Only in Africa

I saw a hilarious commercial yesterday as I sat waiting for my smoothie at Starbites across from the school.  An African mother and her little girl were making jello in a very American-looking kitchen.  They poured it into a mold and gently set it in the freezer just as the lights went out.  The next scene showed them happily playing games by candlelight as the father came home from work.  They all excitedly pulled the jello out the freezer and it was miraculously set!  The scene changed to a diagram of the freezer’s engineering and an explanation of how it stays cold even when the power is out.  The slogan?  “No lights, no problem! Samsung refrigerators: Made for Africa!”

It’s amazing how little power outages affect people here.  It happens regularly, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours.  It’s not even enough to interrupt a conversation.  Life goes on.  I can feel myself adjusting to this sense of unflappability.  You can do so much without electricity.  Try making a list just for fun.  You might be surprised.  But I bet you don’t have such a high tech freezer as I do!  :-) 

Chapel Prayers

This week in chapel (5^th-12 grade), we had a prayer service.  We sung and spoke a little bit about what prayer means, then we invited the kids to come to the front and write prayers on colored pieces of paper and pin them to two big boards.  

“Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.  I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”  Psalm 34:3-4

Here are some of their prayers:

God Moments

Students come and go often at AIS.  Third Culture Kids are often highly mobile due to the nature of their parents’ jobs.  Our enrollment will never be set because we accept new students throughout the course of the year; each week has brought at least one new student.  

This week I (Daesha) had morning duty and I ran into a woman who was dropping her upper elementary daughter off for the first time.  I had met the family once before as they toured the school and answered some questions, so she came over to me to ask some more.  I already knew they were not evangelical Christians.  As we spoke, something incredible happened.  

Litany of Blessings

This is based on Psalm 136.  We created something similar to this in staff meeting and thought that it would be a good follow-up to the last blog :-).  When we read it aloud in the meeting, some of us had to stop because we were crying.

We thank the Lord, for He is good.

His mercy endures forever.

We have a place to live and food to eat.

His mercy endures forever.

Roy and Barb give us lots of food and treats.

His mercy endures forever.

The weather is beautiful today, and we also have air conditioning.

His mercy endures forever.

Our students do their homework and learn fast.

His mercy endures forever.

We are able to speak to Muslim, Buddhist, and indifferent students about Christ.

His mercy endures forever.

The woman across from school sells cheap, ice cold Cokes and Fantas in glass bottles.

His mercy endures forever.

We played a fun video scavenger hunt with other teachers last week.

His mercy endures forever.

We are healthy and safe.

His mercy endures forever.

We live in an environment of beautiful cultural diversity.

His mercy endures forever.

We sang “God of this City” about Accra, Ghana in chapel this week.

His mercy endures forever.

We have family here and elsewhere who love us no matter what.

His mercy endures forever.

The 4 floors of stairs at school give us exercise.

His mercy endures forever.

We work with many amazing, imperfect Christians.

His mercy endures forever.

John is learning the Bible curriculum.

His mercy endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven.

His mercies endure forever

Life As We Know It

Our apologies for the dry spell in our blogs.  Things became very busy around here, but we are finally settling in and there are pictures of our new home at the end of this (somewhat long) post.

Have you ever received a wonderful gift, but had a hard time opening it because there was so much tape or the box was difficult to open?  That’s how our apartment feels.  We have been living in it for the last four weeks.  The blessings of some independence, privacy, and newness have been very uplifting.  The house was just built this summer and has four two-bedroom apartments, a one-bedroom “boy’s quarters” separate from the house, and a pool house next to a plot of grass that was intended for a small swimming pool.  It is nicer than we expected with brand new appliances and plenty of space.  We residents (all the new teachers) nicknamed it “Accrib” because we felt so posh.  Then the trouble started.