11. I FINALLY got a new bible! And the best part is that it’s the exact same one I had given away in Bolivia! PTL!
10. Worhsiping in the rain. We had a huge porch that wrapped around the whole house and whenever it would rain, I would go sit outside and just play my guitar and listen while the storm would rage around me. It was in those beautiful moments that I felt most at peace.
9. Finding out I was fully funded. Fundraising was a long, very hard battle for me, and when it was finally over, I cannot even express the amount of relief I felt. I came very, very close to being sent home, but God came through in such a huge way for me and I’m so thankful.
8. Christmas Eve. We had a big dinner with Louis, Erika and Francois, and Mike and Jeanine. We sang Christmas carols and ate birthday cupcakes for Amanda’s B-day. We also got a HUGE shipment of food donated to us and we were able to bless a lot of families with it.
7. Christmas Day. Not only was Christmas awesome purely for the fact that it was Christmas, but there were a lot of fun adventures that happened as well. We went on a scavenger hunt, ate a butt load of cookies, brownies, etc, my present from Em was wrapped in a maxi pad wrapper, and Amanda shaved her head! You can read the story on her blog (amandahoward.theworldrace.org)
6. Getting to know Francois. Francois is Loius and Erika’s son and this kid is hilarious. He would ask the most random questions at the strangest times (ie. Do you think Napolean Bonaparte was the anti-Christ?), and he brought much joy to our team this month.
5. Day at the park. Mike and Jeanine took us to the Union building in Pretoria and we had a nice little picnic in the gardens. It was such a nice day and it was so good to get out of the house. Later, we came home and watched Invictus. Good day all around.
4. Getting to know Mike and Jeanine. Mike and Jeanine are a missionary couple from Colorado who lived in the house next to ours. We would often invite them over for game nights, for cook outs over the fire, or just to hang with us when we were bored. It was good for the guys to have another man around, and Jeanine pretty much adopted all of us as her own kids. We were so blessed by their friendship. I won’t ever forget them.
3. New Years Eve. For New Years we cooked a big meal and invited everyone over. We ate food around the big bonfire and talked about our favorite moments from 2011 and where we were last New Years Eve. Then we did worship and took communion together, and Louis went around the circle and prayed over us. We counted down to midnight and watched as neighbours released lanterns. So cool!
2. Sarfari Day. We woke up at 4:00AM and headed out to Mongena Game Reserve. We loaded into our big safari vehicle and ventured out. The goal of the day was to see lions. They are apparently one of the hardest things to spot in South Africa so we really wanted to see them. We were initially told that it would be a 3 hour safari with brunch included, but it turns out our guide thought it was only two. Louis did some negotiating, and after we had breakfast, we were given another 3 hour safari FOR FREE. We ended up seeing wildebeast, a thousand impalas, warthogs (or hogwarts as Emily says haha), giraffes, zebras, and of course, lions.
1. Louis’ anointing. One of our last nights in South Africa, we had a service-type evening and I played a couple songs of worhsip for it. Near the end, Louis came up and prayed over me. He said he saw an anointing of healing and that over these next 5 months, I’m going to see healings happen through my hands. Later, Erika’s daughter Loiuse came over to me and gave me a word that I would leave the blood of Jesus on everyone I touch like a tattoo and through that, healing is going to pour out of my hands. Powerfulllllll.
