"I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IS"

... First please just accept that the title of this post will only make sense to a very small number of folks, but it makes me laugh! And as we all know I'm always up for a good laugh. Now that that is taken care of...

Just wanted to put out a quick post about what we've been up too, and maybe (if the world, electricity, internet, and Fredrick all cooperate) put up a few pictures. We'll see. Last week at school was crazy, and incredibly rewarding at the same time. Mrs. Mpata my team teacher was out sick all week. She is back this week and feeling better but keep her and her family in your prayers as they are still not certain what is wrong. But because she was out I was in the classroom alone...BUT! I survived and it was a great feeling. By the end of the week things were running smoothly and and we were having a great time.... There is currently a trail of any walking down the wall by my bed I have looked at least 17 times since I started writing this and there is nothing there for them to even get they are simply walking up and down. I clearly am ignoring them as I continue to write and leave them be, mmmm life in Africa.... anyway so that was last week and lets just say as good as it was it was a LOOONG week.
So the weekend came and we were all very excited. This weekend was Michelle's birthday, and so Ogles and I decided to kidnap her and take a trip to the lake. We absolutely could not have made a better decision. We loaded up the car Friday afternoon and headed out. We drove for and drove and drove some more and finally arrived at the lake around 8 or so that night, I think I don't really know. We decided that we would turn our phones off and really enjoy the weekend so time was irrelevant for most of it. We didn't have any plans other than to enjoy ourselves and that is what we did. Saturday we just hung out and played games for a bit we spent tons of time in the lake and at the beach, we had a nice dinner which included a cake for Michelle that read "Micheal, Happy Bathday" possibly the best cake I have ever seen. Sunday we did exactly the same thing and had a GREAT time!!! We left Sunday evening and drove and drove... we may or may not have spend a significant amount of time belting out "I wanna know what love is"... and loving every minute of it! We came back to campus around 9 or 9:30 Sunday night and went immediately to bed. So here we are Monday afternoon, refreshed and ready to start a new week. Praise the Lord!!
Until next time...
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12.9 (read it, it'll change your life)

This is looking down from the side of Table Mountain in Cape Town

The Beach in Cape Town

This is at our class Christmas party! Fun times!

Most of the Kindergarten students at ABC

Reading Day at ABC, I may have posted this but I don't remember

LAKE MALAWI

I just really liked this flower

Say CHEESE! 

I think Michelle missed the ugly face memo... 

Everyone smile this time. 

The End. 

What have you been doing lately?

Please accept my sincerest apologies for being an absolute failure when it comes to blogging. Along with my poor grammar skills you are also forced to put up with my apparent inability to blog in a timely manner. I hope that in the future I will not leave you waiting in suspense (for quiet as long) for my next up date.
  Now that my ego is sufficiently boosted lets see if I can bring you up to speed on what has happened in the last oh... month. :D

Let us start with Christmas. We had a wonderful time with the Kyser family. We enjoyed Christmas eve festivities and late night conversation followed by the ever exciting Christmas morning! It was great! Forgetting the fact that it was Sunday, Ogles and I only packed pj's and so we skipped church and just vegged at the Kyser's away from all the madness. Thanks to the joys of technology, power, and a mostly fast internet connection I got to skype with my family and all but be in the room with them as they started their own early morning Christmas festivities. Later that evening we had a lovely dinner with the Kyser and McDonald families. Overall I would say a lovely African Christmas.
The following two days were filled with movie watching and packing for our Cape Town adventure. Not a whole lot of excitement.
Finally we left for Cape Town. I had been secretly dreading the flight and other travel, but we made it just fine. No delays or hold ups any where it was wonderful. We arrived in Cape Town around 8:30 or so exhaustion only barely masking our thorough excitement about our adventure. We were met by some rather enthusiastic salesmen for a shuttle company. PERFECT! They took us straight to our hotel where we were quickly settled. After a bit of planning we went to bed resolved to wake up "a little bit early."
The next several days filled with fun and excitement as well as some much needed relaxation away from home. We ate nothing other than McDonalds, Subway, and ice cream. We shopped for days in this HUMONGOUS mall, and managed not to buy everything we saw. We took a bus tour of the city... Cape Town is gorgeous. As Ogles likes to say that hit the "geographical jackpot" withe the ocean to one side and the the mountains to the other. We took pictures, but I'm afraid all the pictures in the world could not do justice to the beauty. We walked around the city a bit and saw some of the touristy things and just had a good time. We also saw Phantom of the Opera! OH MY STARS! I think we cried through most of it. It was incredible. I think we would have seen in again and again if given the opportunity. While we didn't do anything crazy or too terribly exciting the trip was just what we needed. We were able to relax for the first time in months and just enjoy life for a bit.
After a week away we came back refreshed and ready to start the year. Well we still had two weeks of vacation during which we.... did absolutely nothing. (see there was good reason for my lack of "bloggage") I am fairly certain the only reason we left the house was to go grocery shopping one day. OH! Our new room mate is here, Tracy. That's right folks, 5 girls living in one house, any prayers you could spare would be greatly appreciated. Not that we're arguing or going crazy or anything, but all the same there are 5 of us in 1 house. Really though we like Tracy she is sweet and fun, we like her. The rest of our break consisted of us reading books and continuing in our goal to watch the entire series of Numbers before school started back up. We got pretty close. If it hadn't been for a few unfortunate and lengthy power outages I think we could have done it. Haha. Oh well, there is always Easter.
  School started back this Tuesday. While it was incredibly difficult to wake up at 5 am. It was nice to get back to school to see all the smiling faces and hear about what they all did over the holiday. Stories from kindergartens are always fun. So now that we're back into it all hopefully there will be more fun and exciting things to write home about. Soon the college will be back in session than things really will start to pick up.
Life in Malawi is difficult at times, with increasing government and economic issues things keep getting tougher. Fuel is practically nonexistent at times, power outages are increasing in frequency and the people here are getting angry and impatient.
As always continue to pray: pray for the country, the government, pray for patience and understanding on all accounts. Pray for continued financial support as we serve here.Pray that we will continue to seek God and his will and his teaching and guidance as we server here. Pray that we would have peace in every situation.

Until next time...
"Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, 'Yet a little while and the coming one will come and not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.' But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." Hebrews 10.35-39 (I recommend the whole chapter.... the whole book!)