Friday, March 13, 2009

Our favorite local laundry detergent...


Sorry for the lack of photos lately-- the battery charger for our camera is broken, but we will be replacing it soon and updating you with pictures again:^)

overdue update

Sorry it has been so long since we have posted anything, but after living in a place for a while you settle into a routine and I didn't want to bore you with our daily schedules. We have also been busy this past week with moving into our very own apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are pretty excited. We have been looking for a place of our own for the past 3 months and just starting to come to peace with the fact that we probably would be living with a host family for a lot longer when the Lord provided the perfect place for us. It is amazing how over and over again in our lives we stress about little things and worry that something will not work out, and over and over again God provides. We have such short term memories. The Lord has provided for us throughout our lives and we still have trouble trusting in Him.
A friend of our host family here had us over for dinner one night when we had first arrived in this city and during the course of dinner he found out that we eventually wanted to move into our own place. He told us then that he had a vacant apartment that we could move into and that it was very nice and spacious and that he really wanted us to live there. This was in the back of our minds these three months and when we asked our family about it they told us the price which was way out of our price range so we forgot about the whole thing. After searching for three months we finally handed it over to the Lord and told him that it was okay if we stayed with a host family and that it was completely up to the Lord where we lived. We felt like it was selfish for us to keep obsessing about having our own place when maybe that wasn't God's will. Two days later this friend came over to our house and asked us if we were interested in his apartment. We explained that we were not paid much by Peace Corps and that we could not afford it. He responded saying that he told us that he doesn't care about money but that he just wants to have us living in his apartment. He said all we had to do was name our price and pay what we could and that he could care less about the money. In a week we had moved in. He has been the best landlord fixing up the apartment and making sure we have everything we need. This is amazing in a culture where usually anything will take months to get done. We ask him about something and he takes care of it the next day. We feal so blessed. He is also one of the first persons we have met here who is not obsessed with money and how to make more which is really a blessing. Thank you all for your prayers!
We need to buy a new battery charger for our camera, but once we do we will take pictures of our new place and post them so you can see where we are living. It is really starting to warm up here and we are hearing horror stories about how hot the summer gets. It was in the upper 80's the other day and it is still March. We told them that it doesn't get this hot in the middle of the summer in Seattle. The word is that it hits 130 in the summer so we are getting ready to bake.
At work both Rebekah and I have been busy teaching pregnant mothers and also teaching at the kindergardens in town. It has been fun to teach kids and play games with them in the kindergardens.
Happy St. Patricks day to everyone!!!!! We will be thinking of all you Irish friends on that day. If you get a chance drink a guiness for us. Love you all and thanks for keeping in touch.
-Joshua