Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!

So, I with school being on break I forgot yesterday was Friday. So here I am on Saturday instead. Sorry. Today Liz and I baked dozens of cookies to put in packages to give to our Cameroonian friends. We put on the Christmas music and pulled out both new and old recipes to try out. Our house smelled great! So you see even here in Africa we have Christmas baking sprees. As one of the singles in the community I have been invited to a Christmas Eve dinner and evening of games at a young families house. Then Christmas morning the singles were invited to a brunch at another families home. Christmas dinner a bunch of the singles will feast together in our apartment building and fellowship and play games. It is different here because the churches don't have Christmas Eve services. Se we will do our own thing to remember and celebrate. Tonight I see a friend off to the airport to go home for Christmas. She will return in Jan. but it makes me wish I could go home. But then I know returning here would be even harder. So instead of going home, home is coming to me in the form of 5 of my family members! I am so excited to see them just 5 days from today! You can be praying with us for safety as they travel out here and as we travel about the country. We will go up north to a safari park and then west to the beach as well as spend a few nights in my part of town. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Well, I made it through my first semester of teaching! It was hard and challenging. I fell many times and didn't want to get up, but my savior picked me up each time and taught me to lean and depend on him more and more each day. These last 4.5 months have not been easy at all. But I am soooo blessed because of the challenges I faced and the trust and dependancy on God I gained. I can't explain or properly put into words how I have grown and matured in just over 4 months. God is truly good. I love celebrating this time of year, knowing and remembering how Christ came into this world so we could be free to love him and choose him and live forever with him. This year, more than ever, I realize how truly thankful for that I am. For without Christ, my sins, my loneliness, my fear, my pain would overtake me. But with him, joy, love, peace and hope rule my life.
I pray that each of you will meet Jesus in your own personal way this Christmas!
Blessings and Christmas wishes to you and your families!
Merry Christmas!
Amy

You know something is wrong when it is raining inside and not outside....

So today I have an adventure to report! I didn’t even have to leave my apartment to experience it. Lately in the mornings we’ve been having problems with our water going off. This happens some times because something happens to the town water and we are then put on reserve tanks. I just thought it was something like this. But then we heard water running somewhere around us, sounding like it was coming from above. Our apartment is on the top floor so there is no one living up there. The only thing above us is the reserve water tanks. Then we saw it, water flowing down our kitchen window above our sink. Then it started dripping from the ceiling directly above the sink. We frantically tried to get help. Liz went to the main building to look for Wilfred, our maintenance guy. Meanwhile the drips moved deeper into our kitchen and I was getting buckets so we wouldn’t have puddles on our floor. Then it started dripping over our stove so I quickly put a large bowl there. I have 5 large buckets and containers out catching water when Liz came back with Wilfred. We were afraid one of the containers had broken and our whole ceiling was going to collapse. He turned off all the water, then climbed up into our ceiling to have a look. He found it wasn’t good, but not as bad as we feared. Something happened when the town water came back on. It automatically fills up the reserves, but for some reason it didn’t stop this time and the bucket that is there for that reason overflowed as well. He cleaned it up and soon the dripping stopped. He will come back later with a part to fix that and several other problems we are having. Our hot water heater is broken again and I have big leaks over my window that leave puddles of water on my floor when it rains. So hopefully our apartment will be fixed later today. But something will go wrong again, this is Africa! Liz had to go teach, but I stayed to squeegee our floor and dump out the buckets of water. Quite an adventure!

School is almost out. Today is an abbreviate schedule and then we have some Christmas party/program. I am not sure what all happens. I just know food is provided! Then we have class through Wednesday of next week. That is unless Wednesday is declared a Muslim holiday, which is a possibility, then it will be taken off because it would be a national holiday. I only have 4 of my regular class periods left to teach in this semester. I sub 3 periods for the geometry teacher who is going home over Christmas to visit his mother. Hopefully he will have a good visit and nothing will delay his return.

11 days till Christmas (on this side of the world at least) and 13 days until my family arrives! We had our choir concert last night, which I was singing in, and it I felt such joy singing songs about my savior who has come and will come again to save me, to save us all if we let him.
AMY

Oh the anticipation!

I realized as I was falling asleep last night that I forgot to post a blog. So here I am on Saturday morning writing to you instead. It is a hazy morning, which will most likely burn off by late morning to early afternoon leaving the sun very hot with little cloud cover. How’s that sound to those of you who are surrounded by cold weather and snow? I’ll trade ya.
This week went by slowly and fast all at the same time. It always seems when you are awaiting something time goes by more slowly. I am awaiting the arrival of my Savior’s birth and of my family! Christmas is in 17 days and my family comes in 19. I joke with my students and say I can now count it on my fingers and toes. We have a week and a half of school until break. Just think, I am only 8 school days away from finishing my first semester of teaching. I figure if God and I got through one semester we can make it through the other.
There is not much new and exciting going on in my world. Tonight we say goodbye to and celebrate the service of one of the Covenant missionaries who has been a school counselor for the last 4 years. Mary, is leaving next week to return to CA. Also there is a student teacher and our art teacher leaving at the end of the semester as well. There are a lot of hellos and goodbyes that go on over here. Actually at the end of this year we have a lot of teachers leaving either for good or on furlough. If you are a teacher or know someone or a family who is, and teaching in Africa at a missionary kids school would be a good match for you or them, then pass the word along and let me know because our school is looking for teachers.
My church here didn’t really do much to celebrate advent last Sunday. But at our Covenant prayer meeting last Sunday we did sing some carols and light the first advent candle. That felt like home. I don’t have much as far as Christmas decorations go. The only thing really is a tiny foot tall decorated tree that the Covenant has for short termers like me. The school has a weeklong ‘Secret Angels’ gift exchange that I am participating in starting next week. That should be fun. But I do miss my family Christmas tree and the stockings on the fireplace and sitting and drinking a cup of cocoa by the fire as the Christmas music is floating about the room. Oh well, when I have that again I will just be appreciative all the more.
I did just finish and send out my first newsletter this week. If you have not received it and would like to, please email me (amyoxendale@gmail.com) or post on my blog and let me know. I would be happy to send one to you!
Enjoy the decorations around you, find delight in the laughter of the season and don’t take for granted the special moments and treasures of each day. Enjoy a fire and cocoa for me!
With much love and joy,
AMY