Interface 2012

The six weeks are officially over and the students are now back in their home towns.  We had a good time getting to know these 15 students.  We had 13 girls and 2 guys on the team so I wasn't sure how this was going to work out with sooo many girls, but it was great.  I really enjoyed hearing how God brought them here and the direction towards missions some had chosen.  As I sat in on some of the classes being taught I was reminded again of why we are here.  It is easy to get busy with daily duties and lose focus on the relationships with the nationals.  Travis and I are now back to language learning and he spends most of his mornings up in the village, I don't get up to the village until later in the day since I have girls I need to get off and ready for school, laundry, etc.  I do appreciate the times when the ladies from the village come down to my house and story with me, I seem to learn a lot during these times.  The other day a lady came down and I had laundry in the wash so we sat and talked and she shared with me about the way her grandmother would do laundry.  I got quite a cultural experience learning that before they had soap to wash their clothes they would get a leaf off of a certain tree and would put it in a bucket of water.  Once you squeezed the leaf if would soap up and they would wash their clothes with it, as well as clean themselves.  They will still use this leaf to this day if they are out of soap.  After my clothes were done washing she offered to help me hang them up and then we sat and storied some more.  I am so grateful for these opportunities even if I am unable to go to their house due to responsibilities I have at my house.  Travis is taking his 2nd evaluation today on the language and I will do mine next week.  Pray we can retain all we have learned!

When the students were here we went up into the village for a (singsing) festival.  The nationals were all dressed up and danced and sang for us.  In the end the asked us to join in!

This fella thought it would be cool to hold my hand...Awkward!