glad to help out again if she ever needs it, and so we're already set for next month when she has to leave again.  The boys made me chuckle.  Every day when they were leaving, I would give them high-fives.  I think that the boys are going through puberty, though...the girls would give me the high-fives and leave, but all the boys wanted hugs.  That class really is quite sweet, though.  I am looking forward to working with them again.
I was so happy to get back to my class on Thursday.  The first thing that was said to me when I walked into the classroom was "Miss Ashley, I am so happy to see that you are back here with us today.  I missed you."  :)  Yep, that's an exact quote from a 5 year old.  Too sweet, right?  Ok, so many funny things have happened that I am just going to list a couple of them. 

• The other day, we were watching the last 30 minutes 101 Dalmations. All of the kids were really getting into it and were getting nervous when they thought that Cruella Deville was going to catch the puppies again.  Suhail (who is definitely one of my favorite kids in the universe) was sitting on my lap and suddenly screams out "RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIFE!!"
• I went to go read with the Standard 2 kids for a while, and when I came back we were watching the last bit of Lion King (I swear, we don't normally watch movies in class...this is the 2nd day since I've been here that we have done a movie).  I've been wanting to watch this movie since we've been out here, so of course I get completely pumped up and start singing along to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" then quoting all the lines of the movie.  Luckily the kids didn't get annoyed with me, and in fact, many of them loved that I was doing it.  At the end of the movie, (Suhail was sitting on my lap again) when Rafiki lifts up Simba's son, I lifted Suahil above my head and say "Liooooon Kiiiiing" (yes, I have been wanting to do something like that for a very long time).  I almost dropped him, though, because he was giggling so much that he almost squirmed out of my hands.
• We are teaching manners to the little kids, and when I asked Suhail what you say when you want something, he responds with "Tuesday." 
• Little Darren (another one of my favorites- let's face it, I have about 15 favorites) winked at me.  This boy is 3 years old and weighs roughly 5oz. (yep, Aaron, I am sticking with that number).  I almost fell over from laughing so hard.  Something that is just so adorable about young boys with crushes is that they don't even try to hide it.  I have caught so many of the kids (in both reception and Standard 4) just staring at me with a dreamy smile on their faces and I have even heard a few sigh.  It cracks me up.
• I was crouching on the floor in the classroom the other day to put something in someone's backpack, and two of the kids came up to me whisper in my ears (both at the same time.  I wanted to smack them away).  They left, and within half a second I heard someone else in my ear whispering "same same same same same."  I looked up over and it was Darren.  He's on this huge kick right now of loving things that come in pairs, and he starts singing a song he made up that is just the word "Same" over and over again.
• The other day, the little kids were using worksheets to practice telling time, and while I was talking with one of the girls (Mmapula), another one (Jua) came up to me and asked if I could help her with the worksheet.  Mmapula goes "Oh, that is so easy; even a four-year old could do it."  I told Jua that, yes, in a moment I would help her.  She walked away and Mmapula looks at me and says "No, but seriously, can you help me with it?"

Aaaaaaand We're Back!

Internet!  Water!  Power!  We have it all!!!!  These past two weeks seem to have been times of trial and testing for everyone here on the plot.  Consider yourself blessed beyond all measures that you can walk over to the faucet and turn on water; you can keep your house/office at a comfortable setting; you can easily communicate with pretty much anyone you want to.  We are constantly being reminded to not take the little things for granted.  As soon as our water came back, the internet went down.  Power is pretty hit or miss here these days, which isn't a huge deal, but it gets so hot!  We need our fans!  Fortunately, that doesn't ever last too long (except one circumstance when it was out an entire day).

Things are going well out here.  I am still just adoring my placement (working with the little kids every morning).  We have swimming class every Wednesday, and two of the little boys were terrified this week.  They were actually in tears and saying they wanted to go home, so I worked individually with them while Mr. Tsepo worked with the rest of the class.  After a while, little Darren (while swimming on my back) suddenly yells out "I'm number one!"  He LOVED it.  He also let out a bunch of "woo hoo!"s and "Miss Ashley, I LIKE THIS!!"  Afiwa ended up enjoying it too, and the next day they were both asking if they could go swimming again. So cute :)

Today is the presidential election day, so it's a national holiday.  I was so excited to finally sleep in for once (maybe, just maybe until 8am), but of course I was awake before 6am.  I made our housemate Keturah work out with me, since that poor girl woke up at 5:30am.  She's leaving to head back to the states on Sunday...we're going to miss her! 

