Today

Day 4 and I am taking a break inside - this is the first full day that we've had no rain, but I can feel it coming. We've awoken the past two mornings to light drizzle, and my toes have been as cold as melting ice cubes each morning. My allergies have kicked in a bit, but it's an absolute delight each and every day.

Smiles. It's the children's smiles that bring the sunshine to the dreary clouds. When I finally get a name right, and then see the look on their face when they realize that I know them personally, stars shine forth from the whites of their eyes, and my heart is warmed just the same, knowing that we share the Father, and He loves each one of us so beautifully.

We spent all day yesterday painting! We did the girls' dormitory in the morning, and then we created a masterpiece in the play room - starting with faded teal blue walls, we painted them all different colors of dark blue, sky blue, and kelly green. Tomorrow after it dries, we'll take the toddlers in and dip their hands in paint and do baby Sudanese handprints all over the wall. Rhonda is going to paint some clouds and some grass too - she is most definitely our creative one, while Natasha is the comic relief. It's been a little contest to see how many times we could make Lance laugh, and she is doing pretty well!

While we were painting the play room, all the kids would just stand at the door and watch. Samuel, Joseph, Christopher, Obadiah, Jane, Grace, Miriam...SO MANY children! They started repeating everything that we said, and once when I was on the ladder, I saw (what I thought was) a very large spider (they laughed at me), and I let out quite a shrill. Immediately following my shrill were six younger boys making the exact same noise! It was quite a laugh for all of us.

This morning while we were painting Sunday (little girl, not the day) came to play with me. We had such fun running around the dormitory and cleaning up the drips that Natasha and Rhonda made. Tash and Rhonda told me that it looks like I'm getting out of my box, as I usually have a child attached to me at all points of the day. Also this morning, I went with Lilly to town to the market. WHAT an EXPERIENCE.

Dirt roads, horns honking...everyone looking down on the (no idea how to spell this, so I'll type it phoenetically) kah-waw-juh. (white person / foreigner) We walked through the market and we saw all sorts of vegetables with lots of people yelling at me in Arabic to come shop and buy their vegetables and lentils that were sitting so comfortably on the burlap sacks on the hard red dirt. Next came the meat market. Whoa. Lots of flies, but "it's okay after it's cooked" (per Lilly). I made the mistake of pointing at the meat, and the man behind the counter (one of many) decided that he needed to talk to me. Needless to say, we quickly scurried away.

Then after we got back to the compound, Lance took Rhonda, Natasha and I to a small textiles store just down the road. We bought to many wonderful things!! I exchanged some shillings with Lilly, and we picked up all kinds of the most beautiful creations. Then Lance drove us over to Samaritan's Purse's logistical headquarters for Sudan. They are reconstructing churches that were torn down during the war - quite a sight and quite a project they have going.

Lastly, the rest of our team should be headed over very soon. Their conference is over, so we will now have to share the guest house with FOUR other women. Oh my!! As for prayer, pray for health. Lance has come down with malaria but is doing better, and Mama is afraid that she is getting typhoid. Several of the kids have malaria and typhoid - but not to worry - we're taking all of our medication!! I also was carrying a bag of bloody meat in it today and scratched my leg on the bag. I'm pretty sure that I didn't get any cow blood (gross!) in the cut, but we're cleaning it three times a day just to be sure. All of the cattle around here have syphilis. I'm actually on my way to clean it when I sign off here.

On a more positive note, none of us have had any stomach issues, which is very common around here. Praise the Lord for that!! We're all doing very well in that area, to say the least. :)

Thanks to ALL of you who have sent comments on this blog and emails too! (yes, I am getting emails despite the "out of office" response) The encouragement is so wonderful and I have been sharing it all with the team. Please keep up the prayers, as we wouldn't be surviving without them. Yesterday we found out that the LRA had gone right by the compound the night before, but they didn't stop and didn't hurt anyone. We were VERY confident that it was only because of all your prayers.

I am now off to finish the painting job and play with a few of the kids before the rest of the team gets here. Hope to hear from you all soon - and see you soon too! Blessings and prayers to each and every one of you...