a relaxing saturday

Today has been a nice morning so far! I slept in a little and then organized all of the ministry items people had brought to the villa these past two weeks. Ended up finding a lot of the stuff that was "missing." Funny what a little cleaning can do! After that I came to villa 37 where the internet is and have been working on some spreadsheets and other work stuff in order to get ready for next week!

Yesterday was a blast! I woke up and went to camp which on Fridays is at the hilltop at the Tree of Life. I stayed there for a couple hours and helped the summer staff girls get all the gifts for the kids organized. I watched them sing a few songs and then I walked down to the houses where the kids who LIVE at the Tree of Life were just getting out of school. I had so much fun just hanging out with them. There were a couple that just wanted to hang on me and have me hold them the entire time.

Of course I fell in LOVE with little Ackim. He is 6 years old and the oldest of 3 brothers that just got moved in 2 weeks ago. His two younger brothers got sponsored right away because they are just little babies. Oh but Ackim was SOOOO cute!! I hope he gets sponsored soon. (If anybody is interested.. let me know!)

Anyways, at dinner last night the Americans all give testimonies of their weeks and of course I just start tearing up because of some of the stories they told. It is always SO COOL to hear people that come for one reason or another and go home a completely different person. Gives me chills just thinking about it. God is so completely intentional about everything He puts in our lives.

I have to tell you what impacted ME the most yesterday. We have one little boy who just moved into the TOL and he has a disability in both his legs. Well I found out that when he moved into the TOL somebody had to physically carry him into the house because he couldn't walk. The next week he was getting around with some help of the other kids. YESTERDAY we had some of the kids run out and meet all the Americans and Gift wasn't one of the ones we picked, but as we let them go Gift took off RUNNING!! His legs were still bent in as he ran, but it didn't matter anymore. He was FREE. Seriously, the sweetest boy. While I was hanging out with them, he just kept coming up to me with the biggest smile and giving me hugs.

Today the new group of Americans come in! And we start all over again :)

adventures in London

well after 3 years of actually going into London, I decided I was done with that. Not being able to sleep on a combination of 20 hours of plane rides and up all the day before I left and then up for the 10 hour lay over in London is just really hard on a girl. Know what I mean?

SO one 9 hour plane ride down, 2 train rides, and MANY elevators and escalators, I made it to my home away from home for the next 6 1/2 hours and counting. Yes, I did all of that BY MYSELF. I must say, I'm getting pretty savvy at finding my way around ridiculously big airports. Ok, I may have asked for directions a time or two, but for the most part I did it alone.

I'm not sure what you would call this room. It was described to me as a cruise ship room but as I sit on the bed and look around, I'm pretty sure the length of my body could reach both ends. Ok, I just tried it. I'm about a foot and a half off. Needless to say, I'm more in a little pod then a room. (Jodi if you're reading this, remember when we wanted to share the yotel last year?? Yeah I don't know how that would have worked out!)

I would like to comment that I watched 3 movies and listened to 2 CDs on my trip to London. It is an excellent time to catch up on all the movies that I always had good intentions of seeing but never actually did. Adjustment Bureau anyone?

Ok, I'm off to take a quick shower and a nap!

Here's to hoping the alarm clock pulls through :)