08-20-08

It was a good day! Andrew spoke in assembly today for grades 1-7. He taught about thankfulness from Luke 17. The kids seemed to really love it, and Andrew thought it went really well. Oh and they memorized 1 Thessalonians 5:18. At 9 there was an all staff meeting, so we were very busy helping hold down the fort. Kate went to the Manakas and watched Peinkie, Gontse, and Albert while their mom was at the meeting. Today was Peinkie's 4th Birthday, so we had fun singing songs together and dancing and reading books. Andrew had grades 4-7 out on the soccer field. They are REALLY good at soccer! It wasn't hard to make them look even better as they passed the ball through Andrew's legs and around his legs....in general right on by him. He wishes he was only kidding!

After the meeting, Kate headed back to school where she helped all day. One of the highlights was helping the 4th and 5th graders learn their spelling words. They spelled out the word using motions, so a consonant was a jumping jack and a vowel was touching their toes. They really enjoyed it and it helped them learn the words.

Andrew went into Pretoria with John to Bethesda's site planner. Bethesda is ready to build another home, but there is a hang up with all the legal stuff so it might be another couple months before they can break ground. Today was day one in getting the ball rolling in the right direction. It was really good to spend some one on one time with John, both to and from the meeting.

Meredith made us lunch today, spaghetti and garlic bread. However, the highlight of lunch was what one of the cleaning ladies made for us. She made us mealy pop...it is a rice substitute kind of like cream of wheat. Not bad, but very bland. Dora also made mupani worms (caterpillars). She fried them in butter on the stove and served them to us. Kate couldn't make herself eat it. Andrew ate one though! He says it tastes like a burnt, crunchy yet chewy marshmallow with jelly inside. Doesn't that sound yummy? We have pictures and video to share with all of you when we are home (check facebook!).

In the afternoon, we graded maths homework for the teachers. Then the big event of the afternoon occurred. The maintenance men found a 6 foot long Egyptian cobra snake in the compost heap! It was huge! They killed it and showed it to everyone! The kids were either scared or loved it and touched it. It was quite the event, everyone in the village came to see it. We guess the temperatures are getting warm enough and spring is coming, so the snakes are coming out.

Tonight we had our last dinner with a family, this time it was the Shikwambane family. We were supposed to have dinner with them last week, but the power was out so we rescheduled for today. This family has been here five years. Some of their kids are teenagers and some are still elementary school age. But they were SO well behaved. It was a good blend of the ages. We had a great time playing Sorry and cards with the kids after dinner. They were so thankful for the sweeties that we gave them from a man at Andrew's work. We are glad that we were welcomed into each home and got to know them better, and got to know how to pray for them as well.

It makes us sad to think there is only one full day left! The time has flown by! Please pray for continued clarity in God's direction for our next step in our journey. Thank you all for your prayers!