Like a lump of yeast.

The kingdom of God is like a lump of yeast. The yeast permeates all the dough, not just a small part of it. The entire lump of dough is changed and affected. That is what the kingdom of God is like. When we come to a place to teach about the kingdom of God we have to remember this verse in Luke 13:18-21. Tonight we were talking about this principle.
When bringing the kingdom of God to a place, like we are trying to do with CHS, we have to do it in such a way that the community is affected and changed as a whole. This means spiritually, physically, economically, socially and so on.
It was good to remember that tonight, that we are here to hopefully make a real difference, not just to convert people and then leave them in the poverty and sickness that they find themselves in.

Remember, the kingdom of God is like a lump of yeast, it permeates the whole batch of dough!

What David did today.

Since I am home on bed rest, I can live vicariously through David, and that way you can still get updates on what is happening out there. Today David worked with a short term team to move Martha’s kaya. A kaya is a tin structure, like a shack I guess. Martha has finally saved up the money and with the help of the Hunters is building herself a brick house! They had to move her shack back out of the way so the house can be built. She will still stay in the shack while her home is being built, so David said they had to tear it down carefully, and tomorrow they will be rebuilding it.
I think David really enjoyed himself today, with the school there is a lot of office work, and sitting inside. David was made to be outside, so he really put his heart into it. He kept sending me updates all day saying how much he was enjoying what he was doing. Pray that they get it done quickly and that the new structure they build will be strong enough to stand until her brick home is finished.

Thanks to everyone for your congratulations and messages about our pregnancy. We can feel your love and prayers surround us. At first going public with our infertility struggles was difficult, but I am happy I did as now most people know what an amazing miracle it is for us to be having a child, and it was reflected in the messages that we received. So again, thank you everyone!
While you are here go on over to the little poll on the right hand side —————> and vote on whether you think baby Echols is a boy or a girl! 

What we have been praying for, and waiting for.

 The following post was written 5 weeks ago. We have been keeping the news to ourselves for several reasons. This post is a little survey that I have seen all over the internet and that we have been waiting to do once we got pregnant.
So here it is world, after two years of tears, many doctor’s appointments, more medical bills than I care to remember, a bunch of tests, sleepless night, tearful prayers, feelings of absolute defeat and two broken hearts we are proud and humbled to announce that we are pregnant. Baby Echols is expected to arrive in the last week of January 2012. God is good!

From week 5, the baby is that little black speck in the middle there.

This is in week 7 , but the baby was measuring a week behind so it is 6 weeks I guess. We heard a strong heartbeat this week. It took my breath away, I cried and cried!

This past week, at 9w5d. You are looking at the baby from the back. You can see his/her head, back and bottom. Also notice the tiny little shoulders. The baby is right on track, and the heartbeat was up to 171 bpm. God is good!

5 week survey!

Sex of the baby?:  Probably a boy, or a girl. I have a 50% chance of guessing right. David did dream that the baby (our baby!!!) is a girl. And I did have a slight notion the other morning that it is a girl. But really there is no way  to know or guess.

Maternity clothes?: What about em? I am only 5 weeks, it would be crazy to be in them already. Although I am pretty bloated,  I have no idea how I am going to keep this from people…

Sleep?: I have a weird relationship with sleep right now. I wake up at 4:30 each morning, but I am dead tired and usually fall asleep early every night.

Best moment this week (Sunday- Saturday)?: The best moment of this week was making it to five weeks pregnant. I see every single day as a mile stone right now. We have prayed for and longed for this child for so long we are trying to drink each day in.

Food cravings?: Salt and Vinegar. The thought of eating anything sweet makes me want to toss my cookies. The worst thing I can think of eating right now is an oatmeal cream pie.
I am craving a lot of meat too.

Movement?: Baby E is the size of an appleseed today, so no movement detectable by me yet, duh!

Symptoms?: Cramping/sharp pains. Being really tired throughout the day, and HUNGER!

What I miss?: Right now nothing. This is where I have wanted to be for so long.

What I’m looking forward to?: Our first scan Thursday morning. I will still be really early so we may not see much, but what we will see is the beginning of the brand new life David and I now have. This is a great adventure!

