Well to all who may be concerned that our spider friend Leroy has an angry family ready to avenge his death you can sleep easy. Our walls show no sign of his family and we are SO thankful. As for the water situation, we only went a few days without water as some men came to fix the well. It also rained Thursday, which helped settle all the dust and gave the soil a much-needed drink. This week of teaching went really well. We have been talking about self-awareness and the kids really enjoy the activities we do in class. We looked at ourselves in the mirror and talked about our physical features, how God made us unique and special and how we should embrace who he made us to be. They LOVE this, as many of them have never seen themselves in a real mirror before. I have been discussing the changes that occur in our bodies during adolescence with the 6^th grade class, and as you can imagine that leads to some interesting discussions. I love this class and I’m amazed at how often an opportunity arises to relate our topic back to Christ and His love for us. At the beginning of each class we say our Faith Statement together. It’s from Beth Moore’s Believing God Bible Study that I taught the kids last semester. They love it and remembered all of it on the very first day of class. GO GOD!!!!!

God is who He says He is

God can do what He says He can do

I am who God says I am

I can do all things through Christ

God’s Word is alive and active in me

I’M BELIEVING GOD

On Thursday it was time to call all the kids to the office who had received sponsor gifts from the US. I have to share this one story with you… it touched

my heart and soul. Here’s Emanuel’s story:

Emanuel’s sponsor sent some money for me to buy a few things for him here in Kenya. They suggested that I use the money to meet his immediate needs, so I went up to the school earlier this week and just made some observations. What I saw broke my heart. He was wearing shoes about 2 sizes too small. His toes were busting out the ends and the soles were worn unevenly. I also noticed he was carrying his books in a worn plastic bag, like a WalMart bags that had ripped at the handles and been tied together into a million knots. The next afternoon I headed to town to purchase some new shoes and a new backpack. When I called Emanuel to the office Thursday afternoon he waited patiently as all the other kids received their various gifts. Now it was his turn. I called him out to the front porch and presented him with a letter from his sponsor. We read it together and then I handed him his backpack suggesting that he take a look inside. We looked in all the pockets until we came across a shiny new pair of black shoes. His eyes lit up his face like the moon lights up a dark night sky. My guess is that he’s never had a NEW pair of shoes before. This was special. I looked down at his feet hanging out of his shoes and suggested that we try on the new ones. As he removed his feet from his old shoes I noticed the mud caked on them from where he was helping clean at the school just a few minutes earlier. The Lord gently spoke to my heart and said, Amanda, I want you to wash Emanuel’s feet. Show him my love, Amanda, show him my love. Now for those of you who have known me for a while you know that I would barely even touch my own feet let alone someone elses up until a few years ago. Feet are just not my thing. It’s funny how over the past few years God has changed my point of view concerning feet. Anyway, I had Lacey retrieve a basin of water and a towel and I washed Emanuel’s feet. If you are ever in need of a humbling experience, just wash the feet of a kid who walks miles each day to school with huge holes in his shoes. I must say that in that moment his feet were absolutely positively without a doubt the most beautiful sight I had ever laid eyes on. Who knows, these feet may be the very feet that one day carry the gospel to the nations. God has BIG plans for this kid. As I finished drying his feet, putting on his new bright red socks, and shiny black tough soled shoes, he looked me straight in the eye and said may God bless you… thank you. What could I say but you are so welcome and thank you Emanuel for being such a wonderful kid. This kid is going places. Not because he has new red socks and shiny black shoes, but because he knows what it means to be blessed to be a blessing!!!!! I know his response blessed me beyond measure. Praise be to God. It is my prayer that each of you know how truly blessed you are. May you see the overflow of those blessings revealing the glory of the Lord in your life and in the lives of others! Bwana Asifiwe.