Africa today!

I know I updated last night but I wanted to remind y'all that my team will be having a blog. When I'm not able to update this one our team blog will be updated.  They are going to be putting a video they made from our night on the streets in Atlanta up soon.  They showed it to us last night and I think that once you see it you will have a very good idea of what we did that whole night.  So don't forget to check my team blog as often as you check mine!

http://swaziland.adventures.org

Can't wait to get on the plane, even though it is about a 17 hour flight, I know that Africa is on the other side.  All week we have been doing listening prayer. I didn't know what that was before this week but God really used it to encourage me.  We would stand in a small circle with a few people and close our eyes; one person would step in the middle and without us looking to see who it was, we would pray and ask the Lord to give us something to say to them.  It was really new and uncomfortable for me at first but God really touched people's lives with words spoken over them.  One thing a girl said to me, who didn't even know who I was or where I was going: "I see feet running on a road; it's a dirt road and the feet are children's feet"
Okay so that might sound crazy to you, but all day I had been talking about how the children in Timbutini, Swaziland will walk miles just to get to the carepoints we will be working, so they can have a meal.  I wanted to walk these roads and meet the children so they didn't have to walk that way alone.  So, when this girl said that to me I got chills and was just amazed at how God spoke through her when she didn't even know that is what was on my heart all day.  There have been many other times throughout the week where similar things happened.  I hadn't shared my heart for the children there, and so many people as they prayed for me just talked about how they knew that when I held the children, they would feel Jesus' love, and when I played with the orphans, they would see Jesus.  It was so encouraging to hear other people confirm what has been in my heart for years.  In the next few days I will get to do these exact things!  I love my family and friends and miss you already.

Picture Update

This is the cabin at AIM...no electricity, 3 bunks high with all 25ish girls sleeping in it

Top Picture: is my whole team with the painting we did today

Bottom Picture: Tori, she's on my team and we have really enjoyed talking (Mom this is who I was talking about) and she is letting me use her computer to put these pictures up!

Our Team Blog

Today they were talking about blogging while we are in Africa.  Obviously we won't have wireless internet in our little African farm, but we will be about 20 km east of Manzini (Swaziland's 2nd largest city) so we will have the internet cafe there.  I hope I am able to update this blog as well as write on our team blog, but if I am not, then we will be updating our team blog weekly so you can read not only from me but from my other team mates as well. So Mom, they told us to tell parents that no news can be considered good news.  If I haven't updated in a while then we probably just haven't had time to make it to the internet cafe.  Hopefully we will be able to post pictures as well.

We leave for Africa tomorrow. It's so excited that a day I have waited years for is finally here, and I'm so looking forward to holding those orphans.  Pray for safe travel for the team and all our luggage to get there the same time we do, we don't have any connecting flights so if our luggage is on the plane in Atlanta then it should be there when we arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa.  Already miss people, but so glad God chose for me to be here.

Our team blog will be:  http://swaziland.adventures.org

Cold Nights & A Gracious God

So Monday morning I left for training camp which is located in Gainesville, GA. I met my team in the Atlanta airport and we were eventually given instructions to find a way to get to the Atlanta Safehouse. For some reason it didn't even cross my mind that a safehouse is a homeless shelter, I just thought that it was a cool name for a restaurant, so yes dad my blonde moments continue :) . But, that's definitely not what it was! So once we got there we were taken to rooms with lots of bunk beds and everybody quickly claimed one. Then we went upstairs and got our dinner: a peanut butter & jelly, an apple and chips. I was very tempted to complain but didn't see how I could with so many homeless people downstairs. Our next instructions were given to us in an envelope and informed us that we would be spending the night on the streets of Atlanta, seeing firsthand what these people face every night. I was definitely scared and not to thrilled to be honest. After a long day of traveling we were all just looking forward to getting in bed. So we went out around 9:30 that night and were not supposed to come back to the safehouse until 4:00 am. So we went out and just talked to people. It was crazy to see how easy it was for hem to come up and talk to you. Almost every person would start out asking if we would pray for them and then once we did they didn't hesitate to ask us for money. We were told not to bring money with us so we didn't have to lie when they asked us for money and we said no. But once we told them we couldn't give them money they were not interested I talking to us at all. It was really discouraging that they would pull the "God card" to try and get something from us. A few of the homeless would 'prophesy' over us then ask us for money. The first person, Greg, did this to my group. Once we told him that we couldn't give him any money he told us that we didn't need to listen to men (our leaders that told us to not bring money) but to listen to the Holy Spirit who Greg felt like was telling each of us to give him money. He then accused a few people of not tithing enough, it was pretty crazy. It was definitely one of the hardest nights I've had but I'm sure by the end of the trip I will have many more. 


Yesterday we got to the AIM training facilities, and found out we wouldn't have electricity. So last night when it got below freezing I quickly realized I would not be sleeping, which unfortunately ended up being the case and morning definitely could not come soon enough. But God has given me grace sufficient for the day.  Just a few days in and I am already learning so much.  But tonight, they let us go up to the main cabin where we meet & have meals so I am so grateful for a warm place to sleep tonight.  Tomorrow is our last full day of training and it has been pretty intense so far.  I'm having to learn that just because some people worship a certain way doesn't mean that it's wrong for me not to, that my relationship with Jesus is my own.  So I have continually prayed for my worship to be my own, for me to not judge other's worship and for me not to change the way I worship just so it will be like everyone else's.    

I have been told we will be able to update our blogs Monday, February 1 but I'm not sure what internet will be like in Swaziland.  It is Africa so I know things like that are not very consistent but I hope to update as much as I can. Friday we leave for Africa and I absolutely cannot wait to be there. This time in Georgia is necessary for our team to get to know each other but my heart aches to be in Swa ziland. It has been really 'neat' (mom) to see how God put our teams together.  I looked around and saw that each team has its own personality and the girls on my team are so awesome.  Actually right now they are all doing push-ups because we are going to have a workout group in Africa.  We will see how long that lasts!  


I covet your prayers as the Lord is already stretching me. Next time I update I will be in Africa!

The picture is of the homeless shelter we stayed in. Not a very good picture, but it's all I have so far, hopefully the next ones will be of some beautiful Swazi people.