Happy Easter to you!  Easter was filled with neighbors coming to Corey and Katie’s to watch a movie of Jesus’ life on Friday and a baptismal service on Sunday with the local church.   Friday, several people spoke up with questions about Jesus and wanting to see the film again.  This is a new response for the many times the film has been shown, so please pray for the follow-up of these indications of interest.  Sunday three young people in the church were baptized in the small concrete bath-tub sized ‘pool’ in Corey and Katie’s yard followed by a fellowship meal.

School is speeding toward the end of the year.  Emma and Molly are in the midst of a project in our studies of Africa.  Both are making their own ceremonial masks to celebrate a significant event in their lives.  I can’t wait to see the finished products!  Wheaton is working on a project of her own on the topic of American Pioneers (but it is a secret from Corey and Katie so I can’t tell!).  The only thing I CAN say is that it requires afternoons at my house – just the two of us……

I can’t decide whether I have taken leave of my senses or made one of my best moves ever.  Our house helper announced a month ago that the cat in their compound had produced a litter of kittens – under her bed!  She said as soon as they were old enough, she would put them out because she didn’t want them.  Before lunch was over, she had promised to give me one.  She arrived yesterday afternoon, all black and white and tiny and cute.  She’s not so cute when she cries all night.  No name yet, but looking to see how she adjusts without her siblings and mother…and what kind of personality she has.

The hot season is upon us and is making a significant impact on our school day.  The outside temperatures have soared to 113 F (45 C) on multiple days this week.  We do close up the house while it is still cool and the house stays much cooler than outside, but it can still rise to a sultry 97 F (36 C) inside.  Most days it is still above 90 F (32 C) in the house at 11:00 at night when I am trying to sleep.  The heat affects us all.  Just today we started the day with out-of-sorts spirits, bickering and scolding because of the heat and lack of rest when it doesn’t cool down at night.  We took some time to stop and pray, and our spirits improved, but then for most of the day the power was out, so no fans.  We resorted to drinking lots of water and using a spray bottle to soak one another periodically.  God graciously answered our prayers and the day actually was pretty productive but we have many more ahead of us!

I am trying to learn how to handle the little irritating parts of living here: things like these months of heat;  when the power goes off, or the water goes off, or they both go off at the same time; or how dusty and dirty everything gets and the variety of beasties that invade the house… I could go on.  I do not want to just be complaining all the time, so decided to view these things as disguised blessings.  What a flood of revelations I had about just about all of them! (I still struggle with the lizards and cockroaches, though!)

The heat will be with us for the next 5 to 6 months.  So often I focus on the sweat running down my face and the lack of energy I feel in temperatures above the mid 80’s.  When I purposed to seek out the benefits I was surprised at the many things I have found to appreciate about the heat:

Everything dries quickly – laundry can be folded and put away in about half an hour.  The floor is dry by the time you finish mopping, spills dry in just a few minutes.  And spraying each other cools us all down, only leaves us wet for a short time, and is fun!  So much perspiration is making my dry skin softer and it doesn’t crack so often.  And when I am so lethargic because of the heat, it is a great time to just sit and listen to God, and spend some time in prayer with him.

I am fascinated by how my thinking has shifted because of living with and without electricity; the marvel of it strikes me anew.  I value safe drinking water more highly now that it can be difficult to obtain; I remember the millions who do not have electricity or running water at any time in their lives more often…including many around us here in Senegal.

All these things I saw as irritating can also be means for God to deliver moments of grace, opportunities for him to whisper his presence and strength to each one of us.  I still don’t like being hot, but I’m learning to let God speak to me even in my discomfort.

I am rejoicing that my good friend Trish is getting married in June!  This is a lovely blessing for her and Mark, and the answer to many prayers.  They insist that I attend the wedding, and since it has been some time since I have been in Abu Dhabi, I will come!  I will arrive in the wee hours of June 15 and stay until June 26.  Yes, I will be busy with wedding activities, but I also will have time to see others!  I plan to be in the worship services at ECC on June 20 and would love to see you there.  Please write to make an appointment with me with your home group or just yourself!

Check out pictures of the last few weeks in school, the fabulous masks the girls are making and Easter News and Pictures!

Praise and Prayer

*  Thanks for the Easter events; pray for follow-up to bear fruit of faith.

*  Praise for a very cute little kitten; pray for a quick and smooth transition for us both.

