March Update Letter

March Update Letter

March 27, 2010

Hello! I know it the end of March and I just now am sending out my update letter. I am sorry for the tardiness.  I have decided to write my update letter a little different this month. I also apologize, because it is much longer than usual. I hope you enjoy it, though.

Alarm clocks or goats

Some people get roosters, some people have alarm clocks, and some people even have someone to wake them up, but me, I have a goat. I call him Billy, he comes by my window every morning and goes “ehhhh”, “ehhhh” at a very high pitched level. It is very exciting!

Leslie and Amy

As you all know I have been privileged to have a roommate since January.  After seven weeks Leslie has left. On her way back home she got to go to Ethiopia and Kenya. I am so thankful that God sent her to Goli. She was such an encouragement to me.  A week after Leslie left I received a visitor from Kampala.  Amy, another AIM short termer, came to visit me for one week.  It was so much fun to get to know her and just share with one another our struggles and our hearts. We had fun; even though I tried to make popcorn for her three times and failed each time.

Tiredness

These last couple of months I have truly been learning what it means to lean completely on God. I am constantly getting confronted with a variety of verses that state that God is my life source, my stronghold, and my strength giver. A couple of weeks ago I was reminded of that when I had reached me limit and realized how tired I was and how much I had been  doing things in my own strength. Praise the Lord, I am learning to be more intentional in giving everything over to Him.  I am still stressed out, but things are much better than they were and with God’s strength I will finish and finish well.

Business in Yei

If you have been keeping up on my blog you would see the pictures of my Business Studies class on our field trip to Yei. It was a fun day; we learned how businesses run in Yei, shopped for the business they are starting at school and at chicken and chips at Twins Hotel. Two of my students had never been on a field trip before and it was the first one I had ever led by myself. We all had a new experience.

My business studies class is in the their second week of running their snack shop business and so far it is hit. I do hope they are actually learning business techniques, but the rest of the school is defiantly enjoying it.

School is coming to a close

We are currently in our final weeks of the first term. It has been quite a term as we all get used to each other and try to fix the kinks. Term Exams began this week and our last day of school is April 1. We will than reconvene April 26. We have all bonded this term. Last weekend we had our first sports day. All of our students participated a long with the all of the Bible college students. Parents came and cheered and over all it was a great day. Laughter filled the sports field and cheers and claps were heard all morning. This day really brought us together as a community.

Rain, rain, please, come our way!

Last week it started raining. Rainy season is on the way. Right now it is still hit and miss and last week it was still incredibly hot- I even got sunburned.  So far this week we have had wind and I have not had to jump in the shower before I get into bed in nights. Praise the Lord! I am just on race to plant all of my vegetable and flowers before rainy season is in full force. Oh yeah, so I am caring on Tara’s legacy and I have a garden. Thanks to Leslie, I have one green pepper and three tomato plants.  I also have basil, parsely, oregano, dill, carrots, cucumber, squash, green beans, peas, and many different types of flowers. Now let’s just hope they all come up.

“I pray for fighting, please Jesus let them know that you love them and we love them too…”

I do not know about you, but sometimes I forget that God is listening.  I ashamed to say that sometimes I even think, “ what is the point in praying, nothing will change anyway”. In the last couple of weeks I have been reminded consistently that Our Mighty God is a listening God and He is in control. This control does not mean things will always turn out beautiful and nice and neat or that we know what the end product will be. It means God is God and He is in control. He created us and He has a master plan. I know that for some of you this is not a good enough answer and you want something more explainable, but most of the time this is good enough for me.

Each week in chapel we break in to small groups and pray with our students. Last week I was put with the pre-school students and was humbled as one of them began to pray, “I pray for fighting, please Jesus let them know that you love them and we love them too and that we need peace and peace means they have to stop fighting.”  Another students prayed, “Please, God I pray for the unreached people in North Korea that they will be able to know who you are because you love them”. The heart of child is so precious and so humbling at times. I am learning that these children have such loving hearts and are so committed to putting things into God’s hands. There are been so many ill people around our compound with both malaria and typhoid lately. One of our families had three children get malaria last(all for the first time) and the youngest child was very, very ill. A group of our ECA children decided they wanted to go pray for Nandain so they gathered themselves together, marched to the clinic, and politely asked if all of the adults could leave the room, where Nandain was sleeping, so they could pray for Nandain. The adults, including the nurse and the father, left the room and listened as each and everyone one of those children cried out to God on behalf of Nandain. You see they know that God is in control and all we have to do is trust Him and give up our control. What a valuable lesson to learn from a group of children under the age of eleven.

