For those of you who couldn't open my letter... here's the info in plain text format... not as pretty, but same stuff!

SAWUBONA!
(Hello, in Zulu)

What’s new for Bonnie Sue?
Hello from FPO at the MLC of the IMB of the SBC in RVA! For all of you who have no clue what I said… I said, “Hello from Field Personnel Orientation at the Missionary Learning Center of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Rockville, Virginia!” If there is one thing we learn here, it is A LOT of acronyms! But really, I have learned so much more than acronyms. There is no way I can put in this letter how much I have learned the past 3 weeks. My brain has been on overdrive the entire time! We have learned about church planting movements, and how God is radically bringing people to know Him, and people are starting new churches all over the place. It has been awesome to hear about how God is working all over the world! We also had some great teachings on spiritual warfare. The president of the IMB, Jerry Rankin, did the teaching, and I could have listened to him teach about so much more than he did. This week has been great too. I have officially been here for half of the time already—I can’t believe it! Monday we had the greatest speaker so far. He spoke about anthropology, which doesn’t sound interesting…. but it was great! He had been to Southern Africa, and knew so much about the area. Monday night he took some of the Journeymen out for coffee and was very candid with us. It was great to hear such a smart man talk about where I am going. And he even helped me start learning Zulu! There are three “clicking” sounds in Zulu, and they are really fun to make! This Thursday we are having a special Thanksgiving service, and then the MLC is preparing a special Thanksgiving meal for us. It won’t be the same as dinner with family, but my friends here are great, and their families aren’t here either, so we will share it together! Friday we are going to Washington DC to minister there. We will be practicing “cold-evangelism” to people we meet. I am very excited about that!


Life at the MLC

So you know how I live… I’ll try to explain! I have 2 apartment mates, and they are both going to the Southern African region (one to South Africa, and one to Botswana). We have an apartment to ourselves. Then we share a “quad” with 3 other apartments. In our quad there are 3 families. One is a young couple with a baby boy, Benjamin. There is also a family with 2 kids, Jasmine and Sami. The other couple is an elderly couple. It’s like a whole family! I have been able to baby sit a couple kids here at MLC, and I have LOVED being able to serve others by playing with kids!! There are about 100 people here at MLC, about 20 of which are journeymen. The other journeymen here are wonderful, and we spend almost all of our spare time together. I’d be lost without them! God has been SO good to me!

PLEASE PRAY!
*Pray for those here without family during Thanksgiving.
*Pray for God-appointed
opportunities to share the Gospel in DC!
*Pray for me to have discipline to get all my work done!
*Pray that God will continue to give me a passion for the people in South
Africa.
*Pray that I will not get so busy that I leave God out of my life!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

-God has been so faithful in giving me great friends here who understand me!
-I am beginning to learn, and actually remember, some phrases in Zulu!
-I get more excited about going to South Africa
everyday!




Link to pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bonnieb81