Settling in…

I am settling in back here in Cape Town. I’ve been back for about two weeks and am enjoying getting back into a schedule. I am helping out with Alpha for the next three weeks, and am looking forward to that.

I’m moving in July! One of the girls who works at the church (Sue) has found a two bedroom apartment and asked if I would like to live with her – yeah! I am excited. We went and looked at the apartment this week and it is adorable and has an amazing view of table mountain. The cost of living will actually be very comparable to what I am paying now. I will miss the people that I live with and will miss family life, but have an open invitation to come here anytime… so I plan to do that often. ☺

Things at the bookshop are going well. I spoke with Stephanie, who is the one in charge of Beauty for Ashes and is my project leader while I am here. I am not going to be helping out with Beauty for Ashes too much anymore, but will be doing some admin stuff for them. I have mixed feelings about this, but trust God has something more for me here. I am hoping to get involved in planning some type of women’s retreat or day here and would love prayer in this… as I’m not really sure where it’s going to go from here.

I am helping out with the youth group and am enjoying that. I have been moved three times as far as which grade level I am working with – I am now with the tenth graders. The kids are absolutely amazing. Although the church has many cultures, almost all of the kids in the youth group are black South Africans. About once a month we meet only with our specific life groups (as opposed to the entire youth group meeting together). So, last Friday we had a guy come and teach the tenth grade life group salsa dancing. It was a blast! Please pray that God uses me here and gives me a love for these kids like He loves them.

Love you all and appreciate you SO much!!!

Back in Cape Town

I have arrived back in Cape Town… only took 41 hours of travel time! It is good to be back here and I received a warm welcome from everyone. I have jumped right back into life here. I went to youth last night and am having dinner with some friends tonight and then going to a talent show that the church is hosting. It’s great having something here to come back to – much different than when I first came.

I had no problems traveling with my washed passport. When I checked in, both in St. Louis and London, both the people checking me in (not sure what their official job titles are) commented that I must have washed my passport, but there were no problems. Yeah! Thanks for all your prayers.

I was reading Terry Virgo’s book, “No Well Worn Paths”… and I finished it on the way back here. It’s a great book, I would recommend it to anyone. It’s basically Terry’s testimony, which includes the start and happenings of NFI as well as Terry’s experience at Christian Fellowship Church.

It was such a blessing to get to go home for a couple of weeks… I so enjoyed catching up with you guys and wish I could have had more time to get “quality” time with each of you. I appreciate you all so much.

Rendezvous

I am here in Columbia. It’s been wonderful catching up with friends and spending time with family. It will be doubly hard to leave again, but I am also excited to get back to Cape Town. I just have a quick story… especially for the avid Joyce Meyer fans (Carli and Julie!). ☺

Last Tuesday morning I was at my friend Carli’s place in St. Louis. I have not been feeling well, as many of you know, and I was lying there on her floor on my stomach with my head resting on my arms… and I was just wondering (kinda whining)… “Why is this so hard?” What is so hard? I don’t even know… my family situation… my heart being in two places at the same time… life….

Carli was sitting on the couch and she turned on the tv… and Joyce Meyer was on. I turned over to watch it and Carli was thinking about changing the channel but asked if I wanted to watch it… I said I’d like to watch it as I was hoping for something encouraging.

We watched for about 10 minutes, and as Joyce was wrapping up the program, here it came… “If you want it to be easier, quit asking God to use you.”

Wow… I’m pretty speechless and I think it speaks for itself. What is my response? “Here I am. USE ME!!”

I love you all so much… and my prayer is that He uses you, too!!!