Finish Strong

It's hard to believe that we have reached the end of our lecture phase. We have spent the past 11 weeks learning, growing, and preparing together as a team, and now it's time to move into outreach. One thing that I love about DTS is that it's not the end...isn't simply a launching pad into other things. I have learned SO much, and I look forward to all that God has in store for us in these next few months.

Finish strong. That has been the line that has been repeating itself in my mind a lot this week. When the finish is in sight, we have a couple of options to choose from. We can slow the pace and take a deep breath, thankful that the finish is so close. Or, we can let the sight of it motivate us to press on all the harder and give that last stretch of track every bit of effort we've got left. I pray that I would be the one who does the latter - the one who keeps on pressing forward and finishes strong. I'll admit that it is easy to get distracted by thoughts of home, and at times it causes me to not be fully here. Not that I'm homesick, but I do look forward to seeing my family and friends face to face again. But while I'm here in Africa, I want to be fully here. I know that this is where God has called me for these 5 months, and so I want to press into all that He has for me!

Our classes this week were on HIV/AIDS and Mercy. Not only was it educational in regards to the facts of HIV, but it was really neat to study what our response should be. God has called us as His sons and daughters to be ambassadors of His mercy. This is a big task that carries a lot of responsibility, but it is also an amazing privilege!

The one hard thing about this week is that it has been a week of "lasts". The last day at the church we usually go to. The last day at the Dwaleni feeding program. The last day of class. The last day of working in the kitchen. After that has been the routine life for the past 2 1/2 months, it will be an adjustment to work into a new routine. On Sunday we invited all of the youth from the church to come to the base for an afternoon of games, food, and fellowship. Every week after church they have invited us into their homes, and it has been an honor to get to know them. I will really miss seeing them each week while we are on outreach, but hopefully we will get to see them again when we return.

Friday was a party in celebration of the completion of a home that TTH was building. Our DTS hasn't been a part of the construction, but it was so much fun to be included in the celebration part of it! The couple that owns this home has many of their grandchildren living with them, and they had run out of room in their small home. Their dream was to add on some extra rooms, but they didn't have the resources needed to do so. So Ten Thousand Homes came and partnered with them to make this dream come true, and now this family has two new rooms that have been added on. It is quite neat to see how the Lord is working in and through this ministry to bring HOPE and HOME to the people of South Africa!

As we go into our two months of outreach, I'm not planning on using much internet. As far as I know, it will be available in most of the locations we will be at, but I really want to be FULLY THERE. So please don't be alarmed if I seem to be quiet around here...there will most likely be very few posts (if any) while we are in outreach.

Looking back, I wish I would have been able to share more stories of what God is doing here instead of just listing the events of each week. My blog posts don't even begin to tell all that has happened in these past few months! Maybe later on after the DTS is completed I'll have the time to sit down and type some of those stories out. I would LOVE to share more about this amazing journey God is letting me be a part of! But for now, it's time to say good-bye. I'll take plenty of photos, keep my journal up to date, and seek to dive fully into all that God has for me. Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement...all of you are such a blessing to me!

And last, but certainly not least, here are some photos that re-cap all that has happened in the past week...

 These photos are of our DTS along with the youth who have invited us into their homes each week after church. Have loved getting to know them!

 The photo above is of me and Lorraine - I've gone with her several times to her home. In the photo below I'm with Phephelapi - Eveliina and I have gone home with her at least 3 or 4 times. Both of them are such lovely young women with amazing hearts!!

The photo above and the next few after it were taken on our last day in Dwaleni. Gonna miss these kids a LOT!

This is Constance. She is hardly ever without a smile...but wouldn't smile for the picture :)  She has become my little buddy over the past month or so, and I hated to say goodbye to her. It didn't help at all that she wouldn't let me put her down...love this girl!

These final photos were taken at the home celebration on Friday....

This is a new friend of mine named Hannah...her team is currently here at TTH on their DTS outreach.

Outreach Prep and Answered Prayers

Hello friends! I want to start off by saying "Thank you". I have gotten emails and messages from multiple people over the past week which say, "I'm praying for you!" and "Been thinking of you!" I hope you all know just how much that means to me. It is such an encouragement, especially if it's a more difficult day or I just need that little reminder. I am SO blessed by all of you!!

I am quite excited to share how God is at work, as we have had some amazing answers to prayer this week! First of all, both Ida and I got confirmation from our embassies that our new passports are ready to pick up. So glad to be done with all of that! The other praise has to do with visas. One of the other girls realized a few days ago that her visa had expired (they were supposed to give her a 3 month visa when she came in the country, but there was a mess-up and they only gave her 1 month), which would cause problems for leaving the country. Two other women from the base also had some visa issues. When they went to home affairs, it looked like a couple of them were going be pretty big issues that would require paying fees and doing lots of paperwork. The rest of our team got together and prayed about this situation while they were at the office. Almost as soon as we had finished praying, we heard from our leader that the head executive (who also happened to be a Christian) had written letters for all three of the women who had visa issues, explaining the situations and correcting the problems (which were on their end). Praise God for such a wonderful answer to prayer! It is so neat to see how God has provided in so many ways as we get ready to leave for outreach. As Christians we are never promised that life will be easy, but God does promise to never leave us. And often it's in those hard times that we can see God at work even more clearly.

We didn't really have classes this week...we mainly focused on outreach preparation. On Monday a pastor from Swaziland came and shared with us about the ministry we will be partnering with while there and what we should expect. During our time there we will be working along side the local churches, which will mainly include leading revivals and doing evangelism. We don't have any details about Uganda yet, but hopefully we'll get some in the next week or so.

