The Rest of the Week

It was so exciting to start last week with RAIN!!!  It is always the most welcome of sounds/smells/sights!

The English team posted last Tuesday, what was supposed to have been their first day of classes, about the rain and the alternate activities of the day.

After their post they decided to walk over to see the largest water hole...

REWIND a week or so...
We had just had the opportunity to have the water hole dug out by a pastor/tractor driver who was in the area doing road work for the government.  He did in three days what would have taken a year to do by hand...

FAST-FORWARD back to last Tuesday...
I warned them that they would experience some serious mud but they were all for it!

 

The rest of last week went more according to plan.... soccer tournament and intensive English.

 

Every match ended in penalty shots!

The "Germany" coach, Andiose, carrying Is-my-love after she blocked a penalty shot.

 

The English Team flew out Friday morning after giving out the soccer championship awards.

On Saturday we received the Millar Bible College team!

 Official team photo

This team raised funds to finish the church construction and to paint the inside of the church!  The work is completed and the team will start painting once the paint arrives tomorrow.  This morning they went to buy trees and will start planting them in about an hour!

Open up the heavens!

We've waited for this day...we've gathered in your name...calling out to you!  Your glory like a fire, awakening desire, will burn our hearts with truth. You're the reason we're here, you're the reason we're singing!  Open up the heavens! We want to see you! Open up the flood gates! A mighty river flowing from your heart, filling every part of our praise!
"Open up the heavens" ~ by Meredith Andrews

Judy has blessed our team with the opportunity to share some of our experience today as a guest blogger. This has been quite a day at Lemuel!  There are 8 of us here on a team representing 4 different churches from Minnesota and Wisconsin.  What was supposed to be the first day of the "Lemuel Cup" soccer tournament and English camp at the school has turned into an exciting day for a very different reason.  As you saw on the blog post yesterday, the Lord sent rain!  We're so excited to share that he has opened up the heavens over the plateau again today!!  It started raining shortly before 6am this morning and it rained for the majority of the morning.

Where we are from, we're familiar with school being cancelled due to snow (and extreme cold a couple of days this year), but today school was cancelled for RAIN!  This was a little bittersweet since our team was so excited to work with the kids today, but we are mindful of the sovereignty of our God and His will.  It has allowed us to continue some of the other projects that we have been working on...in the rain :)  Some of the children have nearly an hour walk to school and some of the roads become impassable even on foot, especially after a second day of rain.  So, English and the Lemuel Cup will have to wait until tomorrow.  Unless...(insert your prayer here)!

It has literally been a year since the last significant rainfall, so the excitement is evident in the community and the praise is sweet!  We have been praying hard for Him to send the rain, as I'm sure that most of you have been.  The Lord has shown us his power and glory in a way that is difficult to put into words.  We are rejoicing today and standing on the promises of our God with the reminder that His mercy is abundant.  "He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven..." Acts 14:17

RAIN!!!

Well, it finally happened!  We got rain this morning!  

PRAISE OUR RISEN SAVIOR!!!

Ani dancing in the rain puddles :)

WATER!!!

As any of you who got our most recent emails know (if you didn't get the emails sign up at right or click here) it has been incredibly dry here.  Well, it still is, no rain still... BUT!!!  Today I was doing some work a the computer when Wilda called me somewhat urgently to come see something.  I went outside and...

Can you see it???!  WATER had burst into the ravine that runs below our property!  It had been raining much of the day in the mountains north of us and the rain had filled the ravines and flowed down toward us.  It does not solve all of our problems but it sure does alleviate some of them!  This ravine will water gardens, and the livestock will have a place to drink at least for a little while.  The land is so dry it will soon soak all of this water up.  

I quickly called Manis, who was over at the Lemuel campus, and then Ani and I decided to go take a closer look.  She was SO excited to see so much water...

 

 As I was taking pictures the pickup pulled up near me.  Four very excited guys jumped out and started setting up the trash pump so that they could pump water from the ravine into Manis' garden.

Looking at our house from the ravine. 

Goats starting to gather on the other side of the ravine.

Some of our school kids (yellow shirts to the right on the picture) live up past the ravine and are stuck on our side until the water recedes.  More guys gathered to set up the trash pump...

Water finally arriving in the garden!!!

 Manis, Mezou, Lucson, and Ani watching the water pour into the garden and directing the guys inside as to where to dig trenches. 

Please praise God with us for His provision as we continue to wait for rain!