day two on the field

We had ANOTHER great day on the field today. We had a dust storm this morning on the way which you can clearly see in some of the photos and video from today (yes, I said VIDEO - YAY)!! But dust storms are good news for TWO reasons.....#1 it takes WIND to make a dust storm, so we had a NICE breeze today and #2 dust storms are usually followed by RAIN which they have not had here in nine days (and it's rainy season). Hopefully in the next day or so it will rain which will make the temperatures even that much more cool. Mark made the comment today, "tell whoever it is back home that's praying for the weather here to KEEP PRAYING even after you get back!"

My team painted first this morning and the clinic is actually beginning to look white instead of dirty brown!! It was also baby vaccination day at the clinic so there were several mothers with their babies there. Molly, Breanna and Megan had a hayday holding them and one of the African women insisted that Paul hold one too!! It was too precious. Doug's group went down to the village and you can see that the children were just as excited to see them today as yesterday. They followed them around all day.

This morning we talked about making a point to build some relationships with folks before we began just sharing our stories about Jesus. We have learned that the African culture is very much relationship-driven (as opposed to our American task-driven nature) and although yesterday went well and we were able to share the gospel a NUMBER of times, we were met with much indifference and even some opposition. Today was a little better. We made a point to TALK to the people first - to ask about their families and homes and to be interested in their way of life before we got to the good news about Jesus.

Please continue to pray for our health; some of our girls are starting to feel a little off; nothing to be worried about, but every uncomfortable feeling is maximized in the heat. We forced one of them to come back about halfway today because she felt hungry, but didn't want to eat anything - everything sounded yucky. I know that sounds minor, but we want to make sure they are 100% when they are out. I brought her back to the missionary house and she is reading and journaling - the air conditioning is already helping. So just continue to keep us in your prayers. Everyone else is HEALTHY and happy today so that is a blessing!!

Here is a video of the kids as Doug's group is leaving the village. They are INSIDE the bush taxi. They felt like ROCKSTARS!! (I'll post more photos a little later.)