Hello from Beth

Hello everyone!
I was going to wait until tomorrow to write but decided to take advantage of having both electricity and Internet since this is the first time we have had Internet and we have lost power every day. It is so wonderful to be back with our Canaan family!!! We were even greeted with some hugs when we arrived after midnight Tuesday. There were lots more hugs, of course, on Wednesday. I cannot adequately express the joy of seeing these beautiful faces that are so glad to see us--and the joy I have in seeing them once again. They are growing and changing lots. Some of the children have changed a lot and many we recognized right away. In past years our days have been more strictly scheduled with conferences, and the children have been in school until evening. It is wonderful to be here with them when they are on break from school. We watch them doing their chores in the morning and then spend lots of time with them throughout the day. Laura is a natural with the children. She is learning the names quickly and is obviously gifted as a teacher. Tim also fit right in with the children from the first day. Some of the boys ran up and grabbed his hands and off they went! He has been playing lots of soccer and has been working with them on the staff building and carpentry building: tossing bricks and hauling sand. The children remember Papa Don very well. I think they started laughing when they saw him before he even started doing funny things for them. He always makes them laugh, sometimes when he tries to pronounce Lugandan words and sometimes by tickling them or just making funny sounds. It is such a joy to hear all the laughter from these joyful children. The children were all running to see Molly and Megan--this is their fourth visit to Canaan. Most of the time they have lots of children sitting next to them or on their laps, often braiding and playing with their hair. They just want to be with us, no matter what we are doing.

We have had several rain showers. We were able to see how the water is channeled down to the water tanks and yesterday we saw a beautiful double rainbow! God was so wonderful to give us such a beautiful reminder of His promises. With no power last night, the stars were an incredible sight!

I could go on and on but will stop for now. Taylor, thank you for your messages. We love and miss you, too! Would you email Scott and give him the blogspot in case he wants to check it out? Scott, in case you read this, Barbara and Betty have asked about you and Taylor. Dad, I gave Isaac your Arcay calendar and he was thrilled with it. He asked about you and Mom. Thanks to all of you who have written notes to us. As you can tell, we are doing very well. Love to all of you, Beth