I've been blessed with the opportunity to use a nice pool to relax in during the hot, hot afternoons this week.  What a treat that is!  It feels like an oasis back there.  Amazing.

Oh, good news.  Dietra and I now have new beds with mosquito nets.  No more restless nights, no more worrying about what kinds of bugs are going to get you...fantastic :)

please don't mind the mess...we just took the room apart to get the beds in there.  Theresa says that our new beds are princess-like..I say that you have to do covert operations to get out of bed. 

Ok, off to eat dinner and then head out to Fire By Night!  It's a good day, people.  A good day.

The kids!

I brought my camera to work with me this morning, and took it out during break time.  The kids came flying; they LOVE getting their picture taken.  It was a fun way to spend almost an hour today :)

Here is the link to my pictures. Enjoy!

Today I also found out that I am going to be the sub teacher for the Standard 4 class on Wednesday and Thursday this week.  I'm looking forward to that!  I haven't really spent any time with those kids, so I am looking forward to getting to know them a bit better.

Yesterday we worked in children's church and then participated in discipleship training; I sure do enjoy that.  Last night we went over to Kevin and Sarah's for dinner, then played Friends Scene It :)  I was smack talking prior to the game quite a bit, and I am proud to say that I delivered.  Well, I am off to Audi Camp with Andrea and Theresa to get some coffee!  First real coffee treat in Bots!  So excited!!

Kids' quote of the day (Brittnie Homstad, this is for you): "Are you silly?"

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.

I Have the Best Parents EVER!!!

Well, since I have come down with strep, I pretty much have had a rough week. We have been without water (minus about a 2 hour break from 5-7am today) for about 36 hours, power has been going on and off for the past 24 hours, and it has been well over 100 degrees every day. I missed work on Monady, was sent home early on Wednesday, and sent home early again today. I just want to be healthy again! I started the antibiotics today, so hopefully they'll kick in very soon.

When I got home from work today, I was feeling pretty blue and just wanted to go and lay at Sarah's house and be mothered...then in walks Brad, with a care package from home!! It's amazing how quickly that changed my mood. I was jumping up and down, squealing, and was cheering for everything that I pulled out of the package. Brad said that it was as fun to watch me go through the package as it is to watch a kid open presents on Christmas morning.

Now Dietra is making me chicken noodle soup :) I love my roommate. She takes such great care of me. Two of the students stopped by the house a couple of minutes ago the "Get Well Soon" balloons :) How sweet is that??

Ok, funny kids story of the day...I wish I could take my video camera to class and just follow one of the boys, Suhail, around. This kid cracks me up. He's rarely uses walking to get from A to B. He dances. For real- he makes up raps and dances around every where he goes, usually trying to throw some ninja moves in while he's at it. He hugs me multiple times a day, but they're always followed by him head-butting my hips. He is one of the funniest kids I have ever come across. I don't have any great quote today, but I hope the image of Suhail is enough to make you smile.

I hope you are all doing well, and I just ask for continued prayer for health. It is taking its toll.

It's a good day (despite no water and still being sick)!

Dumelang!

That's right, peeps. I'm learning Setswana. Get used to it. In fact, I am about to head off to my second class in just a few minutes. Since the internet is working at the moment, I thought I'd let you know how today went.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was the substitute teacher for the Standard 2s today. It was a great morning. They are learning multitplication and division, reading comprehension, cursive handwriting, and French (I did not try to teach French, don't worry). Miss Jenny left some assignments for them to work on, so I figured it would be a fairly quiet day. Nope :) They sure kept me busy! We had fun, though. I taught them how to play Thumbs Up, 7-Up (or is it Heads Up, 7-Up?), which they loved. It was cute; they were literally jumping up and down with excitement and couldn't stop grinning. One of the kids said to me, "Miss Ashley, I wish you were our teacher every day!" I'm sure they would say that to pretty much anyone, but it still made me feel good.

Now I am hanging out back at the house, resting up a bit. Then off to Setswana class, then a quick dinner, then church tonight.

Oh, I decided that I am now going to post my favorite quote from the kids each day. Today's winner is Prince (ADORABLE boy in Standard 1). "Miss Ashley, did you brush your teeth this morning?" "Yes, of course. Did you?" "Nope!!" (as he runs away smiling). what???

Hope ya'll have a great day!

Updates. Don't Know How Else to Title This :)

Howdy folks!

