Pretoria to White River

            After our first week in Pretoria, we eventually piled into the vehicles and moved to the Africa School of Missions campus near White River in Mpumalanga, where we will be staying for the rest of our time in South Africa. The campus is beautiful, full of mango trees, and right under the shadow of Legogote Mountain.
            We spent our first couple days just settling in and helping out in the ASM library with various cleaning projects. We then spent last week helping Reverend Roger at Saint Mary’s Anglican Church with gardening and making house visits to pray for people. Rev. Roger was one of the funniest people I have ever met, and he saw every moment as an opportunity for all of us to break into song.
            I have been nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes, but I haven’t gotten any diseases yet so all is well. There is a beautiful shaded place on campus full of boulders, toads, and trees, which I have set up my hammock in. It is a lovely place to spend the early morning – just me, Jesus, and maybe a monkey or two hiding somewhere.

            I love seeing everything that God is doing in the lives of each person on our team. This kind of experience is the kind that I dream about having. It can also be tough being with such a large group of people nonstop. By the end of the day I get utterly exhausted. It is both a blessing and a learning experience. But I love it. I am going to miss the freedom of being able to pick a mango at any moment I desire. 

sorbet adventure

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 9, 2017 at 6:32 PM

    Beautifully worded honey! Eat a mango for me :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Letter to the Anonymous Individual

       I have had two experiences with very generous anonymous individuals. 1. Someone bought me real Chacos — my size and favorite color. Like, brand new Chacos. What on earth? Why? Suddenly I felt so encouraged. Yes, God provides for our needs — but He also goes above and beyond just because he loves us. I felt like someone could see me and truly cared. 2. Someone paid the remainder of what I owed to go to Togo. That was a lot of money.  This reassured me that I really am doing what God wants me to do. I’ve never seen generosity so extreme before, and it really touched me. Why would they do this? Why for me? I struggle to pay for all my school and necessities already, so raising money for this trip seemed unlikely. Yet here I am today having been totally and unimaginably provided for. I have no idea who these people are or what compelled them to be so incredibly kind to me, but I feel so blessed. I want to say thank you.         To the individual who bought me Chacos:        
Read more

Missional Worship

Image
      We know that the mission of God’s people is and has always been to make His name known among all peoples. This was the mission at the very beginning and it is still what Jesus commissions us to do today. We also know that we are called to worship and glorify God with our lives. We incorporate congregational worship into our weekly gatherings and sing praises to the Lord regularly. But how do these two relate? Do they relate at all? Does worship have anything to do with missions and does missions have anything do to do with worship? The answer is “yes.” As Zac Hicks writes in his book to Worship Pastor - a Call to Ministry for Worship Leaders and Teams , “just as a heart has no purpose without veins and arteries, and just as those veins and arteries are useless without a heart, so worship is inherently missional and mission is essentially doxological” (Hicks 98). We were created to glorify God and declare His goodness. We read this repeatedly throughout the Scriptures. One
Read more

“Reflecting.” A poem by me

Image
This is a poem I wrote while I was in Tennessee. My mind was racing and I couldn’t fall asleep. I needed a new perspective. So, I got out of my hammock, didn’t even put my glasses on, and went for a walk. The poem is called “Reflecting” because while the Great Blue Heron reflected on the surface of the pond — I reflected on my life. In the dark of night, on a small dock, on a small pond.  Blurry vision, flickering street light, quiet heart. Raining so softly it produced no sound, just a sparkling pond. In the middle of the water — a Great Blue Heron. Standing with me. Together, we reflected.
Read more