HEY! Life in insane right now. ALL 13 of us girls moved out of the Holiday's house this morning. Melissa and I moved out in boxes and suitcases and the other 11 girls moved out their luggage and other things they had acquired since they got here. It's sad, really. I miss them already! I've gotten to know some of the team pretty well, and I will certainly miss the fellowship of these Godly women (and men, don't worry guys, I didn't forget you.) I still get to see them one more time before they leave later this week. I am NOT looking forward to the real goodbyes! I almost cried today just moving them to another place and saying goodbye for the day! Wow... I am going to miss them so much. But I thank God for allowing me to work with them for the time I did! Please pray that God will sustain me in the coming days! Transitions are difficult for me, and saying goodbye to special people makes it ten times harder! I also won't have the same internet luxuries that I've had. I'm living with another missionary couple for about 15 days, so I will be online when I can be, and will check email whenever possible. I will update this as often as I can!! Love you guys!
Thanks for checking in on me! :)
Link to pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bonnieb81
Monday, May 31, 2004
Sunday, May 23, 2004
God is soooo good! I know that most of you know that already, but I am just overflowing with excitement about how He has just been blessing me in many large and small ways in the past few days. I’ll try to be brief about what’s been happening… here’s a day by day…
>Thursday:
In the morning, all the missionaries here went and picked up 15 volunteer missionaries from Louisiana. There were supposed to be 16 of them, but one poor guy didn’t know that your passport can’t expires within 30 days of the return flight… his expired about a week or so after he was scheduled to fly back to the States. Poor guy. His name is Zane. So… we got them and brought them home. It was a crazy day because they all had to exchange money, figure out lodging, and eat (yeah, we almost forgot to let them eat – oops!). They ended up changing the girls’ sleeping arrangements, and instead of 7 girls sleeping in out house, all 11 (yes ELEVEN) girls are now staying here. It’s awesome – a huge slumber party! hehe Thursday afternoon I received an SMS (like a text message) and it was from a girl named Heather, a girl that I met a couple months ago. I hadn’t heard from her in a while, so I was excited to get something from her. She was inviting me to a braai (a South African cookout) and movie night at her apartment complex. She goes to the Baptist College, and it was all people from the college. I was so happy to be invited to something fun and completely unrelated to my work here. I had to ask Charlie (my boss) if it was ok for me to leave the LSU team for the evening, and he said I could! Hooray! Thursday night I went to music practice at church, and as always, I had a blast! I love singing with these guys.
>Friday:
Zane arrived! He got all of his passport stuff worked out (after a flight to DC and talking to certain people), and he ended up being able to get on a flight to SA just a day after his team. I know he was happy to get here! We took the team on a historical tour of SOWETO, which stands for Southwestern Townships. That was fun… I continue to learn more every time we take someone on a tour! There were some men from a Baptist Church there that served as our tour guides. That afternoon we went to lunch at Wandie’s Place, a restaurant in SOWETO known for authentic South African’ cuisine. As always, it was delicious! By now I have learned what I like, and what to stay away from. :) After lunch, we went to Jabavu Baptist Church (in SOWETO) to have a little orientation with the pastor there. He told the team some thing to do and not to do. He informed us that all the girls had to wear skirt during the prayer walking and street evangelism, which was the next day… well, many of the girls had not brought fitting skirts, so after that we went to the mall!! My carload was more than excited when we saw Brenda (remember her, my car washer friend?). We all talked to her in the parking lot for a while before shopping quickly for a khaki skirt. The girls really blessed Brenda, and I know God ordained that meeting. Praise Him! That night the team had a meeting at the Lechners house while the Lechners left and went on a date! This team has been awesome. They’re paying for everything for us missionaries so we don’t have to pay out of our pockets… and they took up money to send Charlie and Angie on a date and enough money to spend the night somewhere! The guy on the team all stayed with the kids (since they are sleeping at their house). What a blessing that was to Charlie and Angie!
