Emotional Night

Tonight was the last night of my home group/bible study with these three youth kids. Peter (on the left), Suama (Peter's twin sister in the middle) and Josh (on the right) have been coming over once a week for the last five months or so to talk about what was spoken on Sunday at church. The main purpose was to encourage them to be able to relate the sermon to the bible specifically and to talk about real life application. We have had some amazing conversations and some disagreements as well. These three kids are so close to my heart and we have a real deep connection that I know comes from our shared love for Christ. They are amazing teenagers who really love and want to serve the Lord. They truly seek Him and have a personal relationship with Him. As this was our last night, I gave them each special gifts along with a poster for each of them with pictures of us, a bible verse, some memories and a note. There were tears and hugs. I love thiese kids with all my heart. They are going to do amazing things as adults seeing the amazing things they are doing now!

Josh's gift was a coffee cup and coffee. Josh (or Peter) makes me coffee almost every day. He makes it better than I do. We sit sometimes in the morning when he comes to take care of the garden and have coffee together. He is the oldest of the three and is a blessing.

Tea or coffee is a common theme with this family so Suama also recieved her regular coffee cup. I also gave her one of her favorite romantic movie, The Prince and Me. She is a romantic at heart and we share a love for reading and cheesy girl movies. She is a beautiful girl both inside and out. I think we are kindred spirits.

Peter, Oh Peter! Peter drives me crazy but I miss him when he is gone. He has so much joy and is so funny and fun to be around. We are never short on laughter with Peter. He know the bible so well it is amazing. I gave Peter a chess set because we are chess buddies. He is the only youth I play with. He usually beats me although I insist I am either distracted or letting him win. I think I might miss Peter the most.


I love these guys!

My Dream Team

These three; Julinda, Timo and Emilie, are my dream team when exam and report cards come around. They will stay at school and help me until past six at night. Sometimes they just keep me company and sometimes they are really helpful. Last week they sorted and stapled 630 exams in one afternoon. There is no way that I would have been able to do it alone. I was super stoked to have them. They won't leave me at the school alone at night and help me enormously! These three are amazing!

My Helper

This is Timo. He is also one of my constant companions. Timo loves to help me with everything. He stays with me when I stay after school. He helps me carry all my things. He is one of the only ones allowed to go in my class without me to get things. He is so sweet even though he thinks he is so "cool." I am pretty sure he has a little crush on me. He is one of my oldest learners at 17 years old. I adore Timo even when he drives me crazy. And bless his heart, he tries so hard in class but rarely "gets it!" He really really wants to understand but he struggles so much. I have worked with him for two years and there has been some good progress, even if it has been small. Timo definately has a special place in my heart!

My Child

This is Emily whose nickname in my class is "my child." She is with me all the time! I adore here. She loves to play with my hair and fixes it just about every day. She is so funny and cracks me up. The best thing is she keeps me company after school. Anytime I am staying after school, she comes and hangs out, chats, fixes my hair, or looks at books. Just whatever. This is great during exam time as I am at the school sometimes after school for six or seven hours getting ready for the exams or typing report cards. I love the company and the help when I need it. Emilie is a sweet, smart and special girl.

Learners Day

I really wanted my grade 7 to work hard this term, harder than the last two terms and so I gave them an incentive. If they turned in at least 60 out of the 64 assignments I gave in my three classes, on time and completed, they earned lunch and a movie at my house. A big part of this is that these learners are the ones who have tried so hard this term. There are about seven boys in my class that are a continual problem and disturb my teaching and the ability for the other kids to learn. I spend a lot of time and energy with those boys. So...the kids below also need attention and recognition for their hard work since I spend so much time with the 'naughty' kids. 19 out of my 36 learners made it to the 60 assignments or more party. About seven made it close, within about 5 assignments but not quite. I am so proud of them. We had a great time at my house. The girls danced and the boys played on the tree house. We laughed a lot and took pictures, as you can see below. We had a good lunch of brotchen, meat, chips, biscuits and juice. Then we crowded into my living room to watch "Dr. Dolittle 3." They were great and so fun to hang out with. I think they enjoyed the time as well.

We managed to get everyone in the room. There have been countless movie nights with kids crowded into the small sitting room space. 20 of us this time!

There were nearly twic as many girls as boys. The boys do extremely well in classes where half the boys dodge school or sleep in class or get sent out for disruption. These seven boys work their bums off and deserved every minute of the afternoon.

Silly girls!

Enjoying lunch in the backyard.

Dancing in the backyard

More Dancing

My 15 - 17 year old grade 7 boys playing with the legos in my backyard.

Cooking Fun

My neighbor Danke came over to my house the other night and wanted me to make two cakes for the next day for her daughters birthday. And she wanted to do it with me to learn how. So we had a cooking lesson. She is great and my favorite neighbor and a good friend.

Pumpkin Pie

We celebrated Thanksgiving a few weeks early with some other missionaries in a town north of ours. We had chicken instead of turkey and but of course we had pumpkin pie. But I made it with real pumpkin and home made pie crust. And I have to say, if you look at the finished pie crust before the filling, it looks amazing!

Soup Kitchen

Our school serves almost 700 kids daily with a hot morning meal of porridge and sometimes soup. The school kids eat first and then the neighborhood small kids and ones who can't afford school. They are absolutely precious. Check out Linda with the cutest triplets ever.

Top Three

It is the end of the term so the top three learners (students) in my class got a special treat. I took them in a taxi to the closest town (40 minutes away) to a resteraunt called Wimpy's (it is like Dennys). They were allowed to pick anything they wanted. Check out a few pictures down, their burgers where enormous!

The three to go were Edith (first picture), who was the only one to finish all her food. The third picture is Veronica. And after her is Liswani. The passing percent in Namibia is 29%. These three had 88%, 895 and 92%. I am really proud of them. We had a great trip.

Sky Diving

The one thing I wanted to do in Namibia more than anything was sky dive over the desert and I was able to do that. I jumped tandem from ten thousand feet over the Namib Desert and the Atlantic ocean. I don't even have words to describe how incredible it was. The minute I hit the ground I wanted to go again. It totally rocked!

Signing the "if I die I won't sue you" paper!

Yea, a pink jumpsuit!

There is absolutely nothing flattering about sky diving outfits. But who cares, I am jumping out of an airplane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!