Tara’s July Update -2009

Tara’s African Adventure’s – July 2009
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:5-8
Check your ATTITUDE…..Have you ever been in a situation where you really had to check your attitude? I remember going through the teenage years and my mom having to remind me at time to “check my attitude”. There seemed to be several instances of needed attitude checks this week among some of our students. I found myself quick to point out someone else’s attitude that needed to be dealt with. Then God got my attention and said, “Tara, what about your attitude, does it need to be checked?” WOW, I was deeply convicted I was so quick to point the figure when in my own life I was allowing a NEGATIVE attitude to eat away at me. Praise the Lord for his beckoning in our hearts. Do we have an attitude like Christ Jesus today? Have we humbled ourselves before him? That is my prayer for each of us today that our attitudes will reflect Christ alone…… check your attitude!
Husbands Please…..I shared in a recent blog update some of my struggles and frustrations I have had with my kitchen ladies. But God has convicted me to continue pressing on in their hearts and lives- I believe he has mighty plans for them! This week they earnestly asked for prayers for godly husbands. I took that as a challenge to prepare ourselves to be godly wives. So please pray with me as we begin to study what is a godly woman and pray for godly husbands too!
You can read!!!!! It has been amazing to see the growth in my first and second graders. They have taken leaps in bounds in their English understanding and reading. Recently as I sat down to practice reading with Seaza. He read the story almost perfectly and had a big smile on his face. I exclaimed with great joy, “Seaza, you can read!” He proceeded to go home and read the story several times to the members of his family. His father later told me how blessed he was to have his boys part of Emmanuel Christian Academy and how thankful he is for all the teachers. Praise the LORD!
Teacher, can I pray? One of my favorite times in class has become our Bible lesson. We sit down on the papyrus mat and listen to the story from the Bible. The kids can’t get enough and are always mad at me when I don’t finish the story in one day. They have developed a love and passion for the Word. We have also had sweet times of praying to our Heavenly Father. This is a new concept for them and has taken some time for them to become comfortable praying aloud. Suzan was particularly shy in praying, but has begun to come out of her shell. In a recent discussion about prayer we were talking about how we can pray to God in any language. Each of them know at least three languages. Suzan took the stage and explained to Seaza that it is okay he can pray to God in any language he wants- God knows all the languages. Seaza said that he didn’t know how to pray to God in Ckawa (one of the languages he knows). And Suzan just said, “Seaza you just pray in the name of Jesus and then tell him anything you want to say, he will listen to you.” From the hearts of children, YOU have ordained praise! Simply spoken, but so much truth. Continue to pray as these children are growing their relationship with Christ and learning how to trust HIM.
PRAISES:
Piano- we were able to purchase the piano for the school, what a blessing!
Rain- the last three days we have received rain, but we still need more for the crops- continue to pray.
Good Health-God has provided continual good health for me this month- praise the LORD.

PRAYERS:
Travels- I have some upcoming travels to a team retreat, pray for safety on the road and in the air.
Rain/Malaria- continue to pray for rain, and protection against malaria on our compound.
New Students- pray for the adjustment of four new students to ECA.
Kitchen Ladies- pray for guidance and direction as week seek the Lord about becoming godly women.
Many blessings-
Tara
P.S. Continue to check out the blog as I have posted many new stories and thoughts of things going on here. Hope to post new pictures soon! BLOG- http://tarainafrica.blogspot.com