Happy Thanksgiving (tomorrow)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Nov 26, 2008

Wow – things have been busy around here but things are going good. Ray & I are in charge of the orphanage at the present time and are trying to keep up with the day to day operations such as going to the market at 5:30 am to feed the kids, making sure we have firewood to cook, taking kids to the hospital, and making sure they are in school, bathing and washing their clothes. There is a lot of work to do with all these kids, more than just feeding them and sending them to school but all that detail is for another blog entry.

Even if we are working harder and longer hours now than we were in the U.S., this work is rewarding. We love spending time with them and watching them play and work. They make things (cars, airplanes, dolls, dishes) out of clay and have been spending a lot of time in the mud making these things. The artistic creativity these kids have is unbelievable. They make unbelievable things out of things we see no value in. We give them our empty water bottles, prescription bottles, plastic bags, string – absolutely nothing goes to waste in this country. One of the smallest girls made a backpack out of an empty sugar sack and some string that she found. Back to the clay sculptures: one of the boys made an airplane that really looked like an airplane and the only time he had ever seen a plane was when we took the kids to the airport to meet Jamie and Erle. They spent about 45 minutes watching the runway and there was one plane sitting out there. They must have a great memory of what a plane looks like because this one they made looked really nice. I wish I could get pictures to post to this blog so you could see what I am talking about.

We have no idea what is going on in the outside world since we have no tv and probably won’t get one for a while. We really are ok with that – sometimes it’s better not to know what the stock market is doing or what violence has taken place somewhere in the world. When we go to the internet café, we don’t check CNN.com or MSNBC.com. We check our email and log off because by then, we have sat there for quite a while and need to get moving. However, it would be nice to be able to know what new movies are out. By the way, Jamie brought us “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and Erle left us a couple movies so we can now have movie night – just for us. Yeah! These movies are not kid friendly and they wouldn’t understand them.

Well, we’ve been here over 2 months now and since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I thought we’d talk about what we are thankful for. (I think they only have 2 turkeys in Malawi and they are live ones and very expensive so I think we’ll have chicken wings on Thursday.)

We are thankful that the Lord called us to this wonderful country and that we are able to feed the children, even in difficult times. We are thankful that the kids are healthy. We are thankful that we have a roof over our head, even without hot water or reliable water or electricity. No hot water, no water at times and blackouts make us appreciate more what these people have to go through to survive on a daily basis. It also makes us appreciate more those mornings when we wake up and we have water so we can at least get clean. (I was going to say “so we can take a hot shower” but then I laughed and remembered that’s not possible.) We are thankful that we have food to eat every day because there are many in this country, in the U.S. and around the world that are going to bed hungry tonight. We are thankful that we have great staff who prepare our meals (most of the time), clean our house, wash our car and wash our clothes. (Maybe I – Alice – am more thankful for this one than Ray is.)

We are thankful that we live in a country, and came from a country, that allows us freedom to worship the true God without fear of persecution. We are thankful as we watch the kids sing and dance to the Lord. Watching the intensity and happiness on their faces is enough to make anyone thankful that they can experience worship with the kids.

We are thankful that we are able to communicate with you through this blog. Even if the internet speed in this country is so slow and service is unreliable, we know eventually our messages will go through and we can communicate with the outside world. I can’t image being a missionary in a country like this pre laptop and internet days. Communication would be difficult, if at all and I am sure families waited and waited for any type of information. We at least can communicate easier.

We are thankful for all your prayers and support and that we have such wonderful friends and family who care about our work here.

Eat some turkey and pumpkin pie for us tomorrow and have a very Happy Thanksgiving, remembering all the things the Lord has bless you with.