Bed rest again?! Why yes!

Another pregnancy blog! Sorry, I really am not trying to turn this into a pregnancy blog… On Thursday after a particularly stressful day I had a bleeding scare. At around 11pm there was blood on the tp, so after freaking out, sitting in the bathroom crying and praying we rushed to the ER. Our last experience at the Medi-clinic ER was not too great so we decided to go the the catholic hospital. When we walked in they took one look at me and said, yes this is a quote: “Please, no. Please go somewhere else.” We have heard they are the best hospital in town. Clearly we heard wrong.
So back to Medi clinic we went. When we got there they put me in a wheel chair. How horrifyingly embarrassing! Then they wheeled us to Labour and Delivery. The whole time I could feel Reese kicking, I think this helps me to stay calm, as I have to keep my stuff together for him now. They put me in a room with a lady who was sleeping, I felt bad for her. They turned the lights on and started their battery of tests. By this time there was no more blood, so I could breath a sigh of relief, but then they said it was a bloody show which usually shows up right before labour. Hello! This baby still needs to cook for at least 16 weeks!
I tested positive for a UTI too, they said since the bleeding stopped they think the infection caused the blood and that I needed to see my OBGYN. Most deliveries in Namibia are C-sections so you would be hard pressed to find a half-alive OB at midnight anywhere. We were sent home on orders to rest and see our dr asap.
On Friday our dr was fully booked so we had to go sit in the waiting room and hope that someone was miraculously healed and did therefore not come to their appointment.
If you are keeping tract this is the THIRD time seeing the dr in a week. Another horrifying embarrassing thing to me. David does not get why it embarrasses me. He did another ultrasound, our baby boy is measuring two, TWO, weeks ahead! Everything else looked fine and like it should.
He did put me on an antibiotic for the infection. Here is where I want to ask for prayers, I am allergic to almost all antibiotics. So the ones that are safe during pregnancy are not safe for me. So I am on one that is “not ideal” as our dr. put it. This made me bawl. It is terrifying to take a little pill that may hurt my baby. But an untreated infection is worse. I am also on a pretty high dose of magnesium for a few days to keep my uterus relaxed. And I am on lovely bed rest. My bed and I are becoming close friends.
Please pray for us. Please. We need this infection to clear up, and for things to stay on track. Thanks for sticking with us on this journey to our baby boy!!

Ricardo in America!

One of our students, Ricardo, has left Namibia for the USA. He has needed an eye surgery for the last few years now. He needs a partial eye transplant, as his left eye is slowly losing sight. An American donor had said that he would pay for the surgery to be done in Namibia, but it has taken almost two years of going in circles trying to find a dr. who could do the surgery. Finally it was decided that it would be easier to just take him to America and have it done there. After the surgery he will be staying with the Miller family in Boston, they visited CHS earlier this year, and he will be going to school with their boys.

We had a small farewell party for him at the YWAM base with the rest of his class. The kids seemed happy and excited for him, but also sad. Especially Chris seemed like he did not know how to deal with the fact that his best friend was leaving. Pray for him as he goes on this journey, and for the Miller family, and also for the kids that have been left behind.

Cross Cultural Guesstures :)

Today David played Guesstures in his Discipleship class. It was pretty funny, but also very interesting. It is amazing to see how the kids act out the words on the cards. At first I thought is was going to be a disaster when I saw how the kids were acting out the words. It seemed like “physical gibberish” to me, but the kids were getting it!
It was interesting to see the Namibian culture come through so strong on such a simple game. To my eyes “cat” looked like a dying chicken, “eating” looked like rapid face punching, “monkey” looked like a chicken dance, but “pound” was one of my favorites. The kid acting out “pound” was acting like he was pounding maize with a wooden maize pounder Of course here pound does not mean weight but making dinner. I would have failed if I was trying to mime pound.
David and I did each take a turn. It was not pretty. I mimed “mail box” but the kids stared at me with confused faces. Afterwards I realized it is because they don’t have mail service here, only PO boxes. I bet most of our kids have never even seen a mail box, or received a letter. And I know that they have never sent a letter. It seemed to take the kids much longer to guess words we were miming, if at all.

I learned today how important it is to understand a culture to properly communicate a message. I was not able to communicate mailbox as it is not part of the kids lives. In the same way we are here to communicate the love of a heavenly Father to people who have mostly not even known they fathers, and most of them who have know fathers know them as violent drunks.

I think I am shown to that God’s plan is perfect. If we came blazing into Namibia ready to plant churches without knowing the basic culture of people who live here we would have failed! So even if some days we feel frustrated by not being in a place of planting churches yet, we are in a season of preparation right now. And it is probably some of the most important preparation we will ever have. Please pray for us this week, to learn all we need to in this time, and grow where we need to!

First day of the last term.

Today has been full! We got up early this morning to meet with Brian and Pam Kinghorn, the directors of YWAM Namibia, to discuss our future in Namibia. I know I keep giving hints as to what that will be, but I don’t want to announce anything before we know for sure, so sorry but soon!

We then came over to the school where I have spent the day doing little things that come up on the first day of school, including first aid 🙂 David has been teaching P.E non stop today. From 10 until 2:30 he has back to back P.E classes. I do not envy him! It is so hot outside, and as it is the first day of school the kids have been quite, um, energetic.
 
We will have a staff meeting at the end of the school day, that usually lasts until 4 or 5pm and then we have to make a mad dash to the ministry of education to pick up some paper work. (Apparently all our teachers have to take a state wide English test tomorrow.) And yes, we were only told this today, it is a 3 hour exam, so now we are scrambling to try and find something to do with a 100 kids while their teachers are being tested. All and all a normal day around the school.

Reese has been kicking a lot today, I think he likes me being a little more active. Also a lady in the community when seeing my baby bump jumped up and down, giggled, and then ran over and kissed my belly. She is known to have a drinking problem, but I think she was quite sober today. It has been fun to see how people react to the news of us having a baby. I am already praying for God to use Reese as a way to open doors in the community and in the hearts of the people here.
I left my camera at home today, oops, so no pictures, but at least you have some idea of what we have done today.
As always we need and appreciate your constant prayers!

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! 

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.

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!