The topic of joy has been on my heart this last week, so let’s talk about it. What is joy you may ask? Webster’s dictionary says joy is “the emotion evoked by well being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” But I am not sure how I feel about this definition, so let’s head to the Bible to examine joy. Joy comes from within. Joy is an internal peace of knowing your salvation through our savior Jesus Christ. The book of Psalms and Proverbs is full of the word joy. The reason for joy is well summed up in Psalms 71:23, “My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you-I, whom you have redeemed.” Jesus Christ died on the cross for all our sins and for that we are to be joyful. Having joy is not contingent on circumstances. You may not have health or wealth or even a job or a home, but you can be joyful when you put your hope in Christ. The world is facing many hard circumstances, but be joyful because God is in control and that will radiate to all around you. Another verse that has powerful words concerning joy and prayer is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” And these are commands, not advice.
This last week has been awesome to get back into the routine of things. I have been delighting in my time with the children of this community. They run to me, faces full of snot, covered in dirt, and give me a giant hug that makes your heart melt! I do not mind the snot or dirt, or even the many weird skin conditions so many of them have, I just love the hugs. You toss them up in the air or swing round and round and they cannot stop giggling. Generally in this community adults do not play with kids, so I soak it up. I love it when the kids come up to me and show me how they can blow up their muscles through their thumb, a trick my dad showed them. I hope you know what I am talking about; flexing your muscles when you blow on your thumb. Instead of saying, “Show me your guns (biceps)” they say, “Show me your potatoes.” Priceless.
Praise God the rains have come. It was predicted to be an El Nino year here and they might be right as the rains have been great. We have had a few days where we could barely leave the house due to all the rain. Although having a tin roof when it rains makes it a bit hard to have conversations. You have to shout over the rain to be heard. But we are very thankful for the rain as this is an agricultural based community. A couple of nights ago I heard this very weird noise outside. I asked Sarah what it is and she informed me it was frogs. Sounds like we have thousands of them now! Thank you Lord!
This last week I took two children into Tanga to see the doctor. One was immediately admitted to the hospital and the other we are starting her on strong meds for a problem she has had for over a year. Sometimes I have a bit of doubt about what I am doing here since I do not have a lot of structure in my role, but then it is through those situations where I can be an advocate and get children the help they need that the Lord truly affirms all I am doing. Both Sarah and I have both visited the little one in the hospital today and she is making great improvement. Her mother has lost her last two infants at the age of four months, so we are working hard to keep mother, this little one, and her twin healthy.
Now it’s Sarah’s turn to update. She has some encouraging news regarding our school. Please continue to pray for us, especially endurance as I have been feeling tired, but still strong and healthy. Also pray for my work visa. Sarah got hers two weeks ago, but the man who needs to complete it has had many trips away from the office. But I am confident it will come through, just join me in prayer.
Hey kids…not much to say after that. God has a way of bringing joy to our lives every day. The Bible (and my mom) says in this world you will have much trial and tribulation, but be of good cheer because GOD has overcome the world. I have learned so much about trusting in the promises of God when facing many of life’s trials here. It is only through Him that we continue to thrive, and the outpour of my heart is that all who I interact with will know where my joy comes from. I have been able to have more conversations about that very subject with some of my close friends here, and I hope to encourage them more and continue to talk with them as I grow in my Kiswahili. We have many reasons to praise God for His faithfulness.
As you know, we have been working for years now to get our land and school registration for our primary school. After a whirlwind of ups and downs, we were approved for stage one of this process. There are three stages, and as we embark on stage two, I ask that you pray for our interactions with government officials and that they would be supportive and actually in their offices when we go to visit. We still have a long way to go, but God has worked miracles to make this first stage complete, so we are very thankful! It has been good getting back into the classroom, and as Em stated, nothing in the world is better than a good hug! When I returned to my grade one class the students all shouted, “Teacher!” and ran up around me to hug me. The joy I felt about made me burst! As we enter this last month of school for the year, there is much work to be done so please pray that I can balance teaching, administrative tasks, and my involvement in the community.
Speaking of community I am super stoked to start a netball team in our village. Netball is a game girls and women play that is similar to basketball. I learned about it through a language lesson last week, and this week I walked to every house in my village with my language helper to invite women to come practice with us next Wednesday. So far we have 21 women signed up and a few weren’t home. Since we visited everyone, there has been buzz about playing throughout the village and I can’t wait to see who shows up. I am hopeful that a portion of this group will stick it out and commit to playing so that we can even play women from surrounding villages. It will be a fun time to get together and enjoy one another, and provide an avenue to share God’s love with the women of our village. Em and I are both excited about this endeavor.
This last week has been awesome to get back into the routine of things. I have been delighting in my time with the children of this community. They run to me, faces full of snot, covered in dirt, and give me a giant hug that makes your heart melt! I do not mind the snot or dirt, or even the many weird skin conditions so many of them have, I just love the hugs. You toss them up in the air or swing round and round and they cannot stop giggling. Generally in this community adults do not play with kids, so I soak it up. I love it when the kids come up to me and show me how they can blow up their muscles through their thumb, a trick my dad showed them. I hope you know what I am talking about; flexing your muscles when you blow on your thumb. Instead of saying, “Show me your guns (biceps)” they say, “Show me your potatoes.” Priceless.
