Greater Than...

... 2 months.

I was going to post something big at the 2 month mark, but I realized today that it's already the 21st, so I missed my chance. Time's fun when you're having flies! (I'm NOT actually eating flies, in case any of you think that being a missionary in Africa turns me into an insect eater).

My daily schedule is becoming more of a routine all the time, while at the same time, it becomes less and less a routine. I now have a better feeling for what it's like when the full-time missionaries talk about the various hats they where, filling in as needed. I might start out the day as a teacher planning a computer lesson, turn into a computer consultant at some point as I get drafted to answer questions about adding to the store inventory, become a student for my French class, back to being a teacher to when it's time for my class, switch to being the pied piper as my posse of 4 and 5 year olds follows me around, back to computer consultant when I find out the server's lost power and needs to be started up and configured again, athlete when I join the high schoolers for a game of soccer, musician when I'm asked to play guitar for the dorm's devotion time, writer when it comes time to update my blog.

Every once in a while, things like substitute 1st grade math teacher or phys ed instructor or amateur filmographer or chef or lifter of kids into trees get thrown into the mix. I'm enjoying my new-found busyness but trying to make sure I don't lose sight of opportunities to just sit at God's feet and hang out with Him for a while.

Some things you can pray about:

* Teachers for the next school year. With a few families going on furlough, there may be a lack of high school teachers. If people aren't able to fill in, the high school students will either have to be homeschooled (which isn't always a real possibility) or sent elsewhere, which makes it tough on both them and their parents.
* General health for everyone on the field here. We've recently seen a few bugs going around, and hot weather and being sick just don't seem to go well together. You can especially pray for my roommate Jen who's been fighting something for quite a while now and still isn't sure exactly what it is.
* A good close to the semester. School here starts at the beginning of August, so the first semester ends at the beginning of December, just in time for field conference. Pray that the students will continue to be motivated for the last couple of weeks, that projects and lesson plans and everything can wrap up well, and that students and teachers don't feel overwhelmed with work.
* The Landuma church and some cool opportunities to teach people about the gospel. Although the Landuma church is pretty small right now, I recently heard of a family in a village nearby that is so excited about the bible lessons, that they constantly can't wait to hear the next one. That's a rare thing here in Guinea as people often care too much about persecution that may come with being associated with believers, so pray that the excitement over the teaching continues and that they're able to get through all of the lessons.

As usual, thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts. I've had many things to praise God for since I've been here because of your diligent prayers! Drop me a line if there's anything you'd like me to pray for in return.

Guinea-style Thanksgiving

I'm losing track of what week this is as far as how long I've been here. I do know that in another 10 days, it'll have been 2 months. At times it's hard to believe it's almost been that long, and at other times, I feel like this is home.

We had a Thanksgiving celebration today at the mission center. Since we have some Canadians, some Americans, and some people who don't even have a Thanksgiving (Columbian, Brasilians, etc), we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving somewhere between the Canadian and American versions. It was a fun day starting with a football game in the morning, big meal at 2, dessert at 5, and some ultimate frisbee and volleyball (and/or a movie) to finish it off. Overall, it was a great day, and a good reminder of all the things I have to be thankful for.

This week was a bit of a different schedule due to Thanksgiving today (the school had the day off) and Day of Prayer on Monday. Actually, I'd like to invite you to participate in Day of Prayer next time -- it's the first Monday of every month. On that day, New Tribers all over the world get together and pray for various things going on wherever they are, other missionaries around the world, friends who have needs, or whatever comes up. It's a good time of getting together for some corporate prayer, and I think it's cool that they take some time out of the day to do it, although it meant I didn't have my computer class.

Computer class is going well. As I continue to teach Colton various things in Python, I keep finding that I have to scramble a bit to stay ahead. He catches on pretty quickly! Meanwhile, the Middle School boys are doing well with their typing, but they both seem to really enjoy programming in Scratch. I've been working with them on a game that involves a character at the bottom of the screen catching a character that repeatedly falls from the top of the screen. As the score goes up, the falling character goes faster, and if the one at the bottom doesn't catch him, they lose a life. It's great because there are all kinds of programming concepts that go into it, but at the same time, the students get excited because they're creating a computer game.

On another note, I heard this morning that there's propane in Guinea! So far, we were able to get 21 bottles filled down in Conakry, so now we just have to figure out how to get them back here to our village and how to get the rest filled, but I think everyone's relieved to be able to avoid permanently cooking over fires. That's definitely a praise for a lot of people -- God is good!