~WHAT! YOU ARE GOING TO SHUT OFF OUR WATER FOR A WEEK?!~

Well, I'm back, after a brief commercial break! =) I've been BUSY...and I bet you'd never guess that I've been sewing. =) Last week I made 13 skirts. I decided that I wanted to make some skirts for some girls in our one church, so on Thurs. and Friday I made 10 skirts for those little girls. ~Some of those little girls are 1 and 3 years old, thus the tiny skirts. =)~
They don't have much for they are sooo poor, and several of them want skirts, but can't buy them. I also wanted to show them my love by making them some skirts. More about this down the page.
On Thursday, our doorbell rang and we saw that it was the water man to read our meter. So, we let him read it, and then he left...or we thought he left. 2 seconds later, he rang our doorbell again, and wanted to see our last water bill. Phillip went searching all over the house, (while I was washing dishes) and finally found it HIDDEN among some papers on Phillip's desk, UNPAID, and the date to turn off our water was days ago. UGH! So, the guy had come to shut off our water FOR A WEEK! HELP! So, while Phillip was talking to the water guy, he yelled to me in English to fill up water containers, so Kimberly and I were RAPIDLY filling up all the containers with water as fast as we could. I came out and Phillip and I both were talking to the man and asked if there was ANYTHING we could do to not get our water turned off, and told him that we have the money, just didn't realize that we didn't pay the bill. He looked at us and said, "You could give me some money, and I won't report it!" IN OTHER WORDS A BRIBE, which is common here, but isn't right, but tempting when you think of not having water for a week! So, Phillip came inside got money to go and pay the bill and walked out, told the guy he was going to pay the bill right now, and LEFT the guy standing in front of our house, WITH NO BRIBE MONEY!!! I was inside praying, and Phillip was praying as he RAN to pay the bill, (here you can't pay by mail, you have to go to a bill paying place) that God would PLEASE have mercy on us and not let him turn our water off! Thank the Lord, it's 3 days later, and we still have water...but I still have those containers full, just in case. =D
Saturday mornings, I always go to the fruit and veggie market in front of my street, but I don't normally get there until around 11:00 or so, and the market closes at 2:00. Well, this Saturday I decided to try to get there earlier and got there at 10:00 and I noticed that they were taking things down to leave, but yet still selling. So, when I got to where my friend, Neyla works she told me that there was going to be a Soccer game in the stadium right beside the market, so the police told the market that had to close early. So, Neyla, knowing that I wouldn't know about them closing early, tried to get together all the fruit that she knows that I normally buy, and was going to bring it to MY HOUSE, if I didn't show up in time. WOW! It pays to have friends in the High places. HA! That was very thoughtful of her! She has started taking college classes, so doesn't have time to come to my home to practice her English, but we get to see each other every Saturday at the market. She's sweet.
I went to a store in the mall, and they are selling BEACH TOYS, TENTS AND CHRISTMAS TREES ALL AT THE SAME TIME!! You see, they start decorating for Christmas here in Sep. and in December is when a lot of people take their vacations and go to the coast to swim, etc. It was funny seeing those things sold all in the same area. =)
We had a good Sunday today, with 2 good services. A little girl in our Sunday morning church turned 1, and her mother had expressed to us earlier that she really wanted to celebrate her birthday, but didn't have the money for a cake. Cakes here aren't that expensive, so on Saturday we bought (2) cakes, some chips and pop and took it to church and fed our whole church after church in a different area. ~Happy birthday, Melissa! Yes, you are seeing right, SHE HAS CAKE ON HER SHOE! =)~~We gave Melissa this sippy cup and the little skirt I made her. This is the smallest skirt I made, and we all LOVED it, it was sooo cute and tiny and the little cuts to make the raggy look on the hem were only about 1/4 " instead of the normal 1" or so.~
Melissa's Mommy was very happy, and everyone else was too! ~Some of the people that were there for our service.~ I passed out 8 of the 10 skirts that I had made. The 2 new little girls that weren't here to receive their skirts today (they'll get them next week) ...Phillip just told me the other night, that their Mother died a year ago. They are around 4 and 6 years old. Poor little things, how sad to not have a Mommy. =( It made me want to cry and I PRAYED HARD FOR THEM while I was sewing their skirts. All the girls were very happy with their skirts, and I'm glad that the Lord helped me get that project done. Lord willing, next Sunday, all the girls are to wear their new skirts I made them, and we will take a picture. Believe it or not, I've put away my sewing machine...but we'll see how long it stays put away. =D We ran down the mountain in a bus, walked our mile home in the sprinkling rain, (but God held off the downpour until we got into our house) and then we made dinner, gobbled and ran to our evening service. There were no birthdays there, but we took treats (the 2nd cake, and other things that we purchased on Saturday) for that church too. So here we are in a small taxi with our normal piano, stand and suitcase and we 5, PLUS a large cake box, holding a cake, and 2 bags of food, napkins, plates, etc. and then on the way up the mountain, there was a wreck and no one could pass the wreck. Since our taxi driver didn't know the area, he drove around ROBINHOOD'S BARN for awhile, trying to find his way up the mountain, but to no avail, so, we finally got out and walked for awhile hauling all of our things, until we passed the wreck and then God sent us another taxi and we arrived RIGHT on time for church. Praise the Lord! We had a good service tonight and everyone was glad that we had thought to bring refreshments. Part of our congregation~
~Another part of our congregation. This is mostly one family, they have about 10 kids, I think. The 2 oldest attend our ACE school.~
Who knows when some of these kids that attend our churches have eaten last?! It's fun touching their lives with some love for Jesus. On the way home in the hour long bus ride, we counted 71 dogs this time. =D (When you've seen the route a BILLION times and you have an hour ride there and an hour home, AND IF YOU DON'T LOOK OUT THE WINDOW SIDE, AND LOOK TO THE OTHER SIDE, YOU ARE FACING TONS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE STANDING IN THE AISLE, it's just better to look out the window...and you got to do something while you're looking out to help you not go crazy. HA!) Thanks for praying for us, we had a good Sunday, and plan to SLEEP all day on Monday. =D I wish!