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

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!!

On the morning of the third day.

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. When they entered they did not find the body of Jesus.
While they were perplexed about this, two men suddenly appeared and stood next to them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. The men said to them: “Why do you seek the living One amongst the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands on sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise again?”
The women then remembered His words.
                                                           Luke 24: 1-8

They left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, they ran to go and report to His disciples. Jesus met them on the way, they fell down and worshiped Him. Jesus said to them: “Do not be afraid, take my word to my brothers in Galilee, there they will see me.”
                                                         Matthew 28: 8-10

“And surely I am with you always even to the end of the age.”
                                                         Matthew 28:20

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!

Update…

Sorry my dear blog readers for neglecting to update for so many days. We have been busy, it is the end of the school term. We have been rushing to get grades in and trying to get all the admin stuff wrapped up.
Mark made it to Windhoek on Saturday morning, we picked him up and the last four days have been a lot of fun. I think I was quite nervous about him coming to visit, but it was for nothing! It has been great getting to know him better. It seems like we have been laughing non-stop, and we have been able to get his insight and guidance on many issues. Mark has met everyone at school now (except the Hunters, they are in the USA on a support raising trip,) and he has had to opportunity to sit in on some of the classes, and he shared in the discipleship class today. The kids seemed really interested in hearing about the work that Mark has done, and continues to do, in Azerbaijan. We look forward to showing him more of Namibia!
Tonight Sara’s parents made it here, they are visiting the Wrights for a few weeks. It was surreal to see them here. Pray for them!

We have also been busy with figuring out a new support raising strategy. We have unfortunately lost over $500 in monthly support in the last few weeks. With the extra medical bills this loss in funds has caused us some stress. We are now well below the minimum needed funds. So, if you are able to please consider joining our team by supporting the work in Namibia financially. Also if you are a church goer, please consider asking your church to get on board. We of course will be more than willing to send any info to you and are always here to answer any questions that you may have. Be sure to check out our website on more info on how you can get involved!

I will have better update in the next few days, I hope this holds you over until then 🙂

Good things.

Follow this link and read about a dear friend. God always knows exactly what we need to hear, and when we need to hear it. A great thing about this life that we live is that there are these times when God surprises us with relationships that will alst forever, and words that will bless us more than the person saying them will ever know. This is one of those times.

So many gifts.

Last week was a whirlwind week. After Maria passed away we were afraid that she may have menigcoccal meningitis, which is extremely contagious. The doctors were unable to tell us exactly what bug had killed her so it was a nerve wracking time. We were watching the kids like hawks, and all of a sudden all sorts of weird things started to happen. Kids were fainting and having nose bleeds that wouldn’t stop, kids were vomiting and complaining of blinding headaches. Needless to say several hours were spent with kids at the emergency room. Fortunately they were all caused bu lesser infections! I was sent home twice and then told to stay home until we knew what was going on. (I am allergic to almost all antibiotics, there would be no treatment for me if I were to get meningitis.)
I stayed home most of the week, I was able to get caught up on some grading and spring cleaning that needed to be done. Today it does seem like the students are healthier! So hopefully I won’t get sent home today 🙂

Remember that you can join in on the “one thousand gifts” Monday at any point. It has been a great time to reflect on the past week and see the things that God has given!

#46 The art supplies brought by the teams that have visited in the last month. Since teaching the art class I have had to use all the creativity I can muster to come up with art projects using the art supplies that are here. There have been two teams in the last month, and both have showed up here with loads of crayons, paper, beads, paint, colored pencils, and a bunch of other stuff. I love the smell of new stationary!

#47 Love and support from friends and family. My uncle passed away this week. I have not had much contact with my family since hearing about his passing, but there has been much encouragement and love from people all over the world. Thank you dearly for covering us in prayer and keeping us in your thoughts in these past few weeks.

#48 The weather is beginning to cool down, don’t tell anyone, but I love the winter here! I am quite excited about working out in the cooler weather. To update on my journey to a healthier self I have lost 17.5 pounds as of this morning! David ordered some running shoes from America, Mark is bringing them on Saturday and when we get paid this month we will be getting a gym membership!

#49 This morning David and I read 1Corinthians 15. I encourage you to go and read it if you feel like you are facing a giant. In this passage Paul encourages the church in Corinth to do their work for the Lord with all of their hearts.
Paul writes in verse 58 : “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 
I cannot express how encouraging this verse is. The rest of the chapter talks about death not having a sting, and the resurrection that we have to look forward to. So remember today to give yourself fully to the work that God has given you, IT IS NOT IN VAIN!

Much love!

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!