Hosanna

Hosanna. It means “save us”. I have known this for a while and love singing the chorus of Hillsong United’s version of Hosanna as: “Oh save us, Oh save us. Hosanna in the highest”

A couple nights ago during worship, as we dragged out the line “as I walk from earth into eternity” I thought about what exactly we would be leaving behind as we transitioned from this earth to heaven. Suddenly pictures were flashing through my mind of the most intense moments of brokenness I have witnessed in my lifetime. Tin shacks of Zimbabwean refugees, films about Soweto youth uprisings during apartheid, Mkelle telling her story of her past as a witchdoctor, mass graves on the edge of Mamelodi, my family’s yelling matches, not knowing my grandfather…suddenly, “Save us” was the only thing that made sense, the only thing I could say.

And his mercy is the sweetest gift to me.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

Romans 8:18-25

Half of my Heart's Got a Real Good Imagination

If I were to be honest with myself, when I grow up, I would passionately like to lead two lives at the same time. One half of me would like nothing more than to spend years and years in Southern (or some part) of Africa and one half of me wants to live straight out of a Southern Living magazine. It takes nothing more than the sight of an airplane overhead to have me envisioning the mountains of Thohoyandou, SA and the gated missions base at their feet. But in the same day I am tempted to get in the car and drive the 4 hours to our own mountains and breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge. There is something very attractive about the thought of living years on the side of a NC mountain, growing sunflowers and zinnias, tomatoes and melons. Watching fog gather and sock in the mountain and drink tea out of a mason jar.

Speaking of mason jars..today I saw a picture of one on the cover of a Southern Living magazine. Often when I am working long, arduous shifts at Student Stores, it doesn't take much to have me thinking of the 127 things I would like to be doing other than working a long, arduous shift at Student Stores. Suddenly "drinking tea out of a mason year on my front porch" shot to the top of my list knocking "deciding if I want a tattoo or not" out of the #1 position. Since I was doing nothing (of course) I picked up the magazine and soon was taken back to my vision of NC mountains and good-southern-down-home-living.

Today was my dad's birthday, what better way to celebrate than with food? I made dinner tonight. Did you know that grilled peaches taste like heaven? Now I do. And things do taste better out of a mason jar.

Also, I somewhat conquered my fear of grills today. Well, at least I used the grill.

You can check out the original recipe here: http://www.southernliving.com/food/whats-for-supper/pizza-recipes-00400000055751/page21.html



Peach-Tomato Pizza

Happy Birthday, Rach! Hope 22 is great :)

Blue

Picking blueberries for the ladies at work. Mom's marigolds were blooming.

Biscuit

Today Anthony, Elizabeth and I took our lunch break at Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen for Biz's first biscuit and chocolate chip cookie from this fine establishment.

It was a success!

South Africa: The First Two Weeks

My apologies for keeping you all in uncomfortable suspense about my Africa happenings for the past month. As previously stated, the internet situation was a bit more limited than I had planned for and so we’ll have to settle for post-trip summaries instead of play-by-play updates.