*  Thanks for many good weeks of school completed; pray for continued diligence for the remaining 8 weeks of school left.

* Praise for the upcoming marriage of Trish and Mark; pray for all the arrangements and travel to go well.

Rejoice and weep, grow and delight, suffer and laugh with us through this year!

Can you tell we are captivated with tongue twisters?  Wheaton is studying games of colonial children and she has discovered some real winners!

When I sit down to write the NEWS here, there doesn’t seem to be anything newsworthy to write about.  Does it really matter that Corey is traveling to Thies more often for meetings and does grocery shopping for me?  This is one of my big thrills.  Or, the battery in my car finally succumbed to the heat and died, so I now have a brand new battery in it?  “My” dog has started jumping over the 7- to 8-foot wall enclosing the property, but can’t get back in so she throws herself against the metal gate at 3 AM until I get up to let her back in; so I now tie her up at night.  Wheaton lost another tooth – finally!  And we are over half way through this school year!  The girls and I discussed this and decided it is a mixed bag: we all love that summer vacation is nearer, but we also (in varying degrees) dread the rushing away of time that will end my stay here with them.

Nothing thrilling is it?  And yet, here we are in the midst of life and God is here with us.  I am sure without doubt that I am exactly where I should be; doing exactly what I should be doing (and amazed at the un-likeliness of it all!).

I recently read something by Oswald Chambers: “The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it actually is.  Our human relationships are the actual conditions in which the ideal life of God is to be exhibited.”  This makes me realize that how I interact with Emma, Molly and Wheaton, Rokhaya (our house helper), Corey, Katie, the neighbors who bring the dog food, the folks I see as I walk in the neighborhood, the shop keeper I trade with, in short anyone with whom I interact will be impacted by the depth of my relationship with Jesus Christ.  Since my schoolroom is the residence of Jesus Christ school becomes (or can become if we choose) an opportunity to interact with Him.  He DOES show us the way when we walk with him.  My charge is to so live in front of these girls that they see and learn how to interact with Christ in the daily-ness of life.

Because of this I realize that these mundane things are significant and have eternal meaning.  It makes me eager to share with you just what my daily life is like and about.  Then your prayers can be more specific and targeted so I don’t grow weary and falter.  What follows is a general outline of a typical school day.  I hope you enjoy this glimpse into my daily life in Kaffrine!

6:00 AM       Arise, dress, make my bed and tidy my room.  Remove four 1-quart containers of ice from the freezer to thaw before I empty them into the drinking water cooler.  I then refill the containers with filtered drinking water and freeze them for the next day, refilling the filter.  Next I fix breakfast, have devotional time, wash breakfast dishes and do other housekeeping chores.  I ensure the school room is ready for the girls and put on the music for their Bible verse memorization.  Finally, I go outside to sweep the front porch, give the dog a treat and play with her a little, water the plants and wait for the girls to arrive.

8:00 AM       When the girls arrive and settle we begin with singing their Bible passages, a math drill and any general discussion of the day that is needed.  All girls then start with corrections of work I checked the day before and then their scheduled assignments.  I have individual time with each as needed.

10:30 AM     SNACK TIME!  We take an official 15 minutes for a snack of fruit, cookies, popcorn or special treat.  We compete with some computer or Kindle games, too!  By this time, the temperature outside has risen above that inside and I have closed all the windows and doors in the house to trap the cool air inside.

10:50 AM     Wheaton and I do her History and Science together.  Around noon if there is one, we get to watch part of a relevant movie if everyone is done with (the majority of) their work.  For example, while studying India, we watched the movie Gandhi.  Emma and Molly are reading “Around the World in Eighty Days” and we are watching that movie now.

1:00 PM       Lunch!  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we all go over to Corey and Katie’s house for lunch; Tuesdays and Thursdays Corey and Katie come to my house.  We share a wonderful house helper, Rokhaya, who prepares lunch for us all.

2:00 PM       Anyone with school work left over continues school; others stay or go home.  I check work and return to each girl’s desk, prepare for the next day’s school and straighten up anything out of place.

6:00 PM       It is then about supper time, and it is also time to watch the thermometer again to see when outside gets cooler than inside.  I then open all the windows (they are screened) and put fans in them to blow the heated day’s air out and pull the cool night air into the school room and my bedroom.  I light mosquito repellant coils and spend my evenings reading the girl’s next school books, or ones I enjoy, sewing, reading and sending emails, writing newsletters, and any other thing needed or wanted.

