Day Two

Day two started out great with getting more of the industrial strength swing set hardware up!

A lot of the work today was focused on the little one's play area!

The deck to the slide area was put in place.

The Grace Family Educational Centre school kids who were playing in the field were saying they can't wait to play at the new playground!!!

After lunch the railing was put up around the little one's deck and the hearty stairs were made and put into place!

Bryan and Joseph were working on cutting down the railing to fit for Tom to put in.

Joseph loves to learn from Tom and Bryan and to be able to use the awesome power tools!

Kipchumba, Moses and Lily enjoyed using the leftover wood to make puzzles and homes!

Sitting on the new steps of the little one's play place eating popcorn!

Peekaboo Lucy!

Lucy and Moses enjoying a new place to play!

Yahoo! 3 swings up and a tire swing... 5 more swings to go of various heights! The kids are loving it all already! Thank you Lord for your strength and inspiration to the strong men to make these amazing improvements!

Day 1 of playground revitalization!!

September 28th day one of playground revamping, repairing and adding new play areas!!

Lucy and Levi wanted to show you what is going on here! Tom and Bryan from Roanoke, VA arrived this week and got to work right away. Our playground is well love by Grace family and the community children! It is a place to explore, get past fear of heights, play with your friends and just be a kid. Many children around our area cannot wait for Sunday play day! They come to learn more about Jesus and then play the rest of the day. Most children have a lot of chores and helping around their homes that playing is a luxury. We are thankful we are able to give them that gift.

Figuring out the height of the new poles to help the swing set be more stable.

The holes are dug for the posts going up for a small version of slide and swings for the little ones!

Everyone is enamored with the amount of power tools from America! It makes the work here go a lot smoother and quicker. Tom has been bringing quality tools little by little  since his first trip in 2012.

Later in the afternoon of day one they were getting a lot of little eyes watching them work!

An American generator that came on the container has been such a blessing for all the American power tools to work well!

Lily, Levi, Kipchumba, Moses and Lucy.

As you can see new top beams and middle beams were installed to make a stout and sturdy tire swing and swing set area!!

Tom and Bryan up on the ladders to drill holes through the telephone pole type beams to hold industrial tire swing hardware! 

Lucy, Moses and Levi.

The beams are in place for the little one's play area!

The swing sets and the little one's play area both needed the generator to power the tools so it had to be in the middle! Lucy and Moses saw it as a nice line to jump over!

It's complicated.

Gotta keep perspective through this stormy and uncertain time. May the Lord reign and guide us through according to his will.

It has been tough emotionally lately and I have withdrawn from so much to try to shield myself from anything else that might knock me over. Basically I have been trying to do life on my own without seeking out God and His guidance. I get so stuck in my head and negative thoughts culminate and I have been bogged down when Jesus is right there telling me He can help and I just keep pushing Him away. It is a sad place to be. It is raw right now and I want to feel alive in Christ again. I want to be whole because Jesus fills me not trying to fill my void with social media(in attempt to feel connected to something besides the craziness of Grace family) or filling the void with busyness not stopping to get in His Word to be filled with Truth and wisdom. 

My mom gave me some clarity through this time with this verse:

A lot is happening with Grace family. We are trying to figure out what is best for the children as some of them seem to want to be with their parent or extended family. Their family or guardians put them in our care for us to help them in schooling and basic needs. A lot of them still have family so over this month long break from school in August we sent them home to help them sort their feelings. When we were living in America it sounds like they went home quite often and this was viewed as a boarding school of sorts. So we decided to see what the reaction was of the kids of going home for a month and each one was grinning real big and were so stoked. (Mercy and Moses the two youngest are staying at our home over the break.) So we question what are we really doing here? What does God want us to do? Do we support some children from home? Times could be changing and we want to go as the Lord leads but this is hard. We want each of these children grow to be who God created them to be and may the Lord show us where that would be best for each one. My heart strings are being stretched and I want to trust my Father above what my mind is telling me.

We feel some of the children view this place as a prison because we don't let them run all around the community like their friends and allow all of the various influences in their lives. So they see going home would be more freedom and they may not realize they will have all their basic needs or schooling met. We are trying to do what is best for them but it is hard with so much resistance or complaining. Really hard parenting stuff and big decisions that we pray we would rely on the Lord and His strength to get through. We would appreciate your prayers, support or any ideas you may have!

My friend, Cari Jantamaso, spurred me on with this verse:

An encouraging quote that gave me some perspective today: "When we trust God outside of our comfort zones, anything can happen, anywhere. And sometimes what happens is utterly delightful." -Luci Swindoll

Mudilicious

Close to our home is a wonderful spa! A natural God made one where you just need the rain to come to mix with supreme dirt! A place to go and relax and enjoy getting your feet pampered!

It reminded us of my parents backyard that is on a channel of water where there is a marsh full of pluff mud!

Construction progress updates

May the lord be praised! The classroom and the offices are almost done. We only need a few things before moving in (tiles for one room, desks and furniture). Thank you so much for your prayers and support.