Finally an update

Hey Friends and Family,
I'm sorry i haven't updated. Also, please let me know if you are still having trouble getting to my blog page!

Wow i only have a little under 4 weeks left in Bots. It feels so weird, but there is so much left to look forward to. I'll go ahead and share those, before i start some stories. We still have a bush trip where we will drive out and sleep on the ground in the bush and attend a church. We are going to "tree lodge" and will go on safari. Then the thing i'm most looking foward to: VICTORIA FALLS... I'll take tons of pictures i promise. Also, us interns have decided to do the gorge swing. All of the other interns are going tandem and i think i've decided to go by myself. I am terrified of open heights and i really want to challenge myself to do something i'm so afraid of. I'll be in a harness standing backwards on a cliff and i'll fall backwards plummit 200 ft until the cord catches and soars me across the other side of the gorge. We also just found that we may have an opportunity to go on a safari on the back of an elephant while there!!!

I am still loving teaching p.e. and getting to know students, in fact just today i argued with them about rules in dating (haha). We have internet back in our house and water has not gone out in a while! Praise God, so thanks for hte prayers. I also have not seen a snake in a few weeks! I have gotten to where i just pray while i walk :)

We've gotten more orphans on the plot and have a few more coming. One of them specifically has STOLEN MY HEART! His name is Cosi. He is one year old and the first day i met him another intern, Angie, and I were going to be watching him and the two other orphans from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. So we had a 2 month old a 9 month old and Cosi who is 15 months. Not long after we'd gotten there Cosi walked up to me and buried his face in my leg and said mama and just started bawling!! He'd only been away from his mom for one day and you could tell it was affecting him. However he has now been here a week and is doing great! I took him to the playground today to play with some 3-4 yr old and he did excellent throwing the ball with them!!! I love that boy. Please keep him in your prayers.

Friday is one of my favorite days. I wake up i get to go to work 15 min. later. We have chapel for the "secondary" school (sort of high school age) and then we have chapel for the primary school (3-12 yr olds). After that it is tea time! We have tea time everyday from 10-10:15-30 all the teachers go and have a cup of coffee or tea! It is so so so nice. After some coffee i have one class of excellent students and then swimming with the reception kids. I swim with 18 4 yr olds and i love it. They make me want kids so bad. They are so funny in the water. I also have learned to be a fun teacher but also a disciplinarian. There is one girl who is TERRIFIED of the water and today i was holding her while walking her across the pool and usually when we get to the side we make them climb out on their own. As we were crossing tinotenda (the girl)says "miss jessika when we get to the other side you have to get me out" and i said to her no i dont have to, but you can ask and i will. she replies "miss get me out" i repeated ask nicely. so she gets a rude voice and says "you'll get me out"... i really wanted to bust out laughing but instead got her to ask nicely and helped her out. They are always doing things that make me laugh!!

Well this already has gotten long. I will try and do better about updating!!!

Be Blessed,
J. Tate

Rwanda support

Dear Family and Friends,

As I am sure you remember about one year ago I went to the country of Rwanda in Africa. The experience of that mission not only formed a deeper passion in me for the continent of Africa, but also quite literally changed my life in many ways. Recently I was asked by a contact there to return to do some work and ministering. Upon discussion and prayer I have decided to return to Rwanda this May for one month.

On this trip I will be taking a friend, Maegan Rossow, along with me and together we will be working in orphanages, teaching English to the natives, visiting schools, and ministering in the streets and several churches. There are also plans of holding a revival for the teenagers in the capital city, Kigali.

Africa has given so much to me in my time spent there and I can only hope to go and give back. Rwanda is a country that is still hurting from the devastating genocide that took place sixteen years ago. The AIDS epidemic is massacring the people of Rwanda from the young to the old in rapid rates and therefore the number of orphans is growing daily. We can help this country. Not only is that financially, but it is hope, it is love, it is the gospel. I am excited about this trip because it gives me the opportunity to minister to these people as a whole, mind, body, and spirit.
I believe this trip to be one of the hardest and yet greatest tasks I will complete in my lifetime and I cannot do it alone. The cost of this trip will be $3,500 a piece for my friend and I. We are asking for you to help us to go and help this nation. Please prayerfully consider donating towards this mission, any amount of money will help. Also, please continually lift us in prayer as this will be a month without the modern conveniences of America along with very intense work emotionally and physically.

We are being sent out with the blessing of Pastors Mike and Laurie Glazener of Cornerstone Church in Liberty, TX. You can make tax deductible donations of $100 or more by mailing checks to Cornerstone Church, please write Rwanda in the memo line.
Non-Tax Deductible Donations: Tax Deductible:
Jessika Tate Cornerstone Church
145 Forest Dr. 1693 Bypass HWY 146
Liberty, TX 77575 Liberty, TX 77575

Thank you so much,
Jessika Tate