Thought of the week?: Today I am absolutely humbled by this gift God has lavished on us. When Mark was here he asked if it would take a miracle for us to conceive a child. The answer? Yes, yes it would. I never really came clean on here about our medical diagnoses, so without going into too many details I was diagnosed with Endometriosis with a 4cm growth on my left ovary. The dr. suspects that the tube on that side is no good either. I was booked for a surgery in August to remove the growth and to explore the rest of my pelvic cavity.
The other ovary was covered in cysts, caused by Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. I know women with only one of these conditions who never have children, or who are only able to conceive with the help of IVF. Furthermore we also have a male infertility factor. With only Endo our chances of conceiving in any given cycle is only about 7%, add the other things and well it really is a miracle!
So in the last six months David and I have followed strict diets, I lost 26 pounds, and we have been seeing a fertility specialist. Dr. V as we will call him did not have high hopes of any kind of success for us. During my first visit this cycle he already had planned what we would be doing the next SIX cycles after this one failed. We were sent for a blood test at the end of the treatment cycle to see if we had been successful. It came back negative. I think that Thursday that we heard that news was probably one of the worst days we have had in a very long time. We ended up having an argument about some random little thing, I think we were venting our frustration on each other.
By Friday we were still sad but had made peace with the fact that God’s timing was still not ours. By Saturday we were much better, we had decided to stop any further treatments until the surgery in August, we were at peace.
On Sunday I took a home pregnancy test on a whim. Positive. The test was positive. We could not believe it. I took four more. All positive. On Monday I went for blood tests and they came back positive. David and I were quite hesitant on Sunday. I think we just kind of ignored it. But when the dr texted with the blood test result we both cried and whooped. We will never forget that feeling, or that day.

I am not sure when I will post this on line. Our dr. told us not to get out hopes up, and that it may not last.

Update: Ten weeks today. Our dr. is more confident. I am categorized as high risk and have been off and on bed rest for the last few weeks. I am doing well, and so far the baby is on track. Hearing the heartbeat was the most beautiful sound in the world. I cried my eyes out both times. Being high risk we get a bunch of scans, so we have already seen the baby three times and heard the little heartbeat twice.

Please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this new journey. Every day I am overwhelmed by joy and gratitude, my eyes are rarely dry and tears of joy have over taken me. God is so good to us. Please pray for baby Echols to continue to grow strong and healthy, and for every little thing to continue to stay on track.  And for me to get over a bout of the flu that I have had since May, and to not worry so much about every little thing.

Found on my SD card.

My SD card is full again, so I was going through the pictures and found some interesting ones from the last few  months. So how about another picture journey, it’s been a while!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day of the African child.

Has it really been ten days since my last update? Yikes!
Today is a public holiday, the day of the African child. So we are having some African children over, we are planning on playing games and just spending some time visiting with them. The boys that are coming over are in the seventh grade, that means that this is their last year at CHS. Only six months left of seeing them almost every day, this is an important time for the seventh graders!! One of the boys coming over has also expressed that he would like to become a Christian, so it is a great opportunity to disciple him a little more!

I also had my birthday this past weekend, it was a lovely day. I spent the morning shopping with Marye and later in the afternoon some people cam over for cake. It was very low key, I am still trying to get over the flu. But it was a fun day. Adam had all the kids in grade 2 make some birthday cards for me, it was great! I will post some pictures of my favorites 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Quick update..

In case you haven’t noticed, it is June, as in half of this year is gone! We are barreling through 2011, and racing towards 2012. It is true that the older one gets the quicker time goes by. I turn 28 in a few days, I think that is probably why I am surprised that it is already June again. There is not much to update on right now. I have been sick with a nasty bout of the flu. I have stayed home from school for 5 days now, and will stay home tomorrow. Hopefully I can kick this soon! Samantha, the Wright’s daughter is also sick with flu right now, pray that she gets better soon too.
At school it has been interesting, I have been off so Adam and other teaches have graciously filled my spot. As you know Jan was denied a work permit, and another teacher decided to take a post in Zimbabwe. If you are keeping score then you know we are hurting for staff right now. I don’t even know what the kids are thinking! David has been coming home from school exhausted, he has a lot of things to deal with as the school administrator.
This past weekend we were privileged to be able to “attend” and speak at three services at Pike’s Peak Christian Church. Mark who visited us a while back set it all up, we Skyped straight into the services! On Saturday night we got up at 2am, we think everything we said was coherent 🙂
It was a privilege. It is always amazing to see people who are invested in what we are doing here. We are so far away it would be easy to forget about us, but with PPCC we have never felt like that.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as our team gets over the flu of 2011 and as the school tries to find the right staff to fill the school’s need.

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