Breaking in and Broken Hearted

This week the teams are doing outreach that I organized for the teams. It was exhausting to arrange everything but I am grateful to be apart of exposing the students to different experiences. At this moment I am having a hard time motivating myself to keep going tomorrow.

While attending a worship meeting with our teams in Pretoria Central the car I am using was broken into. The door locks, steering column, ignition and wiring were damaged. The good thing is...nothing was taken from the car (computer, phone and handbag).

At this moment I feel like packing it up. It is so hard but I know that this is where I am supposed to be. The financial implications are the hardest to get past. It seems that each time I get closer to financial stability; something happens that takes the wind out of my sails. This puts me further from getting a car because the repairs are not covered by insurance and I have to have the car in running condition for the owner who returns in two weeks.

I am not sure what I will do for transportation at this point. But I am sure that I will find some way. God always seems to come through even though I do not agree with his methods in times like these. Well I guess I should crash, I have a long day at the police station and making arrangements for the cars' repairs.

Well this is what I have to get through tonight.

Discovering South Africa

Today I made my first trek to the Northern Province. It is so beautiful; lush green trees and deep blue sky on a cold crisp morning. The lady travelling with me kept saying, I never expected to find a place like this in Africa.

I went to visit an outreach team in Sekororo (near Kruger Park), which is a rural area which is primary black and poor. Two missionaries, Wilma and Casper, moved there to plant a church and assist in community development. They are so grateful to have a team to assist them during the holiday week.

The team will spend their time teaching vacation bible school, doing workshops, building projects and leading worship. They love it there!

One of the girls who came to an evening meeting cried and held on to one of the team members because she had never heard God presented in a way that implied love and freedom the way our team expressed it. My eyes were filled with tear constantly as I heard story after story of lives changing.

Spending these few hours in this lush beauty juxtaposed with abject poverty really struck me. I had one of those inspirational moments where I know I was born to do this. Times like these allow me the inspiration I need to carry on when times are rough.

I am home!

t is good to be home!! I have been travelling for 28 hours. The good thing about being on a plane that long allows me to catch up on sleep and movies.

The sucky thing is that my bag did not arrive with me. It arrived 28 hours later from Frankfurt sans $3,800 worth of equipment and products I purchased our staff and myself. So tomorrow I will take a trip to the police station to file a report and then file with the airlines.

It was difficult to say good bye to family and friends this time because it seemed so final. I know that some people were hoping that I would return to a life in the states, but now more than ever I am convinced that I am suppose to be in RSA. The whole time I was in the states my heart was torn between helping my family and friends and caring for the kids I love dearly in South Africa. I often felt like a mother went on a trip without the kids and fought the urge to call home every hour.

Well tomorrow we start three days of meeting where we review the years training. We start the day in prayer then we go through each department and section of training with scrutiny. Many new ideas are developed during these days. I am looking forward to participating in this organic process.