Daily Devotional

I recently found a daily devotional taken from the sermons and writings of Charles Spurgeon. I thought I'd share this morning's entry with you - I know it challenged me.

"Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens."—Lamentations 3:41.

The act of prayer teaches us our unworthiness, which is a very salutary lesson for such proud beings as we are. If God gave us favours without constraining us to pray for them we should never know how poor we are, but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalogue of necessities, a revelation of hidden poverty. While it is an application to divine wealth, it is a confession of human emptiness. The most healthy state of a Christian is to be always empty in self and constantly depending upon the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in self and rich in Jesus; weak as water personally, but mighty through God to do great exploits; and hence the use of prayer, because, while it adores God, it lays the creature where it should be, in the very dust. Prayer is in itself, apart from the answer which it brings, a great benefit to the Christian. As the runner gains strength for the race by daily exercise, so for the great race of life we acquire energy by the hallowed labour of prayer. Prayer plumes the wings of God's young eaglets, that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer girds the loins of God's warriors, and sends them forth to combat with their sinews braced and their muscles firm. An earnest pleader cometh out of his closet, even as the sun ariseth from the chambers of the east, rejoicing like a strong man to run his race. Prayer is that uplifted hand of Moses which routs the Amalekites more than the sword of Joshua; it is the arrow shot from the chamber of the prophet foreboding defeat to the Syrians. Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer cannot do! We thank thee, great God, for the mercy-seat, a choice proof of thy marvellous lovingkindness. Help us to use it aright throughout this day!

If you're interested in more, A Daily dose of Spurgeon posts a morning and evening devotional.

Working?

...watch the two boys in the front get closer and closer... sometimes I think they just have to get up and out of their seats!!

:)

Shule la lugha

Over the summer I went to language school in Iringa to learn/relearn/improve Swahili. The school has partnered with Riverside Campsite: students live and eat at the campsite and the teachers come Monday-Friday mornings for classes. It’s a good system na sasa ninajua vitu vyote kuhusu kiswahili! (and now I know everything about Swahili) ;)

…if only I had to use it in Dar all the time, I’d be fluent in no time!

Me, Christie Harrison (I know!) and Kate at our ‘graduation’. Kate and I did a month of language school; Christie and her husband Brett did the full four months. Some kids of other language students made us laurel wreaths!

We climbed to the hop of a small mountain/large hill one afternoon. It was beautiful!

Fellow language schoolers: Christian and Jen (Denmark), Kate, Christie and myself. There were several ‘groups’ at Riverside: the Baptists, the Danes, the Geita people and ‘Kate and Carley’

Brett looking down at us from the highest point.

:)

Happy 'New' Year!

It's August and that means...school starts!

I am back in grade 1 with 22 students (24 on the roster but some will come later in the year), 16 boys and 8 girls. That's a lot of 6 year old boys in a confined space, let me tell you!

In the first three days, I've determined that

1. Six years olds can project their voices better than many public speakers.

2. I don't know any Korean. (I knew this before but it's not obvious every day until you have Korean/non-English speakers in your classroom!)

3. Children make me laugh.

4. I need to be at least in the process of going to bed by 9:00 to be rested and ready for a new day!

5. Kid's prayers are much more heartfelt than many adult's prayers.

6. Non sequiturs make up the bulk of most conversations in grade 1.

:)

Masai Day!

Friday, April 24 was a great day!  We’ve been studying the Masai (or Maasai – I’ve seen it both ways) for the past few weeks and so that Friday we had “Masai Day!”.

We had a special Masai guest, Jeremiah. (Not exactly a Masai name but…)  The students wrote questions to ask – everything from “how do your huts stay up when it rains?” to “what’s your favorite color?” to “how do you kill a lion?” (They surround it and sing to it.)

He showed the kids how to jump and we had a jumping ‘contest’ outside.

We ate ugali (a stiff porridge, a starch) with beans and vegetables and drank milk. (Well the kids did. As you know, I’m not a fan of milk here.)

We then watched a short video about the Masai produced by TearFund and divided into groups to spend a few minutes praying for the Masai people.

It was such a fun day! Pictures will come when I have time to wait on the Internet…

:)