A community!

I am so blessed to live in a community of people that truly care about me. I do not know about you, but sometimes I feel like, “is there any point to me even being here?”, “am I actually making a difference?”, “would they miss me if I was gone?”.  Selfish thoughts, I know. I was humbled this week, when I became ill on Tuesday. I was so sick that I missed three days of school and did not even have enough energy to walk outside of my house. Wednesday, I had visitor after visitor checking on me.  They all expressed to me that they thought I was dead, because they had not seen me all day. I had visitor after visitor come a pray for me. Thursday, the same thing happened, person after person checking on me and praying for me. On Friday, more people reminding me that they are praying for me. Even though, I am still sick and not one hundred percent better, today I still have a community people that rejoiced with as I went to the dining hall for the first time in four days and are standing by my side encouraging me in strength and coaxing me to eat.  God is definitely teaching me that His plans for me are not in vain and I am not the one always teaching, but I am the one being taught.

Praise the Lord for homework passes and dress down coupons!

For those of you that do not know before I came to Sudan I taught at North County Christian School (in St. Louis) for two years. Every year NCCS has a mission’s week and they choose a missionary or a mission cause to raise money for. This year I was blessed to be chosen as the missionary.  I am so excited to say that they raised a great deal of money and it is going to fund resources needed for ECA. Praise the Lord and thank you NCCS students and staff!

Prayer, prayer, and more prayer

In a couple of weeks it will be April.  With April coming most of you are thinking strictly about Easter, weddings, and graduations.  People in Sudan are thinking about something different.  Because of the Peace Agreement in 2005 Southern Sudan will have its first general elections in April 2010.  There are some concerns for elections political and social instability.  Africa Inland Mission and my Sudan country leader has decided that the best option is for all AIM Sudan team members to take a precautionary leave of absence from Sudan for the month of April. We do not believe that anything terrible will happen, but are requesting prayer for safety for the Sudanese and for hope.  Please, pray that God’s hand will guide this election process and Southern Sudan in general. Our team is planning on getting together in on April 11(first day of voting) and praying for Sudan and the elections. We would like to invite you to lift up this country’s future and safety to the Lord.

Thank you!

I want to thank you all for your encouragement and prayers. I truly appreciate it! I hope you all have a great day!

Praises:

·         I have had two visitors since January. It has been awesome and I am so thankful for it.

·         Our students are making progress on so many levels: spiritually, educationally, and physically.

·         My relationships with people are getting stronger and stronger.

·         God’s provision in the money raised during NCCS’ mission week.

·         God’s unyielding strength and grace from day to day.

Prayer:

·         Please pray for me as I am still very weak from being sick and not quite sure what is going on.

·         Please pray for the last week of school; for both students and staff. Pray that we can all finish strong.

·         Please pray for the upcoming elections and for Sudan in general.

·         Please pray for the community of ECTC malaria, flu, and typhoid are spreading like crazy around here.

·         Please pray for me as I seeking God’s guidance in my next step after my year is up here.

Have a great day!

Only Because of God’s Amazing Grace,

Danielle Olson

daniolson84@gmail.com

www.daniellesafricandiscoveries.blogspot.com

Class Lessons

In senior one geography we were learning about relief and how to tell the relief of a place. So I had them climb up the water tower so they could draw a contour map of ECTC. There definate things about teaching here that make it obvious that you are not in the States. "Hey mom and dad, guess what Miss Olson had us do today"...I'm sure that would go over well. Well it got the point of the lesson across.

Field trip to Yei!

