Back to Kalacha

I have been very bad at keeping my blog updated since we returned from Nairobi. Mainly because we have been kept quite busy.
First off we have to get around to all of our friends and neighbors houses to visit and talk about any news. Also we have to catch up on some of our curriculum work for TIMO (books to read, papers to write) since we didn't do any while on vacation or at the conferences.

But excuses are silly, I just haven't made the time.

It has been so very good to be back. While we were gone it rained, so things were green (comparatively) when we got back. There were even little flowers growing around! But the biggest thing about being back is the question of "What are we doing here?"... we are asking ourselves how can we best serve these people, how does God want to use us to get the Gospel message across. For at least the first 6 months it was our job to just "be", to watch, to learn, to ask, to listen and hopefully to start to understand the Gabra people... what they treasure, what they fear, what drives them. Not that 6 months is anywhere near long enough to understand, but at least it helps us avoid obvious blunders and gives us some hints as to the best way to proceed.

One of the challenges that Barbara and I face is that we are single girls. Its hard to understand from a western point of view, but to put it simply we have no influence to teach or work with anyone but kids and youth since we are viewed as 'girls' - mere children. But then more than half of Africa is children and if you train up a child in the way he should go he will not depart from it. So your prayers would be appreciated as we seek to know where God wants us.