Give Thanks

I think I even like Thanksgiving better than Christmas! It has more of a "togetherness" feel for me, and not too much hustle and bustle that often surrounds Christmastime. And fall is just my favorite season...I love the sounds, sights, smells, weather. I miss watching American football too. There's plenty of football here, just not the American kind. This is going to be quick, because I have to hurry home and bake an apple pie and make deviled eggs! But I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, and let you know I'm very thankful for your thoughts and prayers and your generosity in so many ways. I have so much to be thankful for this year! I am truly blessed!

I miss spending this holiday at home, with family and friends, and fun times. But we're celebrating here too! I'm headin' over to a friends house tonight, where 40 of us are gathering and enjoying a huge feast of foods from all over! To say I'm excited is an understatement. James has had 3 LIVE turkeys running around his compound all week. Ha! Not live anymore. My friend, Jennifer helped me make my very first apple pie from scratch last night. I never realized how time-consuming pies are! But lots of fun to make. We actually had school today, but just for a half day. My kids learned about William Bradford, the Pilgrims, the Mayflower, and Squanto. We planted corn and squash in our garden this week and wrote thank you letters to Jesus. We made thankful turkeys, and multiplied and divided with corn. And my kids LOVED learning to sing "Over the River and Through the Woods" and "Albuquerque Turkey" (to the tune of Clementine!) It was neat to share holiday traditions and history with my students from all over the world. (We also celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, back in October, by the way! :-)

As I get excited about celebrating this holiday of thanksgiving, I can just look around me, as we all can, and see others that are not as blessed as we are. And we can see MANY reasons to give thanks, and many opportunities to give to others. Let's give thanks to God, our Creator today! Thank Him for ALL things. Thank Him for the clean water that runs out of your sink today that you can drink. Thank Him for your car today. Thank Him for your grocery stores. Thank Him for your health. If you're sick, STILL thank Him...thank Him for giving you the time to rest and be in His presence. Thank Him for medecine, and the money to buy it. Thank him for hot water that comes out of you shower. Thank him for supplying ALL of your needs! Even the ones you aren't even sure about right now! Let's thank Him for ALL things today! Have an attitutde of gratitude! :-)

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever!

I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart.
I will enter His courts with praise.
I will say this is the day that the Lord has made.
I will rejoice for He has made me glad!

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!

Update on Kelly

Thanks for your prayers for my roommate, Kelly. She is still resting at home now, and finally has a healthy appetite back. She is still weak, and needs to gain A LOT of strength back before she can go back to being our enthusiastic P.E. teacher. But she is on her way! She goes back to the hospital on Thursday to get tests done on her liver to check her liver enzymes. So we're hoping for a good report. The jaundice is gone, and her cheeks are looking rosy again, so we don't refer to her as "Yellow Kelly" anymore! :-) Thanks for your prayers ya'll!

Prayer Request for Kelly

Thank you for your prayers! I finished my malaria meds last night, I'm back at school today, and I feel good. I sang "Fishers of Men" with my kids, led basketball practice, and just got back from Bible Study. I am just believing that the Coartem killed all the malaria, and it's now totally eradicated. Believe with me! I know that it can be pesky and come back, so I'm being cautious, and I'll take another blood test soon to make sure. But I am believing!

Now, I still need your prayers for my roommate and dear friend, Kelly. Kelly is from South Carolina and teaches P.E. here at KICS. She also contracted malaria....(we think we may have gotten it on our trip to Uganda?) Kelly became ill a few days after me, and because she initially thought it was a flu virus, she had malaria in her bloodstream for 3 days without taking any medication. Yesterday, just as I was feeling much better, Kelly took a turn for the worse and developed jaundice in a bad way, which means her liver is not functioning properly and cleaning her blood due to the malaria. She was taking the same meds as I was, and they usually kill the malaria 98% of the time, but not this time.

So now Kelly is resting at the Seventh Day Adventist medical hospital, and she is in good hands. They have her on a quinine I.V., and are giving her vitamins and glucose too. The doctor there is Dr. Tommy, from the Philippines, and he was an internist in California for many years, before coming to Rwanda in 2008. He has run many tests, and did an ultrasound on Kelly's liver today. She developed a bacterial infection yesterday as well. I just talked with her tonight, and she sounded the best she's sounded in a week. But she still has no appetite. Please pray with me that Kelly can get some rest tonight, and she can begin to eat again, and her body can fight this disease. We miss her, the students miss her, and I know she misses being with us and being healthy. If you will just pray with me that she can be comforted...because it's hard being sick so far away from home. We all know and believe in God's power to heal, and I know there is certainly power in the prayers of believers. Pray with me...  

