Much excitement has filled the air at Bethesda this week. School started on Wed. 1/14/09. It was fun watching the children come as much as a 1/2 hour early for school with new uniforms on and back packs slung on their backs. Laura, an intern, and I had the joy of helping the teachers over the past two days prepare the rooms for the arrival of the children. The rooms truly do look like a fun and exciting place for the children. God continues to bless Bethesda for on the first day of school they had a total of 10 towns children enrolled and plus four additional towns children came to enroll that day. One child's aunt came and stated that her sister had just died and there were 3 siblings. The younger two will live with Grandma and the oldest with her. She stated that she wanted him to come to Bethesda for school as she has heard only great things about Bethesda and that they truly knew how to care for orphans. The similar story still makes my eyes well up with tears as I realize and feel the pain for these children but, I also see and feel the grace that God is providing through Bethesda. There was also a group of 3 people who toured Bethesda in hopes to start another orphanage in the area. I think that this group may have questioned as our group did when we first arrived. Why is the number of children here only 32 when it is such a great program? John explains "God created the family." This is what makes this place so special that each child is given the chance to have a loving mother and father and to be brought up in the christain home setting. The goal being to make desciples for Christ, not just to provide food, clothing and schooling.
Today I actually got to set in on the full day of class and was the teachers aide. I was assigned one girl for the morning to help her with her D.O.L. as she still struggles some with the English. In the afternoon I was able to assist some of the students with math. I was in grade 3-4 with a total of 8 students. Every morning the school has devation. The theme this year is "Love God More" The children discussed what it looks like when you love yourself more then God and what it lookes like when you are loving God more. From this they sang songs of worship and yes you can guess those great African drums came out. There were 3 drums that different students played as the children lifted their praises to the Lord.
There is an empty flatt that is being prepared for another set of house parents to move into which they hope to have placed by end of Feb or first of March. This will allow for 6-8 more children to be placed. They received a call today for a possible adoption. The staff at Bethesda truly have God in the very center of their work, thoughts and daily tasks.
We have experienced some sudden heavy rains. Tuesday was our coolest day which was in the 70's and overcast with light rain all day. Wed. we were up in the 80's again but by mid to late afternoon suddenly a very heavy rain storm came with strong winds. It was raining sideways. There was close to several inches in a short time. Today weather was sunny with temps in 80's.
Making an extended stay has allowed me to see the site functioning in a more normal fashion. It has been a delight to see the love, compassion for all of the children from all of the staff members being a normal part of their lives. As the staff continues to bless the children with their serving God continues to bless Bethesda as a whole. I am learning to serve and find joy in doing ordinary task of mopping, washing and hanging clothes out on the clothes line, running errands for teachers, making name cards, hugging children, and just stopping what ever I am doing and visiting with children or house parents. If we could all slow down, stop multi-tasking and being in the moment I know God would be smiling. God Bless, Sandy
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