So outreach is officially over.
We finished up our last two weeks in Tulbagh South Africa. During these two weeks our whole ministry was planned out for us which was quite helpful. We worked with an orphanage which I was able to give some financial support to as they have 150 orphans but no government support and they rely fully on donations and God. We also did lots of devotions in different companies through out town and we worked with two local schools. I really enjoyed this time because it was a lot less stressful and busy and it was a nice way to wind down outreach. The people there were so kind and definitely had that whole hospitality thing down. Two families invited all 22 of us into their home and cooked dinner for us the last two days and many families donated boxes of fruits and vegetables because we openly told the church community that we had no money and very little food. For three days we had the equivalent of 12 U.S. dollars to feed all 22 of us breakfast lunch and dinner and we survived on their blessings basically. We were warmly welcomed back onto the base and today was our first day of debriefing and I really like our speaker because he is keeping us all focused on these last few days and the lessons we still need to learn and not about our plane rides or our next step after DTS as he said it "it is not over and these are the last and maybe most crucial days". We had homework today to write down how our ideas about several different things that have changed because of DTS he wants us all to go home not just thinking simply "it changed me" but he is breaking it down into smaller parts so that we can analyze exactly all the ways we were stretched and changed. It looks like I will be coming home a day earlier than I thought which is a real bummer because I miss my graduation but thats the way standby works! So I hopefully will be at the San Francisco airport between 1-2 in the afternoon on Friday the 22nd. So you are more than welcome to come say hello or to call me later that day and figure out a time to meet up. Please be praying for my flight to go smoothly and for my departure to not be to emotional because I do feel like Im leaving family. LOVE
Monday, February 18, 2008
SA in it's last days
So outreach is officially over.
We finished up our last two weeks in Tulbagh South Africa. During these two weeks our whole ministry was planned out for us which was quite helpful. We worked with an orphanage which I was able to give some financial support to as they have 150 orphans but no government support and they rely fully on donations and God. We also did lots of devotions in different companies through out town and we worked with two local schools. I really enjoyed this time because it was a lot less stressful and busy and it was a nice way to wind down outreach. The people there were so kind and definitely had that whole hospitality thing down. Two families invited all 22 of us into their home and cooked dinner for us the last two days and many families donated boxes of fruits and vegetables because we openly told the church community that we had no money and very little food. For three days we had the equivalent of 12 U.S. dollars to feed all 22 of us breakfast lunch and dinner and we survived on their blessings basically. We were warmly welcomed back onto the base and today was our first day of debriefing and I really like our speaker because he is keeping us all focused on these last few days and the lessons we still need to learn and not about our plane rides or our next step after DTS as he said it "it is not over and these are the last and maybe most crucial days". We had homework today to write down how our ideas about several different things that have changed because of DTS he wants us all to go home not just thinking simply "it changed me" but he is breaking it down into smaller parts so that we can analyze exactly all the ways we were stretched and changed. It looks like I will be coming home a day earlier than I thought which is a real bummer because I miss my graduation but thats the way standby works! So I hopefully will be at the San Francisco airport between 1-2 in the afternoon on Friday the 22nd. So you are more than welcome to come say hello or to call me later that day and figure out a time to meet up. Please be praying for my flight to go smoothly and for my departure to not be to emotional because I do feel like Im leaving family. LOVE
We finished up our last two weeks in Tulbagh South Africa. During these two weeks our whole ministry was planned out for us which was quite helpful. We worked with an orphanage which I was able to give some financial support to as they have 150 orphans but no government support and they rely fully on donations and God. We also did lots of devotions in different companies through out town and we worked with two local schools. I really enjoyed this time because it was a lot less stressful and busy and it was a nice way to wind down outreach. The people there were so kind and definitely had that whole hospitality thing down. Two families invited all 22 of us into their home and cooked dinner for us the last two days and many families donated boxes of fruits and vegetables because we openly told the church community that we had no money and very little food. For three days we had the equivalent of 12 U.S. dollars to feed all 22 of us breakfast lunch and dinner and we survived on their blessings basically. We were warmly welcomed back onto the base and today was our first day of debriefing and I really like our speaker because he is keeping us all focused on these last few days and the lessons we still need to learn and not about our plane rides or our next step after DTS as he said it "it is not over and these are the last and maybe most crucial days". We had homework today to write down how our ideas about several different things that have changed because of DTS he wants us all to go home not just thinking simply "it changed me" but he is breaking it down into smaller parts so that we can analyze exactly all the ways we were stretched and changed. It looks like I will be coming home a day earlier than I thought which is a real bummer because I miss my graduation but thats the way standby works! So I hopefully will be at the San Francisco airport between 1-2 in the afternoon on Friday the 22nd. So you are more than welcome to come say hello or to call me later that day and figure out a time to meet up. Please be praying for my flight to go smoothly and for my departure to not be to emotional because I do feel like Im leaving family. LOVE
Thursday, January 31, 2008
outreach coming to a close...
