Hello! First off, let me say thank you to everyone who has left me comments, sent emails, or left me sweet messages on Facebook! I am so thankful for everyone’s support, encouragement, and prayers! It helps so much to hear from you all! And, it has come to my attention that there are people reading this who are friends of friends, and don’t even know me, but are still praying!! WOW! Thank you so much!
This week we found out that we will have to change the dates of the village trip. The girl who was going to come with us as a translator isn’t able to go anymore, so we will be going with another lady! However, she can’t go until the end of the month, so now we will be leaving on the 21 of February and coming back the first weekend of March! This new lady was a school teacher for many years, so I think it will be really great to have her help when we are teaching and I think the children will really respect her!
We spent a lot of time on candles this week! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but one of the main projects we work on here is candles that are made out of recycled wine and beer bottles. We collect the bottles from local restaurants, take them home, fix them up, and make beautiful candles out of them! Then we sell the candles to pretty much everyone! And a lot of the restaurants we collect bottles from, use the candles on their tables! We are on load shedding, which means that in the dry season, there is only about 10-12 hours of power a day. Because of this, it’s dark most of the time. Therefore, candles are very important! So by making these candles, we not only help recycle all of the bottles, but we help people out by giving them beautiful new candles that last for a long time. Most people just use the little stick candles that only last for maybe an hour before you have to replace them, but our candles are bigger and in a holder [the bottle] so they last four about 30-40 hours! BUT the best part is that 100% of the proceeds we get from selling candles go back into the project to help the women we work with who are being trafficked or abused or don’t have any income for their families. It’s so amazing to not only see the help we give these women, but to see the community rally around to help out the project! Neighbors come by all the time to give maybe one or two bottles they have and say “for candles!!”. And people have come over to help in anyway they can! They know that the project helps women so they want to help. Such a blessing. Plus then we get to share with them about why we do what we’re doing.
One of the best things about the candles is that they are a perfect image of the women they are helping. For starters, all of the bottles say “not for sale in India” on them… a perfect reminder that these women are not for sale either. And each bottle we get is unique, some have scratches on them, some are chipped, some are broken. But they all are given a new life and turned into something beautiful. What a blessing. My roommate here had this idea about a year ago and she has worked hard to figure out how to make it successful! It is such a great ministry and so fun to be a part of it and see it start to grow!
Besides the candles, another hobby we took up this week is putting thread in our hair! It’s like the hair wraps you do at camp, or on vacation. You basically just do macramé around a thin section of hair and then you have a little bit of colored thread in your hair! Originally, we just did it because we were bored and though it would be a fun afternoon activity, but then we went to one of the shops and one of the girls we are trying to build a relationship with saw it in my hair and was so excited because she had always wanted one in her hair. So, we went and got some string and did her hair for her! It was wonderful getting to spend some time with her and talk to her a little bit! Who knew that something so simple could make somebody so happy?
Things I’m learning:
-- By the time I come home I bet I would be able to have a hippie commune. Seriously, I’m learning how to make everything from scratch and from all natural products.
-- Language classes are still going really well and I have been able to speak a little bit with people here and there!
Things I’m thankful for:
-- God’s provisions, peace, and perfect timing.
-- Supportive friends and family back home.
Things to pray for:
-- Obviously, we are working a lot with trafficked women. So please be praying for all the girls we work with and their safety.
-- I am feeling much better and my cold is gone! So thank you for all who prayed for that! I really appreciate it!
-- Please be praying for the village we will go to at the end of the month! Since we aren’t going now, that just means more time to pray for the ministry we will have there :)
That’s it for this week!
Blessings.
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