Scraaaatch that- :o)

We are headed back to South Africa on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO excited. I seriously LOVE that country. I thought these last two weeks would be kind of short, but I am so excited for our last week. One of our speakers from lecture phase invited all of us to stay at their home to "spoil" us. :o) So that our DTS would end on a great note. So I'm pumped to be going back....ah. :o) The joys of good times....Hope everyone had a faaabulous thanksgiving. We actually had turkey and stuffing and all that junk. And if you know me, you know I don't like it. So there was plenty for people here to eat it. :o) haha. Our base is made up of mostly Americans, so the holiday would def. not go unnoticed. :o)
So happy thanksgiving! :o)

I am basically just thankful for life. :o)

I'll BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I totally just realize, I'll actually be home for Christmas! :o) We were in Worcester for a week for the Nations to Nations conference. Pretty cool. Then we went to freakin' Capetown, Muisenburg for a day! AHHH! That is where I would also like to live! :o) The base is located in the city, and it's about a 5 min. walk to the beach and then behind the base it's about a 10 min. walk to Table Mountain that you can hike up. It's absolutely GORGEOUS. It was also great to see and meet a bunch of the other bases in Africa and the DTS students. Most of them started DTS in September, so they have a LONG way to go. :o) And it was pretty exciting to say we're going home in a week and 1/2! haha. I really enjoyed it. I got to spend a lot of time with a friend I met from Germany, named Bettina. :o) Aw. Such a sweet sweet person. I seriously love getting to know people. She grew up in a village with about 23 people. That blew me away! Their outreach is to an island in Uganda I think. They will stay there for 10 weeks. Wow. That's intense! hahah.

I've basically loved the last few weeks of outreach. Hard moments, moments when I just want to go home and forget everything here, but as I was thinking on the train last night, those moments seem so far away. I really can only remember the good and crazy times. I remember the bad, but they seem so little compared to all the great things that the Lord has done and shown me. The people I have met, the ministries I have learned about and am excited about. The places we have lived, the food we have eaten. There's good and bad in all of it, but it's so great to focus on the good. I think so many times while we are in a moment, the bad overrules us. haha. Actually, yesterday I had a moment. I wanted to buy a passport cover that had Africa on it, and everytime I've seen them, they have been like 10-15 dollars, and I found one yesterday for R5. That's like...50 cents. geez! So I wanted to buy one, and I'm sitting in the Kombi while my two friends are getting one, and I'm hanging out the window telling the guy to come to me next, and this other dude comes. And I was like, no I want the other guy b/c I want a passport cover, and he held up what he was selling and was like, no no I have them. And it said identity card. Well, me- in my ignorant American mind, I'm thinking, oh that's just another word for passport. So I bought one and then he was gone. I get my passport and it doesn't fit. The cover is too small. I was so upset in that moment, and I was so mad at that dude, I wanted to get my slingshot (yes, I bought a slingshot. :o) We had to get rid of our South African coins b/c you can't use them in Swaziland...) and put a rock in it to his face. I hate being ripped off, and I hate that I'm constantly unaware until after the fact. But after a while, I'm like, dude, it's just five Rand. CHILLOUT! haha. It's moments like those that I truly need to realize what is coming out of me. Is it God or is it my flesh? I'm constantly becoming more and more aware of living in moments and what comes out of me. What my reactions are and seriously doing something about it...

Okay. not to get preachy, I don't know what all that is about. All I know is that...

I AM SOOOOO EXCITED TO BE HOME IN A WEEK AND 1/2!!!! I cannot wait to see my family and friends and catch up with y'all. Maybe a freakin' 100 gift card to startbucks would be best for a Christmas present so I can catch up with all of y'all over some great coffee. Oh, that is one thing I've really gotten addicted to here in Africa. I started drinking coffee about a month ago because we ran out of hot chocolate. Now I have about 3 or 4 cups a day. Yikes....I knew the Colombian in me would catch up... :o)

All of you, have fun getting ready for the holidays. It's so weird seeing Christmas Santa's and stuff up here because it's so stinkin' HOT. But be safe, have fun, end studies with a bang! :o)

Isaiah 30:21

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'"

Capetown South Africa :o)

Wow. Guys, I freakin' love my life here. We just finished spending two weeks in Hammanskraal South Africa, which is a little bit outside of Pretoria which is the capital city in South Africa. In Hammanskraal, we did a lot of things! I can't even express how much my heart is in that place. The night before we left, I had this dream of going home. It felt so real, because it was the same time I am suppose to arrive in December and as I got off of the plane, my heart was literally left in South Africa. Not just Africa, but a very specific place in Africa. It hasn't been hard getting ready to go home, until now. :o( I thought I would be connected to Africa, but not like I am now to South Africa. I pray that the Lord will call me back here again one day. :o) It may be 15 years down the road, but I'm okay with that, as long as I get to come back. We are now in Worchester (Pronounced Vooster) at a conference. We are here this week, then have two more weeks! I cannot believe it is almost time to go! I have no words to say, except the Lord's love has become more than evidant to me. It is so real. I am going to write out something I wrote a few weeks ago.

It was a really hard day leaving Malawi because the borders wouldn't give us our visas, so they made us take everything off of the bus and get our bags and they said we would not be able to continue. One girl in our group was crying, the boys were incredibly frustrated and everyone was so upset, but for the first time in my life, you all that REALLY know me, know that I have quite a mouth on me. Well, the Lord really gave me a peace about the situation and I just stood back and smiled, because He seriously felt SO near to me. His love ran SO deep that day, and I just stood there and was soaking in His faithfulness. We eventually were given our visas, and when I got on the bus, I wrote this....


This feeling inside me is big. This feeling inside me is fresh and new. It hurts but in a good way. As I breathe in and out slowly, I realize how much I needed this feeling. This feeling is love. Not love from a mortal, but love from the unseen. A love that comes through faith. This love isn't conditional. I've always had it since the day I began to grow in my mother's womb. It was there when I entered this world, and it will be there when I leave this world. It was there when I was innocent and couldn't comprehend who you were. This love was there when I opened my heart to you. It was there as I began to grow into who you chose me to be. Your love was loudest the moment I walked away from you. The moment I decided I was better off on my own. This was the same love that gently embraced me the moment I took my first step towards home. This love isn't always physical, but I have felt it. In such a real way, physical way. This love isn't emotional. It is constant. It never wavers or fades. It isn't a scale. This love is immovable and big. There is no way around it. Whether I was aware of it or not, this love was centered around me. Until today. I truly know, in such a deep way, deep into the core of my soul, that this love is about You. My love is conditional. It is mortal. It is based upon a scale. My love is not usually shown. My love for you isn't like the raging sea waves, but more like the ripples from a pebble being tossed into a shallow pond. My love is not fair. Your love is perfect and mine will never be even close to that. But Father, may I truly begin to love you because you are worthy. I am the undeserving and unworthy. Your love makes me worthy. May I constantly be aware of who it is I serve and love. And may I be constantly aware of who loves me. "Don't ever forget who you are, and WHOSE you are."


May we continue to grow in the love of our Abba-Daddy....