We took our first feild trip last week to Yei! So yeah! These are two pictures of my Business Studies class. I have three amazing students. They are doing a business simulation project by starting their own business, aka snack shop, at our school. So we went into Yei to talk to a shop owner about running a business and ask him questions. We were going to talk to the Commerce department in Yei, but that man was in Uganda. We also went shopping for our business. We bought biscuits, soda, and sweets. Perfect items for a snack shop. We also had cold cokes, chicken and chips for lunch. They had so much fun and one them had never been on a feild trip in his life. It was a great day!

Meet Leslie!

I am so thankful and excited to tell you how blessed I have been for the past three weeks. I had mentioned that it was a concern of mine of being alone at Goli. I knew that God will give me the strength and ability, but instesad he sent me a roommate for eight weeks. How awesome is that? Awesome, right! I am so thankful for Leslie; it has been really nice to have another American around and that is my same age. I am learning a great deal from. Leslie is from North Carolina and is just in Sudan for eight weeks, but she has given that eight weeks to God. It's so amazing! I am so thankful that God has brought her into my life. Thank you for praying! See God does know what is best for us and He answers prayers. Thank you Lord!

Raining on my parade!

February 2 for most American's is known as Ground Hogs day, it also happens to be my birthday. I had the opportunity of celebrating my 26th birthday in Sudan. How awesome is that? AWESOME!!! My thoughts exactly! It was a normal day, when I first woke up, than I opened my door to go get breakfast and was greeted with a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!DANIELL" and a present! I then was greeted by song from all of the teachers at school. The teachers even gave me a cake and coffee party. One of my students made the cake. It was great! I got presents and a balloon! Leslie and I enjoyed sunflower seeds and peanut M&Ms, wonderful yumminess I tell you! Thanks to Judy Moler for providing these amazing yummies. I even got enough internet connection to call my Aunt Margaret, with whom a share a birthday with. We only got 30 sec of connection but it was amazing. I was able to talk to my mom for a minute and half on skype as well. Yeah! The next day we even had rain! I'm sure it wasn't for my birthday, but I'm continue to think that it was for my special day! It actually RAINED, I know right, crazy! You see it is currently dry season and the hottest part of dry season. Leading up to the day of rain(Wednesday) I was jumping in the shower in my pjs and my top bed sheet and getting soaked, going to bed like that and than waking up half way through the night and doing it all over again. I have done that since the day of rain. The rains came and this was like the first rain of rainy season rain. It lasted for about 2 hours and was like a wall of rain. It rained so hard that I had a stream of water running through my front room. Crazy, right! It was amazing! So weird, but such a blessing. Thank you Lord for the one night of coolness! A break in a season of tortureous heat and constant sweating! What a great birthday week. My Birthday cake!

Yummies of Goodness! Thanks Judy!

My birthday balloon- compliments of Maretha!

You can't see it but there is a goat hiding under the awning from the rain. It rained so hard the goats couldn't escape. It was hilarious to see them moving in circles to escape the pellets of rain.

Red dirt, white socks, and new books

In the land of red dirt, Monday morning anticipation was high as forty-eight children woke up and forty-eight children put on maroon and white checkered uniforms, freshly pressed white shirts, gray trousers or skirt, white socks and black shoes. They made sure their hair was in order, they had their snack and they were off. Many did not walk far because they live on the same compound as the school. Some walked a mile and even some came on motor bike.  All different ages from three to twenty- four. Some do not know English, some it is their first time in this school, and yet some it is their first time EVER in a school. Forty-eight children sat in the assembly and met their teachers and other pupils. The first day of school went as most first days of school. Crying pre-schoolers, because they miss their parents. Screaming pre-schoolers, because they saw a toilet flush for the first time in their life(they were afraid they would get sucked down). Lunch time came and the children went home to process the events of the day. That afternoon teachers discussed time table mess-ups and number of pencils needed. I would say that the first day of school was a success.