When I left the country on May 11, I was headed to a tiny town near the border of Zimbabwe called Shayandima, to spend two weeks alone on a mission base/grade school. I didn’t know what to expect, I simply wanted to round-out and extend my South African experience and a friend of mine had spent 6 months at this same base and had strongly encouraged me to step out and do it. Friends in Pretoria, South Africa, Nate and Rebecca met me at the airport and drove me the six hours to Venda, the region where Shayandima is located. Not until arriving at the mission base did the excitement of being in a new country wear off and the reality of being alone in the middle of nowhere set in. What had I gotten myself into? Thanks to the kindness of the other people living on the base (called Build the Nations Missions Base or Shayandima School of Tomorrow) many of whom were about my age all it took was my first cup of tea and home-cooked meal to being to relax and look forward to the coming days. I had a room to myself, very spacious and comfortable, I even got used to the occasional lizards climbing my curtains and animals skittering on the tin roof. Almost everyone that works in the school also lives there on the base. The property is surrounded by one big fence and the school buildings are just yards away from the living spaces. Singles on the base are given dorm-like rooms close to the center of the base while married couples had their own little brick house along the edge of the compound. While we were on our own for breakfast and lunch everyone came up to the big kitchen for dinner together. A typical day for me was basically spending about an hour and half in each "learning centre" or classroom. We were up at 6:30, if not before, we got our own breakfast and then have devotions together as staff at 7:20 before we went to our separate classes. I started the mornings in the 1st grade with Mrs. Green, the school director’s wife. They recited pledges and prayers and then settled into their work. The school is an ACE school, Accelerated Christian Education and works by each student having 12 paces, or workbooks they must get through by the end of the term. I mostly checked work and motivated slower moving students. They are very much like kids I would have TA'd for at Woods, they all speak english (except some in Preschool) but they are extremely disciplined. I played with the kids at break some days. There are 2 breaks throughout the day and the staff has a lounge for food and tea and coffee. We were always drinking tea. Fixing dinner we have tea, after dinner tea, watching TV at the Greens she gave us tea, coming back from town we stop in at the Greens and have tea. And always with milk, kinda odd but I really enjoy it now.

After 1st grade I went to 2-3rd and did the same thing. After 1st break I worked one on one with 4th graders who are struggling in math. After 2nd break I went to the "senior learning centre", one big classroom with all grades 7-12. There are no lectures, everyone just does their own pace-work so it is fine to have them all in there together. After school I read (I've went through 2 books in 3 days) or some days we did various things like 5 of us walked to the post office one afternoon, and two afternoons the staff played soccer even Mr. Green, the director, got really in to it. There were about 6 of us all about my age and the rest of the staff are a little older. They completely took me in, it's like a functioning family. For dinner, we all ate together and people switched off which night they cooked and which they cleaned.

God taught me a lot, little by little, over my time there. The raw faith of the people around me astounded me. In everything, they expectantly said “God will do it, He will show up”. And He did. Every other conversation I had with someone could start out casually and quickly become woven with stories of the faithfulness of God to them. It was not a show, it lit up their lives. They did nothing outside of relying on God and seeking his will in the midst of their own busyness. Prayer became a central theme for many of the things I experienced as well as what building a relationship with Him looks like. The base members were working through a book called Experiencing God and would meet every Wednesday night after dinner to discuss that week’s teachings. I was privileged enough to be part of two of these meetings and came away with something new each time. We talked a lot about being in relationship with Christ, setting aside time, improving the quality of that time and what that looks like. After a semester of high stress and little time for anything but schoolwork, focusing on the importance of these things I had been neglecting was timely and appropriate.

The relationships I formed with the mission base members were probably the most unexpected part of my first two weeks. There were times we would all be sitting around, watching a movie or playing cards and I would forget I wasn’t at home, just hanging out with friends. One girl in particular, Julie, made me welcome immediately and we shared many cups of tea over long conversations in those short weeks. I was frustrated, to a point, when it came time for me to leave. Why does God bring people into our lives and make our time together very meaningful and then take it all away? Wouldn’t it be better to just have not gotten attached in the first place, to keep in mind that I would be leaving soon and it wasn’t worth really investing in those around me and allowing them to invest in me? I know that for everything there is a season and every good gift comes from God. I am thankful that I was blessed, be it ever so shortly, by the friendship and fellowship shared during that time. I didn’t want to leave Venda that was for sure. I loved the Venda mud that got on everything, I loved when the power would go out regularly and we ate dinner by candlelight, I loved singing with the 1^st grade every morning and taking tea breaks with my fellow mission base members.

One of the last entries from those weeks in my journal reads “I’ve experienced a lot of joy on this trip. When the children pray, I feel joy. When the preschoolers literally screamed when they saw their picture in the camera, pure joy. Everyday I wake up in awe of the joy inside me. I sit and have tea and play at being a teacher and I am no longer considered a visitor and everyone ask each other how their day was and tells them to sleep well; it is so joyful.”

One and Only Update...

Hey, We're alive, but have very limited internet access. I will write a few posts when I get back. Plane comes in Sunday afternoon (June 7th). Pray for our safe return!