I’m back . . .
It seems like forever since I my blog, and I know that my last post was, “I am stuck in Chicago and hate traveling.” Probably not the best way to leave a blog for two and a half months!

So just in case you were wondering, I did make it to Sierra Leone with my mom, and we were only two days late. It was to have my mom here. The kids loved meeting her, and I loved showing her my other home. Her name while she was here was Mujay, which means, our mother. I loved seeing my two families meet each other and how warmly people here embraced my mom.

My mom left, and two days later the teacher team came with Aunty Nicole as its leader. The in-services and activities for the teachers were great this year. I think groups of teachers learned a lot.

We tried a new thing this year that we called the leadership team where a smaller, more-invested group of teachers met together to discuss the needs see in the school and solutions to those problems. Our hope is that this will and empower the teachers here to take more responsibility for the things that happen in the school.

In the midst of the teacher team being in Banta, group of college students, known as the interns, also visited us. Leading those interns was my main role and responsibility this summer. We had four interns, and they were here for two months serving our kids in the home and the surrounding villages. They were great, and it was a joy to serve alongside them as their leader. They in the lives of our kids.

Additionally, three other teams come and gone doing various activities this summer. Life was overwhelmingly busy leading the interns, helping with teams, and sorting out a variety of things at the school—hence the lack of blog posting. There was absolutely no time or energy to sit down to type up a blog post.

The interns left last week, and myself, Mark (my co-intern leader and Sierra Leone liasion), and Dave, (our construction consultant) were able to take a small break in Freetown before coming back to Banta, where much work awaits us! Right now, most of the kids are on holiday visiting their relatives, so the place is quiet.

That’s a brief summary of the past two and half months of my life. More details will come shortly. Please continue to pray for me!