Here we go again! Yippy!

We had our first llama meeting today (student leader meeting).  Can I just tell you how excited I am to start back up with youth group?!  I have enjoyed my summer but I am looking forward to doing work that I am here to do.  It was fun doing random things in the summer but oh how I am so happy to start working with teenagers again!

We have two new llama leaders this year.  One is Madeline – her brother was a llama last year and is this year as well.  The other is Nathan – he is from the Philippines and plays piano for the music team at youth group.  I am looking forward to getting to know both of them more this year. 

The meeting itself went great.  I was encouraged by some of the goals that the students have.  Here is a short list of their goals:

-Build faith for new Christians

-Effective ministry IN the school

-Youth group more welcoming and open to everyone.

-Being more real with people

-Investing more with their friends and people they may not be good friends with

-Having prayer as a base and praying for friends as essential

They all seem excited for this year to start; it was encouraging!

Our first youth group of the year is on Thursday.  We have moved locations to they old WIRED meeting place.  My new house is not large enough for youth group.  No one is living in the house we will be meeting in so it should be a good place.  I am going to work on getting it comfortable for the teens tomorrow!

Thanks for all your prayers!  

Group Photo

Here is our Field Forum photo - All the Burkina Faso CMA missionaries :)

My House

I moved in June and thought I would share some photos of my new house with you.

This is my room :)

Here is our living room and dinning room.  We are going to re-cover the furniture one of these days.

Here is the kitchen - its very small.

My front yard with our little patch of grass - something very rare for BF.

There is my little moto and the car.

Some nice things about this house are the screened in porch, the great internet, the location (we are in a very African community) and the spare rooms (come and stay - we have room).

Out of Routine

The problem that I am just now discovering is that I have been out of a routine since about April.  With the power cuts, our unrest situation, camp, heading home for a few weeks, the bush trip and field forum my life really hasn’t had a routine for months.  So, because of that I feel like my life is just crazy.  This blog has sadly been effected.  But, school starts next week and I am hoping to slow down just a little bit so that maybe, just maybe, I can have a routine again. 

But, reality is reminding me that life is hardly ever IN routine – especially here in Africa. 

Sleep and the Dentist

So last night was my first night since I have been back (one week) that I slept normal hours!  I tried to go to sleep at 10:30 p.m. and I did!  And then, I woke up at 7:30!  No more of this going to bed at 1:00 in the morning and not being able to pull myself out of bed until 10:00 business.

Today, I am going to the dentist - which I am actually very excited about.  Can you believe that I was not able to go when I was in the States?  My parents called in April and they didnt have room so I was put on a waiting list - unfortunately I am still waiting :) Yesterday Karen called the dentist here and they said they would get me in today - no waiting list needed here!  Now I am going to find out what a dentist in Burkina Faso is like...haha should be interesting!

I'm coming home

Well I am home, but I am also going home – oh man I have way too many homes! J  My vacation has been amazing.  I have had so much fun the last few weeks – and its not over yet.  After my California friends headed out I went camping with my family, spent time with Lewiston Idaho folks, went shopping in Spokane with my mamma, saw Nate and Tracy and the kids, hung out with my brother, spoke at church and youth group, ate all sorts of yummy food and drove to Ellensburg. 

I am in Ellensburg now and am staying at my grandmas house.  Michelle came over from the west side and so I had dinner with her and Geoff and the Wilson’s which was so great!  Then I hung out more with Michelle on Friday and with the Bender’s – Erin, Josh, Reagan and Quincy in the evening.  It has been so great seeing so many good friends!  Today my friend Kendra drove over from Seattle just for lunch, we had a great chat – so good.  I still have more people to see today and tomorrow as well as speaking at church and then in the evening we will be having a potluck dessert where I will talk more about my job and the CMA’s work in Burkina.  Its been busy but oh so good! 

I fly out Monday to my other home in Burkina and I am actually looking forward to it.  Its nice to know where I am going and what it will be like and that there are actually people there that I like and are excited for me to come back.  

Ouaga and Asotin

Here is an update you on Burkina living for my last few weeks there before I headed home for a little vacation (which is where I am now). 

We headed up to Koubri for 3 days and 2 nights for an end of the year retreat.  It was such a fun few days and I really enjoyed hanging out with the youth kids for this extended time.  We had a lot of the kids who were away at boarding school or who live in the bush that came for this so it was such a joy to get to know more of the youth kids that I don’t get to see as often.  We had a great time of worship, sessions, games, food, campfire, swimming, and just a ton of hanging out. 

Right after camp I hit the ground running and packed up my house to move to my new one.  I did not move far, nearly walking distance from the other.  This one is closer to the international school and has already been such a blessing.  It is much more comfortable and home-y.  Also, I got a new roommate – Susan.  She is working with the CMA by helping Larry in the office.  She will also be helping me with youth group.  I am just so excited to have a roommate for the rest of my time in Burkina.

Also in the last few weeks I have had to say goodbye to a ton of youth kids.  Many of them are leaving because their parents are done with their time in Burkina and so it may be a very long time until I get to see them again.  I got to experience a little piece of what these kids go through every year.  People come and go from their lives all the time – turns out its very hard.  I would say it is one of the least fun and hardest things I have had to do since moving to Burkina. 

Now, however, I am at my parent’s house enjoying a nice break!  So far it has been such an amazing time!  My parents picked me up at the airport and it was/is so great to see them!  Then I headed to Ellensburg and got to see my brother and grandparents and some of my other family.  Now I am all the way at my parent’s house in Asotin.  My friends Mandy, Kandice, Scotty and Ryan all drove up from Redding, California to see me and we have been hanging out since Saturday.  We went boating, on 4-wheeler rides, shooting guns, playing games and just hanging out and catching up.  It has been so great!

