Hello Everyone!

Well, I am home in Colorado. Wonderful, beautiful, FREEZING Colorado. It feels great to be home and I am excited to get some rest and spend time with friends and family. I arrived on Saturday evening after about two days of travelling. All together I spent about 25 hours in an airplane. It's pretty crazy. Well, I love it here in Colorado. I am getting used to the cold weather and snow on the ground because in J.Bay it's about 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit. I love the sun.

The last week of ministry at Ithemba had its ups and downs. There weren't very many kids there at first but by the end of the week there were more kids. We had fun doing Christmas crafts and playing games. It was wonderful to be able to bless the kids with stuffed animals at the end of the week (donated by Jenny's aunt's church). I love those kids so much and it is going to be so hard not having them with me for a whole month. Please pray for them as they are not in school and are enjoying the holiday season. I am so very thankful for the ladies we work with there. Queen, Nomsa, and Lusanda are such a huge blessing in my life and I can't imagine life without them. They are like family to me.

The Lord is so good. And he truly blessed me this past semester. I have learned so much about the culture in Africa, about myself, about my team, and especially about my Savior. We spent a week in a town called George before we left S.A. for debrief and it was so awesome. We stayed at a Christian retreat center called Carmel. It was so beautiful and peaceful there. We had time to look back and to reflect on what the Lord has taught us. Also we spent time setting goals and dreaming for next semester. I had some great times just having fun. We went to the Cango Caves. We did the Adventure tour which was very intense squeezing through tight spaces and getting dirty. It was so amazing to experience God's magnificent creation in that way. And it was really cool to look back and see that I accomplished something like that. We also went to a wildlife ranch. It is similar to a zoo, but a bit smaller. I got to pet a cheetah! It was so awesome! It was great to have a week away and let the Lord speak to me.

I have been learning a lot in the past few weeks. The Lord just keeps revealing his heart for me and challenging me in so many ways. I have been learning about sacrifice of myself and my time. The other Africa FYM teams came to J.bay to do a conference sort of thing and we joined them. We could choose between learning about leadership or discipleship and I chose leadership. We would go to a session each morning and then we would do regular ministry in the afternoons (we did it for about a week). It was so awesome to learn about the leader that God wants to call out of me and the plans that he has for me. One night, me and a few friends from my team went to the place that the Africa teams were staying for some praise and worship. The speaker for the leadership track, Ben, came up during praise and worship and said that he remembered exactly where he was when he decided he was totally wrecked and sold out to God. And he wanted to give us that same opportunity. So all the leaders of the FYM team and the other speakers from the week were there to pray over each person that wanted prayer and to commission us. When Ben prayed for me, he said that he saw a picture of me on my knees praying and my pants were so worn out in my knees from praying for so long. He prayed that I would learn to pray more and he prayed for discernment. He also prayed that I would learn to let God define my image, reputation and my beauty. He prayed that I would continue to wrestle with sacrifice and with prayer. Sometimes prayer is something that we don't want to do because it doesn't seem very exciting, but it's so rewarding and I know God will teach me so much through prayer.

I feel so blessed from this past semester and I can't wait to get next semester started. Thank you so very much for all your prayers and your support. I don't think I could express to you just how thankful I am. I am so blessed to have all of you as my friends and family.

Let us not forget this Christmas that Jesus is the reason for celebration. Let's remember everything he has done for us and be thankful for our many blessings. Thank you, Jesus!

God bless you this holiday season!

love,

Rachel

Psalm 143:8    Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.

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