The first few weeks

On Wednesday we will have been here for four weeks.  Unbelievable.

team getting ready to serve food after children's church

KC Live (Kid's Central Live) Kid's church at Del Cramer Campus

We have stayed quite busy!  There are many things to do and we are still feeling out where we fit best.  I have been happy to spend most of my time working in the Lethabo (say Luh-tah-bo) Sewing and Training Center where I love spending time with the four employees, Hilda, Maria, Francina and Helen.  I develop patterns for new products and help them with cutting and pressing so they are free to sew.  Many times I take Stella with me.  I either strap her onto my back where she hangs out and eventually falls asleep, or put her on a blanket on the floor where she sits and plays with her toys and with Privilege, Hilda's 16 month old daughter.  If Matt is around, he helps out with Stella so I can have more uninterrupted work time.  Stella does quite well playing by herself for 15-20 minutes at a time, but once she realizes no one is giving her their undivided attention, she starts to fuss!

Stella and Privilege playing at the sewing center

Matt is working on the new church plant.  It's a huge job and it's slow starting, but we are trying to remind ourselves that these things don't happen overnight!  It's just tempting to want to do everything right now!  We are starting small with cell groups and prayer groups and the plan is to build a fence on the property along with toilets to begin with.  First we must finalize the lease with the landowner, which hopefully will take place next week.

We have spent a lot of time with the short term teams.  There have been two so far.  It's been a blessing to get to know them and spend time with them.  This week I was able to go on the optical outreach and assist.  It was a wonderful day.  Optical outreach takes place in one of the villages where people have never had their eyes examined and may not be able to see well at all.  We bring hundreds of pairs of distance and reading glasses to give away.  Then each person comes in, gets a prescription card, and waits in line.  The mission teams pair up and talk to the people, pray with them and give an eye exam.  I didn't get to give eye exams because Stella was with me, but I was able to give out glasses.  The people would come to me with their prescription and I would try glasses on them to see if the prescription was correct.  It's amazing how much body language and expression can tell you about what they're seeing.  Sometimes I'd give them a certain power pair to try on and they would say, "yeah, it's okay" so I knew it could be better.  I'd go with a slightly higher power and they'd try it on and a huge smile would appear and they'd say, "this is perfect!"  It was a lot of fun and I met many wonderful people.  Stella was a big hit and everyone was taking their picture with her with their cell phones.  Everyone always wants their photos taken with her!  I didn't even have her most of the day because from the moment we walked in the door, the aunties swept her out of my arms and passed her around, fussing over her and loving on her.  The optical outreach was an amazing time and it was so much fun to see people get the gift of clear vision!

Optical outreach

Stella is doing great.  She is hitting milestones every day it seems.  She sits up unassisted really well and moves around a lot.  She still tips backwards sometimes so we keep a pillow behind her.  Otherwise she catches herself or goes from a sitting position to her belly.  She is ALMOST ready to start crawling, she just hasn't quite figured it out yet.  I'm looking forward to her being a bit more mobile, because she gets frustrated in one spot after awhile, although that means I'll have to keep the floor cleaner...  She is eating solid foods like a champ.  She still prefers milk, but is a good eater.  She has had rice cereal, avocado, banana, yams, apples and pumpkin.  Tomorrow we're introducing papaya.  We also started giving her water in a sippy cup but at this point she'd rather chew on it than drink out of it.  She can also stand up holding onto a chair leg now, which is pretty cool.  She loves to walk around if you hold her hands and takes these big exaggerated steps.  She smiles constantly and charms the pants off everyone.  She is such a joy and we couldn't be happier.  

Stella with Doc and Mama Beth at optical outreach

God has been so good to us.  We are so happy that he called us here.