It's been an interesting couple of days here at the ranch. I was feeling a bit better on Tuesday, so I went back to work. As I was getting ready for work, I heard this weird clicking sound and looked around and realized that our power cord had started on fire! What?? I was glad that we were still there to deal with it, since it was under Dietra's bed. Odd way to start the day.

It was fun to see my kids again; they were so well behaved! I think I only saw one kid cry the entire time I was there (usually we get a good 6 or 7 criers per day). Our afternoon plans were cancelled, so we had the rest of the day off.

One of the interns, Brad, had left the day before with Pastor Jerry (LBOM founder) and a couple of other pastors from LBOM to go visit some of our branch churches throughout Botswana and Namibia; they were supposed to be gone through Thursday. We found out Tuesday afternoon that they had been involved in a very serious car accident; they had been broadsided by a dump truck filled with sand and the driver never even stepped on the brakes. There could have been (and probably should have been) some incredibly serious injuries; miraculousy, there weren't any outside of soreness. They were flown back to Maun last night, and are doing well.

Today I woke up feeling much worse than yesterday, but I went to work anyway. Poor kids. My voice is almost completely gone, and it seemed to really freak out the little boys. The girls were really sweet, though. Lots of hugs, kisses, and back rubs :)

They sent me home early today. Tomorrow I am supposed to teach the Standard 2 (like 2nd graders) while their teacher is at a conference. Should be fun! Just hoping I am feeling a whole lot better by then- or at least have a working voice.

Oh, I also cut my foot today. Sarah calls it my initiation to Botswana.

I hope you're all doing well! Love!

Sick, but on the mend

Well the bug that has been going around the intern house finally caught me, and I was stuck in bed all day.

I am feeling better now for the most part, so I am very eager to get back to the school tomorrow. I miss my kids!! Josiah (who helps the PE teacher and works with all the students in the school) told me that my kids were asking him about me and they prayed for me to feel better :) A couple of other people told me that my kids were asking about me and saying that they missed me...I can't wait to see them!

That is all. Love!

Oh, and go Vikes and Twins. I kind of wish I was in MN to enjoy our sports teams

Namibia Trip and Back to Reality!

Hi everyone! Well, it is Sunday night and all of us interns are pretty much crashed. We had a FANTASTIC mini-break to Namibia this week. Usually they reserve this trip for the end of the internship, but this past week was a holiday week for Botswana (their Independence Day), so the timing worked better to do the trip now. Side note: whenever I say Namibia, I think of that stupid Activia commercial and hear Namibia to the tune of Activiiaaa!!. There. I hope I ruined it for you too :)

We set off at 4:30am Wednesday morning in the Corolla (5 of us with pillows, cameras, duffel bags, etc.). It's a 13 hour drive to Swakopmund, which is a cute little German colonial town on the coast of Namibia. We LOVE Swakopmund. It really has the best of everything- the ocean, green grass, sand dunes, mountains, and the desert. So cool. So beautiful. We pulled into our hostel around 7pm, went to dinner at 9pm, then went to sleep immediately.

Thursday morning we went quad biking (4 wheeling) in the dunes. Now THAT was fun! We spent two hours driving up and down the dunes- it felt like a roller coaster. It was so gorgeous, too. The dunes looked like paintings; almost too gorgeous to be real. Ok, now I have a story that is a little bit long, but pretty awesome. Please be patient with it.

While we were in town that morning, exchanging $$, Sarah was busy texting her husband, who was back home. About 30 minutes before we left to go quad biking, Kevin sent a text saying "I just got a word from the Lord that you guys need to pray for protection. Especially Ashley, and she is going to have to speak it out for herself." As soon as she read it to us I thought "oh crap." So we said a group prayer for safety, then I prayed for extra protection and wisdom in any situation that comes my way (I thought this was God's way of telling me not to go sky diving.) Well, about an hour or so into the quad biking, we had an "incident." Before we started out, the guide went over some hand motions and safety tips. He also had us drive in a single file- the order was: the guide (Jonny), Josiah, Sarah, me, Dietra, and Brad. Poor Brad. We made the best driver stay in the back. We had been driving for about an hour, when I saw Jonny stop, motion to Josiah to come along side him stay there while he went over the dune. Josiah thought he just was telling him to slow down, so he followed Jonny over the dune. I thought that was a little strange. but Sarah followed Josiah. As she went over the dune, I saw her back wheels were up in the air, and I hesitated because that just didn't look right at all. All of a sudden, my bike stopped. I couldn't get it to move forward at all, so Brad helped me reverse it. After we got it out of that spot, the bike refused to go back into forward gear. We were wondering why they hadn't come back to check on us, so we walked to the top of the dune and realized that they basically went off a cliff. Jonny had seen some quad bikers down there earlier and was going to check on them. We definitely weren't supposed to follow. Josiah and Sarah each had become airborne on their way down, and Josiah almost flew over the front of his bike on the way down; his chest hit the throttle as he was going forward, and that's what prevented him from flying off. Sarah said thought that this was it- her time had come. Yet, they ended up ok. After we saw that drop off and we knew not to go over it, my bike started working again. Answer to prayer? I think so!! Also, one other cool part of the story...one of the kids out here (Mason, who is 12 yrs old and the son of the directors of LBOM) told me on Tuesday that he was going to be praying really hard for me when I go quad biking, because he had a feeling I was going to fall off my quad bike (and to all my friends back home, no, he does not know how accident prone I was back in the states). So I just want to thank everyone back home for their prayers; we really believe that prayer works and we saw it in action while quad biking.

