We are back to not having internet at the houses...going on day 3.  Not a huge deal, yet.  Once it gets to a week with no internet, I'll start to get a bit worried.  Until then, I am blessed to have wireless access down at the offices.  So right now I am sitting in the courtyard, listening to students sing "Jesus Loves Me" as they walk by, and teachers complaining about the heat.  Yep, it's a hot one today.  I am sitting in the shade, but since there's no breeze, I am sweating up a storm.

We had a really nice weekend at the mission.  Friday night we had another incredible Fire By Night service.  We got to help with the braai (African bbq) and enjoy the service.  I took a lot of great pictures that night, so when I have a few extra minutes, I'll post some of them. I am really beginning to value the relationships with the youth in a way that I didn't when I was an intern.  I think I was normally too exhausted by the time Friday evenings came around to really care about anything at that point.  Now I have a lot more of myself to give to the kids, and I think it's going to be a great couple of months.  Pastor Gary does such a great job with this group!

Saturday the interns spent the day painting the Maatla house.  Maatla is the women's empowerment group that Mercy Ministries runs- it teaches women some skills they can use to support themselves, such as knitting, felting and gardening.  They're going to be selling their products online as a way to earn income.  Pretty cool!  So while they were doing that, I was eating crepes with Mason, watching Sister Act 2, and playing football.  At one point, Mason looked at me and asked "how does it feel to be on this end of things?"  Pretty good, people!  It feels good :)

Saturday night we had dinner over at Linda's house (COO of LBOM).  It really is nice to have a group of all female interns; you can be girly and sit around and chat all night about girly things.  So that's what we did.  We didn't get home until 10pm, which is kind of late for walking around out here!  Two of the interns come over to my house every night to workout with me, so it took pretty much every ounce of self control that we had to do it that night.  As Angie said, "Don't let your body control you!"

Yesterday we had a great church service; Pastor Gary shared the message since Jerry and Jana are in South Africa right now.  Wow, did he get a good response from the crowd!  I'm actually planning on buying a copy of the message, because it's one that I would like to keep with me for a while.  After church, we did the usual town run- except this time I dropped the girls off to grocery shop while I drove around for 45 minutes looking for a place to buy power.  I was almost out of electricity at the house, as were 2 other missionaries.  Unfortunately, the whole town was out of power, so we couldn't buy any.  Bad news for the plot is, if I run out of power, the entire plot loses water.  So last night I had all the girls and Brenda over for dinner and I had to do whatever I could to keep the power usage down...that meant no AC.  It was HOT!  Yuck.  I finally gave in after about an hour of everyone sitting around and sweating.
Oh, mom- I made them Swedish pancakes and they LOVED them!  I actually had to make the equivalent of 3 batches, because the girls ate so many.  Thanks for sending me the recipe :)

Today I have been busy running around like mad.  First, trip to town.  Found power (hallelujah!) and a couple other needed items.  I stopped over at the hospital to talk to their PR department, and ended up making a new friend.  A pilot from Holland!  So random.

Now I am back at the plot, waiting for a check to get signed so that I can run out and buy more paint for the Maatla house.  This afternoon we have our Heart Ablaze study, then I am going to make Dutch Oven pancakes for Ms Pat, Mason, and Mmapula.  Fun evening ahead!

Also...it's February!  Roger is coming in about 8 days!!  Obviously, I am so excited to have him here; I realized this weekend, however, that Mason is actually probably more excited than I am for Roger to arrive.  He has been doing a countdown for the past 3 weeks.  So cute :)

Anyway, I better run!  Lots to do, lots to do.  have a great day!