so many things i could update on..
Well my DtS is coming to a close now and it's quite depressing. We finished up our time in Zambia and it was extremely hard for us to leave as we had all made so many friends in that area. In Zambia we did tons of things some of the major stuff though was: open market evangelism in 3 huge produce markets and one craft market, We preached and did dramas and shared testimonies 3 days of church service at the apostolic faith mission church (which we worked through the majority of the time), we did door to door ministry in 2 communities for about 12 days, we volunteered in 3 different orphanages, we taught a mini DTS course to some locals so there would be some permanent people in Livingston to carry out what we had started, we lead children's ministry (1-12), youth (12-17), and young adults (18 and up) 3 saturdays in a row, we did evangelism at the border to Zimbabwe for a day and downtown open evangelism for a few days, and personally i was able through my families support send 3 children to school for the year and buy a wonderful little 7 year old girl named Elizabeth some new clothes and books for school. We saw many many people get saved one woman healed of Malaria and one woman of TB. I was able to tell two teenage boys who Jesus was for the first time which was one of my biggest highlights because you don't have the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus for the first time much anymore and then i was able to lead them in giving their lives to Jesus. There were some really amazing and exciting stories that i would love to share but I know nobody wants to read for an hour but Im excited to share with you all in 3 weeks when i come home. My team drove back from Zambia to South Africa on Tuesday because we were going to go into Zimbabwe for the last 9 days however because of finances we needed to return however we will still be doing outreach nearby the Worcester base where i did my lecture phase in, for 2 weeks and then it's my de-briefing week and then it will be time to travel home. I really really loved Zambia and besides the amazing Giraffes and Zebras and Elephants I saw I made some really amazing friends and the Zambian people are so kind and will instantly open up their home for you and are so hungry for more of God especially those we met living in Mukuni village. The people there are living in very poor housing with little running water and they loose electricity every night and it pours down rain everyday and when I say pour i mean everyone literally stops under some kind of shelter and just waits for it to stop because it will completely drench you in 5 seconds trust me i learned from experience. The children run around outside alone with no shoes tattered clothing and with little food in their stomachs. They mostly eat this food called shima because it's made out of maze meal and it's extremely cheap and filling however you can imagine the children need better nutrition then this so when possible we would give them our left overs. I have lots of pictures and cannot wait to share them with you all soon unfortunately it is now 1 a.m. and i have not slept since two nights ago and i need to be up again at 6 but i know how important it is for me to keep you all updated. Hopefully there will be pictures up during my de-briefing week. I love you all and miss you tons please pray that there will be available seats on the flights for me to come home im a little nervous about that. Thank you!
