The week has overall been good - we are adjusting to our new addition of 15 high school boys. They seem to be getting used to us and we are getting used to and really enjoying them. Our biggest challenge and stressor is our dealings with our national workers. Our inability to communicate well - continues to stretch and challenge us. We are still trying to settle in a routine, but we are confident it will come in time.

On a different note, every Tuesday we have a day off. Today we went scuba diving with our supervisor Cal. It was an amazing opportunity to see God's creation up close and personal. Once we got balanced out and breathing, we were able to explore a ship wreck. There were so many cool fish and shells.

Our kids are doing well. They really like their teachers and are doing well in their classes so far. Life is always bustling at the school, and it usually never lacks for activities. We (Ron, Chris, Zach and Luke) are going to be playing handball (think ultimate frisbee with a small dodgeball) and Faith is going to try jr. basketball. She is not convinced of her ability or desire to play, but she is willing to give it a try. Faith loves having all of these big brothers.

Thanks to Northwest Baptist Church and the Kapus family for our recent care package! We love hearing from you and all of our goodies. Thanks for all of your love and support of our family.

Life as we know it...

We survived our first partial week of school. Each day was a little easier than the day before. The whole school has had major issues with a storm that came through. Many dorms lost computers, phones, had water damage and many hassles. We lost our phones. So it hasn't gone as smoothly as we had hoped, but it hasn't scared us off! The guys in the dorm are great and we know that this is exactly where we are supposed to be! It is hard to feel so inadequate much of the time. Language has been kicked into high gear with so much communication needed on a minute by minute basis. It is hard when you are normally a fairly competent person, but when you try to communicate you feel like a goof! Our staff is very gracious and patient, but they do look at me like I have 3 heads sometimes. But all in all it is going well, with many funny embarrassing things to come! Below is a slideshow from our time before starting the dorm. We went to a ministry called Malika Monkeys to buy a drum and hang out with the lady who runs the ministry to help street boys learn a trade. We also went to Snake Island to rock climb and snorkel. It was so beautiful and truly showed God's creation. Enjoy!

Some pics from July

We went to a village and helped cooked lunch - here are some pics of the day:

Here is the fish frying

We are cutting up the onions

Here is the main lady who cooked

We were rolling up little balls of ground fish

Here is the finished product

Sunset on the coast

Luke with a lizard he caught

These pics were from a restaurant where we ate with the team of volunteers

We have 3 days until the boys start arriving. Wow, has time flown by. We are about 95% ready and just have to wait on others for the other 5%. We are excited, anxious, nervous and scared to admit ready for this next step of the journey. This is what we have been preparing and waiting for, for the past 2 years. We probably have no clue of what we are in for, but we can't wait. We are excited to be able to build relationships with the guys in our dorm. We have been busy with our national workers - oh what a humbling experience. It has been hard with communicating. We have 3 workers and 2 of them want us to speak in Wolof and the other in French, so some days have been challenging. One of the workers giggle every time we talk. So we have been doing a lot of charades and pointing. But so far we survived our first week and nobobdy has quit. I have ordered my first order of food and have planned our first week of meals. Pray that I have ordered enough or I will be fixing a bunch of peanut butter and jelly!

Sorry it has been so long since our last post, I hope to be a bit more consistent. Thanks for sticking with us and continuing to read our blog and for praying for us and our ministry.

We are almost done the apartment - we need to hang a few more things on the walls and organize a bit more, but it definitely feels like home!