April 13

Lovely Sky. Wicked Wind.

 Dear Framily,

 We are feeling so out of shape. Yesterday we joined some other volunteers from our church and school to participate in Community Clean up Day at Holbrook. Even two hours of bending to pick up trash along the highway made me rubbery. I found some interesting things besides the usual cups, cans, diapers, and bottles. I found a pair of pants, a beach towel and a toy. AND a phone! It took some sleuthing, but I will be able to mail it to the owner tomorrow. The first name on the contacts list that I called made no effort to help me, but the second one stayed with me while conference-calling her husband, who eventually figured it out and put me on a conference call with the owner. Aren’t you glad that the Lord “stays on the line” until the lost is found? We cling to that promise for our children here.

A trip to the crosses.

Thanks to our librarian friend in Waldorf, we have some new books and kits for our children. We’ll take some photos when the children return from vacation. Speaking of which, we don’t have too much planned though we’ve scheduled a day trip to Winslow to tour the La Posada Hotel and maybe shop at WalMart. (Holbrook has no shopping opportunities.) We’re not sure about another day trip – maybe Canyon de Chelly.  Otherwise, we have saved up some projects for our vacation, so we’ll be plenty busy. :)

The children aren’t always eager to come home. If you could hear their stories, you’d understand why. Some receive physical abuse, and others are neglected so they do nothing all vacation but eat Ramen noodles and play video games or watch movies. They want to go home, and yet they don’t. No wonder the days before going home are so stressful.

We had four staff moms expecting last week; now we have three. A new baby was added to our campus! Such joy! Everyone is so excited.  We now have nine staff children here with their parents. Let’s pray for them this week. They are in a different cultural situation because they are neither the Native Americans nor the ones called to serve here. The younger ones don’t face racism because they are so cute, but the older one has more difficulty.

Have a wonderful Easter Season,

Love to you always,