It was a Lego kind of day the other day. We brought a lot of Brent’s legos when he was a kid back with us from the States and the kids have been loving playing with them. Taylor also got some “girlie” legos for her birthday. Quality time well spent!
So glad daddy has the patience to put all this together!
Can you imagine being enslaved to a witch doctor and not able to escape because you have no money to get out? This is where a friend of ours found herself a few years ago. Ludo was able to start a paper bead making group and sold necklaces and earrings and now was making money for herself and her daughter to get away from this evil witch doctor and came to truly know the Lord. She was making a good amount of money from her new business, but she still ended the month with no money and had to live with her family in their home. Her family wanted her to go back to the witch doctor as they saw the money and help he could provide for their family and an uncle came and even beat up her 10 year old daughter to try to force her to go back to the witch doctor. Brent was asked to go teach a financial training course based on Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey) for a few of our Batswana friends and Ludo was a part of this group. She learned how to manage her money and was able to save a substantial amount. She and her daughter were able to pay cash to rent her own place and has enough to pay the rent for the remainder of the year. Learning to use her money "God's way" has given her and her daughter freedom they have not had in over a decade. This past week Ludo invited Brent and our family to come to her village and share financial training and Jesus with others in her bead making group.
While Brent was teaching we had a ton of kids come for bible study. They got to learn about the story of “The Good Samaritan” and then we showed them how to make paper airplanes (you can see them coloring them below). It was so much fun!
Learning to use our money God's way has also changed our life over the past few years. If you have an opportunity to go through Financial Peace University through a Dave Ramsey program we would definitely recommend it! You can go to http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/ to find one in your area. If you are interested in buying any of Ludo's paper bead jewelry you can go to http://www.reclaimedproject.org/#!shop/c1ztc
So the tooth fairy forgot to come take Taylor's tooth last night, oops! After many tears and telling her the tooth fairy pays double when she forgets...she put together a letter with the help of her daddy.
Dear Tooth Fairy,
Why did you not take my tooth yesterday? How will you make up for that? I sill like you. Will you have to pay double money? Please write me back at the back of the paper. Thank you.
Love, Taylor
Taylor loves going to her school here in Gaborone. She is in Standard 1 which is 1st grade and is doing so well. We have had to learn some new terminology for things such as the “Loo” for the bathroom, “rubbish bin” for the trash, queue (Q) for a line, a “bath” is pronounced “bawth”, and many other fun words. When a child has a birthday, they have to take cupcakes for their entire class and teachers which was 30. Below are the cupcakes we took for Taylor’s birthday. WE are so happy we have the option to put Taylor into a school here.
We were invited to go to Taylor’s classroom to watch the children do math games. Below are some pictures from that day.
This past Saturday, they did a sponsored walk to raise funds for the school. Taylor enjoyed participating in this event.
Taylor has to have her hair pulled up/back for school. The other day, Amanda was out of the country with Bradyn for a medical situation, so Brent stayed behind and had to get Taylor ready each morning. He did a great job pulling up her hair and was so proud he took a picture of his handiwork.
Happy 4th of July!
We often ask you to pray for our Friday children’s ministry. The kids come after school from 3pm-5pm and get to play, sing songs, learn bible verses, hear a bible story and do a craft. If you or your church would like to come and partner alongside of us and do a VBS for a week with these children it will be one of the best weeks of your life! Contact us if you are interested at bltast@hotmail.com
Above: Doing wheelbarrow and jump rope games
Below: Meet Wame (Wah-may)-she is about 5 years old, faithful to coming every Friday and full of more energy than I have ever seen!
Above: This little fella is barely over 1 year old. The balls are from “One World Futbol” and never pop with all the thorns we have…they are amazing!
Below: Singing “Making Melodies in my Heart”
My friend Torie has made a little friend every Friday and he calls her “Mama”
