Christmas Season Happenings continued

So… continuing from yesterday…
December 30-31   We went to Nyanzu lac - a beautiful beach about 2 hours from Bujumbura. We went with friends of ours.  In the evening on the 31st, we were invited to a New Years party at Dave and Sheena’s.
January 1 2010 - We were invited to friends for another party.
As you can see, God really provided many friends to surround us during the Christmas season - a time that could have been filled with much homesickness. We truly are blessed by the people the Lord has put, and is continuing to put into our lives.
Fun Facts:
1. We have baby dedication at church every single Sunday, and some of the names are very interesting; but the one that takes the cake is this: twins, a boy and a girl named King and Queen. I’m not kidding!
2. Pastor Ray goes to the Congo (the border is about 15-20 minutes from our house) to minister, and has for some years already. One couple decided to honor Pastor Ray by naming their baby… Pastor Ray!
3. Isaac gets stopped by the cops soooo frequently for no reason, other than to check out the new mzungu, and that his papers for the car are in order. One day he got stopped three times.
4. A nice, sweet and juicy pineapple costs about 75 cents CND.
5. A regular box of Corn Flakes costs about $23.00 CND.
Debby the head teacher (she’s a teacher from England, married to a Kenyan,; he‘s head teacher in Secondary), asked me if I would be willing to do devotions with Nursery, Reception and year one, each class once a week, for about half an hour. I will also be starting with monitoring the year 4 CRIB homework group 3 days a week for an hour and a half. I start both of these next week
Please pray for much energy for me. We’re up at 6:45 A.M., teachers’ devotions start at 7:00, and schools’ out at 1:00 P.M. We come home for lunch, and than I need to go to CRIB for homework group 3 times/ week.. Some of you know about my struggles with fatigue; combined with the energy sapping heat, this will be a huge stretch. We’re praying about possibly dropping some other regular activities we do at CRIB.
Isaac is still spending his work days with Gentile, teaching him and keeping watch over him. This is going very well. Gentile is a pleasant, likeable guy. Now that we have the use of a vehicle, Isaac can do a lot more in a day. Instead of waiting for supplies he can now go and pick them up himself if they are available, and he doesn’t have to walk between Chrissie‘s, both the schools and CRIB. This saves a great deal of time. He was saying yesterday that his ‘to do’ list just keeps getting longer and longer. There’s so much to do since there was no one to do maintenance before we arrived. Also, the quality of almost everything out here is relatively poor, so things break down much faster than usual. If someone would set up a proper hardware store out here, wow…
That’s it for today, I’m tired. We get to sleep in tomorrow.
Please continue to pray for Earl, as well as for Ramona’s family.
Love as always,
IRCF