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! 

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.

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

CHS!!

I feel like it has been a while since I update with a picture story, and yesterday I took my camera to school and the kids were having a bunch of fun with that. So some pictures seem in order 🙂

 

...We would like to wish you and your family a blessed and happy Easter. This is one of the best times of the year. People all over the world will remember the death and resurrection of Jesus this weekend. May you be reminded of the endless love God has for you during this time!

How we are doing here at CHS.

Things at school seem to getting back to normal. We will have a memorial service on Wednesday morning for Maria. Her mom has decided to have her funeral in the north of the country, about eight hours away from us. None of us will be able to attend. This is what her mom needs though, she will be around more of her family there.
There has been a few scares with some students showing the same symptoms, but those have all been a cold or flu. Right now one of our grade 3 students is on her way to the dr. with the same symptoms.
It is really scary not knowing if a headache will turn out to be fatal!
The second grade class seems to be doing ok, they are staying busy. Today we will work on goodbye cards to her for the memorial service, so we shall see how they deal with that. Tomorrow they will see the first picture of her too, so that may bring up some heartache too.
Some of our kids have also just lost parents or other family members so this death is bringing up those memories and scars. Especially for Jessica whose mother passed away in December.
We will be having some counselors from the life-line group here tomorrow to help with counseling the kids.
This has shown that there is a need for a counselor on staff, so if there are any counseling majors out there looking for internship opportunities let us know, there may be a great  ministry for you here.

I want to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been thinking of and praying for us and the rest of the people touched by this tragedy. We are especially thankful for all the precious emails that were sent by you. It was amazing to see the body of Christ come together to hold this little one up in prayer, and to offer further prayer and condolences when she went to be with Jesus. 

Maria.

Maria died today.
I know in my head that “death has no sting,” but today it sure does sting. It is so surreal, we are their teachers so we teach the kids to read and do math. But we are here with so much more in mind. The school is called Community Hope School. We are here to change the whole community through training these kids in the ways of God. We have poured ourselves into this little girl, and just like that she is gone.

Maria won the academic award last year. She was one of the smartest girls in our class. Maria liked to talk, sit sideways in her chair and chat with the girl who sits next to her.
Maria loved to answer questions, she excelled in spelling class, and was also a whiz in science.

Her desk sits empty now. The kids cried today, they made cards for her yesterday writing things like “I love you, I miss you, please come back soon.” Please pray for us and the kids as we grieve the loss of this little one. Pray for her mother too.

They still suspect meningitis, but will know for sure after they do an autopsy. They have ruled out the extremely contagious strain of meningitis so we should all be fine. Maria had a vaccination a few months ago. I just cannot wrap my brain around this. No class at school or church prepared us for this.
Of all the kids in the class I was sure that Maria would go to college one day.

Tonight we turn to God for comfort. The kids are busy memorizing Psalm 23, and they are able to cling to it now. If you have any suggestions on helping kids deal with loss, we are open to hearing it!

Thank you for all the prayer!

Urgent Prayer Request!

Please continue to pray for Maria. Maria is in grade 2, on Sunday she had a headache and a fever, on Monday she was committed to the hospital to the ICU. They did a CT scan today and found that her brain is swollen and is surrounded by fluid. They suspect meningitis but it is impossible to do a LP in her condition. They already think she will have brain damage if she survives this.
We know that God can heal her, please pray without stopping. Add her to your church prayer chain. Get your friends and family to pray for her.

Pray for her family too, her mom is beside herself and is by her side in the I.C.U.

This really looks bad, pray pray pray!!!