selam-neow.

it appears that the rainy season is over! we have had a gorgeous week of sunshine. everything is green & life in addis is beautiful. what a great week this has been. definitely my best week here so far. :) how sweet is the Lord, that each week just seems to get better and better. lots of fun with my kids, our class is really growing together and it is such a blessing to see the growth in each of them.
my tennis and basketball teams are both going great. the kids seem to be having lots of fun & are really making improvements.

my language tutoring is going really well. its hard only having a couple of lessons a week and trying to balance practicing and studying with school and preparation, but i am learning some & doing pretty well. i've learned a good foundation of basics for speaking and have learned 3 forms of fidel (which is the amharic writing) i've had several people tell me that i sound like an habasha (an ethiopian) when i speak amharic. watch out. i do realize however, they were probably just being nice. but i'll let it boost my confidence anyway.

this weekend was great. played softball on saturday with some families that live on compound, it was a really nice taste of home. and it was a lot of fun to teach our british and australian friends the concept of the game.
saturday afternoon i went over to my dear friend Lidya's and spent the rest of the day with her family, learning to cook traditional ethiopian food and of course eating lots of it. it was so lovely to spend the day with them, they have made me part of their family and i am so blessed to know such beautiful people. & its quite nice to have a family here in Addis :)

another great morning of worship at Beza. & lunch with some new friends from church. what a beautiful way to start the week, filled with excitement, thanking the Lord for another great week and praising him for the blessing of each day to come. & challenged to seek Him even more.

the Lord continues to amaze me each day. and my heart continues to overflow. i'm definitely receiving far more than i am giving here and pray that the Lord is working in each of your lives and blessing ya'll as much as he is me. pray for my kids, that each day the Lord would become more and more real to them and that they wouldn't see me, but ONLY Him and his great love. pray for my language learning. that i would have time and opportunities to study and practice. pray for continued peace, rest & joy. and that when the hard days come, i will be reminded of the great blessing that it is to be here.

much peace & lots of ethiopian love.
lb