A thousand gifts.

It has been a while since I have participated in “a thousand gifts” Monday. Needless to say we have been very busy, but this is not something I like to have to push to the side. At school things are going crazy, the grade 6 and 7 teacher did not get his work permit, there is some kind of fly going around again, and it feel like we are running around with our heads cut off. It could just be me though 😉 It could be that after the break it is taking me a few days into getting into the swing of teaching in so many classes again. Last week I mixed up Wednesday and Thursday, AAAAH! Jodie has taken over two of my art classes and that has been an absolute blessing.  I am moving into teaching health in grade 6 and 7 this term, and with Jan leaving I may be picking up more of his classes too.
The weather has turned here, it is officially winter. Last Thursday the high temp was only 32 Fahrenheit, and in Namibia that is very very cold. Kids and staff alike were walking around shivering all day. In fact it may be worth it to ask the snuggy company to donate a snuggy for each person at school.
Remember that you can join at any point, just begin listing things that you are thankful for. 
This week I am thankful for:
#51 I am thankful for friends from CCCB, this past weekend we were able to Skype with Doug and Mary, our dear friends from school. It was great to catch up on what they have been up to, but more than that. They were such a HUGE encouragement to us. I don’t think people understand how much a phone call, letter, or comment means to us. Thank you guys!!

#52 I am thankful for each of my students here at CHS. On the first day of school we were overwhelmed with hugs and declarations of love. It was very obvious that they love us, and missed us a whole bunch. It is very humbling that think that we get to be here for them, and that they are really touched by the things that are done for them at school.

#53 My winter coat. My awesome mother in law bought me a thick long winter coat when we were in Colorado, it has saved my life this week.

#54 Sunshine. When I was a kid I used to sit in our door way in the afternoon, the sun used to filter in warming the kitchen. I have found that our doorway here does the same thing in the morning, you can find me sitting there!

#55 Soup season! Enough said.

I want to leave you with a verse from my devotional this morning. It comes from Psalm 121: 1-2.

Pray.

Yesterday Jan’s work permit was rejected. He has seven days to get out of Namibia. This prayer request is for a new teacher to fill his spot. It would be best if it were a national teacher. Home affairs is beginning to push the school to hire more Namibians. So we are SCRAMBLING to try and cover our bases now. We only just got all of Ray’s classes covered. The money is there right now to hire new teachers, we just need to find them!

Please be in prayer for this, and for the students too, this is really hard on them too.

Come to Namibia!

Back to school!

The new term is here! This morning all the staff, teachers, and students arrived. Some bright eyed, some bleary eyed. David and I have worked at CHS for one year now, it has flown by!
The kids were absolutely excited to be back at school, and we were quite happy to see them all again. It is amazing how fast they are growing up! This morning was spent hugging and laughing and talking about the past break.
Surprisingly it was quite cold this morning too, I think the rain has finally passed and now winter is moving in. Just last week it was still hot, but today I had to break out my winter coat.
I should be blogging regularly again now that we are back on a schedule.

Thanks for the prayers, Asser is out of the hospital and doing great!

Lots of love.
The Echols

What is that?!

We are still here!

The blog has been quiet because we have been too! We have been spending time reading and relaxing. We also went on a camping trip this weekend. All in all it has been a great and much needed break.

  We do have some prayer requests, please pray for Asser, the pastor in the north, he is in the hospital right now with severe diarrhea. It is pretty scary! He lives up in the village with his wife and two children. Pray that he gets better very soon!
  Secondly, David and I will be beginning a new fund raising campaign soon please pray that we can get back up to our minimum needed budget. Please also pray for our supporters, some of them have fallen on hard times and have therefore had to stop supporting us.
  And finally be in prayer for our future here in Namibia. We have reached out one year mark with   Community Hope School and we will be dropping to part time soon so that we can focus on the future. We are looking into starting a Bible study in the city with the possibility of a church plant, but we are also looking further, to the North of Namibia. We hope to be able to do some kind of ministry there if not move there after our first furlough. So as you can see we have a lot to think about and pray about!

We hope you all are having a great week!

Exciting news!

For the next five days David’s dad is running a promotion in his on-line art store. He is a nature photographer in Colorado. For every print that he sells in the next five days we will receive $20 towards our work here in Namibia.
Check out the two prints that are part of the promotion here and here.
Also while you are there take a look at some of his other pictures, he does some amazing work with his images! One of his pictures has even been featured on Desperate Housewives…
And come on, I know you need a new picture for your home and office!!

Take every part of me.