I miss you all

I know this blog is to tell you all about what goes on here in Guyana. Part of life here involves missing people at home. I love what we're doing, I would not choose to remove myself from these surroundings prematurely and I'm excited to continue and finish the present course. Buuut, being away endears those I love to me all the more.

I miss Daniel all the time. I get to marry him in August though, so I'm pretty excited about that. That sentence is really weak. I can't really put in words how happy and excited (along with a ton of other emotions) I am for that day. Yet I'm happy that day is over six months away at the same time. He's been such an encouragement to me while I've been here, I'm amazed at his love for me, and I love seeing (or hearing of) him seeking God for strength. The stories of what God is doing in Eau Claire (through Eau Claire Gospel Centre, the members, pastor Dan, and Daniel) is so inspiring and encouraging to me. Oh Daniel, I miss you. Thank you for loving me 3,000 miles away. You have been so good for me, even while I've been here, you probably can't know how thankful I am for you. I'm seeing how powerful human love really can be through loving you. It's awesome. God is awesome. He made it all.

I miss my mom. I miss her wisdom, strength, love, our chats and fellowship, and just watching her do. She's an amazing woman and I want to be like her in so many ways. It's good for me to think back and really reflect on why I love people and miss them. I miss her a lot. I guess it's good for us, Mom, my being away that is. I will be moving three months after my return. Those will be a precious three months and I'm happy I'll have them with you and all my family.

Dad, I miss you! I was so excited to hear your voice the other night. Thank you for taking time to talk to me, e-mail, even write a real letter. It's so good for me, thank you for challenging me the way you did the other night on skype. I don't even know if you realized that I felt challenged. I love you so much.

Let's see...who else do I miss. I guess I'll just do some names at this point, if I did a short paragraph for every person I miss this thing would go way too long and I wouldn't be accomplishing my work that is cut out for me here! This list won't have any order, don't be offended if you're not first, or even if you're not on the list. Daniel, Dana, Chet, Nicole, Troy, Shane, Bryce, Owen, Lisa, Gabe, (did I mention Daniel?), Papa, Grandma, Mary, Uncle Marty, Aunt Kelly, Wendy, Light, Mendo, Priscilla, Marty, ummm...Daniel, Aunt Pat, Zachary, Uncle Kevin, Whitney, David, Mark, Sean, Brett, Joey, Jamie, Seth, Kent, Neil, Kirk, Lauren, DANIEL. I know there are more people, especially people I can think of that I know I would probably be missing if we had a deeper relationship. I am excited for the prospect of establishing some of those relationships upon my return and even somewhat while I'm here in Guyana. I especially think of people in Eau Claire through that last sentence. These people I specifically think of are Kevin and Anna, Keith and Amanda, Katie, Mom Kleven, Micah, Maria, Josiah, Adam, Pastor Dan and his family, the Andersons, Amanda, the other Amanda, and maybe there's even another Amanda?, all of the children!, and so many other people who I have faces but forgotten names! I think there's a Ruby...but I can't quite remember. Anyway, I've spent enough time on this post now.

You all know now, in one not-so-personal blog post, I love you!

"For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:8

Centre Part 2

By the way, everything posted upside down, so if you want, start at the bottom and work your way up. Thanks! Sorry.

Oh these faces are so precious to me as well. These are some of the OVC children (orphans, and vulnerable children) and they come from very sad situations. The boy that is laughing asked me yesterday if when I go back to the states, when I come back, if I can bring him a bite of chocolate. He wants to taste chocolate from the states. These children LOVE it when Ellen and I play with them, and love attention. This is Anisia, James, and Thakur. Thakur is holding the big stack of valentines from the class. They will give them out on Friday.

Thakur and Rebecca, who is one of the staff at the Centre. She works in the office doing accounting. This is Rovendra and me.

This is my "adopted" boy from the remedial class, his name is Rovendra. He reminds me so much of Brett. I told him to show me his valentine and smile, and he only did one of those things as you can see.

This is Ellen helping one of the boys figure out what he's doing with his valentine.

This is the arts and crafts class we taught together on Tuesday as well. The boy looking right at the camera on the left is Carlos, a boy that loves Ellen (me too, but I don't see him as much) and ALWAYS wants to share his snack when they have a snack break.

James is sitting down to the right of Carlos, and Hemdath is in the green with a tie. James asked Hemdath to help him make me a valentine, but he doesn't want me to know. He asked me what kind of valentine I like and kept covering it when I would walk over to help one of the other students at the table. I love these kids.

This was our joint arts and crafts class on Tuesday. Ellen and I decided to join our remedial classes so that everyone could make valentines together. We are having a valentine party on Friday, and joining the classes again for that. This is the Educare sewing program. They do all of their sewing in this room, and the lady in the green is one of their instructors. They are currently making purple dresses for Graduation, which is on March 19th.

