Issue #81
February 11, 2001

Dear Friends and Family,
As usual, it has been a busy two weeks. This upcoming weekend is one of the busiest of the year. It is Penny Fair and Elementary Musical weekend. This means that lots of people are in the midst of preparations. My roommate, Celeste, is a sophomore sponsor. The sophomores are in charge of the food. There has been a group of sophomores at most houses almost every evening and most of this weekend and last. They have made grapefruit slush, cooked taco meat, made tortilla chips, baked homemade pies, made pizza crusts and sauce, and lots of other stuff. The food should be good. The freshmen are busy coming up with the rides and booths. I am working with the elementary on the musical. We are behind because of the weeks that we missed. We have to do a lot of work this week. This also means that there will be a lot of parents visiting this week.

The cool weather that I had mentioned last time is a thing of the past. Now when I enter my classroom in the morning, it is at least 80 degrees and is 90 or above by afternoon. There have only been a few times that it has just been HOT though. There are occasional cool evenings, which make a nice break.

Last Sunday I was able to visit the Free Will Baptist Church in Bouake. Although I had helped some with this church, I had never been able to attend the services because of my responsibilities with Sunday at ICA. It was a Free Weekend so we didn't have Sunday School. It was a really nice service. I hope to be able to attend some more.

My class did a play this week. I was beginning to think I was crazy to try to do a play in my class while I was working on the musical. It ended up going really well. There were also several parents visiting so they could watch it, too. It is amazing how many people I can squeeze into my classroom when necessary.

Yesterday, my roommate from my first year who also got married that year had her second child. She was scheduled to go in for a c-section on Wednesday, but the baby decided he wanted to come early. I ended up babysitting their other son for the day. Brendan was born yesterday morning at 11:40 with no problems. Both mom and baby are doing well.

Please pray for everyone as they are trying to get everything finished for the weekend this week. Pray for parents as they are traveling and that they will have a good time visiting with their kids. Pray for me as I am working with the elementary kids that we will be able to pull this musical together.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

In Christ,
Traci