Maria.

This is the post written by our teammates David and Sandy Echols about our student Maria. Please be praying for her family and our class as we deal with the grief that we are dealing with right now. Thank you.
How Beautiful are the Feet...: Maria.

Pray for Maria

Maria one of the girls in Grade 2. We just found out that she had headaches on Sunday and then she was taken to the hospital on Sunday and put into the ICU. Tuesday we didn't know much we only heard that things were not good and that she was in a coma and that they were concerned about her having or getting brain damage.
Just today i went to see her and take a card that our class had made. The Doctors said that her Brain is swollen and that there is a lot of fluid too. He said that the fluid is most likely from Meningitis. Things are not looking good. The Doctor did not have anything good to say I don't think. We could really use a miracle right now. Please pray for Maria and her Family as they are dealing with all that is going on right now.

Grade 2

This is my class. Teaching a class in another country has proven to be a lot more difficult than i had expected. They don't have family at home that will always be there for them or even when we as teachers want to talk. Home life for the children is a lot different and they don't always know how to show respect because of it. Many of the children do not have a father figure in their lives. If they do have a father figure it is not a good one, so that puts pressure on us to really show them what a fathers love looks like. It has proven to be a challenge but I see the importance of doing this. I truly hope that these children will leave this class as one of the best classes ever. Not because of me or my influence but because of what God can do through me. I am just a tool in God's hand and i will let him do the work that needs to be done.

Enough

As I sit here and think about this past month it has been really hard..... With Adam and Sammie still sick as we speak it's been tough. Thank you for all the prayers they have helped a lot!!!
You know as I sat today and just cried I was asking God what more can I do and then the words came to mind, " I am enough." And I thought wow..... He really is enough and all this time I have been fighting with myself trying to figure out what more can I do, what more can I do. I have this beautiful baby in my arms and she is choking because all the stuff in her lungs and I have a husband who is needed the restroom every ten minutes and now starts coughing and then out of no where throws up all over the place and that is usually followed by Sammie puking.... I feel that in all this mess there has been no peace for me and my joy was out the window. Until today I had been so hard on myself and just really stressed out because it felt like I could do nothing to help them and my house is a pit because every time I do something it just gets undone, I realized that I had been doing all this stuff on my own and I have been the one to try and fix it....I can't do it by myself and I'm not supposed to. No matter how hard I try I will never be enough but Christ is!!! Thank goodness!!!
I just wanted to share that all with you...I don't know what you're going through this week but I just want you to know that He will always be enough for us and that when we feel completely helpless and like we are never enough, He is.........

Soft-serve Ice Cream

We just got back from walking to the store to pick up a few essentials. Just as we were leaving the store we saw a van that said ice cream on the side of it. We laughed at it a bit because it looked funny and then we saw that it said "soft-serve". I figured it was because they drive around all day with ice cream in this van and by the time anyone buys some it is soft. So we were curious and thought we would at least have a look inside. We look inside and there sits a soft-serve ice cream machine in a van. After seeing some other people get some and it looked like normal soft-serve we thought, what the heck, we might as well try it. So we got our ice cream for the walk home and had to laugh about this van that was really only sitting in the parking lot of our grocery store because it was there broke down and couldn't move.

Ready or Not...

School begins on Monday. So we only have a few days left to get everything together and to take on these new tasks that we have for this year. Adam is teaching grade 2 and doing book keeping at the school. Sara will be helping with a home economics class that is starting new this year. We are both excited about the changes and how we will be involved this year at the school but it also brings about a nervousness for us. Teaching grade 2, Adam will be with the same kids for more of the day and will deal with a lot more I am sure. Sara is very excited about helping with this Home ec class because she gets the chance to help change the perspective of the kids of what goes on at home and how a home should be run. Some of the kids come from rough homes so it will be nice to show them that there are other ways that they can live when they get older. So with only a few days please pray that we are not overwhelmed by these tasks and that we can show the light of God no matter what subject we are teaching.

Rain

It has been raining here in Namibia for the last few days and it feels so good. When you live in a place that is so dry and you see the clouds start to come, you get excited about the rain and you look forward to its coming. It is so refreshing and helps with the temperature. This was a strange Christmas because this has been our first Summer Christmas. IT has been hot and it makes it hard to believe that it is Christmas time and even now almost the New Year. We are excited what this new year will bring and we hope that you will be revitalized with this new year coming just like we have been with the rains.