Thursday, March 29. 2007…My brother, Levi’s Birthday!

Next year this time my brother will already have a 9 mos. old baby boy! I am so excited to be an aunt for the first time…Today Abigail and I visited this couple who are a place of safety. Not only did this couple raise their own 2 children (who are now grown), but now they are raising 23 children in their home (trust me their house was only like 5 bedrooms---not big but full of love). They both stay at home full-time to give the children the most attention that they can…but through the past 12 years of doing this they have had over 300+ children through their home. It was really great to see a couple doing this together because it is especially rare to see a man think of his responsibility in Africa as child rearing. It also really made me desire for one day when I meet prince charming that God gives us similar desires to do something together for God.

Friday, March 30. 2007…Farewell Shirle

Tonight we gave farewell hugs to Shirle (Allan’s mom) before she left to go to the other side for the big wedding! It was good to see her off, but also weird knowing that she was going to stay in my apartment when she arrived in Chicago.

Saturday, March 31. 2007…Mercedes Friend came to Volunteer

Today we introduced Abigail to the farmers market at 5:30 AM…she loved it and decided it would be her last farmers market in South Africa. The rest of the day I completed my homework while the others went to teach computers. Today they had an extra person from Mercedes with them, Matt. It was really good for him too because it was his first time to see a township and he has been here since December. He was a little leary about it…but when he came back he was uber excited about what he had done and the small impact he had on the people he helped.

Sunday, April 1. 2007…Chuckie Martin’s Birthday! April Fools/Church 2x in 1 day

So morning service was good and normal…then in the evening we went to Hatfield Christian Church…which is like the Willow Creek Community Church for South Africa. Well the service started and all of a sudden the pastor called us to get into groups of 4 to start praying. So we broke up into groups of 4 and started praying…in the States it would be like, go around and pray one by one on the topics that the pastor gives…but here everyone just starts praying out loud…at the end of this prayer he asked us to start praying in the language of the spirit. I was like hold on a second…what did he just say…I thought people were just praying this whole time in various African languages…who knew they were praying in tongues? So at the end the woman to my left said, “Do you not speak in tongues?” I just said the first thing that came to my mind which was, “I can’t speak in tongues cause I am American.” What was that? So she was like I will pray for you to have the spirit of tongues…so I guess somewhere in the Bible (pretty sure actually no where in the Bible does it say this) it says if you don’t have the gift of tongues find someone that does and get it from them. So now I have the gift of tongues, who knew it was that easy? haha


Monday, April 2. 2007…Stayed in our Box

So Abby and I share a box aka our bedroom although we are pretty much in it all the time so it is more like our dinning room, bedroom, living room, bathroom (ok not really). We have twin beds with matching sheets of course…I worked on my paper all day and she read, read, talked, read, and laughed. It was just great to chill and relax as this week we are on holiday for the Easter week. Everything in South Africa closes down the week before Easter…so there was no work for us to go to. Hey I am not complaining it is actually quite nice.

Tuesday, April 3. 2007…Passover Dinner in Africa

Who knew I would have to go all the way to South Africa to have an authentic Passover meal? Gabe one of Africa Revolution’s volunteers grew up Jewish and so he gave the elders of the church and their families an authentic Passover meal. It was so great understanding how the God that I serve was raised. And hey they have four glasses of wine throughout the meal…I say it is a pretty great way to celebrate.

Wednesday, April 4. 2007…Time to myself

Today I worked and completed my 45 page paper! Who says doing grad school overseas is easy? The rest of the house all went to Soshanguve to hand out Easter baskets to the children that we work with there. It was so great the hired house helper, Liette, and I were able to chat for awhile and share a nice piece of chocolate cake together. It was the first day since I have been here (9 weeks) that I had the house to myself. Even though I love people I am actually an introvert, so I pull my energy from being by myself…so this was a great day to build up my supply of energy.

Thursday, April 5. 2007…Kit Kat

You thought I was talking about the candy bar…I am actually talking about this new store that just opened up down the street from where I stay. Abby and I went up and down every aisle to see all the goodness that they offer. Needless to say they offer a lot and we are bringing home a lot of it. It is almost as great as Target, but not quite. We also went on an hour and a half walk around the neighborhood. I am sure we will feel it tomorrow.

Friday, April 6. 2007…Good Friday-Botanical Garden

Abigail and I after church (which was a little crazy-visiting pastor discussed how if you pray hard enough and worship God hard enough that you will become very wealthy—wow not sure where that is at in the Bible but wish it were true! haha) went and walked around the Botanical Gardens. There was a whole lot of deserty things…pretty much my sista would have loved it. Don’t worry Kyla I collected some samples for you and hopefully they will pass through customs. I am just really enjoying spending quality time with Abigail and having a companion that enjoys doing similar things as me while I am over here. She is a great woman of God and has great insight. I am blessed to have her as a good friend and roommate.

Saturday, April 7. 2007…Soccer Match, Mamelodi Sundowns!

I experienced my first professional soccer match today between Mamelodi Sundowns and Al-Ahy (Egypt team). Al-Ahy is the best team in all of Africa right now and Mamelodi hasn’t lost a match yet, so we knew it was going to be a good game going into it. We prepared by tons of prayers, dancing, and wearing Sundowns jerseys. The first half we had like 6 attempts at the goal, but no goals and Al-Ahy had 2 attempts and they both went in. So we were a little depressed cause this was our first match and all…the last 10 min. of the game you better believe Sundowns scored two goals to tie the game…OH MY GOSH it was crazy! Since it wasn’t a tournament game they did not go into overtime…but hey at least we didn’t loose. Then on our way home while riding in the back of the truck (which is so great!) our friend Vigi called to tell us that we were on TV. Just a great way to end the day.

Sunday, April 8, 2007…Happy Easter/Amazing Grace/Traditional Dance

Today has been quite the Easter. There haven’t been any Easter egg hunts or pictures with the Easter bunny…but it has been a good one. As we drove to church we saw the cemetery flooding with people with small offerings for their ancestors. It just made me realize that they are worshiping a dead god and as a Christian I get the pleasure of worshiping a LIVING God! Abby and I sang Amazing Grace this morning at church with a few of our friends…it is really the least we can do for our God who rose from the dead…I mean seriously that is pretty hard to do…try it yourself sometime. After church we went to Kaili Lodge to see some traditional African dances (1 they can shake it like I haven’t seen anyone shake it before, 2 they would blow any dance off in the States away, 3 pretty sure I want to be like them)…they didn’t offer for the audience to come down and practice with them cause you know I would’ve been down there. Instead I practiced in the parking lot afterwards…hey whatever works right. Oh ya by the way River City Abby and I are bringing the congo line to church…so get ready!