Connecting

It's great to be able to easily give you something to read from us. We have been dealing with trying to get newsletters out with no Internet connection, with only part of our computer programs, and with me as the operator :) I am quite happy to finally have a way to say HI and to tell you what's up.

This past week has been really quite a great week. We have been here now for over two months, and just last week, we opened our bank account, got cable (can you even believe that we have cable? It's actually the first time our life we have purchased it), and we got our Internet connection. It is a wireless connection, and I hear rumor that when there is a big storm, we'll lose it for several days, but it's better than not at all. It only took two months to get all those things finalized :) I felt like I really put down some roots last week. The other fun thing that happened is that we got mirrors for our bathrooms :) Silly I know, but our bathrooms were completely redone before we arrived and in an attempt to allow us to make this our home and not someone else's, they left the choosing of mirrors and towel hangers to us. So, we chose all those things, and our mirrors actually just came. We have already installed two of the three. Sometimes I think it's been a blessing not having mirrors. I suppose now we'll have to face the reality of what our hot sweaty faces really look like :)

Yesterday my friend "Liza" (I don't even know if that is really her name) came by to see me. She is what we call a "squatter." They are people who do not have any ownership of the land they live on, they just move in and take possession. She came with a golf-ball size abscess on the back of her leg, asking me for money to buy the antibiotics she held the prescription to. She frequently comes to see me asking for money (typically for medication) and food. Each time she comes I have an opportunity to pray with her and she is very open to that. I cannot communicate with her because she doesn't speak any English. Every time she comes I wrestle with the fact that she very well could be totally lying to me, and taking advantage of me, but at the same time, what if she isn't. We have dealt with this before in other places, so it's not terribly new to me, but it is very frustrating to me that I cannot communicate with her. She will even bring her friends to see me, and then tells them that they have to stay for prayer. It's really funny. One day she was asking for a large amount of money and I offered her to do some yard work outside our gate/fence, and much to my surprise, she came and worked very hard for a whole day. Please pray for "Liza." She is a divorced woman with four children and has no income. The whole "squatter" lifestyle really traps people into that road. One generation that comes to the city to find work and ends up a "squatter" begets children that do not know how to farm, and consequently can never go back to that lifestyle. It is quite a predicament. Please pray for us also as we try to direct these people to the proper ones who can help them, and pray for us to have very clear discernment as to what God needs us to do for them.

We sure do miss all of you, and love to hear from you. Thanks for your posts, those of you who have. It'll be fun seing how this works for us!