>Saturday:
Grrrreat day! We did prayer walking and street evangelism around Jabavu Baptist Church. We also invited people to come to church Sunday morning. For once, I felt like I knew what I was doing. I knew how to greet people, and communicate with (most) people. I hadn’t even realized how much I have been learning since I got here, but I saw it come out on Saturday! I think about 9 people on the streets of SOWETO came to know the Lord on Saturday. Isn’t God GOOD?!? I got to pray with various people and just spend some time talking to them. It was awesome. After that, the team went to Bruma Market for some souvenir shopping. I separated from them at that point and came home to get ready for the braai! I was so nervous. I only knew Heather and Sean (Sean goes to my church), but they had purposely invited me because they’re trying to help me make friends (aren’t they sweet?). Well, once I got there I wasn’t very nervous at all, and by the end of the night I wasn’t nervous at all! It was a cool event. People had brought out their couches from their flats (apartments) and put them in the parking lot. They set up a screen with a movie projector. We watched Christian music videos for a while and just talked to people and hung out. Then when the braai (grill) was ready, we took our meat (oh yeah, a braai is “bring your own meat”) to the guys since the men to the cooking at a braai. Once we finally all had our food (which was well after this function began) we started the movie. It was cold outside! So we were all on these couches, bundled up in blankets and coats to keep warm. It was SO much fun. I enjoyed being able to hang out with people my age and not worry or even think about work except when people asked what I was doing here. Now I just pray that I will have a chance to se these people again sometime! After the braai, I came home, and of course the girls were all still awake. The ones I’ve gotten closer with all wanted to know how it was and who I met. They were as excited for me as I was! Then, a little later, all but 2 of us sat in the living room having some serious girl/God talk. It was amazing, and I know God was present in the room. We were all sharing testimonies of how God has working in our lives, and discussing girl issues. We even finished off the discussion by praying. Wow… I do NOT want these girls to leave! God has blessed me an incredible amount through them already.
Well, now it’s Sunday afternoon. I went to my church this morning because I was scheduled to sing. The team all went to Jabavu. They’re not back yet, but I want them to come home so I can ask them how it went! I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on whenever I can.
Thanks for checking in on me!
Link to pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bonnieb81
>Thursday:
In the morning, all the missionaries here went and picked up 15 volunteer missionaries from Louisiana. There were supposed to be 16 of them, but one poor guy didn’t know that your passport can’t expires within 30 days of the return flight… his expired about a week or so after he was scheduled to fly back to the States. Poor guy. His name is Zane. So… we got them and brought them home. It was a crazy day because they all had to exchange money, figure out lodging, and eat (yeah, we almost forgot to let them eat – oops!). They ended up changing the girls’ sleeping arrangements, and instead of 7 girls sleeping in out house, all 11 (yes ELEVEN) girls are now staying here. It’s awesome – a huge slumber party! hehe Thursday afternoon I received an SMS (like a text message) and it was from a girl named Heather, a girl that I met a couple months ago. I hadn’t heard from her in a while, so I was excited to get something from her. She was inviting me to a braai (a South African cookout) and movie night at her apartment complex. She goes to the Baptist College, and it was all people from the college. I was so happy to be invited to something fun and completely unrelated to my work here. I had to ask Charlie (my boss) if it was ok for me to leave the LSU team for the evening, and he said I could! Hooray! Thursday night I went to music practice at church, and as always, I had a blast! I love singing with these guys.
>Friday:
Zane arrived! He got all of his passport stuff worked out (after a flight to DC and talking to certain people), and he ended up being able to get on a flight to SA just a day after his team. I know he was happy to get here! We took the team on a historical tour of SOWETO, which stands for Southwestern Townships. That was fun… I continue to learn more every time we take someone on a tour! There were some men from a Baptist Church there that served as our tour guides. That afternoon we went to lunch at Wandie’s Place, a restaurant in SOWETO known for authentic South African’ cuisine. As always, it was delicious! By now I have learned what I like, and what to stay away from. :) After lunch, we went to Jabavu Baptist Church (in SOWETO) to have a little orientation with the pastor there. He told the team some thing to do and not to do. He informed us that all the girls had to wear skirt during the prayer walking and street evangelism, which was the next day… well, many of the girls had not brought fitting skirts, so after that we went to the mall!! My carload was more than excited when we saw Brenda (remember her, my car washer friend?). We all talked to her in the parking lot for a while before shopping quickly for a khaki skirt. The girls really blessed Brenda, and I know God ordained that meeting. Praise Him! That night the team had a meeting at the Lechners house while the Lechners left and went on a date! This team has been awesome. They’re paying for everything for us missionaries so we don’t have to pay out of our pockets… and they took up money to send Charlie and Angie on a date and enough money to spend the night somewhere! The guy on the team all stayed with the kids (since they are sleeping at their house). What a blessing that was to Charlie and Angie!
