God is GOOD.

“Do what you know you should do, and you will know what to do. God clarifies in the midst of obedience, not beforehand” Erwin McManus , Chasing daylight

“Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.” Mother Teresa

Sawubona Everyone!

The past few days have been a wonderful adventure as always. Friday, after a full day of classes, was Girl's Night. It was a relaxing and fun night of fellowship. We watched a movie, had popcorn and tea and painted each others nails. I have not had my fingernails painted since my high school prom, so it was exciting and different.

Saturday, the nursing majors got the option of joining in on the Intercultural Communication class's field trip, so we did, of course!!! We drove to a supposedly Indian community called Umzinto with the intention that the InterCom students would be able to interact more with Indians and we could all learn more about their culture. We spent a couple hours walking throughout the shops and went to the Mosque. There were almost no Indian people around though; the majority were Zulu, but I thoroughly enjoyed talking to some of the Zulu people we met, including the most adorable 3 year old and 2 month old. (Also, FYI-It is politically correct and not offensive at all in South Africa to call someone what they are. Here in South Africa there are 4 different identified groups-Black, Coloured, Indian, and White.) After Umzinto, we drove to the beach which was GORGEOUS!!! Huge Crashing blue waves of the Indian Ocean- God astounds me with his creation. We hung out in the soft sand and I got to hear one of my friend's testimony. Then we drove to a different beach and had a Braai (a barbeque) with an Indian church's youth group.

Sunday I went to the same church for the second week in a row and fell in love with it even more. The spirit is definitley moving there!!! And, I love all the church members I have been getting to know over tea after the services. After church almost everyone worked on their history reading paper. One of my friends did some of our reading for us out loud in a British accent. I quite enjoyed, but I should not use the word accent. Here, I am the one with the accent.

Monday, The Prince of the Zulu people came to African Enterprises!!! He is a HUGE deal here and is very active in politics. I have learned about him in my history lectures and have studied about his ancestors. I have been impressed by his moral character and for his strength to apologize for his ancestors behavior and stand up for reconciliation despite ridicule. A lot of the class got to meet him and listen to a conference he was holding here at AE, but I was not one of them. I was hanging out with Jesus at a pond and had no idea people were being invited to go see him. Its ok though; I'm not disappointed-I wouldn't trade anything for time with The prince of all princes, the King of all Kings.

Now that brings us to Tuesday, in which I was a VAMPIRE! (Nurses here literally ask "Are you a vampire?" or "Can you Vampire?" in referring to taking blood) I worked in an AIDS clinic drawing blood all day. I had never drawn blood before, so this was very exciting for me. I said a prayer before hand out of love for my patients that I would be good and not cause them much pain and the Lord answered for sure! I have never before been so immediately confident and quick at a skill. I am so thankful that I had this opportunity to learn to draw blood in Africa on dark skin as oppose to learning on fair skin. Now I don't need to rely on sight. I can feel with my gloved finger and get it every time, no matter how awful the veins of the patient are. The sisters (nurses) were super impressed, but they shouldn't be; it was all the Lord. The Lord was GOOD today (as always); He gets all the credit.

In the afternoon when the clinic got slow, I got put out of my comfort zone for sure. I am thrilled for every opportunity I can take to pray for someone, or talk about Jesus. Ask me to tell you about Jesus, and I'll talk to you all day and night...but, that was not the request I got yesterday. A woman told me her life story and then asked me to sing to her about Jesus. Sing??? Really? That is something I do alone in my room with my guitar, not around a bunch of people all staring at me. It took me a couple minutes to burst that comfort bubble and it ended up being an amazing experience. I was really nervous because I kept thinking that I only knew the chorus or a verse of songs by memory and I know I am not a good singer, but I said a little prayer and then after I started singing all the words came to me (unlike they were when I tried to sing it in my head beforehand) and not in a arrogant or prideful way at all, but I sang really well, like I was really confused at what was going on, but at the same time knew exactly what was going on-oh Jesus. Anyways it was good and it stirred more conversation about Him.

Then after clinical the adventure started. The honest truth is that I am sick of talking about it so I am not going to write the whole story up here. Super long story cut short is that I found myself with two other girls abandoned on the side of the street for a few hours in a bad part of town in bad weather and sun setting with no money, no phone, no phone numbers, no directions, nothing. People did not just "forget" us, the staff at the campus did not even know we were gone, and our fellow students did not notice we were not at campus. TIA. Like I said Super Long story cut short-there was a GOOD samaritan (and I mean REALLY GOOD) and we are now back at campus safe. God protected and provided for us. He is SO GOOD!!! The staff was very upset that this happened, and extremely apologetic. The head of the program left in the middle of his church meeting and rushed to us immediately to hug us and apologize over tea. And we had one-on-one meetings with Janet (our sort of RD here at campus) in which she apologized and hugged us (there have been lots of hugs). She knows that area of town and felt awful. She was so freaked out when she realized we were left there. The staff feels awful, but thankfully this helped them find some of the holes in their staff communication systems and from now on nursing students will have cell phones. So thats the condensed summary of the story, or adventure as I like to call it.

I am learning so much about the culture here and have been amazed how God has been meeting me in new ways that I have never experienced. Some of the ways in which God has met me have more significance and meaning in South African culture than they do in America. It has been really exciting to see how God is not just sovereign everywhere, but that he also reaches different people groups in different ways, meeting them where they are, working through their culture, not making them break through stiff religious barriers and speak His formal language. He speaks our language, whatever that language may be. Oh, how amazing is God's love for us!!! I am in Awe that he would sacrifice his only son for us. That He would reach out to us knowing the state of our sinful hearts. That He would seek a relationship with us, and not just any relationship, but one of deep deep intimacy. He is patient, but also jealous and persistent. He wants YOU! He chooses YOU!!!! He LOVES YOU!!!

Above on the left is me and my Chalet mates. We live in a Chalet called Festo which has 4 bedrooms and a community bathroom. Above on the right is me and my close friend and roommate Jeana. I love her. She is AMAZING!