These are some of the sewing/garment making girls looking at patterns. The one sitting down looking at the book is Nataley, the one who has talked with me quite a bit, and expressed interest in the gospel. She has been coming to the #69 mission service.

This is the Educare Electrical program, instructed by Brother Terry. He also is the pastor at Roadside Baptist Church.

Here is a shot from farther back of the class. There are a lot of boys in this program. They range in age from 14-18.

Centre

This smile is one that both Ellen and I love. Vickey was in Ellen's remedial class, and got moved up into mine. He is a somewhat quiet boy, until you start talking to him, then he opens up. He is very artistic, and such a nice guy.

These are some of my students.

The guy in the front is Rovendra.

He's my friend who reminds me

of Brett so much.

Devendra is to the far left who

is laughing. Ronica is right behind Rovendra, and in Rovendra's row,

the 2nd boy to the last, his name

is Shaun. They are fun kids.

This is my group of remedial students. They are being taught by the guy in the green shirt, Andrew, in the front. Ellen's class is directly behind that green chalk board, so their teacher is using the other side of the chalk board to teach them.

This picture was trying to depict and capture the upstairs classrooms that are divided by that net/wood gate thingy. It is by no means sound-proof, so when I'm ranting about how God hates lying, pretty much any of the kids can hear, and many times they listen from the classrooms on the other side. Sometimes it is really annoying because the noise level is so high. This is again, Ellen's remedial class.

This is one of the remedial classes, the one that Ellen usually helps with. They have recently had quite a few more students added, so the class size has grown to over 20.

This is the hallway/stairs that you go through heading upstairs where all of the remedial classes are held. The upstairs is the "schoolroom". To the right of this picture is the library, you can see the doorway, and to the left would be the computer lab.

This is the library. Ellen and I are supposed to be doing a bit of work in here getting rid of a bunch of books, but we haven't gotten started on that yet. The table in the middle-right of the picture is where some people will "hang out" after class, studying, typing, reading, etc.

Varcia is teaching the electrical boys computer class here.

This is another view from the computer room. Can you find Ellen? She's using the one computer that we're allowed to use there that has internet that works somewhat fast. The others are very unreliable and slow. p.s. my waterbottle is on the table. With my purse, and other items. That has kind of become my "dump station" where I drop off all of the items I am not currently using.

This is the computer room at the Centre, this shelf is where they store all of their supplies. Varcia is wearing the green, and is in charge of all of the supplies. She teaches computer classes as well.

This is Anisia with Ellen after Thakur got off the Tapir. She is a very sweet girl and is the one that asked me to tell her what I know about Jesus. I posted about the questions my students asked me that touched me in an assignment I gave them, and hers was the last.

These boys are also from the Centre and were in the Tapir. Their names are from left to right, Clinton and Winston. Clinton is in my Remedial class, and Winston is an electrical student.
Clinton is a very good cricket player and we learned on the Tapir ride that he plays every day Monday through Friday for 2 hours on an organized team. He is a very sweet boy. Winston loves to play basketball at the Centre with the boys after class.

This is me with Ms. Parboty in the same Tapir. She is one of the Remedial teachers. She teaches the class that I teach and work with sometimes. They are the older remedial kids. p.s. sorry I look sick- I was. I had a fever and was dizzy and aching. p.p.s. see my ring? uh huh. It's been keeping them away.

These are two of the students from the Centre that we happened to catch a tapir home with. Their names are Anesia (pronounced Anisa) and Thakur. I have talked about Thakur in the past.

AAAHHHH!! AUNT CINDY can you please help with the formatting of this post? I don't understand what's going on, and I don't have time to sit and figure it out. Thanks!

Feeling better

I am doing really well today and Katie has pretty much been herself too. Yesterday she really didn't look too good. We got home and she decided to "take a nap" around 4:30. That nap lasted approximately 14 hours. I think we were both hit with some sort of virus, and it's pretty much subsiding. There are still some minor digestion problems for me, larger digestion problems for Katie, but not nearly as bad as it was. I'm trying to eat the right things that won't aggravate my stomach, and Katie and I started taking some things to cleanse our digestive tracts.

I appreciate those who have been concerned for us and praying. Now if we could just get back to actually doing and feeling productive, I'd be grateful. We did have craft time with the remedial students today (we made valentines) and it was enjoyable. We also have other things to plan and study for for the remainder of the week and into next week/month.

I don't have much else to update on, life doesn't feel too spectacular right now, I guess. I'm happy Christ can use us in our weakness and frailties as well as when we really feel strong and capable.

Oh, I do have some good news! I'm pretty sure my lice is eradicated, so for that I'm extremely thankful. It really wasn't terribly difficult to get rid of. My mom had some pretty swell advice though.

Time to carry on with the rest of my afternoon. I need to go make up some posters and do some other studying with Katie for our classes later this week.

You never know what you'll find in a bush..