10:30 PM     Head to bed.  Shower off the sweat and dirt from the day, pull the mosquito net out over my bed and fall asleep for the next day of fun and excitement in Senegal!

Thank you for letting me share my pilgrimage with you.  Many days I get up without energy and find at the end of the day I have had enough energy for everything that was needed.  Sometimes I get up feeling like I can conquer the world and get buffaloed by girls or nothing goes right.  (How can you show a movie or guide internet research when the power is off and you can’t run TV, router or computer?)  And yet God is here.  He is in control and manages everything.  I am content.

Take a moment to look at us hard at work in school:  click here for pictures

Prayers and Praises:

• Please pray for this next week (1^st week in March) as Corey and Katie are attending a meeting in Thies and the girls and I will be staying in Kaffrine without mom and dad
• Thanksgiving for good relationships and school progress with all the girls
• Protection of Corey as he travels more to meetings in Thies and Dakar; and for us as we are in Kaffrine without him when he is gone
• Pray the extra height we added to the compound wall will actually prevent the dog from jumping the wall
• Praise for the Smith house that I live in rent free
• Praise that, so far, I have had adequate income; but please continue to pray for my support level to increase as I anticipate increases in my expenses in the coming months

Happy New Year to you all!  Christmas greetings across the world!

Car saga – Our November trip to Mbour, while eminently satisfying in regards to the Ladies’ Retreat and time with good friends for the men and children, was disastrous for my car.  The air conditioning will require another $500 (1825 Dh) to fix.  On the way back home, my engine developed cooling issues.  It stayed with the mechanic about a month before the issues were dealt with.  It now is with me and works, but still no AC.

Ladies’ Retreat – The ladies’ retreat was wonderfully restful, renewing and refreshing.  We had a good speaker who brought fresh application of the Commandments to living in 2013.  I got to see friends I haven’t seen since before we went to the States, and made some new friends, too.  We stayed in a lovely resort area and were sufficiently pampered to make our leaving reluctant. 

Printers and computers – Since the last time I wrote the printer has been working as it should.  We have been printing out Christmas crafts and other surprises with no problem.  Both Molly and Emma are working on ‘publishing’ a creative story complete with illustrations!  Lots of rough draft printing fun! 

Cooler weather – The weather is finally cooling off.  The high today was only 97°F/36°C with correspondingly cooler temperatures inside.  This means the fact that the fan on the roof is not working at all is less strategic for the time being.  We are all more comfortable in the day-time and snuggling under covers at night (lows are in the low 60’s F/ around 16°C).  However, with the cooler weather, it is also dryer which means more dust and respiration difficulties for me.

Christmas – as I write, I am surrounded by our own beautiful Christmas art work: wall-sized nativity scenes with Mary, Joseph and Jesus on one wall, shepherds on another and Wise Men on yet a third.  We are still anticipating Christmas, but I know it will have passed before you get this. 

When I contemplate all that Christmas means and the momentous earth-changing events it began, I marvel at how God could have revealed that plan to Satan in advance and how hard Satan worked to thwart its effectiveness.  And yet Christ did come; he did escape Herod’s blood bath of the Bethlehem babies; he did preach and heal and perform miracles in the midst of a hostile culture.  And just when Satan thought he had triumphed by Jesus death, God surprised him by winning and exalting Jesus to the highest place – and taking us with him! 

So we continue to celebrate his coming.  We marvel at how God did it with Satan knowing about the plan all along.  We rejoice that we also can triumph over Satan through Jesus.  Our Christmas joy translates into that peace which is beyond understanding and empowers us to do far more than we can even think or imagine!

My prayer for you is that this Christmas will renew and refresh your joy and wonder at the lengths God has gone for you.  His love is beyond comprehension – look back and see his marvelous works in your life and trust him expectantly for fabulous adventures ahead!

Be sure to check out pictures of our Christmas celebrations!

Prayers

R   Thanksgiving for good trips out to see friends; refresh at the Ladies Retreat; and restock groceries!

R   Praise for cooler weather; petition for my health to stay excellent as the dust gives me breathing problems.

R   Wisdom regarding the roof fan and AC in the car.

R   Continued prayers for my support to rise to 100%.

R   Thanks and praise for Christ and Christmas!