Praise the Lord! We have entered into our second year of school as Emmanuel Christian Academy. Praise the Lord! We went from twenty-two students last year to forty-eight students this year. Praise the Lord! We found a pre-school teacher just in time for the first day of school. Praise the Lord! We have gone from two secondary students to seven. Praise the Lord! We are getting so big now that we need a whole other building. We are using rooms for classrooms that are not supposed to be classrooms. God is good, God is faithful, and God has a master plan for our school.

This year we have senior 1, senior 2, and senior 3 in the secondary school- which, roughly translates as 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th grades.  The next two terms I will be teaching history, geography, business studies, and computer for all of secondary. I also am teaching study skills/library media, which I am actually really excited about. This all translates into nine different preps. Fun, right?!

Please, continue to pray for ECA. We still do not have all of our textbooks; they haven’t arrived yet. Some teachers do not even have one copy of their textbook.  We also are still in need of another primary teacher and another secondary science teacher.  We have two students that are adults, one is 21 and the other 24, please pray for them as they have a lot of challenges ahead of them. We have fifteen brand new pre-school students and most of them do not speak English. Please, pray for these students as they are scared and this will be a tough adjustment and please be with their teacher as she is also new herself. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for ECA this year! 

It's been a while...

I apologize for not posting in while. I have written, just not posted, so here are some of my old writings, but new to you!

January 1, 2010
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! This year holidays have been a little different, because although I love living in Africa it is still a little strange to be away from family and friends. Yesterday, I was discussing with friends of what we all did last New Years and to be quite honest I can't really remember. I do remember, however, that I had gotten really sick. This year I had the awesome opportunity to hang out with a lot of people I didn't know and some I did. We had someone from Australia, Ireland, Sudan, Canada, and about seven from the United States. It was so much fun talking and getting to know each one of these people. We experienced bringing the new year in together. This year we are all going to have different struggles, different celebrations, different surprises, and different experiences. I'm so thankful that I got have that night with all of my new friends.

January 3, 2010

There are new words I pick up every day and one new word that I have had the privilege of using for the last month is “holiday”.  Holiday in British English means vacation. I began my holiday over twenty days ago. I was excited for this break and the chance to see friends and experience different ministries. I have learned so much in the last month from my holiday, but the one thing I have learned the most is the point. What is the point of a holiday? Since it is the Christmas season I was listening to one of my favorite Christmas cd’s by Shane and Shane.  One of the songs that caught my attention is “Holiday”. I have posted the lyrics below. The main theme is that Christ should be our holiday. Now in the song they are actually talking about holiday as in celebration and I am talking about vacation, but I think they can go hand in hand. Plus, I’m the one learning the lesson. The point of a vacation is a break, a hideaway from reality and the hecticness of everyday life. So, I have learned that as I was taking not only a break from my reality in Sudan I was taking a break from the reality of Christ in my life. I was taking a break from being intentional with God, taking a break from seeking after Him and sitting at His feet. I was reminded that just about a year ago I had learned that, just like the song says, “… you are the favorite part of me”, that God had taught me that he does dwell richly in me, therefore, making everything about me about Him. Ok, so now the goal is to get back to that. I can safely say that my “holiday” from my reality of Christ is over and I  am trying to be intentional in calling out His name and making Him my hideaway!

You are my holiday
You are right in the middle of me
You are my hideaway
You are home

I’m calling out your name 
Oh my holiday
You make my heart new
And I love you!
What it is I’m trying to say
Is you are my favorite part of me

January 8, 2010
Beauty in its fullest extent. The cool crisp morning breeze, the rushing sound of water over the Nile rapids.  Many different types of birds flying to and fro trying to find breakfast, using song to bring in the morning, Monkeys jumping around, not staying still long enough to actually see one, but you know they are there. True sounds of peaceful relaxation in the midst of God's beautiful creation. Three men paddling against the current of the Nile river in three separate canoes probably trying to fish.  A small group of women across the river sitting together.  I can not help and wonder and hope do those women, do those three men see God in this beautiful creation they live in.  Do they see the power yet delicacy in His hands as they look at the landscape, do they hear the gentle whisper of His voice in the current of the river or the His strength in the rapids? I am remind of Romans 10:14-15. These verses are a huge challenge to me every single day. Is my life reflecting this to those around me?