fish (and other provisions)

"FISH!"  Cali shrieked for joy.  "Mama I saw some FISH!!!!"  She leaped off the couch and came tumbling over to the stove where I was trying to get dinner cooking, and she began to pull on my leg.  "Fishies, fishies, I saw fishies!"

"Fish?" I asked absent-mindedly.  "What are you talking about Cali?"  I was sure there were no fish in our livingroom.  But I glanced toward the door and saw four crappies and one white bass dangling just outside the window on a stringer.  Next I saw Jevon's face, also peering in the window.  He laughed when I spied him, and he flung open the door with an air of triumph.  I quickly changed the menu for the evening to fresh crappie fillets.

Fish from the lake is just one avenue of God's provision for our table these days.  When we left Wisconsin, we promised you stories of how God would provide for us while we were here in school.  The hard part is deciding which stories to tell you...since we see His provision for us in so many different ways.  Occasionally God has provided through a surprise check from a friend or in our mailbox.  Once our apartment was "broken into" by someone (we don't know who), someone who left groceries piled on our kitchen table, and in the fridge. 
During the peak of harvest season, local people donated lots of produce to the school here and we had even more abundance of fresh vegetables than we would have had if we had stayed in Wisconsin tending our own garden and yard. 
A fellow student even found wild watercress growing down on the creek this summer, and showed me how to harvest and cook it.

Oh, and did I mention that the bait with which Jevon caught those crappies and white bass last night was a surprise gift from a local "hill-Billy" Christian who has befriended us?

God's complete provision for our first semester school fees through savings, and through you who have given financially for our training, is amazing to us, too.

SOOO...God's bountiful provision is one thing we are always thankful for.  We are so glad that He has made it possible for us to be here at the missionary training center, pressing forward toward the goal of reaching tribal people groups with the Truth of God. 
If you have a spare moment this week...send us an e-mail and tell us something you are thanking God for right now.  We'd love to hear it.  We are praying for you...

Love,
Danica for the Rich family

For fun: Pictures

 

Check out Cali and Karina’s bathtub!  They love it.  Every Sunday morning we fill up the rubbermaid with warm water.  Beats trying to fit Cali in the kitchen sink.  :)

 

Check out their little machine, too!  What could be more fun than a yellow plastic four-wheeler?

Karina’s 1st Birthday

  

Yay!  Cupcakes!

 

Karina tried but couldn’t quite get the candle blown out.  So we let Cali do it for her.  But we lit another candle the next day…and the next…and on the third day (and last leftover cupcake) Karina blew out the candle all by herself.

Who do you suppose got messier…Cali or Karina?

 

We gave Karina a little birthday dress and a rubber ducky.  Our neighbors “Aunt” Julie and Lisa, gave her a little toy guinea pig.  Which, by the way, looks strangely real at a glance when its half hidden under the kitchen table.

By the way, if you are a detail person wondering why Karina’s clothes keep changing in all the pictures, its partly because of frosting getting all over her dress, and partly because this all did not happen on the same day.  :)

Here is the last birthday picture: Karina inspecting the present she got in the mail from Grandma Studtmann.  (thanks for picking a quiet toy!  She plays with it while she’s in class with me.)