No internet

For those of you who didn't know, two days after I arrived here in
South Africa, some neighborhood thugs cut the wires to the phone and
internet here, so all we've been able to do is use my Uncle's cell
phone, which is a great blessing to have. The internet service at the
internet cafe in town has been down foe two week as well, so this will
explain my lack of posting to this blog:)
We have been busy with printing ministry and helping with passing out
Gospel booklets, but have had lots of fun playing soccer, volleyball,
and swimming too. Well, I have to go for now, but just wanted to let
everyone know that I haven't been kidnapped or killed by lions yet:)
Hope to post again soon! Please feel free to post comments or
questions you have.

I Love it here!

Two Random Facts

I just wanted to note that there's no such thing as a screen on a window or door here - so my Aunt Debbie said we could either close the window and die of heat, or leave it open and let the bugs eat us all night - one of those hard decisions in life:\

Also, the Africans just finished their "summer vacation" and are now back in school, although my cousins still follow the American school year schedule. They do not have such a thing as a school bus here.

Flight In & First Impressions

I'm here!!!!! So hard to believe, but Bethany and I (as well as all of our luggage - thanks to those who prayed specifically for that) are safely in South Africa. Originally I thought that the flight was literally 22 hours, but I was surprised to learn that we were really only in the air a total of 17 hours because we lost 7 due to the time change. It was weird to eat breakfast on the plane, then eat supper about three hours later, haha.

Leaving my family at the airport in Chicago was pretty tough, but I managed to hold in MOST of my tears. My cousin Dyanna and I are going to try to get the code to unlock my cell phone, as it will not do anything over here, and is frustrating because all I was able to do was send a quick text to my family from my Uncle's phone to let them know we made it here. (By the way, mom, I can't remember your new email address, so if you read this, please email me:).

So the plane ride wasn't too bad - Bethany and I had seats next to each other both times, which was really nice because there were some very, um lets just say, interesting people on the plane. They searched my purse/bag at the airport and dumped everything out of it because they said I had too many books in it, hah. Our flight from Chicago was a little delayed, so we had to grab our stuff and RUN through the airport in Atlanta to make it for our next flight, which was running right on time, of course. We made it just as they were starting to board! The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.

My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins met us at the Johannasburg airport, then we drove in their kombi (Sotho for big van) north for about three hours to their house in Polokwane. I woke up at about four thirty this morning, probably due to the time change, and have no signs of jet lag - so far....

I'll have to take some pictures of their yard and house to post them here. The land is beautiful in it's own way. Definitely not what I expected, but still beautiful. Hilly, and you could even say mountainous in some places, with very short trees and very tall grass, blended together against a back drop of bluish grey mountains and a bright blue sky. I saw some corn on the way home from the airport (which didn't stress me out, Reid;), which I wasn't expecting either. The weather isn't humid really, just overwhelmingly hot, as if you're sitting too close to a fireplace.

I've got to finish this too long already post & go do something worth writing about in my next post, so bye for now:)

One day left in America...

It's about ten our time, and I still have a lot of last minute stuff to wrap up so this will probably be brief, but I just wanted to share a verse I read today from Psalm 46. It says in verse one, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." and in the first part of verse ten, "Be still and know that I am God..." Well, I'm not really in trouble right now, but I need to know that God will be with me and guide me through the different airports tomorrow and Wednseday!

My next post will be from Africa!!!!

More Pics!

My little sister Charity and I will really miss each other! Of course, I'll miss all my brothers and sisters, even the ones who've asked me "If you die while you're over in Africa, can I have some of your money?" Little brothers:)

I'll miss my family, church, home, friends, driving my car, but you know what? I'm excited about going and thank my God for giving me this opportunity! This is going to be an amazing adventure for serving God in a very different place!

Well, I've got to go for now - choir practice will start in a few minutes, and then the evening service after that, so more later...

Two days until I'm on my way!

Our family did a hospital church service after our normal Sunday morning service, so we just got back from that and now I've finally got my laptop to connect to the wireless hot spot here at the church!

I feel like I'm ready to go - just bought some Dramamine for the long plane ride too, although it may turn out that I don't need it. I haven't flown commercially since I was about four years old, but I've been on the Wings as Eagles plane several times for other missions trips in the last couple years.

Okay, that's probly not very interesting to read about, haha, so I'm going to put in a few pictures with this post:)

It's still nice and snowy here in Iowa, but once I get on the plane Tuesday, I probly won't see any snow until next winter sometime( sad, I know!). Oh, well. This picture is obviously me in my backyard wearing my favorite hat that I won't get to take to Africa...well, I could, but I think the Africans would think I'm a little bit crazier than most Americans, haha.

Getting ready to go...

I know, I know - it's been forever since I posted! I have finished my first semester of classes, enjoyed the holidays with my family, and in one week from today will be on my way to Africa! My family will drive me up to O'Hare Airport where I'll be meeting up with Bethany Farnham and her family. Bethany is going to be staying with my uncle and his family for about six weeks I think, so it'll be nice to have a traveling buddy for the way over there.

My suitcases are pretty much packed - just have to make one final trip to Wal-Mart for a couple last minute things before I zip them up, haha. It's not really the space that's a problem - I didn't pack very much, it's the weight limits that are hard to stick to.

Well, can't think of anything else right now to post about... I've got to get busy so bye for now!