A time to rejoice.

Well this blog isn't as far and few between as the last ones, though i am writing this in the later hours of the night, so i hope that it makes sense. It seems to be the best time, that i can blog. And a new thing for me to be staying up so late...
We have had many power cuts of late, all of which no one really knows why these are happening. Some days are worse than others and today has been one of those better days where the power has been on for most of it. we are up to around 3 days where the power has come and gone. along with the washing machine that decided to break, but is now fixed and being of great use again. 
Well enough about the lack of power, and washing facilities. Let me continue, as I share with you a little more on the home front of life. 
Last blog i mentioned about parents day and the need to be thankful. This time i want to share a little about rejoicing. I have had nearly one month of holidays now and its been great. I have had so many adventures, like climbing Mt Meru again and being out in Magugu for Easter with over 300 youth kids, we have celebrated G's 1st birthday,  (our neighbour who i share my stair case with, their son turned 1). 
So its a time to celebrate. to rejoice. Even when things sometimes are hard, it;s important to celebrate and rejoice. Here we can always find a reason for celebrating, which always includes a cake of some sort and often a good cooked meal. i must say though that my baking skills are horrible and so often its my house mate who is the baker and makes all sorts of yumo cakes and hot cross buns, so i can't really take much of the credit for them at all except that i help to eat them and they taste great. We all know that the cake is the most important part, along with the people who you get to celebrate and rejoice with. 

One of my sisters just had her 3rd baby  a  boy, which was awesome but yet  bittersweet as its awesome i'm an aunty again but the bitter part comes when you can't be there to celebrate with family. So it was skype and phone calls to Australia that helped me through the day and photos as well. It is part of living life as away and at times its easy while other times is more of a struggle. 

Easter as i said was spent this year with over 300 youth kids.... it was a fun time though very different to my other Easters, we rapped to the fresh prince of bel air and played many crazy games with these kids. But the part that just caught my heart was when these young kids were just giving their whole hearts to God. They were so thankful and were able to give thanks and rejoice in all that they had at that time. This made me really stop and reflect upon my own life and how i can be rejoicing and celebrating and thanking God for each and everything, because every good and perfect gift comes from him. 
As i drove today from meeting a friend i saw the most amazing sunset, the sun was just going down and as i looked at the amazing colours that were reflecting on the trees i paused in my thoughts for a moment to just rejoice and celebrate that i do live in such an amazingly beautiful place.... again it was a time to rejoice and celebrate the small but beautiful part of God's creation. 

I recently had the chance to talk with my 6 year old niece on skype for around 40 minutes, again this was a treasured time, to be able to chat and celebrate the things that she has been doing. Even if it's across the other side of the world... 

As the holidays come to an end, (we will celebrate this with another cake) and we are now having our teacher only days, again i celebrated today with these teachers who are so passionate about serving the kids in our school, and about loving life, that you really can't help but to rejoice and celebrate with them. 

And so now the time is late, i shall meet with you all again via my blog or fb or some kind of technology type of way. 
so be blessed and look for the things to celebrate and rejoice in your life. And then tell me or someone else about it, because it's always more fun when its with other people.

A time of Thanksgiving.

Mambo friends and family.

WOW let me begin with. what a busy few months it has been since i last blogged. So i have survived my first submission of essays for university, all with the daily trials of no power, and having to head to head into town for power. this also includes many long nights of trying to download at crazy hours of the morning because that's when the internet is fastest. it has been super busy, but i am constantly reminded of the promise that God showed to me, how this is now the time to do study. God was the one who showed this to me, and i am reminded so much of this.
we just had our end of school term parents day, where the children perform and parents come. the school is now closed for one month. we had over 100 parents attend our parents day, this is such an encouragement because its so many more than last year. Keep praying for more parents to catch the vision of our school and the work that is happening here.
during this crazy busy time my friend and our house help lost her baby at 3 months. her husband came to our house one morning, very worried and explained that she was very unwell. After some short discussion we all decided that she needed to go to hospital straight away. as i reflected i began to think about the amount that i have. how no matter what i always have enough, and the amount that i should be giving, to a family who can barely pay for food for their family, who are struggling to make ends meet. As i took them to hospital and helped them out in a financial way it just hit me how much God wants us to give  of ourselves to him, for me it just stopped me in my tracks, to be thankful that i was even able to do something so small for this family. how can i just sit back and ignore the basic needs of this family, when God has enabled me to be able to help them out.
 this was such a sad and heart breaking time for her and her family. She has 2 other children who attend our school, and her husband works with us too. Women here seem to have been losing babies, and this is the 5th person i know who has lost her baby, and i would ask you to please join me in prayer for these women who are losing babies before they are born. these are lives being lost.

i have been reflecting so much on this and in this comes to the thankfulness that each one of you believes in what i'm doing, i am so thankful for the prayer and the support that is shown to me from each of you, my words don't even seem enough, but please know how thankful i am for each one of you.
As i run through our village behind our base, i stop and just marvel at God's creation of the sunset, or laugh as i run with an entourage of  children running wit me shouting hi hi hi. its the everyday moments like these that i am affirmed that this is where God wants me to be. After a long busy day its always refreshing to be able to build the relationships with these families and children, to sometimes be forced to stop and just be. it is such a challenge at times, as my mind just says keep going i have work to do, yet such a part of this is the relationships being built along the way. by stopping and greeting someone to sitting in their house attempting to speak in swahili.

being able to stop and just breathe in the air that is fresh and know that it is God who is in control of all that i do, so long as i am willing and open to hearing his word and to learn.

so as i leave you with prayer points and praise points i pray for each of you, that God would just  dwell in each of your daily lives. that you too would be able to enjoy the simplicity of the busy lives we all live.

Prayer points

• pray for these women losing babies. pray for their safety and health and pray for their spirits as they come to terms with the loss. 
• pray for me as i continue to study, pray for wisdom as i read and good power and internet connection.
• Please pray for the cost of my car, as i have just had to spend alot of money on it, pray that it will last and break again. 

Praise points.

• i survived my fist submission of uni.
• for each of you i am so thankful, for your prayer. 
• being able to enjoy the small pleasures in life. 

I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart, for i know that he is good.
blessings on you all. 

Carly