>Saturday:
Grrrreat day! We did prayer walking and street evangelism around Jabavu Baptist Church. We also invited people to come to church Sunday morning. For once, I felt like I knew what I was doing. I knew how to greet people, and communicate with (most) people. I hadn’t even realized how much I have been learning since I got here, but I saw it come out on Saturday! I think about 9 people on the streets of SOWETO came to know the Lord on Saturday. Isn’t God GOOD?!? I got to pray with various people and just spend some time talking to them. It was awesome. After that, the team went to Bruma Market for some souvenir shopping. I separated from them at that point and came home to get ready for the braai! I was so nervous. I only knew Heather and Sean (Sean goes to my church), but they had purposely invited me because they’re trying to help me make friends (aren’t they sweet?). Well, once I got there I wasn’t very nervous at all, and by the end of the night I wasn’t nervous at all! It was a cool event. People had brought out their couches from their flats (apartments) and put them in the parking lot. They set up a screen with a movie projector. We watched Christian music videos for a while and just talked to people and hung out. Then when the braai (grill) was ready, we took our meat (oh yeah, a braai is “bring your own meat”) to the guys since the men to the cooking at a braai. Once we finally all had our food (which was well after this function began) we started the movie. It was cold outside! So we were all on these couches, bundled up in blankets and coats to keep warm. It was SO much fun. I enjoyed being able to hang out with people my age and not worry or even think about work except when people asked what I was doing here. Now I just pray that I will have a chance to se these people again sometime! After the braai, I came home, and of course the girls were all still awake. The ones I’ve gotten closer with all wanted to know how it was and who I met. They were as excited for me as I was! Then, a little later, all but 2 of us sat in the living room having some serious girl/God talk. It was amazing, and I know God was present in the room. We were all sharing testimonies of how God has working in our lives, and discussing girl issues. We even finished off the discussion by praying. Wow… I do NOT want these girls to leave! God has blessed me an incredible amount through them already.
Well, now it’s Sunday afternoon. I went to my church this morning because I was scheduled to sing. The team all went to Jabavu. They’re not back yet, but I want them to come home so I can ask them how it went! I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on whenever I can.
Thanks for checking in on me!
Link to pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bonnieb81
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Wow, it’s been a really really long time since I’ve updated this web-log!! Shame on me… once again. Well, my life is about to get VERY hectic. Tomorrow morning (Thursday, 20 May), our team is going to the airport to pick up 16 volunteers from LSU. They will be working here until the 30th of May. I’m really excited about having some new people around! I am quite naïve still… I am told by other team members that having volunteers here is not as “fun” as I would think, but rather it gets stressful. I’m sure it will be stressful at times, but I hope it will be a great time too! The crazy thing is that 7, yes SEVEN girls will be staying with Melissa and I in the Holidays’ house. That makes a total of nine girls in one house for 10 days. PRAY HARD! haha J Pray that Melissa and I can maintain our sanity!! Really though, pray that everything goes well for this team. God moves in awesome ways when volunteers come. Pray that God will use them to reach people in Jo’burg, and that they will help to open doors into the communities. Also, pray that God will work in their hearts. He may be working on them to call them into full time missions, or just to give them a fire for working alongside missionaries. Keep them lifted up. As soon as the team leaves, literally, Melissa and I will be temporarily moving to another missionary couple’s house. We’re moving in the Morans for about 2 weeks. Then, when the Lechners leave South Africa to go Stateside for 3 months, Mel and I will be living in their house. So we have a lot of moving coming up!
Me? I’m doing pretty well. I am very excited about a new door that God has opened up for me in the past month. Beginning in June, I will be leading a couple after school “Girls Only!” clubs at Lilydale. To be honest, I don’t have much of a clue what I am going to do with them, but I am beyond excited! My first goal is just to get to know them and help them get to know me as a fellow girl and not their teacher! I want to get girly with them… talk about girl stuff and how God made us special. I get giddy just thinking about it. God has already blessed me by giving me this idea. He’s making the vision grow, and Melissa will have a couple groups at one of her schools too!! How exciting!
Well, I must get back to cleaning my room… I don’t want these LSU girls to think I am a slob now do I? Thanks for checking in on me…. <>< Bonnie B.
Link to pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bonnieb81
Me? I’m doing pretty well. I am very excited about a new door that God has opened up for me in the past month. Beginning in June, I will be leading a couple after school “Girls Only!” clubs at Lilydale. To be honest, I don’t have much of a clue what I am going to do with them, but I am beyond excited! My first goal is just to get to know them and help them get to know me as a fellow girl and not their teacher! I want to get girly with them… talk about girl stuff and how God made us special. I get giddy just thinking about it. God has already blessed me by giving me this idea. He’s making the vision grow, and Melissa will have a couple groups at one of her schools too!! How exciting!
Well, I must get back to cleaning my room… I don’t want these LSU girls to think I am a slob now do I? Thanks for checking in on me…. <>< Bonnie B.
Link to pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/bonnieb81
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