Halala Ngo' Jesu

African church was wonderful this morning. I was on the praise team! (That's me... second from the right. ;) I love, love, love their worship. I had my last Sunday School lesson with the youth this morning, wrapping up my series on "gifts." (Okay, that was punny and I didn't even mean to do that. In case you missed it, read it again. There it is. ;) I can't say enough how much I love going to church there. The people are so warm and gracious. The teaching is so scriptural. They are so glad to have us there, but I can't imagine that they are half as glad as we are to be there. They have been dear to me since I met them in the summer of 2005. I'll never forget, sitting on a bus in Ghana, having traveled 25 hours to get where we were, getting ready to ride another few hours on a bus to get to where we would be working for the week. I was extremely tired, but pretty keyed up, as I can sometimes get when I travel. The (Ghanaian) cell phone Luke was carrying rang, and he handed it to me and said, "It's for you." Huh? A call for me... in Ghana? It was a precious woman I had just met from our African partner church back in Texas, wanting to know how I was doing and letting me know that she would be praying as we worked in her home country all week. Hearing her kind, wise voice coming through the phone really calmed my heart and made me feel so... prayed-for. She called me a couple of other times that week and it meant so, so much. She has (as many others in their congregation have) become dear to me during the past year. God is so faithful to bring about such partnerships.

I hope you've had a nice weekend. We certainly have! The kids spent Friday afternoon with their Grandma, shopping for our Christmas presents. They burst in the door that night exclaiming "Don't look!!" as they scurried upstairs to the sound of bags rustling. Fun! Yesterday Bethany and I finished some running around and then I baked cookies for my high schoolers and put the finishing touches on my Sunday School lesson. This morning, Bethany went to our church at 7:00 to work at the cafe and the rest of us went to African church. We enjoyed church and then came home to... nothing. Yey! I've waited weeks for this day! Don't get me wrong, I love Awana and look forward to it each week. It is one of God's greatest gifts in my life. But for the past two weeks I've taught across town, raced home, changed, then gone straight up to our church for the afternoon/evening Awana ministry responsibilities. I was able to do that because I knew TODAY was coming... Today we got home by 1:30 or so and then I (:::::drumroll:::::) took a nap. (Did you hear that? That was me, sighing contentedly.) We are about to go retrieve Bethany at a gathering she's been at all afternoon for the cafe staff.

So, that's the weekend update. Errands, baking, worship, and rest. A good weekend!

Have a blessed week!