30 Hour Famine Summary

I hope you all are having an amazing summer break!  I am sending you an email to let you know how the 30 Hour famine fund raising and projects went.  I know this is a little late but it is very important. 

Thanks to you and the youth groups that partnered with us we raised 8,940,000 cfa or $19,865!

Here is the breakdown of where that money went:

Paam Laafi – 2,115,000 cfa.  Through the Paam Laafi medical outreach we gave 800 children in Yagma medical checkups.

Christian World Outreach – 760,000 cfa.  Through this organization we helped feed their women at their Village of Opportunity vocational school for the next year and a half. 

SIM – 2,250,000 cfa.  SIM was the venue in which we did our grain distribution in the village of Yagma to 400 widows and their children.  We also gave a portion of this money to the Yagma school to feed the children.

Friends in Action – 3,500,000 cfa.  We successfully drilled a well in the village of Yagma.

Pan Bila – 315,000 cfa.  This organization will use the funds to help with their street children ministry. 

As a youth group we spent 2 days in Yagma doing many of these projects.  The boys helped Matt Durkee and Friends in Action drill a well.  The rest of the youth group participated in the medical outreach.  In the afternoon we did a grain distribution to some of the most needed people in Yagma.  Also, we partnered with SIM and Edge to put on a worship service in the evening of May 14, 2011.  After we finished our projects in Yagma, SIM used this opportunity and continued to do ministry and did a church plant.  Many people came to know Christ and now there are about 50 people who are going to Bible study every week.  Please continue to pray for Yagma.  

Please watch this video of our famine and the work in Yagma: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHLLPqsF9nU

I want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who donated and helped us with our 30 Hour Famine. 

Again, thank you guys so much – you are all such a blessing in my life! 

In Him,

Hannah

100th blog!

For my 100th blog I will give you some highlights because I have been slacking and so busy that I have not been able to keep you updated!

First off - I am no longer sick :) Thank you for your prayers - It was just a cold.  So far I have been faithfully taking my malaria prevention drugs and have now gone 9 months without getting malaria!  I am wondering again if its a horrible thing to be taking medicine for this long though...hmmm

Last Thursday we did not have youth group because of a school event called the Celebration of the Arts - It was a pretty awesome thing to be a part of - I got to hear all the middle school and high school bands, see the art work from the art students, hear songs written by the guitar class and see some videos that were made by some other students.  Nearly every single one of my youth group kids had some part in this evening so it was fun to see them perform!  

On Friday I was asked to chaperone the prom.  So I did.  It turned out to be a ton of fun (see the facebook for photos).  I got ready with some of the girls and did their makeup.  Then I drove a bunch of the kids to the prom and then they would not let me NOT hang out with them during the actual dance.  I was so worried they would think it was weird that their youth pastor was with them but they didnt seem to mind one bit!  It was so much fun and thankfully, I did not have to tell a single one of my youth group kids that they were acting or dancing inappropriately!  Also, since the Nehlsens have been packing up and selling their stuff, the girls stayed at my house after the prom - so the night continued and I took home their dates after a movie at 3 in the morning.  The next day I was completely dead and was thinking that I am starting to get too old for this!  Haha oh well.  

Unfortunately I had no time to recover because that next day was our WIRED end of the year banquet.  So again, I had to dress all up and get things organized for another night of fun.  And it was, the banquet turned out great, we gave out awards and the food was awesome!  

Then on Sunday was another fun day with youth group kids - we had a graduation party for Kara Lyons and so we all got together again.  It was such a special time and I am so glad that I got to be a part of it.  We watched a slide show, gave words of wisdom, and then prayed for her.  

This week has been fairly busy as well.  I have been getting camp stuff ready and it is coming along nicely.  We have 32 kids who are coming so far - I think that will be about it though.  I talked to the camp speaker on Skype last week and I am very excited to meet him - from our conversation I think he is going to be perfect!  He has a thick southern accent.  Hehe...

The last youth group of this school year was last night :( I was so sad!  I talked about how life is a gift and then had everyone share what they were thankful for in the last year and then just thank God for what he has done.  We also had all the kids who are moving come to the middle and we prayed for them.  Then after that, we had the seniors who are graduation share highlights and advice for the rest of us.  It was such a great time but it was pretty emotional...I totally cried.  The night ended with all of us just sitting around and talking and lots of hugs.  One exciting thing about last night was that Susan arrived.  She used to live here a year ago and led WIRED.  She has returned to work in the CMA office for the next few years so it was an exciting time to have her back.  She will be available to help me next school year AND she is going to be my roommate!  I am so excited!  

It has been miserably hot here lately.  I have not been able to sleep without my AC on for the last month.  I am very nervous for my electricity bill because running the AC costs about $1 an hour...ugh!  But, I have to sleep with it on - I am just not hard core enough to sweat it out!  Haha.  During the day I usually go swimming at the international school - its almost necessary to survive here!  I can tell we are getting closer to rainy season though - its humid more and last night it rained quite a bit!  Its still a bit cooler today and for that I am thankful!  I am sure though that in a few hours it will be hot again.

Well on that note I think I am going to go!  I do want to say a shout out to Mandy because it is her birthday!  Happy Birthday Mandy!  

sick.

I have a sore throat!  This is no fun no matter where you are :(

But, thankfully its only 86-ish degrees and I even wore jeans today.

Prayers are appreciated!