until next time

We're winding down our time of preparation in VA. Don't have time to say much, but in the meantime here's another lunchtime brainteaser for you to chew on.

42% of American men do this is in their first 5 years of marriage.

2 points up for grabs!

A Week of Highs and Lows

This week we've had some interesting events! Dont worry we have pictures to illustrate. First, on Tuesday Joe Joe was walking around (minding her own business) and then all of a sudden she sat down with severe pain in her foot. Thinking it would just go away she tried to shrug it off. The next evening the bruises came, and then by Friday her foot was black and blue. She decided to see a doctor. (The trip there was adventure enough with getting lost three times, asking four people for directions, and even stopping at a gas station to call the office from a pay phone. How many people still use pay phones?!?) Anyway, the doctor said that she has a stress fracture. He said it could be caused by any number of things such as walking or exercising more and wearing new shoes.
Here is a picture of the bruise two days after it first showed up, so it doesn't do justice to the nastiness of the bruise.

Then on Thursday Michael had the great fortune of watching (and then catching) a chicken run around with its head cut off. He took a class that showed how to kill and pluck or a skin a chicken. Those with weak dispositions would not do well with the pictures or videos he took! Dont worry we will not be showing those due to the graphic nature of such images!!

Then today we went to the river with some friends we have made here and their child. It is so cool, there are large rocks that you can climb on and jump from. In between some of the rocks are small rapids. You could, theoretically, walk all around from one side of the river to the other without getting wet. I say theoretically because all except for Michael got wet. Joe Joe took the first fall. She was trying to cross from one boulder to another. She stepped on some moss and her feet slid right out from under her, and she slid into some churning water between two boulders. Admittedly, it was a little scary, but she handled it like a pro and was able to laugh it off and learn from her mistake! Our friends fell in a little later, leaving only Michael. He said he preferred to stay dry!

Here are some pictures of us at the river (or in it). We had such a fun day! Now we are getting very excited to see Kentucky and Arkansas. OOOOOOOOHHHHHH
C! A! T! S! CATS! CATS! CATS!






Swahili word for the day is mto (make an "m" sound and then say "toe") it means river.

African Worship in America

Last night we had an African styled worship service that Michael helped to put together. The evening was filled with fun and we firmly believe that God smiled on us during that time. We had everything from songs led by drums to drama (complete with a den full of lionhearted 5-yr olds) to dancing. God even smiled enough on us to cool off the place entirely for the day. It was a beautiful night, grins all around!


Brain Teaser #2
This one's for all the NASCAR fans out there!
You're driving a car on a 2 mile track. The first mile you drove at a constant speed of 30mph. How fast do you need to drive for the second mile to average 60mph for the 2-mile track?

Swahili word for the day is cheza, which means "dance".

Washington DC

Yesterday we took a trip to Washington DC as a part of our cultural training. We were simply dropped off in the city with assignments to find people of other cultures and talk to them, help them, share with them, and stretch ourselves in a dining experience.

We did get the opportunity to talk with some people on the streets, we walked all over the city, and we enjoyed a fabulous cultural experience at lunchtime. Joe Joe's uncle from DC joined us for the day and helped with navigation, it was also fun to talk with him and spend some time with him before leaving.


After scoping out a few places, we headed into an Ethiopian restaurant. Signs were up everywhere celebrating what appeared to be the new millennium year 2000. At first, I thought that they were just a few years behind on their decorations, maybe got a special deal from the dollar store down the street. But we asked our waitress (who did not speak much English) about it, and she very proudly told us that on September 12th, 2007, Ethiopia as a country celebrated its 2000th year! Wow! Makes sense: the book of Acts was written between 60-100AD and mentions Philip and an Ethiopian, so assuming the country was around a few decades before that, then yeah, 2000 as a country is pretty likely. Amazing. I do wonder how they chose September 12th 2000 years ago as the day though... I bet there's a good story somewhere. I asked out waitress if they backed up all of their computers last week. I don't think she got it. So back to our meal, wow the food was like nothing we'd ever had before. No utensils, so it was a fairly authentic dining lesson. We ordered the "banuta." On the menu for banuta, the only word in the whole food description we recognized was "lamb". Our food came out on giant plates, at the bottom was what looked like a big tortilla made from wheat, but it was very soft and spongy, it's called injura. On the wrap (and we had extra sponge wraps brought as well) were three piles: Cous Cous on the left, Feta cheese on the right, and a mixture of Lamb tips and a sponge stuff that I have no clue what it was, how it was made, or what was in it. We dove in fingers first (mine [Michael] protected by the spongewrap as best I could) and enjoyed. Not too bad... but certainly no Q'doba.




In the afternoon we did a little Wash DC sightseeing, always an impressive city to walk around, makes me want to visit other countries' capitals to see what they look like. We prayed for our nations leaders, we took some pictures until our battery died, we stopped in the air and space museum and saw just how many copies were in there from articles and artifacts about the Wright Brothers hailing from Michael's homeland.

And now we're tired. But very excited, we get to see our friends Nick and Suzanne today and hopefully see the UK-UL game tonight! Go Cats!

Swahili word for the day is sponji, which means sponge.

football time

So what's new? Not too much with us... We're still in VA, still working on many preparations to head overseas. We've had a little bit of fun this week: Michael is playing on a flag football team here on campus, has won every game and should be playing in the championship tonight (but rain is looking to be pretty inevitable). Last week in a game he jammed his thumb and it turned black and blue, but is getting better. Monday night we managed to get off campus and watched the Bengals-Ravens MNF debut, turned out to be a great game, good way to start the season, WHO-DEY! Can't wait for UK to beat Louisville on Saturday...

We've enjoyed some great trivia fun during lunchtimes brought to you by our local chef. Here's one to mull over: What can you find in over 40% of American households that is only used by 9%?

Swahili word for the day is mvua which means rain.

Praying for all Peoples

Have you ever made a decision or a commitment to pray for an hour a day, or 30 minutes, or 3 hours, or 15 minutes, and found that your mind went blank and you just didn't know what to pray for? If so, you're not alone.

And so, we offer a tool: www.imb.org/compassionnet.

Compassionnet is one way to find out about prayer needs around the world, and we promise you'll never run out. There are many more tools out there and many more needs in the world, but this is a way to pray for the gospel to affect lives around the world. Take it as you like!
Pray for your family, pray for your neighbor, pray for your country, your leaders, anyone in need around the world. While at it, pray for the college students of Tanzania if you don't mind!!

Swahili word for the day is rehema, which means compassion.