Well my DtS is coming to a close now and it's quite depressing. We finished up our time in Zambia and it was extremely hard for us to leave as we had all made so many friends in that area. In Zambia we did tons of things some of the major stuff though was: open market evangelism in 3 huge produce markets and one craft market, We preached and did dramas and shared testimonies 3 days of church service at the apostolic faith mission church (which we worked through the majority of the time), we did door to door ministry in 2 communities for about 12 days, we volunteered in 3 different orphanages, we taught a mini DTS course to some locals so there would be some permanent people in Livingston to carry out what we had started, we lead children's ministry (1-12), youth (12-17), and young adults (18 and up) 3 saturdays in a row, we did evangelism at the border to Zimbabwe for a day and downtown open evangelism for a few days, and personally i was able through my families support send 3 children to school for the year and buy a wonderful little 7 year old girl named Elizabeth some new clothes and books for school. We saw many many people get saved one woman healed of Malaria and one woman of TB. I was able to tell two teenage boys who Jesus was for the first time which was one of my biggest highlights because you don't have the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus for the first time much anymore and then i was able to lead them in giving their lives to Jesus. There were some really amazing and exciting stories that i would love to share but I know nobody wants to read for an hour but Im excited to share with you all in 3 weeks when i come home. My team drove back from Zambia to South Africa on Tuesday because we were going to go into Zimbabwe for the last 9 days however because of finances we needed to return however we will still be doing outreach nearby the Worcester base where i did my lecture phase in, for 2 weeks and then it's my de-briefing week and then it will be time to travel home. I really really loved Zambia and besides the amazing Giraffes and Zebras and Elephants I saw I made some really amazing friends and the Zambian people are so kind and will instantly open up their home for you and are so hungry for more of God especially those we met living in Mukuni village. The people there are living in very poor housing with little running water and they loose electricity every night and it pours down rain everyday and when I say pour i mean everyone literally stops under some kind of shelter and just waits for it to stop because it will completely drench you in 5 seconds trust me i learned from experience. The children run around outside alone with no shoes tattered clothing and with little food in their stomachs. They mostly eat this food called shima because it's made out of maze meal and it's extremely cheap and filling however you can imagine the children need better nutrition then this so when possible we would give them our left overs. I have lots of pictures and cannot wait to share them with you all soon unfortunately it is now 1 a.m. and i have not slept since two nights ago and i need to be up again at 6 but i know how important it is for me to keep you all updated. Hopefully there will be pictures up during my de-briefing week. I love you all and miss you tons please pray that there will be available seats on the flights for me to come home im a little nervous about that. Thank you!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
hello home...
hello everyone i am so excited to be given the chance to update while on outreach!
I am currently in Livingstone Zambia and this will be the farthest north i will be going in Africa. As a team we decided God was leading us to stay here in Zambia and Zimbabwe and we will finsih the next 5 weeks in these locations and then 1 week to travel back to Worcester SA and then one week of debreifing and then im coming home! Today was a really good day we went to a local church and i gave a 10 minute speach in front of the church! Each of us must share our testimony or speak in front of the crowds at least once and today was my oppertunity. I considered it a challange however because I love speaking in front of youth but not so much adults however they were very kind to me and appreciated my words of encouragement. Then we went back and did some more work with the youth and did dramas and prayer etc. The weather here is strange it is really hott but overcast and rains heavily everyday with flooding and lightning there is also power outages every night at the base we are staying at. I am getting somewhat accustom to the African culture however of cold showers (if your lucky enough to have running water that is) walking barefoot often and buying in Kwacha and rand and zim dollar however it is quite confusing because both Zambian Kwacha and Zim dollar is thousands and millions so for example the sim card for my phone is 5,000 kwacha that is the equilvelant of about $1.50. I did go to a traditional Zambian restraunt the other night which was fun and i tried fried caterpillar and they also sold warthog and lots of leaves and stuff. I really like Africa though the people are very kind and welcoming and they really have that whole hospitality thing down. Im getting used to washing laundry,dishes,fruits and myself in dirty water too it's still a bit strange though and now i understand why Africa has this distinct smell about it. There are mango trees everywhere here and it is quite fun to walk down the street and pick 5 and bring them home and eat them. they are so yummy.... We are trying to figure out exactly what we will be doing here but we are pretty sure that we are going to go stay in a Zambian vilage for a while and then venture into Zimbabwe and set up some type of food program for the children there because there is no food anywhere. It is so stange to walk into a grocery store and see empty shelves. There is also no fuel there so everyone walks long distnaces to get anywhere and yes you do see lots of woman carrying huge loads on their head with bags in both hands and a baby strapped on their back. Man do they have it rough. I have seen lots of really cool animals here too including warthogs, antelope, lots of monkeys (video coming soon) baboons ostrichs and lots and lots of donkeys. Im still waiting to see elephant and Zebra we did see a few elephant crossing signs but we werent so lucky. I am not going to be able to update often though so I apologize now but i hope this update is finding everyone well i miss you all alot love you!
