Tiffany- In Love

hello, my name is Tiffany, and i am in love.

better to admit it...right? Sunday started out as normal. we all headed to church as usual. this particular day was special though. last week, Mika (remember him? our language teacher!) taught us a song in Malagasy! the name of the song is "Iray Isika" which means "We Are One." we ended up singing the song in church. one of my favorite things on Sunday was to look up and see Ligo (our day guard) singing the song with us! it was a bit of an unspoken bonding experience.

after church ended, the team headed to lunch. we were asked, before we left church, if we had a "program" which is code for "are you doing anything later?" we told the youth that we would be back to the church by a certain time to play basketball. so, after lunch, we headed that way!

the youth of the church has been revamping their basketball court. its an open area of red clay behind the church, with freshly painted basketball hoops and backboards. they look like normal height, but Matt insists they aren't because he can dunk on them (but i'm short...so it still looks normal). after picking teams, we went to our respective sides with our Malagasy friends. the game got pretty intense...so i won't go into detail, all you need to know is that i played for maybe 5 minutes total. 

i got pretty bored, just standing around watching people get dirty and run is not my idea of a great day, so i decided to go play with some kids (i know, i know...big shocker!) from the church. my Malagasy skills are not very good...so i ended up not playing the game with them and just sitting down to finish watching the basketball game. when i sat down, 3 of the kids came and stood and stared at me. 

i coaxed two of the little kids to come sit next to me. this was my view....

 the little girl's name is Larisa and the little boy next to her is Totona. our very first Sunday, i saw Larisa  immediately. she is just the cutest little girl....possibly ever (sorry to all my mom friends :) ). she also has the best laugh. its the kind of laugh that sends you into a giggle fit. so, imagine this, she starts laughing, i start laughing, Totona starts laughing....and the process is repeated and grows in volume each time. their friend, Fonza, ended up coming over as well, so i decided a photo shoot was in order!

every time i took a picture with my phone, i would show it to them. that would send them into giggling uncontrollably....they really like the front facing camera! :) we were causing such a riot, with our laughter, that the other children ran to see what was going on! which....resulted in this:

needless to say, my heart was overflowing. i know the Lord has called me to minister to children. its never more clear to me than when i'm surrounded by them. please be in prayer with me for these children. many of the children here have large responsibilities from a very young age. pray for their safety and their sweet hearts. they are the future of Manakara.