Last day of the first semester

Dear everyone,

It has been a long time without updating you of my life here in California. When I arrived here I just had almost one week of recovering from my flight which took about 34 hours including layovers. The following week we had three days of orientation. It was clear during orientation that once school starts it would be the beginning of busy life.

When classes commenced, it felt like days started becoming shorter. During the semester I had three days of classes (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), however each day of the week was used up for studies. I have never been this busy with studies in my life, where every second counts and time moves like a lightening. Yet the difficultness of the course cannot surpass the benefits of the training itself. I have learned so much in this past semester. God is opening my heart and my eyes each time am in class. There is always something new I learn. Something that has been there all along yet with my blind eyes and heart I could not see or perceive. Am like the disciples who their minds had to be opened to understand what Christ had been saying before his death Luke 24:44-47.

Right now I have just finished my first semester of my first year. It is as if I am dreaming that one semester is gone. And when I look back, I see is the hand of the Lord which has sustaining me. There were so many moments during the semester where I felt incapable of accomplishing the task assigned in class. But He has given me grace to take me through the end of the semester.

The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful church where I am able to hear sound teaching being taught and the gospel being proclaimed each Sunday. I am also thankful to God for the privilege of being involved in the ministry in this Church which gives me opportunity to serve and learn practically how to do ministry biblically. I am working with Junior High which is 7^th and 8^th grade. Right now our ministry has wonderful students who are hungry for the word. What intrigued me when I just got here was to see a loving and joyous welcome that I received from the students. And I have a great privilege to serve them as one of their leaders.

It was challenging for me to see how excited the whole Junior High Staff was to have me in Junior High ministry. I cannot emphasize enough, the love they have for me. There are about 30 staffs in Junior High ministry and they are all wonderful to work with them. Each one of them has something to teach me. I always look forward to staff meetings which are held every other Tuesdays.

My pastor in Junior High is currently going through the book of 1John and we in Chapter 4 now. His name is Kelly and his Vannessa. I hang out a lot with them and they are the ones who give the most rides. On the 5^th of December they took me for tour in down town Los Angels. We took a subway and we walked around town for about three hours and then we went back home. And last Friday they took me to a breakfast and then and I helped them out put up Christmas decoration in their house. I have enjoyed getting to know them.

It has been great to meet people that I met while I was in Africa. I have already talked to most of them. Some because of the largeness of the church I do not see them every Sunday. Some I see them every Sunday and they have been very helpful in helping me get settled. It feels nice to be in a strange land with people you know. Almost everybody who know me try their best to make sure I am well cared. I am overwhelmed with the love of the people in Church. I have also the privilege of getting to know new people with most of them introducing themselves to me. The biggest challenge for me has to keep up with the names of those who know me. I feel there more people that know me that I cannot remember their names.

I had three roommate but one left us a week ago and has moved to his own house where in a month he will be joined with his wife to be. We are very sad to see him go. Yet at the same we are excited for him. It is a privilege that God has given him to move forward. Currently we are three of us and we are looking for one more since that helps in cutting down the cost of rent.

It has been raining which is exciting for me because I missed rain. It is winter time here and some places it has already started snowing. According to what I have been told, it rarely snow where am living. Some days it is warmer and some days like today it is cold. Of course it is confusing for me because this is summer at home, but like any other thing else I am learning to adjust. I am still learning about Fahrenheit but I think am beginning to get it. This week has been pretty cold and today I saw a little bit of snow in the mountains.

Things so far are going well with me here. There are a lot of things going on but these are some of the things I can share with you at the moment. I hope this will give you a picture of my life in CA. I really miss you all and I pray for you.

Please pray that;

- We will be able to find another roommate soon.

- I will be able get more hours of work, I need more 10hrs during semester and right now I have 10 hrs.

- Preparations for the next semester.

- That I will be able to serve the student and my fellow staff effectively.