Hello!!! I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter! It is such a beautiful time of year in the States right now. I am eHnjoying cooler weather here in Jeffery's. It's fall here now, so the weather is getting a little cooler and the sun is setting a little earlier. I love it! i love the time of year when the seasons change.
     Well, it has been a while since i last wrote on my blog. I kinda miss this thing! Well I have a few stories and then I will inform you of the plan for the rest of the semester.
     Easter Weekend
Last weekend was Easter weekend, as you know. One of our friends, Gundu, used to be the pastor at Ithemba, the church where I do ministry every week. He recently moved to a town called Alice and we went to visit him at his new home town. It took about 5 and a half hours to drive there, and when we arrived, we were emerged into a new culture immediately. We arrived around 3:30pm at a university campus where a Christian conference had been going on all week long. We went into one of the sessions that had just started. Everyone there was THRILLED to see us. It was strange because they didn't even know anything about us, but when the pastor introduced us in front of everyone at the conference, the whole auditorium went crazy. After the service everyone wanted to shake our hands or give us a hug. I hugged one lady who said, "I can't believe this! I can't believe I am hugging someone who comes from..... So far away!" We left the session to eat dinner and returned to the auditorium for another session. Both services lasted about three hours!!!
     When we got out of the Last service for the day, we actually didn't even know where we would be staying that night! But Gundu organized rooms for us and houses for us to sleep at for the night. It was a little awkward staying in a stranger's dorm, but it was fine because I was with three of my team members and I was asleep for most of that experience. When we awoke on Easter morning, we got ready to go and packed our things and went to meet up with our team. The Easter service was at the same auditorium as the conference and it started at 9:00 am for a time of intercession before the actual service. We ate breakfast and jumped right in to the end of Intercession and soon the Easter service was underway; the whole room was packed full, probably about 500-550 people were there. It was a lovely service, however, it was hard to stay focused because most of the service was singing (praise and worship) and then about an hour and a half was for the pastor to speak. We got out of the service at around 1:30 pm! It was a long service, but we made it through and it was such an awesome experience for my first Easter away from home! Then we visited Pastor Gundu's new home and church and came back here to Jeffery's! My leaders said that it was a good 36-hour lesson in "TIA" (this is Africa). It was a crazy 36 hours, but I will never forget those two days!
     Upcoming Plans
Well, I have been on spring break this week. Just hanging out here at the house and visiting with friends. We went over to a friend's house last night and ate dinner and played games. Our friend and his roommate are from Zimbabwe and they made a wonderful Zimbabwean meal for us! Then, today I finally went surfing! I had so much fun. I never actually made it to my feet, but i really want to try it again! I had a great break!
     So where do I go from here? Well, this week I an opportunity to go on a retreat with the youth at Deo Doxa, where I also minister. The camp is Monday through Friday and it is going to be so much fun!!! I leave tomorrow morning and i will return Friday afternoon. We will have games, camp fires, worship and sessions, awesome grub, and great fellowship. I am very excited. Please be praying for the camp and the campers this week. Pray for: safety, authenticity, vulnerability, good attitudes, and spiritual growth.
     That's not all I'm up to. When i come back from the camp on Friday, I will unpack one suitcase and re-pack into another one. Our team is leaving on Saturday to go to a small country called Lesotho (pronounced Le-soo-too). It is a small country in the middle of South Africa in the mountains. We will be in Lesotho for two weeks (leaving 5 April and returning 18 April). We will be working/living at an orphanage while we are there. It will be a very hard core experience. We will have no running water, no elecricity, no cell phone reception, no actual showers, for TWO WEEKS! This is going to be awesome! I am a little bit nervous, but I know that God is going to use this time to grow each of us closer to him, and reveal himself to us in different ways. Please be in prayer for us these two weeks. Pray for: safety, health, good attitudes, vulnerability, strength, willing hearts (of those we come in contact with, but also within our team).
    Thank you so much for all your prayers and your support. It really is so special to me. I cannot begin to describe to you how blessed i feel because of you!