Above is a glimpse of a regular part of my mornings. Almost every morning I am woken (usually at a ridiculous hour) by a cup of tea or coffee - by the older kids of course - and a selection of delicacies from my fridge. This is usually carrot and celery sticks with a plonk (as Lex would say!) of peanut paste, any biscuits they can scrounge, cheese grated and pressed into a ball and all sorts of other things. I am just the luckiest and most loved Mum in the world! Please click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see the beautiful centrepiece.





The kids are over their sicknesses now. It was strange - all of the kids here at HCJB were sick around the same time but with such a variety of symptoms! Some had headaches, fevers, others had tonsilitis, others vomiting etc. Lex and Jas were pretty miserable for a few days - I converted the lounge into a bed and snuggled with them and we listended to audio books. One was called The Lamb by John Cross and it can be downloaded at Goodseed.com. It was just an excellent gospel presentation for younger kids.





We have a plantation of bananas here at HCJB, which is out of bounds for the kids due to snakes, reticulation etc. One day some of the kids went there anyway, and came out with green, immature bananas and and banana flowers. I panicked and hissed "hide them!!!" and we stole back to our house. (I'm dramatising of course but I still didn't want to be seen!)








Anyway, this is what a banana flower looks like. It was quite facinating. We are studying plants this term when our book finally arrives, so I figured that even though we obtained it wrongly, we may as well use it! Ben and Kira both did an excellent drawing of it for their books.






I wish I could say this butterfly was our very own caterpillar who we loved. We were so looking forward to seeing him come out of his cocoon. I personally suspect that he was either trying to find his happy place in there, or desperately trying to pop out a pair of wings so he could make a bold escape. His clever plan succeeded - I got up one morning and he was gone. I asked the kids if they had seen a butterfly in the house and Ben said "Oh yeah, there was a moth on the kitchen floor this morning so I put him outside." He doesn't know how lucky he was to escape the other kids' affectionate cuddles!

Our biggest stick insect so far!

Things are stepping up for Don. There is a great deal of work to be done and not really enough workers right at the moment. Please pray for him and the other workers that they would not feel overwhelmed but would be able to prioritise wisely and get the most pressing things done whilst they wait for more help. Application forms are at the HCJB website if you want to get on board!

Daniel, Rachel, Sadok and Nicholas Forrer are leaving early in the morning on a 2-3 month fundraising trip. They will most probably visit Maida Vale so please welcome them! (They are our next door neighbours here and good friends). Please pray for their safety on the roads, and a generous response to their needs.

That's about all for now! Sorry that we have been out of touch for so long... time flies and we were out of action for a while when the kids were sick. We will try to post more regularly and maybe Ben and Kira can have a go one day too.

Miss you all!