I am currently in Livingstone Zambia and this will be the farthest north i will be going in Africa. As a team we decided God was leading us to stay here in Zambia and Zimbabwe and we will finsih the next 5 weeks in these locations and then 1 week to travel back to Worcester SA and then one week of debreifing and then im coming home! Today was a really good day we went to a local church and i gave a 10 minute speach in front of the church! Each of us must share our testimony or speak in front of the crowds at least once and today was my oppertunity. I considered it a challange however because I love speaking in front of youth but not so much adults however they were very kind to me and appreciated my words of encouragement. Then we went back and did some more work with the youth and did dramas and prayer etc. The weather here is strange it is really hott but overcast and rains heavily everyday with flooding and lightning there is also power outages every night at the base we are staying at. I am getting somewhat accustom to the African culture however of cold showers (if your lucky enough to have running water that is) walking barefoot often and buying in Kwacha and rand and zim dollar however it is quite confusing because both Zambian Kwacha and Zim dollar is thousands and millions so for example the sim card for my phone is 5,000 kwacha that is the equilvelant of about $1.50. I did go to a traditional Zambian restraunt the other night which was fun and i tried fried caterpillar and they also sold warthog and lots of leaves and stuff. I really like Africa though the people are very kind and welcoming and they really have that whole hospitality thing down. Im getting used to washing laundry,dishes,fruits and myself in dirty water too it's still a bit strange though and now i understand why Africa has this distinct smell about it. There are mango trees everywhere here and it is quite fun to walk down the street and pick 5 and bring them home and eat them. they are so yummy.... We are trying to figure out exactly what we will be doing here but we are pretty sure that we are going to go stay in a Zambian vilage for a while and then venture into Zimbabwe and set up some type of food program for the children there because there is no food anywhere. It is so stange to walk into a grocery store and see empty shelves. There is also no fuel there so everyone walks long distnaces to get anywhere and yes you do see lots of woman carrying huge loads on their head with bags in both hands and a baby strapped on their back. Man do they have it rough. I have seen lots of really cool animals here too including warthogs, antelope, lots of monkeys (video coming soon) baboons ostrichs and lots and lots of donkeys. Im still waiting to see elephant and Zebra we did see a few elephant crossing signs but we werent so lucky. I am not going to be able to update often though so I apologize now but i hope this update is finding everyone well i miss you all alot love you!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Tanzania HERE WE COME!
so this is my last post from beautiful South Africa! I begin the very long 5 day journey into Tanzania at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning and I am extremely excited! We have stumbled upon a few complications with registering the vehicles etc. so we got set back a day but it turned out ok and gave me an extra day to tie up some loose ends. I have really enjoyed the lecture phase portion of my dts and am very excited to go out into more of Africa and do some of the dirty work for God. I dont imagine I will have very much internet access in a Tanzanian or kenyan village so I imagine this may be the last post for a while but I assure you I will update as much as possible if oppertunitys open up. Once agian I love you all and am so thankful for your support and Help. Blessings!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
lots of news
hello everyone!
