Photos

Hey everyone! Julie here. I just wanted to let you know I added a bunch of photos and that there are also posts from Kristen and Kelsy below them, so make sure that you scroll all the way down to see everything that is new. If there is anything specific you'd like to see a picture of, let me know and I'll try to post it. Now that we have easier access to technology, we can hopefully communicate better with you. Kels and Kristen said it, but I'll echo it too - thank you so much for your prayers and support. We truly could not have done it without you. You are now invested in the lives of these children and God will bless that investment!

Carrying Baby Esther

Here is Kristen carrying baby Esther on her back while we were at camp. Mothers strap their babies to their backs using a strip of cloth called a lapa. This allows them to have their hands free to cook, haul water, etc. The babies don't seem to mind and often will fall asleep. We all had fun trying out this new method. Who knows, maybe we'll start a fad here in America when we have our own children.

Beautiful Girls

Here's Kelsy with two of the beautiful girls in the home. You can tell they just love their Aunty Komeh (her African name) !

Bodyguards!

Rest assured, Kristen and Sarah will be protected by their strong and competent bodyguards. The man on the left is Aruna and the one on the right is Quami. They are both about 6'4" and have very large muscles! They promised to give 110% in their efforts to keep these two girls safe and sound.

Home Takeover

Here is Julie with three of the Room One boys - Alpha, Papay and Christian. She and another girl, Kai, had the challenge of keeping track of 10 boys ages 4-7 during the home takeover. Let's just say a few fist fights, a few wet beds and nightmares later, the appreciation for all that the caregivers do was even greater than it was before! Hearing their high little voices praising God last thing at night and first thing in the morning made it all worth it.

Look at those muscles!

Here is Kristen, using all of her strength to try to help her team win the tug of war at camp. Camp was a good opportunity to work with the nationals as a team to give the kids the best camp experience possible.

With the Kids

Here are the three of us with some of our kids! Kelsy is holding the baby of the home, Patrick. Hanging between Kelsy and Julie is Emmanuel and then left to right is James, Emmanuel Alpha and Kofi. These kids love hugs, tickles and teasing, just like any other kids.

They Left Me!!

Well, now life really starts here in Marjay Town. Not that there wasn't life before, but now we can settle down into a routine and things. It has been very quiet since the team left on Friday. It was sad to see them go, but we enjoyed our time with them. Sarah and I have spent the last few days trying to figure out what our life will look like now, how we will cook for ourselves, buy food, do laundry(by hand), transportation, etc. Oh, so much to think about. This week we should also be having a meeting with Mama Angie(the boss) to set a schedule for the year. We will be sharing our time in Freetown and also in Banta.
Sarah and I are getting along great! God was really in every detail of this trip, even making sure that we fit together well! We are a lot alike is some ways but then where one is lacking the other makes up for it! So God is good!
We've also met some friends here! They have a bible study on Tuesday nights that we will be attending, tonight is our first night! One lady is from the UK, another is from The Netherlands, and the rest are all Lebenese(there's quite a population here). It's exciting to make these connections with people!
The children are doing okay after seeing the team go. They were very sad but kids are resilant you know! They ask about their other Aunties and Uncles and wish them well.

Prayer Requests:
~Health-always for health, God is faithful
~The Teachers- that they would be open and receptive to what Sarah and I have to share
~That we would settle down into being here on our own
~That God would have His protective hand over us always
~That our lives would be an example to the people of Sierra Leone
~Praise God for safe travel, protection, His sovereignty, God is just so Great!

More to come...
Now that there is only two of us, we are hoping to getting into more of a routine of coming to the internet cafe. And I'm still trying to figure out how I will be able to post pictures, but for now Kelsy can post some from home.
Thank you all for your support and prayers, everytime I start feeling down I remember all those people who believe in me back home! I love you all!

Julie and Kelsy at the Banta day camp doind crafts with the kids. The guy on the right is Quami, one of our go-to guys in SL

Kelsy and Julie are home!

Well, Julie and I arrived home late on the 19th and boy was it a tough goodbye! We had a great last couple weeks in Sierra Leone. After Camp we had the home take-over in which we sent all the Aunties and Uncles on a retreat and we were in charge of the home. It was quite an undertaking, but it was a lot of fun waking up to those kids singing praises to the Lord! After that we went up-country to Banta for a week, which is a small village in southern SL. We held a day camp up there that was well attended and had a great time. The only down side to that was the larger amounts of bugs and likewise there were much more mosquitos up there and I ended up with malaria. I'm much better now, but for a while there I was feeling pretty crummy, but thanks to your prayers and the support of the people we were working with I was able to beat it and feel better after about 4-5 days. Next was our last week with the kids, and we all just hung out and played most of the week. Goodbyes were hard. The kids were all very sad, as were Julie and I. We had some very good last moments with them though, and ended on a great note. Then saying goodbye to Kristen was also hard. We were leaving our sister and best friend, but God had us in his hands and really blessed us the whole way home. Especially with all the problems they have been having in the London airports these days, God really kept us safe. Now we are home, and we can really see and feel the way God moved in our lives. I encourage you to keep lifting Kristen up in prayer as she is still in Africa and keep checking the blog to hear about the great things she is still doing there. For now, thank you so much for all your prayers and support. We couldn't have done this without you! We love you!!