I've already failed one of my New Year's Resolutions. I have a list of several goals for 2009 and one of them was to update the blog at least once a month. As you can tell, January has come and gone and I've broken one of my goals. I'm really going to try, with Hannah's help, (since she's pretty good on the computer) and do better.
So let's update you on January. The highlight of January was Ray leading his language teacher to the Lord!!! What a joy! Ray has also been able to visit the village every Wed, (with his language teacher) and has seen several come to know Christ through visitation. God is still working in the hearts of the people here in Africa! Ray is studying several hours now each day with his personal tutor and this is working very well. As far as our family, the kids and I are very busy with school. We're working toward the goal of completing all work before we take furlough. Everyone is doing OK. Please continue to remember keep Aleshia's health in your prayers.

Till next time,
Lecia and Hannah :)

Posted by Ray at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well people told me that I would make mistakes while learning Kiswahili and they were right. Today I was writing a sentence down in swahili that should have said "What is your religion?" and I thought I did it correctly but when Pele got finished reading it, he started cracking up and I couldn't figure out why. When he finally stopped laughing he told me that what I wrote was
"What is your husbands name?" And then, of course, everyone else started laughing too,(including me). Now I know I will never hear the end of it from Pele. Oh, well, at least I know what not to say...LOL!!!!!! And by the way, Pele is our language teacher.

Posted by Ray at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am so sorry for leaving you all hanging like I did. I saved the message as "published" instead of "unpublished". So it posted the story instead of just saving it. And now here's the rest of the story.....

I was getting ready for bed and had just walked into my room when something shot out from behind my basket in the corner of my room and ran under my bed! I thought it was just another lizard (a really big one at that) and so I asked dad to come down and help me catch it...I can handle the little ones in my room but I draw the line at letting the big ones sleep with me. So dad came down and we went back to my room to try and scare it out from under the bed so daddy could get it. Well it worked and I found out really quick that it wasn't a lizard but a mouse!!! In a matter of about 10 min my whole family was in my room trying to catch it. And what do you think we caught the mouse with? You guessed it. Good old fashion Duck Tape!!! If we had used the duck tape first we would have saved us time and the poor mouse several heart-attacks!! It took us about 30 min to get the poor thing, course only 5 minutes once we got the duck tape! But we finally got it and daddy desposed of it quickly. So after an exciting night of catching the mouse, we all went to bed and slept soundly.

Posted by Ray at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Ray at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

There is much to tell you all about our time here but today, I want to share a funny story about duck tape, a green momba and a "green" missionary. It was a nice Saturday afternoon, or at least it was until Ray went to the office. He had to find some important papers that were in Bill's office so off he went. I was in the dining room sorting bills and Aleshia was doing the dishes. Daniel and Hannah were gone. Aleshia said that she was going to check on Daddy. "Sounds like he's hollering", she said. Well, she wasn't gone long before she came running back saying that I needed to get a broom and the duck tape. (everyone knows that duck tape has a multitude of uses). When I asked her why she was so excited, she said that a snake had daddy trapped in the office. There is only one door in and the snake was between the door and him. Bad place to be!!!!! Well, Aleshia and I fixed up the broom with duck tape and Aleshia went to the shed and got an axe and a shovel. Armed to kill, off we went. Now the problem as mentioned before is that the snake is between Ray and the door, the only door. So now we have to come up with a way to get the broom to Ray cause I sure ain't gonna stick that snake to the tape.....so Aleshia and Ray worked to get the broom through an open window and I had the wonderful job of snake watching....it was a THRILL!!!! Not!!!! Well, once the tools for the kill were ready, Ray attacked. Aleshia screamed. The snake starts its attack and Daddy sticks it for the kill. Well, it made a terrible mess in the office but we are thrilled to say that it is dead and we are ALIVE....it was a green momba, or so some of the Africans said. " If you get bit, then you live 10 minutes." Not my ideal way of spending a Saturday afternoon but we praise the Lord that we are all fine and dandy now.

Till next update,

Lecia

Posted by Ray at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are all finally all together on the field where God has called us to be. At present all of us are learning the Kiswahili language and for the most part we are all doing well. Some of you may want to know if any of us have had maliria yet. The answer is yes, Ray has had malira once and is now doing fine.
I am not sure if all of you have our email address here, so if you do not then here it is
weeklyintz@barmedas.com. Our girls also have emial addresses and would love to here from any of you who would care to email them. Here are there addresses:::
Hannah's is hannahsgonebananas@gmail.com
Aleshia'a is iwishihadabrian@gmail.com

We thank you for you prayers and suport and we will try to keep you updated as much as possable.
God bless you
The Weekly Family.

Posted by Ray at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would appreciate everyone's prayers as I am currently studying Swahili in Mwanza, Tanzania. Thanks!

Posted by at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)