So I know I said I'd get better at updating this, but I failed again. It's been a month since my last update! So much has happened. We've moved into our new building and are settling in! Our second term has begun and we're finally moving along after the two weeks of fun and mayhem that the Rolling Hills brought with them. From the moment we picked them up from the airport, we were going non-stop. Classes, games, worship, dinners, hiking, testimonies, soccer...it didn't stop! Not only did our kids have the best time with the team, I did as well. I was blessed beyond belief having my sister and some great friends on that team. It was so amazing to watch all of the first timers fall in love with these same kids that I fell in love with last year, as well as watching the returning members reuniting with the friends they had made on the last trip. I had expected to have a lot of fun with the team, but what I hadn't expected was how those two weeks were going to impact my relationships with the Academy kids. Being a teacher, I do not get as many opportunities to interact with the kids as you do when you come on a short term team. I don't get as many chances to stay up late playing games or watch movies or burst into spontaneous song with them. With the team here (and my desire to be with my sister as much as possible), I stayed late and just hung out. It was amazing. I didn't know it was possible to fall more in love with these kids than I already had, but it happened. Those two weeks strengthened my relationships with these kids through laughing, joking, playing, worshiping and talking. And I'm pretty sure the team had a good time too :) We were blessed by that team and they are deeply missed by all of us out here.
During those two weeks, I would stay late and just hang out, resulting in really fun times and some great
conversations.One night at dinner I was just casually chatting with a couple kids. Somehow, the conversation turned pretty deep and one girl and I sat for over an hour talking about what it means to really follow Christ. We talked about the difference between saying you're a Christian and actually walking with Jesus. We talked about how being a Christian is less about being saved from hell and more about being saved to Christ, it is less about having said a prayer and more about lordship. As we talked, she asked me if I remembered having a conversation with her when I was here last year. Of course I did, but I didn't think she did, what with all the teams that come out and conversations that take place. She asked me if I remembered what I said to her. I remembered the conversation but let's be honest, I talk alot. I wasn't sure exactly what I had said. She then repeated my words back to me about these kids being the hope for their communities, about God setting these 30 children apart for this opportunity, about the bigger picture and being a part it, about allowing God to use her to change the world in whatever way he wanted, about how she was created and being molded specifically for that purpose. She told me that she never forgot our conversation and that she was so happy that God called me here. She said she would start praying that God would never call me away from here. I told her my mother's prayers might cancel hers out. 
All that to say that I am so blessed. I know nothing, I have no wisdom to impart, I don't have an extensive vocabulary that makes me sound smart, I dont even make sense half the time. But I am blessed to have been used by God despite all of that. Every time I teach one of them something and they get it, every time one of them confides in me, every time they give me a hug for no reason, even every time they just call me "Miss Fenwick", I can't understand why I am the one who gets to be here. Why me? I have no idea, but I am thankful. God really does know us better than we know ourselves. And he really is faithful. And good. And yet we, just as Israel did time and time again, forget this and doubt. Stupid, stupid us.
Here are a few things you can be praying for:
1. Our Kids: Please just be praying for them constantly. For their hearts, their studies, their attitudes (they are teenagers
afterall), just everything. Let's just cover these kids in prayer as the enemy tries to use their circumstances to defeat them. Be praying that we have more and more opportunities to go deeper with them and be real. I had a conversation the other day with one of our boys about how he now has no friends when he goes home to Philippi because all of his friends recently joined a gang so he doesn't want to hang out with them. It was just a reminder of how real this is. They really come from that world and they really go back to it when they go home. We need to not only be praying for these kids, but that they would then be salt and light in their communities. That the things they are learning would translate over into their lives in Philippi. That they would play a part in the transformation of their world. We have two long weekends in a row, which means two long weekends they are back in that world. Be praying for them.
2. Our staff: What the staff at this school does every week amazes me. The patience, love and dedication these people have for these kids and this vision is so inspiring. Please pray that all of us would have an increase in wisdom, patience, compassion and an overflowing of love for the students.
Thank you to all of you who have been praying for me, the kids and this ministry. Keep it up. God is moving.
