Ceremonies and a Mango

We had ceremonies with the girls this weekend. It was an honor to participate and I am looking forward to spending more time with my girls. They are all so beautiful and I want to see them walk in strength and authority and purity. I want them to know who they are not settle or fall into bad marriages. I want them to make wise choices. Polygamy is fairly common here and there are many cultural issues different from our own and many just the same. They are all just girls, with big hearts who love to sing and dance, who all just want to be loved in return.

The school is coming together more and more every day. We have had a new long term missionary assigned to work with us in our school. I am delighted to welcome a new member to the team. He will assist me in our 2 on 2 discipleship meetings and help teach business courses. He is very much on board with our ideas to create social businesses and has amazing ideas of his own. He shares our vision and heart for discipleship, mentoring and vocational training.

We were given some funding for the garden! We bought plants last week and are having a planter made now and planting bougainvillea as I write this. It is really going to be a beautiful space and we can use the space as an outdoor classroom. It is so fun to see it all coming together, even down to the plants and trees!

Steve and I met with the Children's Center director earlier this week and discussed the school schedule and calendar. It looks like we will start formal classes on January 17th. It looks like Monday's will be a day when all students come for all types of learning, instructional vocational training, educational videos, 1 on 1 conversation English, field trips, study hall, language labs and more. Tuesday and Wednesday will be for ESL and Business with those courses given in the mornings and again in the afternoon since students here are divided-some students go to school in the morning and others in the afternoon. We will offer morning and afternoon blocks also. Thursday and Friday will be for ESL and Community Health.  I also will be doing 2 on 2 discipleship for 2 to 3 hours a day. We want to equip them to know who they are in Christ. I often don't have a grid for where the children have been and what all they have been through. I have no idea what hopelessness looks like and have always had loving support in my life. We want our students to know they are loved and that their situations are not hopeless.

In preparing to come here I packed every over the counter medicine I could think of for most anything that could possibly arise; malaria, colds, cuts, fever, pain. I didn't account for or fathom severe mango allergy. I started feeling really bad over the weekend and Sunday night was rushed home from ceremonies to take benadryl when my face started to swell. I woke up to an unrecognizable face staring back at me. I have a rash on my arms and neck. My left eye was swollen shut. My earlobes are swollen and itchy. My lips are huge. The clinic has given me Prednisone and I have been told it gets worse before it gets better. I don't think it can get any worse. This is my second day of not really being able to do anything and that alone is driving me crazy, not to mention I itch all over, my face is massive, my ears itch. But three absolutely adorable little ten year old girls just came to the door and asked if they could pray for me. They sat with me on the bed and all prayed out loud simultaneously. Nurse Annelie came too and didn't flinch at my pitiful face but hugged me and prayed. This place is giving me way more than I could ever give back. I am astounded by His blessings, and precious gifts. I am undone by the love of the friends I have made here and this life of wild, crazy, hot, smelly community. It's so beautiful.