I'll be home for Christmas....

Things have been going really well lately here in Moroto. My women's group has been great as always! They are still excited to learn each Bible Story, and to share what they learn about God within their families and communities. My little Maria told me last week that she recently shared the story of Joseph (which we have been discussing) to 40 women in her village!!! She said those women have asked her to share stories with them every week!!!! So Maria is starting a Bible Storytelling group with 40 women on her own!! What an encouragement Maria is to me.

Maria! Photo by Mrs. Susan Davis

Maria also shared with me that her 89 year old mother (Alice) also loves learning the Bible Stories. After our group meeting, Maria goes home and teaches Alice the stories she has learned. So I set out to Maria's village to meet Alice.
I was so encouraged after meeting with Alice, and again so thankful for the heart that her daughter (Maria) has for others to come to know Christ!

Alice is blind. She spoke of being excited about being with Jesus one day, and having her sight restored!!

I also rejoice with her!!! This is Alice with her great- grandchildren...

I think in my last post I told you about how we learned to make local baskets for income generation for the women (which is going really well by the way). A few weeks ago, we also had a soap-making workshop. Did you know that soap is made mainly from animal fat!??!? YUCK!! Every morning, the local butcher would deliver beef fat to our office for us to "render" into "tallow" for making the soap. Basically, just cook down for the oil. Oh, I had a really tough time with this whole animal fat thing! It smelled AWFUL! But the women really enjoyed learning how to make soap. They had never done so before. And guess what!! It worked! It was so amazing to use a batch of the soap and have it lather up really well. The women were very happy about the workshop. I have to say though, the next weekend Ruco was at the office while I was at home. He called me and said, "The butcher is here. She has killed a camel. She said the hump of the camel has really good fat, and would probably make great soap." After a week of collecting kilos and kilos of beef fat everyday, I just had to say, "no thanks!!" haha!! We needed a little break from the animal fat, and I was certainly not interested in that moment with the camel hump fat!!! haha! I know, our life sounds so weird! :)

So, on hiatus from animal fat collecting, we have been making baskets like crazy! ha!

Making a basket from Palm Leaves

Using Sisal and palm leaves...

Marita and I, not to be confused with Maria, or Martina. Somehow, a lot of the women's names sounds alike!!

It seems that we have only been busy with work, but we HAVE managed to sneak some fun in too! Ruco and I have had the chance to hang out with really good friends in the last couple of weeks, and do some fun things. I have really been encouraged and challenged with the wonderful chats we have been having lately. I can't wait to get home for the holidays and chat with family and friends about the things God has been laying on my heart lately too!!

See you all in less than 2 weeks!!!! Love you all!!