Praise God the rains have come. It was predicted to be an El Nino year here and they might be right as the rains have been great. We have had a few days where we could barely leave the house due to all the rain. Although having a tin roof when it rains makes it a bit hard to have conversations. You have to shout over the rain to be heard. But we are very thankful for the rain as this is an agricultural based community. A couple of nights ago I heard this very weird noise outside. I asked Sarah what it is and she informed me it was frogs. Sounds like we have thousands of them now! Thank you Lord!
This last week I took two children into Tanga to see the doctor. One was immediately admitted to the hospital and the other we are starting her on strong meds for a problem she has had for over a year. Sometimes I have a bit of doubt about what I am doing here since I do not have a lot of structure in my role, but then it is through those situations where I can be an advocate and get children the help they need that the Lord truly affirms all I am doing. Both Sarah and I have both visited the little one in the hospital today and she is making great improvement. Her mother has lost her last two infants at the age of four months, so we are working hard to keep mother, this little one, and her twin healthy.
Now it’s Sarah’s turn to update. She has some encouraging news regarding our school. Please continue to pray for us, especially endurance as I have been feeling tired, but still strong and healthy. Also pray for my work visa. Sarah got hers two weeks ago, but the man who needs to complete it has had many trips away from the office. But I am confident it will come through, just join me in prayer.
Hey kids…not much to say after that. God has a way of bringing joy to our lives every day. The Bible (and my mom) says in this world you will have much trial and tribulation, but be of good cheer because GOD has overcome the world. I have learned so much about trusting in the promises of God when facing many of life’s trials here. It is only through Him that we continue to thrive, and the outpour of my heart is that all who I interact with will know where my joy comes from. I have been able to have more conversations about that very subject with some of my close friends here, and I hope to encourage them more and continue to talk with them as I grow in my Kiswahili. We have many reasons to praise God for His faithfulness.
As you know, we have been working for years now to get our land and school registration for our primary school. After a whirlwind of ups and downs, we were approved for stage one of this process. There are three stages, and as we embark on stage two, I ask that you pray for our interactions with government officials and that they would be supportive and actually in their offices when we go to visit. We still have a long way to go, but God has worked miracles to make this first stage complete, so we are very thankful! It has been good getting back into the classroom, and as Em stated, nothing in the world is better than a good hug! When I returned to my grade one class the students all shouted, “Teacher!” and ran up around me to hug me. The joy I felt about made me burst! As we enter this last month of school for the year, there is much work to be done so please pray that I can balance teaching, administrative tasks, and my involvement in the community.
Speaking of community I am super stoked to start a netball team in our village. Netball is a game girls and women play that is similar to basketball. I learned about it through a language lesson last week, and this week I walked to every house in my village with my language helper to invite women to come practice with us next Wednesday. So far we have 21 women signed up and a few weren’t home. Since we visited everyone, there has been buzz about playing throughout the village and I can’t wait to see who shows up. I am hopeful that a portion of this group will stick it out and commit to playing so that we can even play women from surrounding villages. It will be a fun time to get together and enjoy one another, and provide an avenue to share God’s love with the women of our village. Em and I are both excited about this endeavor.
When it comes to relationships it’s difficult to cross language and cultural barriers, but I have found so much joy in many of the women and children I have met, especially my language helper. We laugh together, learn together, sit in the shade when it’s hot together, and hopefully I will get to go work her farm with her soon. I have truly enjoyed our time getting to know one another and consider her a true friend. I can be honest with her and she is honest with me. About a month ago we had made a cake together (as part of our baking ministry…ha ha) and we were sharing it at her house with her husband (who just happens to be our knight in shining armor when it comes to rats). We were enjoying the cake as it was quite tasty, and for some reason I just thought a nice cold coke would be so good with this cake. I voiced my thoughts and we all had a good laugh and that was the end of it. We laugh a lot together, mostly from the silly things I say. Fast forward to last week. Emily had to go to town to help one of our sick team members so I spent my first 2 nights alone in the village. I had completed my daily routine and was getting ready to do some work in the evening inside my house when I heard a knock at the door. It was my language helper and she asked me to come to her house. She was acting kind of strange, so I didn’t know what was up. The next thing I knew, she and her husband were sitting on her front porch with cake and three ice cold sodas. They remembered my silly comment and the gesture was so kind and considerate that I was beaming and about to cry. This was such a complete act of love and joy. I thanked God for what an encouragement it was to have someone do something so special just for little old me. Joy filled my heart and in that moment I wanted my new friends to know the true joy that Emily so poignantly wrote about. God has put us here to share His joy and redemptive story, and for me that is going to be through love and relationships. Even when it’s hard and we’re tired and grumpy, He provides just what we need to keep us going. In all these things our faith is built on His unfailing love for us. As our team member, Joyce says- He will not let our faith get lazy. I pray we can continue to find joy in the good times and the struggles. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement as we continue to do what God has called us to do here. Blessings to you all!!!
Emily and Sarah
PS-The picture is of our school children lined up in the morning to sing!
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