African Muzungu

These past few  weeks months have been overly full! When I sit down to try and remember everything that has needed to be done in these weeks, I am just amazed. To start with, Genesis is approaching the end of its third full year of school! Which is wonderful! And hectic. Final exams needed to be typed and printed. Teacher evaluations needed to be created, printed, and administered.  We had a visiting team 2 weeks ago who spent several days at the school. And all those extras are in addition to the usual work load of supervising teachers, preparing and teaching Bible study for the teachers, planning for AWANA, putting together presentations for the AWANA clubs back in the States, taking sick children to the clinic, troubleshooting all manner of weird circumstances (like the time the school's pit toilet started caving in), etc. etc. etc. And all of that adds up to early mornings and long days. Annnnd in the middle of it all, I'm needing to find a...

I've grown up my whole life dreaming and expecting to be a missionary. In the beginning it was much more like a dream, full of dark jungles, strange people just waiting to be converted, me in a prairie dress with my arms full of orphaned children, etc. But as I grew, the dream took on more and more of reality. I researched high and low. I pestered other missionaries with many questions, and I began to form a more accurate picture of what life as a missionary really looks like. I remember many things people would say trying to scare some sense into me..... But it's not safe. Aren't there terrorists over there? But you'll be so far from your family. But don't you actually want get married? Don't you know that missionaries are poor for the rest of their life?  And to be honest, some of the things did scare me a bit. Being so far from the family I so adored was a really hard thought. But I was still determined. I knew God wanted me in Africa, and I just knew He ...

Little Mary is 5 years old. She is the youngest member of Katherine’s household and has been at the orphanage for just less than a year. She’s also in our youngest class at Genesis. When she had first come to Katherine’s, she didn’t speak any English at all, and was so quiet and shy. For the longest time, the only answer she’d give to any question whether in English or Lugwere was ‘yes.’ We’ve watched her come so far in this year, and now although she’s still not a big talker, she can understand English, answer basic questions, and plays and runs and interacts with all the other kids. In Awana, she’s one of the first in her class to memorize the verses, and her sweet little voice reciting the Word of God has been one of the brightest things in my life each week. Well, one day at the nightly devotions for the orphanage, the other kids jokingly told Mary that the next day would be her turn to share for devotion. They fully expected her to just laugh and refuse, but to their surpri...