Happy Thanksgivings!

Although we we not in America to celebrate Thanksgiving, I can assure you that American Thanksgiving is in us! We have actually celebrated 3 savory Thanksgiving feasts this week. On Thursday we took a trip across the border into South Africa and had a special lunch with just our family and a friend. No turkey that day, but the food was scrumptious! 

Butternut Squash Quiche: excellent!

Dakotah chose a gingerbread cookie for dessert

On Friday we went to Beautiful Gate and shared a more traditional Thanksgiving meal with Bryan and Anita Geurink and many of the BG volunteers. This meal included turkey, mashed potatoes, and all the fixings.

Did you have a Lego turkey decorating your table this year?

Faith with her creation

Hungry?

Josh (Pastor Tim Spykstra's nephew) and his wife Micki joined us as well. They have been volunteering with another mission in Lesotho, encouraging orphaned teens to complete high school. 

Thank you, Anita, for all the great cooking! Anita made two turkeys, mashed potatoes, gravy,
homemade rolls, a pecan pie, and a pumpkin pie from scratch using butternut squash. Delicious!

Today was our third Thanksgiving meal, which we celebrated at the home of the American ambassador to Lesotho. This was another traditional meal followed by swimming in the backyard pool. Not bad, huh? It was very interesting to meet other Americans doing a variety of work here. The ambassador arrived about a month ago, filling a two year vacancy. He seems to be a wonderful man and was a gracious host. 

We are so blessed to be in Lesotho and thank God for calling us here at this time. We also want to thank all of you for supporting us in so many ways. You have made it possible for us to be here, and we don't take that for granted. By the way, we have some special visitors this week. More on that later! 

Seven!

Seven is the number of completion. Today we thanked God for the completion of our student body with the safe arrival of three new students. Kyle and Annie have just returned from furlough in the U.S., and Bella was previously homeschooled here in Maseru. These are awesome kids! Please pray for our school family as we grow and learn together. Also, pray for the families of our students as they work in various ministries throughout Lesotho, fighting poverty, injustice, and despair with the love of Jesus. 

This morning we read Philippians 1:9-11

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.

Think this might be a good theme verse for our school year? 

Remaking

Thursday, November 6

One of my passions is interior design. I am one of those people who would be blissfully happy watching six hours of HGTV a day. Going through model homes or hanging out at Home Depot is my idea of a great afternoon! Yesterday and today Beth and I painted our kitchen, living room and dining area with help from some American women who have come to Lesotho to lead a women's retreat this weekend. We have had so much fun just putting our own stamp on the place where we live, making it our own. 

While paging through a design magazine today, I came across the following quote by Joan Didion: "A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest...wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image." Immediately that made me think of our Heavenly Father. He claims us harder than we truly comprehend, shapes us, loves us radically, and conforms us to His image. 
  

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.  --Ephesians 2:10