The big, scary "M" word

Malaria. Yep, I've got it. Its humorous now looking at my last post on Tuesday when I thought everything was just dandy...I had only maybe eaten something a little odd....but with a nice long nap, I thought I would be fine. Huh uh. It's like right after I hit "send" on that blog, it went downhill from there.

Malaria, I've learned, is a cyclical illness....meaning it fools the heck out of you. Just when you think you're on the brink of getting better, all those evil symptoms reappear. I started on malaria meds Tuesday night after fever and aches and chills led me to believe that's what it was. But after taking two rounds of the pills, I stopped because we (principal, doctor parent, myself) thought it was just a crummy flu bug that lasted 3 days. That's where I went wrong. Shouldn't have stopped. Because I've also learned that when you're taking the meds, but stop them too soon, the malaria that's still left in your blood just multiplies and comes back worse. Which it did. After staying out of school Tuesday-Thursday, I felt strong and came back on Friday. But I stopped the malaria meds on Wednesday. Not good. So when I felt so strong on Friday, I thought I was good to go! I was back! Nope. So last night when the symptoms ALL came back, with the fever, and the crazy dizziness where the room feels like it's elevating in front of you...and when you look at someone, they have 4 heads...that's when I knew something was up!

So I finally took the blood test to verify, and yup....it's Malaria, plasmodium falciparum, is the scientific name. Apparently, that pf strain is not a good strain to have, out of the 4 types. But I'm back on Coartem now, and taking ALL of them this time. I'm very fortunate I have doctors here, and super cheap meds. When I was bored out of my mind the other day, lying on my bed, I thought about how expensive it is to be sick in America. You have to pay to go to a doctor just to get a consultation, then you have to come back for blood work, then come back a THIRD time to get your results, THEN pay for your prescription meds. It's crazy. That's one advantage of being here. I have great missionary doctors, and you can get prescription meds without even seeing a doctor...and the whole box put me back about $11, instead of over $100 in the States. (Of course, if I were in the States, I probably wouldn't have malaria right now. So I reckon it about evens out.)

But honestly, it's not that scary of a word once you realize what it is, and you have the treatment. But for so many here...sadly, that's not the case. While I am estatic that I can have treatment for just $11.....there are many who don't have near that amount, and if they had a fraction of it, it would be spent on food or water. Even though Rwanda is developing and I've seen improvement in education, health, industry sectors even since I've been here....there are still around 90% of Rwandans who live on $1 or less a day. So coming up with $11 is not an easy thing.

I am thankful for my health today. I am thankful that I have $11. I am thankful that I have a warm bed to sleep in and get well. Reading on CNN just now about the many dying in Haiti of cholera, it makes me feel so helpless. I wanna just get up and go to there! Haiti has suffered so much this last year with the earthquake, aftershocks, typhoon, and now cholera. Please, let's keep praying for that country, and seeing what we can do. And pray for all those around our world who don't have access to basic needs like clean drinking water and food to eat...and the $11 for malaria treatment. Be thankful today! And I thank YOU for your prayers! :-) Love you all.

Sick Day

I bit the bullet today and came home to rest. It was a wonderful decision. I'm ok..just think I ate some real funky food last night that didn't agree in a big way, so I pretty much had a sleepless night. Still went to school, but at Chai break, (yes, we have a "break" for that!) I decided I was crazy to stay and try to give energy to my kids when I felt like passing out! My principal is wonderful. He covered my class for over an hour until he found a parent to come in and help out. And before that, he walked me home and carried all my books. Not cause I couldnt' do it myself...just cause he's that much of a great guy...perfect Southern gentleman...except he's from New Zealand/England/NY. :-) I slept for 4 hours, and now I'm on the mend, but still trying to find something that agrees with my stomach. Days like today are when I really miss little things about home. Cheerios, air conditioned (or just the cool, fall weather), TV to cure my boredom. I never miss TV, except on a day like today when I'm even too tired to read. But I decided to get out and get some air and try to find some crackers, so I'm sitting at the coffee shop now and taking advantage of the Internet.

