Another Week for God

     On Thursday the 28th we will be going to Somerset which is near to Gazankulu. This spot will be the toughest place because the church was planted by the previous January team. We are up for the challenge and extremely excited! We will be doing children and youth ministries, going to the local schools and informing them about HIV and AIDS, as well as working in the church with the whole village. There is a pastor at the church that will help us but we will have to make all of our lessons and schedules. Please pray for  our leaders and the team to have unity and that we will let God lead us in all of our lessons and relationships we build with these people. We will have to walk far to get our water then boil it. The same water we will have to use for our bucket showers with a small curtain for privacy,  right next to the whole in the ground toilet.

     This past Monday through Wednesday we got HIV and AIDS training so we will be ready to teach and care for them when we get there. On Thursday we learned skits and practiced dramas. I am so excited to be able to use these! We had a campout with our team this weekend to practice. Our team is so blessed to have 2 South Africans and one of them, Deborah, speaks several African languages and her first language is actually the one they speak in Somerset. We have a couple people who play the guitar so we will be able to have praise and worship, as well as a hunter and a boy scout! I am excited to see everyone's talents, gifts, and personalities play out during this time. 

(top)Devin, me, Else, Tabea, Erica, Ema, Jamina, (bottom) Finn, Andi (leader) Deborah (leader), Roberta

Upcoming Events

     These past weeks have been so amazing! We have really gotten to know God and ourselves in ways many of us couldn't have imagined. It has been hard for some, opening up the past and allowing God to come in and heal them but it’s been so great to watch God transform lives. The classes have been so great and we are learning so much but sometimes with early mornings and late nights it’s kind of hard for me to stay awake so you can for sure put that on your prayer list! (I just need to learn to go to bed earlier) We are almost done with Inside Out and we are all so excited for our off weekend! We have 3 of them where we are able to leave base from Friday afternoon to Sunday night. They will have things around base still but we are free to rent cars and explore! We are all busy making plans and getting so excited for it! But since Inside Out will be over we can leave base every Saturday to go to the mall or something around Pretoria.
     Our rural outreach is Oct. 28th. We are anxious to see who will be on our teams. We will be divided into 3 teams. I will give more information on where we will be going as soon as I find out. But we would love prayers for our teams and preparing us for these tough 10 days. We will be sleeping in tents, cooking on a fire, and ministering to people that may or may not speak English. Please pray for good weather! It is rainy season here and we are hoping it will not be raining the whole time. We have heard some horror stories of the mud and the tents, so hopefully that won’t happen.
     My roommates are so great and our friendships are growing each day! We have so much fun together laughing and just being stupid. I am loving our great talks at night too. It is hard sometimes with the language barrier for them to find the words and express themselves but we are working through it with many laughs. The friendships I am making now will last a lifetime!
     I have been feeling very called to full time missions but I have no idea on that that means or where God will take me but I am so excited for the unknown!
Also, our Inner City outreach is very iffy right now. I guess the organizations OM has gone through in the past aren’t open during Christmas and New Years when we were planning on going so we could really use your prayers on that trying to find a way to make that happen.


Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! Love you and miss you all!

Current Details

-Inside Out    
     For the next 4 weeks we will be studying Inside Out. This will consist of Knowing and Loving God, Knowing and Loving Self, Knowing and Loving Others and Knowing Purpose. We have heard testimonies from past trainees that these weeks will be the hardest and most wonderful weeks we will experience as God breaks us of our self and truly brings us to Him. We are all very excited and a little nervous to see what this will be for us and see where God takes us. For this week, we are learning more about God's love for us and He created us for an amazing relationship with Him. We have all realized how big God really is and how small we are but no matter how small we are compared to the universe, God loves and died for us so we can have a relationship with Him.
We have read"Calvary Road" and had to write a little summery over that. We also have "Father Heart of God," which is due at a latter time and "The Life You Always Wanted," which will be our bible study group book.

-Living in a Community
     Here around camp is based on living in a community and living in harmony together so we all take turns taking care of each other. I have kitchen team once a week, practical work around the base, and cleaning the public bathrooms. I got the privilege this week to clean the boys.
My practical work this week was sweeping roofs and cleaning the gutters. We failed our first room inspection but passed with flying colors the next time after we got a note from one of the team leaders.

-Sports
     We have a sport each day. This week we ran.. but it turned out okay after many walking breaks chatting it up with the other girls. We also play volleyball, soccer, dodgeball and will have an aerobics class which is an enjoyable part of the day.

I try to post as often as I can but apologize when I can't get to a computer with internet or don't have the time to write out a post. But I will definitely try as often as I can and thank you all again for all of the support.


Below are a few pictures:

Milkshakes at the Airport

Walk Around the Base

My Room

My Base!

My First Post in SA!

     Hey guys! My plane landed at 6:30 Friday night, the 3rd, in Johannesburg. I was the the third student to arrive on the base so I have been able to slowly meet everyone as they got here. We had a relaxing time getting to know everyone playing soccer and volleyball in the hot South African sun. There are only 3 other Americans here with me. The others are from Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland, Romania, Singapore, South Africa and Ivory Coast (and a few others I am forgetting). It has been so fun with the cross culture experience on base! I have been helping people a lot with English since it's, for most of them, not their first language. It is only the beginning of spring right now, but when the sun is out its very warm but at night and early mornings its so cold!
Wednesday we stared training bright and early for 6 o’clock devotions. A somewhat average day looks a little like this:

-6 am devotions
-7:30 breakfast
-8:30 teaching lesions, with breaks in between
-1 o’clock lunch
-2:30 Afternoon Activities (from work around base, team building, life coaching and days at the mall)
-4:30 sports
-6 dinner
-7:30 Evening Activities (like spending time together at the coffee shop on base and worship around the camp fire).
     
     Our Lessons so far have just been just going over rules and getting us ready for the next few months. They will go more into our life with God, Bible studies, and preparing for our outreaches by learning about subjects like AIDs or other religions. We also meet once a week with our Care Groups, which are like our small groups. In mine, there are 3 girls and 2 boys with a both a man and woman leader. The woman leader will also meet with us individually once a week so we can discuss what we have learned and any problems or personal issues we might be going through. They're basically our spiritual leader while we spend our time here.

     I'll try and update you guys as much as I can.
I am so excited to see what God has to show me! Thank you so much for all of your prayers! They are helping greatly!

Here I Go!

     Many years ago, God called me to something different and to break out of the norm. He called me to pick up my life and follow Him in missions, and now I find myself leaving for South Africa for 8 months on September 2nd. At a time in my life when I should be going to college and figuring out what I want to do with the rest of my life, I will be playing with the street children and reaching out to the prostitutes. For the first 6 months I will be in Pretoria, South Africa in a Missions Discipleship Program (MDT) and then traveling to Zambia to work in an orphanage for the final 2 months. I am so excited to experience God and His love in a whole new way! I will try to blog and put pictures up on Facebook as often as I can once I'm there to share my experience with you all, but I will never know how often I'll have internet access.Thank you all so much for your prayers and support and I can't wait to start this journey and new chapter in my life!