While at a birthday party, Ellen noticed a spider that was living in one of the bushes. When she told me to come look at it, I thought it was a toy, but apparently, it's real. This is the other side of the "masked spider" (as I named it)

It looks like it has a monster face! Let's just say I zoomed in to 16 to take this picture, so I was nowhere near it.

Sick

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged, but I haven't had anything worth saying lately, so I decided to stay off.

However, I would like to request prayer tonight because Ellen is not doing well. She went on a two-day fast, and ever since then she has not been herself. She feels really weird and sick, and is so tired. I'm hoping it is her body's way of cleaning everything out from her fast, but tonight she was acting really weird and said her brain wasn't feeling normal. I felt her, and I think she has a fever, so I'm not sure what's going on, it may just be a virus, but if you all could pray for her, I would appreciate it. She might stay home from church tomorrow so she can sleep, because she's exhausted. She has no energy, and sleep might help that.

Also, we went somewhere today and ate food and both of us have stomach pain and diarrhea from it. The joys of life here:) I know this should pass, as it has in the past.

Thank you so much for the prayers lifted up on our behalves. God is taking care of us, and protecting us from so many things we probably don't even know about. We continue to be busy and don't seem to have enough time to get everything done. I guess we create some of the things to do, like tonight I just spent and hour decorating a cake for Moti, because it was his birthday today. Oh well, I think our extra things allow us to develop closer relationships with the people here.

We have had some great times talking with students at the Centre about their souls, and two in particular are very interested. Their names are Natalie and
Thakur. Thakur has come to church the past two Sundays, and told Ellen and I this past Friday that he will see us Sunday at church. He shows an unusual interest whenever we talk about the Bible, or being a Christian.

Natalie has gone through some "normal" teenager struggles with boyfriends, friends, and family. I have talked with her and dealt with many of the school related issues with her and the other involved people, and each time we end up talking about how the only way to solve all of these problems is through a relationship with Jesus Christ, and her heart being at peace with him. She has been coming to our mission services for two weeks, and she continues to discuss her concerns with me. Thursday night I sat and talked to her after the mission service for probably 20 minutes just reading through John 1. I explained it verse by verse, because she is overwhelmed with the words and doesn't understand many of the phrases. She was attentive the whole time, and I am praying God is working in her heart.

These are just a couple of the people that we deal with here. There are believers that we have been able to fellowship with as well, such as Dian, who is our housekeeper. She loves to spend time around us because we are believers. None of her family are Christians, and she seems to thrive off of spending time with Ellen and I. We are growing to love her dearly, and want to bring her home with us(She's a HARD worker). She goes to market with us on Saturdays, and we spend time talking about many things, she kind of watches out for us, and lets us know the right way to do things here.

I hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow, I am so looking forward to worshiping our King with the other believers here. There is something about going into the house of God (which is simply a place where believers gather!) and worshipping Him with your whole heart. He's so worthy of our praise, honour, and devotion.
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The Wharf

These pictures are from January 14th. Andrew, a young barber in the church at Roadside, took Katie, myself, and his mother to the wharf this Wednesday morning to see the fish being brought in. He picked us up around 5:30 that morning. It was really enjoyable and we hung around there for about an hour and a half, just observing and talking

1
This is taken across the river from the wharf. The morning was beautiful, especially the sunrise.

2
This is the side of the river where all of the action was taking place, the actual wharf.

3

Here is Katie with Andrew and his mother. Behind them are the many boats and the structure with the red roof (or "zinc") is where most of the nets were stored.

4
These nets are pretty cool. They reminded me of our being fishers of men and brought to mind the different accounts the four gospels record that deal with nets, fishing, fish, etc. The nets (I am told) are about a mile long and are left out in the water for a span something like 4-8 hours and then are drug in.


5 This is the unloading process. The fish are all stored in the icebox, the blue box behind the pile of fish. While they are out at sea, they just gut the fish and throw them into the box until they arrive. The guys were cool about having their pictures taken, which was nice!

6
From the boat the fish are all piled onto the docks under the roof, like this. The guy in charge of selling the fish (in this case he's the guy in the blue jean shorts) just stands there and hollers his price until someone takes it. Parts of it reminded me of an auction. Those ladies are buying and I'm pretty sure they are some of the ones who work in the market and chop them up with those huge machetes (I'm still not used to calling them cutlasses).


7
This is Troy, a random man we met. The fish he's got here are called menari. I'm not sure about technical names for things or spellings with these things, I just wrote them down how they sounded.


8

Here is Katie with a pile of the fish one of the customers picked up. The kinds of fish on this table are carass and snapper. The snapper are the large orange-ish ones in the picture, I think the rest are the carass.


9

This is me with some interesting fish. The large one was called "coffer", I'm not sure what the one in the middle is, and the one with the feelers is called a Gilbacker and is a very expensive one (I was told it was around $8000...that's $40 USD).

10 And they're off...