Dear Friends,
          It has been too long and I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. To think that we are already half way through the semester blows my mind. Much has happened since my last blog, so I will try to remember all of the important things! Thank you so very much for all your prayers! They are much needed and I know God has been listening. Carrie and I absolutely love what we do here and I can see God working through it all. Please continue to pray for our students to know how much we love them and want them to grow in the Lord. Please also pray that Carrie and I will build each other up and push each other toward Christ. Other prayer requests would be for our school ABCCA and our church Flood. Pray that God will use these ministries for His glory and the spreading of the gospel. Thank you all so much!
          Once we got into a routine, the craziness settled down a bit (at least until Christmas gets closer.) So, we have settled into all of our classes and they are going really well. We are encouraged by our students hard work and dedication along with all the potential that we see in them and in the entire ballet program. God has placed about one hundred and twenty students in our classes which is wonderful and a challenge at the same time. We want to minister to them as well as push them in ballet and it can be overwhelming. Sometimes I feel unqualified to try to 'lead' so many girls. It is humbling to ask God to use me even despite mistakes and shortcomings. It is a privilege to teach so many girls with such great attitudes and they bless me so much. I am very excited to see how the Christmas Production goes this year! Everyone has been working hard on preparing and I hope that it will reach out to the students families and that people will come to the Lord. There is still much to be done though, so please, please, please keep all of that in your prayers!
          It is so cool to me how God gives his children so many different kinds of talents in order to put them in different places at different times to impact different people. Our workplaces should be one of our "outreach" opportunities. I have enjoyed seeing people with different gifts like teaching, leading, music, dance, sports, medical, organizing etc. coming together to spread the gospel. Carrie and I are really excited to take some of our students to perform around the community and share the gospel through dance. That hasn't really been done here much, so pray that God uses the dances and brings the opportunities! We want our girls to learn how to use anything- even something silly like dance for the Lord, because He uses everything to touch people in different situations. We also had the opportunity to perform with some of our friends from church in a huge music festival called City of Stars a couple weeks ago. It is a 'secular' festival, so it was a big deal that they let a Christian group perform. Our friends group is called One Lord and they did Christian rap with a little bit of remixed ballet. It was a lot of fun! Carrie and I both want to get into the community more and are looking into different ministries, but it is hard to find time. We are hoping to rearrange our schedules a little bit to make it easier. There are so many ministries and we are trying to find the ones God is calling us to.
           Last year, God taught me about the importance of memorizing scripture. He made it clear to me how we need to have His word at all times. As I was memorizing James, He showed me how important prayer is. I saw that when I was studying the author and how he was always on his knees. Someone who inspired me to be in constant communication with God would be my mom. In fact, that's something I am learning right now, to remember to look back... to look back on what God has taught us and who has been influential, to never forget what He has used to get our attention. I think its important to share how far God reached to pick us up out of darkness. Its important to remember how it had nothing to do with us and how His incredible grace has no end. His continual daily grace doesn't run out and that is what keeps our hearts bound to Him. Besides learning to remember, its becoming clear how the quality of time spent with God really matters. "Chashah" is the strong's word used in the Bible for "be still." It means to be inactive. "Meno" is the strong's word for "abide." A couple of its definitions are 'to remain' and 'lasting.' What does it mean to be inactive before the Lord? How can I keep my mind inactive and waiting for Him instead of letting it be distracted? I want to remain in His word and have that be lasting. I want my time spent with Him to be a learning time and that is my prayer right now. God is so faithful and I am encouraged by how He works in all of us differently at the same time!
          On another note, Malawi is beautiful and living in another country has changed my perspective more than I thought it would. When we have time to go out and explore, its been fun and we love to go out to eat and hang out with friends from church. One of my favorite things to do when we have a chance to get away on the weekends is going to Lake Malawi. Hopefully we will be able to go more often! A couple weeks ago, we went with some friends and had a great time relaxing on what feels like the ocean. At school, we recently had "Reading Day" which is a big deal here where everyone dresses up as a book character. The kids got really into it and it was a fun day off. This week is also Mother's Day here so we are having a long weekend. Its nice to have a break before the rush until Christmas begins. We are enjoying some rest since usually we are always running around doing something. I also got a package in the mail from my wonderful grandparents and parents last week!:) I have to say that was the highlight of my month. I love hearing from my friends back in the states so that's been fun to stay in touch with people across the world. Carrie and I have also gotten to be good friends and I am super thankful for that. I thought it would be hard to move to another country with someone I didn't know, but it has been great. I think we bonded over our love of coffee and coke:) haha. Anyways, I love you all and am so thankful for your prayers! I am praying for you as well! Enjoy the pictures below! Much love,

Emilie

 

 2 of my favorite people:)

 

 

 how we survive

 

 getting our hair colored

 

 

I was a bit concerned...

 

 

We loved it and this is the real us:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures of our students

 

 

Reading Day:)

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fun with friends:)

 

 

 Festival Performance

 

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Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. (John 15:4, 5 AMP)