This week we've also prepared a lot of dramas which we will be using to share about God in a visual way. These dramas will then be followed up by a short presentation of the gospel or devotional on that specific topic. Although we want to put our absolute best into it, it's good to be reminded that it's not about us looking "good"...it's about allowing God to work through us. There are going to be some very difficult times during outreach, but we aren't doing it alone. It's blown my mind as I've come into a deeper understanding of the power God gives me through the Holy Spirit. I can't make it through difficult things on my own strength...but the good news is that I don't have to because God promises to be with me every step of the way.

The week was finished off with a Ten Thousand Homes Vision Day and Love Fest on Friday. The Vision Day was a time for the leaders to share about their vision for TTH in the upcoming year - growth that they would like to see happen. There was also a time for everyone to voice both the excitement they had about all of this, as well as questions that were raised. In the evening there was a Love Fest, which was a beautiful outdoor banquet followed by a talent show. It was a lovely night of fellowship and fun! Have I mentioned before that I love this huge family that I've got over here in Africa?

The setup for the love fest was quite impressive!!

These photos were taken last week in Dwaleni - the girls LOVE to do the hair of anyone who will sit still!

 Celebrating the birthday of our DTS leader, Pastor Raines!

 This little guy (above) was found by someone and then passed around so that everyone could get their photo taken with it. I'll have to say that chameleons have perhaps the weirdest feeling feet ever...

 It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I'm having to get used to the fact that Christmas time around here is not the season for warm scarves, thick sweaters, and fuzzy boots. In fact, it's quite opposite of that. More like flip flops and t-shirts. And yes, the stores have already begun their Christmas decorating....

Welcome to Dwaleni

I took my camera along to Dwaleni last week, and I went with a goal: To capture in photographs the story that unfolds each week.

I don't really have words to describe it all, so I'll simply let the photos do the speaking.

 

Our God is so Great!

I have a praise report to share with you! As many of you know, there are several DTS students who are still in need of financial support in order to pay for outreach fees for Uganda and Swaziland. These fees will cover all of our expenses for those 2 months, including lodging, food, flights, and other transportation. To help raise money for this, our team held a DTS giving night on Tuesday with everyone from the Ten Thousand Homes base in attendance. It was a beautiful night of worship and giving to individual students as the Lord led, and praise God that a total of over $7,000 was given! It was so neat to see students' numbers dropping drastically (one from $1,700 down to just under $200) within the time span of 45 minutes or so. Our heavenly Father is so amazing!

With that being said, there are still a few of the students who still need to raise fairly large sums of money (ranging from just under $200 to just over $2,000). We are all in this together, and really want to help each other out as much as possible. Since some of these students don't have much financial support available from their churches or family, I would like to present this to you as a way that you can help support this team. If you feel led to help support a student financially, you can send donations via PayPal (specify that it is to help cover outreach fees for students in the comment/special request section) using the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=M9VSQMBXH6W7A

Another very important way you can support us is through your continued prayers. Please be praying that God would provide the money that is still needed, and that everyone would be fully funded when we leave on November 18th. We are trusting that God will provide, and are excited to see how He works in and through this team over the next few months.

Thank you so much for your consideration!

And the photo is a little bonus, just because...

A week in review

Blessed.

It's been an eventful week to say the least, but if I could sum it all up in one word, that would be it. It's had it's ups and downs, but God is faithful through it all and has blessed me so richly. Through the classes, through my TTH family, through a crazy ladies night out, through His Word, through a trip to Johannesburg...yes, it's been a wonderful week.

We spent the week discussing healing and liberation, and really focused on loving the nations. I learned more about how God views the nations, and His love for the diversity that we see among them. It really helped me to gain a new perspective on how I view different cultures and gave me a renewed love and appreciation for them. I also saw how my ethnic group, culture, continent, nation, etc. has an influence on how I look at and love others, and without really noticing it those things can cause me to set up prejudices and preconceived ideas. If we want to be a light to the nations and truly love others as God has loved us, we need to lay those things down and ask God to help us to view others through HIS eyes. Quite challenging, yet so freeing!

The normal weekly schedule was disrupted by a quick trip to Johannesburg and Pretoria. Since Ida and I are in need of new passports before leaving for outreach, we had to visit our Embassies to submit our applications. So on Wednesday afternoon we left with two other staff members on a little trip. It's about a 4 hour drive each way, and it amazes me how the landscape can change so quickly. The difference between Johannesburg and White River is about the same as the contrast between the landscape of Colorado and Iowa. One is full of hills and mountains, the other is flat and covered in farmland. Praise the Lord that we were able to get everything submitted, and will hopefully have the passports within 3 weeks or so. It was quite a fun and relaxing trip, but we were ready to be back home by Thursday evening. We were only gone for a day...but we were missing everyone!

I know that this week's update was somewhat short, but it's way past my normal bedtime and I need to get some sleep in before church tomorrow! So now it's time for the weekly load of photos. I'm actually starting off with some pictures from Dwaleni that are a week or two old, and then moving into the activities of the week....

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Last week's Friday small group

Yes...that is what you think it is. A pile of frogs. Frog legs for dinner, anyone?

If I didn't know better...I'd say this was Iowa, not South Africa!!

My first rhino sighting was at...a gas station (they were in a pen)

Reminds me SO much of Colorado!

A beautiful night out with all of the ladies!