Team Jbay.

This is my Jbay team.   After becoming a family. We were headed back home after spending a week in Cape Town.  Crazy how time goes by and where we are all at.

koko.

This is Koko! He is and forever will be mine. I spent almost every day my first year in South Africa holding him while he slept or carrying him around on my shoulders. He was and forever will be my favorite. His story is the only unbeautiful thing about him. His mother walked out on him and his dad and his older brother and sister. He was 10 days old. His dad, being a drunk, would lock him out of the shack while he was at work. Koko when I met him was 4. His feet were as hard as a rock being covered in calluses from walking around all day with no shoes.  He was and maybe still is scared of the water. His smile always brightened my day. I could always get a great hug from him. I miss him, and often wonder what he is like now. He would be almost 10.  His he staying out of trouble? Does he remember me?  Does he know the Lord?  How are his grades in school?

Valentrick Day.

 

While living in Port Elizabeth, we celebrated Valentrick Day. Our version of Valentines Day.  It was complete with dancing, dinner and heart shaped valentines.  A great evening of family fun and memories. 

A school in the dirt of Uganda.

A school for 200+ children in a small village in Uganda. My team and I were able to visit and minister there. We played games, held and laughed with the kids, taught them about David and Goliath, and got COVERED in the red dirt of Uganda. It was a great day of ministry, All out girls did great. Its humbling to see this school and know/see how different it is than the one that I grew up with. What a difference. I had a  floor and walls to my school. These kids if they are lucky get to sit on wooden benches that look like they will fall apart at any moment. Not all the kids fit in the school so they have class outside under the tree in back. Trying to stay out of the hot sun. I don't know what happens when its raining. I imagine no school becuase the

Ga Living.

So this was my team when I lived in Ga working at Adventures in Missions office as an intern. We all sat in the same office talking on phones at the same time. It was chaotic at times.  It was a fight for community at first but then we really became family once we ALL decided that it was worth having. It was great living and working with these guys. The Ashley's and Em and I shared an apartment. We cooked together, ate together, watched movies, did crafts, lived life. We were also blessed to be part of the youth group at our church. Ashley Hall (the blonde[now Simonson]) and I taught sixth grade sunday school. It was great to get to know and invest in those ladies. We had very few guys that showed up. Both Ash and I were stretched in our teaching but it was really good. As a team we learned a lot that year. We had a lot of ups and downs but over all it was a great year.

Shoes

Took this picture during one of our VBS times at a park. All the girls took their shoes off to jump rope. We did a lot of Jump roping in the DR.

My first taste of COMMUNITY.

So this is my first family away from home. It was the fall of 2006 we all traveled to Ga and met for the first time. All coming from different backgrounds, parents, friends, churches. But after 9 months together we shared just about everything (That is what happens when 10 girls share one bathroom). Before my first year in South Africa I was not sure about friendships. I has been hurt by a college friend. But these people showed me what it looks like to love one another, looking past the dirt (sometimes literally) and baggage that everyone carries and love another anyways. This team, especially some of the ladies, will always be in my heart. I know that the Lord used them to change my heart and made me fall in love with community.

 

This is our whole team at the end of the first semester. There are days that I wish we were still on 1 Periwinkle, laughing, planning for ministry, crammed in our living room watching a movie, singing, pulling pranks on each other, baking, entertaining ourselves at night when boredom strikes, learning who were really are in Christ, learning what loving like He does looks like, walking to the beach on an off day to relax and spend it together, and so much more.  I miss living life with each of you. 

The baby place.

Well that is what we called it. It has a formal name but it has escaped my memory. This was one of our ministry sights in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It is a transition home of sorts for infants and toddlers. The ministry was to play with and love the beautiful children who live there. This girl was one of them that stole our hearts. As a leader I didn't have a regular ministry but when I had time I always went with our ladies to this one to hang out with the kids. One of the little boys that lived there had CP, I believe.  He layed on the floor and struggled to breath the whole time but he loved his back to be rubbed and loved being talked to. Many moments were spent hanging out with him. I think about these kids a lot and wonder if they ever got to go home with people or if they are in an orphanage now.

real missionaries.

 

So my first year in South Africa we spent two weeks over Easter in Swaziland. This is Kristy, Katie (in the back) and I doing laundry in our skirts (women don't wear pants). That metal building behind us is our shower/ a room where a bucket of water was. We slept on the floor in rondavels. This was the most intense I have been on the field until Uganda this summer. It got dark at 5pm and light at 4am.  Our sleeping habits changed. Our eating habits changed. We washed our hair out of our water bottles while standing up, leaning forward. Took skill. We spent alot of time with kids. We stayed on the grounds of a carepoint. Where the kids knew that they could come and eat and learn. We fed them, taught them, played with them, and held them. We also did hospital ministry. Our two weeks in Swaziland taught us a lot. We all left there with MANY memories.

Dung Beetle.

Sorry I missed last Thursday.  I had a busy week at work and it slipped my mind.

Now for tuesdays picture.

This picture is not about me. Its about the bug infront of me. It's a DUNG BEETLE. These bugs were put on this earth to eat dung. There were signs up in the Animal parks that stated to watch out for them. They were fun to spot. Of course we were interested in the larger cooler animals too.

Photo credit goes to Google.

Some facts according to Wikipedia.
Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on feces. Many dung beetles, known as rollers, are noted for rolling dung into spherical balls, which are used as a food source or brooding chambers. Other dung beetles, known as tunnelers, bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the dwellers, neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in manure.

Blue Speghetti

I thought I would choose a fun picture this week.

When living on the UCSA base in Jeffrey's Bay (fall of 2008) the South Africans cooked for us when Melissa (our chef (She did a great job. )) didn't. We never knew what we would be eating. This particular day was blue day. Blue spaghetti was on the menu. Not sure who's idea it was. I have to say it was the first and probably last time that I ate that. It was a fun and interesting mean to say the least. After we got over the fact that our pasta was blue it tasted normal. Mind over manner. Pictured with me are two of the ladies that I was blessed to lead- Kayla and Brittney (BP).

Normal in the DR.

While in the DR a few summers ago leading an Ambassador trip this was a normal scene during street VBS.  We taught in the shade across the street from the Green house where we lived. It was perfectly normal for a horse or donkey to stroll by. The girls (my team) did really great. Here is Sara not even batting an eye while explaining the days craft.


*Sorry this is late. Work has been busy.

The beauty.

Addo Elephant Park.

When living in South Africa I was never further than an hour drive from a large game park.  Thus I and my teams were able to go on safaris. It was always so exciting to be sitting in our car and have one of these giants walk up and pass us. One of my favorite moments was my first year and my first visit to the park we had a herd of elephants, about 10, come out of the bush right at our car and then proceed down the road. Of course blocking the road so all we could to was watch them and be in awe.