Camping in the Living Room and Valentine’s Day

As I write this, I am sitting all bundled up by the fire.  Outside it is thinking about snowing again.  Noel has braved the cold and headed to our big meeting early to set up the sound and help with the worship.  Winter will follow with the neighbors in about an hour.  David and I will stay home today in hope that he will be feeling back to himself soon.   As the Winter season lingers on, many people are running out of fuel and wood.  Noel thinks that we should be okay if we are careful.  To buy more is very expensive at this time of year.  I have been giving my cleaning lady any cardboard I have to stretch out her wood some.  It is not much but every little bit helps.   Since the temperatures at night have been below freezing and we don’t heat the upstairs, we have been camping in the living room.   Here is a picture of the kid’s beds/fort.

I suggested to David that he put the pillows against the wall so it would be warmer.  He advised me that the pillows are better where they are to keep him from falling out of bed.

Our school weeks have been messed up with last week going to school on a Thursday and this week only have a four day week due to Departure day on Wednesday.    At least the students are learning and progressing in spite of the crazy schedule, cold and snow.  I gave three tests last week which kept both me and the students busy.  Overall I was pleased with the results.

Noel has been working hard as usual.  One of his projects lately besides flying has been transitioning our maintenance data to a computer program called WASP.  It will help them track all their maintenance and parts more efficiently and reduce the amount of paper work needed.  Noel has also been helping develop reports that will get them the information they need in about 30 seconds that use to take a few days to gather.  The Wingman software that they put in last year for flight booking has been a great help in tracking data for partners such as ECHO (European Economic Humanitarian Organization) which help subsidize some of the flights.  Here is a picture of Noel getting ready to spend a day on the computer while we had Thursday school.  We left him in this spot and when we go home he was still there.

As you can see, it is also a favorite spot for David.  The bukhari is to the left.   Noel had a good week.  One day he almost got stuck in Mazar due to the weather but we are thankful he made it home.  He also spent some time this week training local staff in inputting data into the WASP system.

On a fun note, this week was Valentine’s Day.  It is not celebrated here but David made us a lego valentine.  We always enjoy his lego creations.  He often tries to do one for me for each season.

A couple of posts that I have written on TJ’s Musing that refer to our work here that you might enjoy are Seeing and the Snow and Seeing and Lunch Duty.

A couple of prayer requests for the week:

1. Our electric meter was read wrong and we had an electric bill that was as much as we spent all last year.  Pactec is working to get it fixed but pray that it can be taken care of soon.

2. Funding for ISK.  Currently our director is in the states raising funds for the school as we slowly get away from USAID funding.  Also pray for the timing of the funds from USAID.  They are stalling on a payment that was suppose to be this month.

3. During these cold months, everyone can get a little grouchy.  Pray that the love of God will shine brightly in and through us.