On Friday we had the option to do whatever we wanted. The guys decided to lay low and just hang around town; Dietra went deep sea fishing; I went sky diving!!! Now THAT is the experience of a lifetime. I have always wanted to do this, and when I found out that it was an option on this vacation I couldn't pass it up. Someone from the company picked me up around 10am, picked up the other guy skydiving (a sweet German kid named Bastion), then off we went! We drove out about 20 minutes to the desert, and pretty quickly took off. My knees were a little weak when we saw the plane. It was so small!!!! Bastion and I looked at each other and just started laughing. The flight up was very cool. We were overlooking the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. We flew to a height of 10,000 feet, then Dries (my tandem jumper) and I took off. It was AMAZING. The free fall lasted about 30 seconds, but you don't feel like you're falling at all. It just feels like you're floating over the Earth. It was so cool. The entire jump probably lasted about 5 minutes. I got to steer the parachute for a little while- that was fun :) I was so giddy during the entire event that I could barely contain myself. I'm telling you- if you ever have a chance to go sky diving, do it!

When I met up with Sarah and the guys, we headed over to the ocean to enjoy the view. I was standing on some rocks to take pictures and got blindsided by a wave- my pants were soaked from the knees down. Ended up walking around town barefoot for the next 3 hours. Lovely. Yep, I caught a cold. The rest of the time in Swakopmund was spent shopping, eating, and drinking white chocolate mochas. I nearly did a cartwheel when I found a cafe that new what those were. It's not easy to find treats like that in Africa!

We took off Saturday morning at 5am and drove through the day, making it back to our place just after 7pm. I stayed up pretty late trying to upload my sky diving video, but we kept losing internet connection, and so the upload never quite worked right. I am still working on that and am very excited to have that up for you to see :)

Yes, back to reality. Reality is pretty darn good here in Africa :) The only pitfalls are that water, power, and internet tend to stop working quite a bit. The water was off all day yesterday and didn't start working again until midnight; internet has been on and off since Tuesday. I have become a pro at flushing a toilet when there is no running water. Oh, the things you learn!

Today was great. I am really beginning to love Sundays here. I started out the day by laying in bed, almost in tears because I was so tired and felt so sick. I forced myself out of bed and went to church. It was tough for me today; I felt so out of it, could hardly understand the preacher (they always have someone up there translating into Setwswana, and today I kept expecting him to translate the sermon into English); the pastor was talking so fast I could hardly understand anything! I participated in the prayer line this week for the first time; they invite people up for prayer halfway through the service every week, and there are always dozens of people lining up to be prayed for. I am partnering up with another lady from the church to be prayer partners. I am really excited about this; I talked to her husband after church, and he is in charge of discipleship and the prayer line. He had been praying for her to become more involved with both things, and now that I am there to work with her, she is ready to do it. He couldn't stop grinning. It was really cute :)

After church, we broke up into small groups to work with the people who are in the discipleship classes. I partnered with Abigail and I actually led the training today for a man who just became a Christian a week ago. Talk about rewarding!! I LOVE working with this ministry. Even though it means we wont get home until sometime between 1:00-2:00, it is something I can really get excited about.

Now we just got back from dinner with Kevin and Sarah. I am ready for bed and for the week ahead! It should be a great week- back to a "normal" week for me. I can't wait to see my kids again :) I missed them!

I am still working on getting the sky diving video up; pictures from the trip will also be posted shortly. I hope you're all doing well! Keep praying for us. We see how well it works!

UPDATE: Pics are up!