So yesteday we finished building a house! Our team built a house for a family in Zwelethemba in 2 days!!!!!! The whole story is quite an act of God actually. We were planning on buying what is called a Wendy house it is a small house that a company comes and buildes for pretty cheap. However in the end we could'nt afford the house and the materials we needed to mend a house that burned down in Zwelethamba also..... so Suzy a woman on our dts remebered a place that sold sheds neaby so bought the shed took it apart and went to work to build the house ourselves. Most of us have never built a house before and none of us work in construction only like 3 of us have ever been involved in anything like it. However by the grace of God we did it!!! The family we built the house for was a family of 7 girls and two babies under 1. A boy and a little girl. The mother/granmother has Aids and is most likely not going to make it much longer. The father/grandfather just passed away in September because of AIDS. Two of the 6 sisters that live there have babies one of the girls in 22 or so and the other is 17. We felt so blessed by God to build them this house. There is no work at all in the area so only one or two of the sisters have jobs and support the whole family. Both of the babies are also sick and had really bad coughs. they were extremely grateful for thier new house however and are excited to have a clean open space to eat as a family. We also did some evangelising in the area and a few were lead to Jesus for the first time. They have no running water and share bath water everyday all 9 of them standing in a baby bath with a cloth. They also eat poridge everyday just because it's cheap and filling. We had a party for them after the building was over though and they were so happy and were singing and eating and then they sang us off....
Now we leave for Tanzania in 5 days and guess what WE ARE DRIVING THERE! So the whole trip will take between 4-6 days! However it does mean that i will get to drive through and stay in Zimbabwe and Zambia and hopefully on the way back Mozambique too! So wow by the end of the trip I will have been in 6 maybe 7 African countries; South Africa, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozmabique and Kenya! we are really excited about how God is and will working in us and how funny it is that we try to make plans for outreaches and God seems to always have a bit of a different plan.
Well I updated some pictures on our Photobucket so if you click the link i made to it down below a few posts ago you can all see them!
I will try to update again before I leave but in case I dont Merry Christmas and happy new year everyone I hope you are all blessed this holiday season!
So yesteday we finished building a house! Our team built a house for a family in Zwelethemba in 2 days!!!!!! The whole story is quite an act of God actually. We were planning on buying what is called a Wendy house it is a small house that a company comes and buildes for pretty cheap. However in the end we could'nt afford the house and the materials we needed to mend a house that burned down in Zwelethamba also..... so Suzy a woman on our dts remebered a place that sold sheds neaby so bought the shed took it apart and went to work to build the house ourselves. Most of us have never built a house before and none of us work in construction only like 3 of us have ever been involved in anything like it. However by the grace of God we did it!!! The family we built the house for was a family of 7 girls and two babies under 1. A boy and a little girl. The mother/granmother has Aids and is most likely not going to make it much longer. The father/grandfather just passed away in September because of AIDS. Two of the 6 sisters that live there have babies one of the girls in 22 or so and the other is 17. We felt so blessed by God to build them this house. There is no work at all in the area so only one or two of the sisters have jobs and support the whole family. Both of the babies are also sick and had really bad coughs. they were extremely grateful for thier new house however and are excited to have a clean open space to eat as a family. We also did some evangelising in the area and a few were lead to Jesus for the first time. They have no running water and share bath water everyday all 9 of them standing in a baby bath with a cloth. They also eat poridge everyday just because it's cheap and filling. We had a party for them after the building was over though and they were so happy and were singing and eating and then they sang us off....
Now we leave for Tanzania in 5 days and guess what WE ARE DRIVING THERE! So the whole trip will take between 4-6 days! However it does mean that i will get to drive through and stay in Zimbabwe and Zambia and hopefully on the way back Mozambique too! So wow by the end of the trip I will have been in 6 maybe 7 African countries; South Africa, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozmabique and Kenya! we are really excited about how God is and will working in us and how funny it is that we try to make plans for outreaches and God seems to always have a bit of a different plan.
Well I updated some pictures on our Photobucket so if you click the link i made to it down below a few posts ago you can all see them!
I will try to update again before I leave but in case I dont Merry Christmas and happy new year everyone I hope you are all blessed this holiday season!
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