July Update Letter

July 3, 2010

New Life: New life is given and we rejoice in the birth.  In the most cultures babies are welcomed happily, there is no exception in Sudanese cultures.  Babies are cute; we play with them and coo with them.  They are a joy to a new mother.  The sad reality to life is that sometimes it ends to what we sometimes think is pre maturely.  Goli struggles with malaria and it has been plaguing families during this rainy season.  Infants are extremely susceptible to malaria and it is bad for them. A family in the Mundu community, who is also close to ECTC, has lost their 2 month year old family member.  Please, pray for this increasing problem of malaria and for the family.  

Time is going, going, going… almost gone: At this very moment I am in shock and awe that it is July!  It is pretty unbelievable to me one year ago I was getting excited and nervous about coming and sending out support letters.  Now I am sending out support.  Now I am sending out a newsletter informing about my last month in Sudan.  Crazy!  It’s been a year, but it feels like yesterday. In one month I will board a plane and wave goodbye to my Sudanese family.  I will spend seven days in Uganda and on August 10 I will head back to the USA. June was busy with a visitor, green day, parent’s day, mid-term break, arrival of new teachers, saying goodbye to friends being sick, and my computer crashing. 

Visitor and painting Goli green:

For a little over a week I had a visitor, Rachel another AIM short termer in Uganda, come visit me.  It was nice to have her here.  On June 6 we celebrated green day at school with 1 ½ hour of planting flowers and plants around our school. Now our school is beautiful and the flowers are coming.

Surprise:

Today is my mom’s birthday, she is 50!  Happy birthday, to my mom, have a fantastic day!

Girl’s night x 2:

Popcorn, soda, sweets, finger nail polish, facial masks, and laughs. In the last two weeks I have had two girls nights. Last Friday my two secondary girls came over for a movie, popcorn, soda, sweet, painting nails and having facials.  We had so much fun looking crazy with green faces and soaking our feet and making our toe nails pretty. That night reminded how much I love teenagers. This last week I had three girls that live in my housing block over and we ate popcorn and watched Horton Hears a Who.  Other than having to explain the English in the movie every 5 minutes it was quite a fun night. Being a girl is so much fun, no matter the culture!

School, school, and school:

My students will be taking exams for Second Term on July 21.  That means that before then and a week after that I have to write exams, grade exams, finish the history and geography curriculum. So much to do and not enough time. 

Wednesday Outreach:

For the last couple of weeks our school has been having a community outreach with the local children.  We go to the community primary school, play games and then we divide into groups.  We have started using the Wordless book as a series.  There is has been many children coming and lots of feedback, but in the last week numbers have dropped tremendously.  We are somewhat concerned due to the fact that this community struggles with witchcraft. Please, keep this outreach and these children in your prayers.  Mundu children tend to be looked down upon as if they are worth nothing, but we know that God has created these children to change their families, communities, countries, and worlds one day. 

Request:

This might be a strange and even selfish request and I am sorry for that. I am just looking for somewhere to stay for a couple of days in August or September to just gather my thoughts and spend time by myself just to get on track and figure out with God just what to do next.  I am looking for a place that is cheap.  So if you know of anything. Maybe you have a lake house, cabin, or something that you wouldn’t mind a lonely ole’ girl, who is just getting back from Africa, using it. Thanks!

What’s Next?:

Some people have been emailing me and asking me what is next for me?  I have decided I will tell all of you what is next for me. I have no idea!  If there is one thing I have learned this year, that is not a normal part of my character, that I do not need to worry about what is around the corner, because my God has it covered.  So, even though I have no clue what is in-store for me in August, I do know that God has something amazing planned for and I will know when it is time. I also know that He will give me peace about whatever it is and He has been preparing me for whatever it is. I have hope in that. **** I do ,however, have a growing urge for homeless teenagers, so if anyone has any connections on that, please, let me know.

Donors:

Ok, one last thing and I will close out this letter. I have had some growing interest in supporting Emmanuel Christian Academy. I would like to let you all know that your interest is welcome. Our school is a growing school and a financially struggling school that is run on donor support.  If you are interested in supporting our school or even a family that is struggling to send their children to school, please, let me know.  Your monetary donations would go to a new copier, computers, textbooks, library books, and struggling family school fees. If you have even the slightest interest, please, let me know and I can give you more details and why I strongly believe that this is a solid investment.

Praise and Prayer:

Praise-

·         We have had tons of rain for crops

·         ECA community outreach- the children are seeing the importance in sharing Christ with others.

·         I have a working computer again- yeah!

·         My parents successfully celebrated their 30^th wedding anniversary and 50^th birthdays.

Prayer Requests-

·         Transition at ECA and ECTC- myself and the Open Door missionary family (the Williams) are both leaving the same week. There will be a lot of changes and transitions happening more with them being gone (they have been here for 9yrs and Sudan for 15yrs) than me. Also, transition in my relationships. Pray that I will leave strong, solid relationships with my friends here.

·         That my replacement will come soon and I will be able to smoothly hand over everything and leave no loose ends. I want to leave with everything finished well.

·         Our area is taking a beating from Malaria. Right now there four teachers down with Malaria and a lot of other staff and community people. Please pray for resistance against Malaria and break down the resistance the mosquitoes have against our treatments.

·         My health: I am one of those four teachers (yes, again), I have switched to a new treatment so we will see if that works, but this treatment is really hard on your body.

·         Peace in what is next.  Pray that no matter where I go that God will give me a peace that passes all understanding that I am to be there.

Thank you for taking the time to read this incredibly long update. Have a great day!

Only Because of God’s Amazing Grace,

Danielle Olson

www.daniellesafricandiscoveries.blogspot.com

daniolson84@gmail.com