Even though I've felt less than stellar, today was a really good day. It's so neat how just when you need that pick-me-up for whatever reason, God has a way of sending a blessing. During Chai break today, when I was feeling so crummy, and getting ready to leave....one of my students from last year, Gwyn, from the Philippines, knocked on my door and came in with a big grin on his face. He had made me a card last night, for no reason in particular, and he wanted to read it to me. It was a green card, with a red, beaded star on the front. He opened it and read,

 "Dear Miss Griggs, I want to thank you for being my teacher and my friend. Last year, you taught me so much about the Bible and about God and who he is. Now, I really believe in God and I know more about him because of you. I am thankful that God has brought you to my life and my family's life. Thank you for teaching me everything! God Bless you. Then, at the bottom, he drew a picture of me teaching the class, and saying, "God is good, all the time....all the time, God is good."

Of course by the end, I had tears in my eyes, and I gave him a great, big hug.

We really do serve a God who knows all of our needs, big and small, and wants to bless us abundantly! May you know and experience Him today and all of His blessings promised for you.

Just breathe

This week, in Bible, we learned that God is omnipresent. Big word for 4th graders! But they understood. One of my students...Azarias, from Ethiopia, became so excited at the concept that God is all around us. It was precious how he described it to our class...

"Miss Griggs, God is like the air we breathe! We always need air to breathe, and we are always breathing in new oxygen. We can just breathe in God like that, anytime we want to! And sometimes, we just breathe Him in, even when we don't realize it and we don't even know it! We can breathe Him in all the time, and I think God would like that, don't you? I think that's what He wants us to do."

I think Azarias is right. :-) Children really amaze me. How they can just grasp a huge concept, and make it real to all of us. Azarias is the first Christian in his family, and he's learning more about the love of God every day at KICS. When I hear him pray, I get goosebumps. This kid is going to be doing great things for the kingdom someday. Actually, he has already started working, even at 10 years old. I can see the Lord working through this young child to reach others, even his own family. If only we could all receive the kingdom of God with such a childlike faith as Azarias!

If you're feeling overwhelmed today, or frustrated, or tired, or weary....just breathe Him in! He's the air we breathe. Take a deep breath, and let His Spirit enter in!

Goodnight ya'll!

Fall Festival Fun

Today, KICS had its 2nd annual Fall Festival. (I still find it odd calling this season "fall" here...seeing as how it is still 90 degrees in the daytime, and it stays about that year-round. But since the rains have started, it does cool things off at night, so I guess we can call it fall.) The festival was great fun again this year, and an excellent opportunity for outreach into our community. There were families from all over Kigali, all different ethnicities, religions, backgrounds...coming together to enjoy food and snacks and games and costumes from all over the world. It's a beautiful sight seeing a sea of different smiling faces. :-)

Last year, many families who came to our festival, also came to CCR church for the first time. I love the partnership that my school and church have. Many of our board members and leaders at KICS, are also leaders at church, and in the community as well. We hold chapel at the church, PTO meetings, and student assemblies. And "Sunday School" and youth group meets at the school each week. Last night, was "Reggae Night" for the youth at church/school. Only in Africa! :-) I loved walking home last night, and hearing Bob Marley's song being played and drummed as, "No Jesus, no life" instead of "No woman, no cry." :-) Everyone was dressed in black, yellow, red, and green, and sporting their very best dreads. :-) Love it! Reggae music has such a history here, and the youth really resonate with it. I remember hearing it every night as I walked in the village outside of Mombasa. There's something alive about it! The night becomes alive, and the people become united when they hear Marley. Hearing that song last night reminded me of sitting around the bonfire in 2006 at the Benedictine Monastery in Limuru, singing that song with a bunch of Kenyan monks. A memory I will never forget!  Anyway, sorry for rambling....I find the partnership between the schools and churches to be unique here, but in Rwanda, it's not uncommon to have churches and schools who partner with each other. Even government schools that are not at all affiliated with any religion.

I munched on sambusas, pizza rolls, falafels, and shawarmas today, and listened to our kids sing and dance different music from Ireland, India, Tennessee and Bolivia. My students painted pumpkins as their favorite book characters for decorations. They turned out great! Even though we had a huge downpour right as the festival began, and some of the paint washed away, they still looked amazing and I was proud! They wrote character reports to go along with their pumpkins. All in all, it was a great day!

 The Grinch, Horton, and The Cat in the Hat!

Harry Potter, and a hedgehog

 Beautiful ladies!

 Marijke, the pirate

Eyoviel and Azarias

With Joshua, one of my favorite students from last year