I miss Africa...

I think about Africa more and more each day and I just desire to go back again... soon. I loved what I did there and I found that I had purpose and "life" there : )

I miss my Judy. I miss each child I got to hang out with. I miss each of my team members. I miss having good, deep talks about life and God. I miss being foreign.. haha. I miss trying to learn the Zulu language. I miss the church there. The congregration members. I miss my friend Andrea. I miss so many friends there. I want to go back for another year again. When I'm there I want to travel around more and see more of South Africa as well. It is such a beautiful country! And I want to go on more camping trips there too! And I just want to hang out with my friends/team members there more than last year. I want to make the MOST of it! It is such an incredible experience so I want to do all that I can do while I'm there : )

K, back to the present/past few weeks... I've been in Stoon for two and a half weeks now. Been able to see many many friends which has been great! I've went to three movies at the theatres.. pretty awesome. Been able to share my pictures and stories of Africa with some friends. Went to visit my two previous job places and see my co-workers again. That was nice. And I went out for lunch with my boss, Lisa. Got the chance to practice driving standard IN THE CITY!! in a Honda Prelude (thanks Pam!). Um... I got to go to this fancy dinner with T at the TCU place... and found out we were the ONLY ones wearing jeans! haha good times. AND GOT TO MAKE CHRISTMAS SUGAR COOKIES!! Carley and I decorated them. Took us about 2 hours to decorate about 30 of them. We listened to Christmas music as we decorated. It was soo much fun. I miss Christmas!!

AND I went to Regina two weekends ago and met up with Jenny and Helen (two girls from bible college). It was SO awesome! Us three LOVE hanging out together. We have a good time every time and every year we try to get together and meet somewhere.

So ya, its been fun being in the city. On Tuesday Car and I are heading out to Leader to visit Chris and pull an all-nighter till 5 in the morning and drive back to the city in time for Car to get to her class 8:00 in the morning on Wednesday. I hope we can do it! Then I will be going back to Meadow for a bit until I get to go to Nipawin!! I'm so excited for alumni weekend! Friends!Indoor soccer! Hockey game! Late nights!

So I wanted to add pictures to this new post.... but apparently it's not wanting to work for me...sorry.. I know how pictures make a post much better and interesting!

Check ya later

Being back at Home : )

Well hellooo there!!! As I'm writing this i'm actually wondering if anyone will read this because they've probably checked my blog every day or few days since i last wrote and have now given up on it.... so if you read this let me know : )

So, I've been home for 40 days now. Wow that is alot of days. And I've been having a great time. First few weeks I was at home with my mom in Meadow. That was nice. And we even got to go the cabin and while we were there we watched 11 hours of Christy movies. I've never watched that much TV in my life at one time. But its such a good show. And my grandparents from Ontario came up for the past three weeks which I am soo happy I was here for. And I've been hanging out with friends in Meadow again and doing some odd jobs around Meadow. Window washing, staining a shed, painting a fence, painting a room in my mom's house, cleaning my aunt's house, a little bit of childcare and ya, that's pretty much it. Chris came home to visit me and we went swimming in the lake September 21. I really missed swimming in our Saskatchewan lakes so i really wanted to swim no matter how cold it was. And actually it wasn't that bad. We had a great time doing random things at the lake. Then the week before Thanksgiving weekend I went to Edmonton to see my sisters. We got to go to a free photo shoot session and watch the whole third season of Prison Break!!!! I was soo pumped about that! And I got to hang out with my good ol' friend Ang from Bible college. She is great and we went out for Starbucks and to Value Village; our two favorite places to go. On Thanksgiving weekend my whole family was able to get together which was the first time since they came to Africa to see me in May. There were about 16 people at our house for the delicious supper. And on that Saturday night some friends came out and we had fun playing on the bales in the field and had a sweet big bonfire with hotdogs and smores! I miss Bonfires so much!!

Ya, and so now I'm here in Saskatoon for a few weeks staying with Carley.. and actually I'm going to Regina tomorrow to see Helen and Jenny!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sooooo excited to hang out with them!! It's gonna be a great time.

Im really happy to be in the city again too (Stoon) and seeing Car and Travis and Pam and Cait, and some other friends.

So ya, that's what has been happening in my life lately.
Africa is very much on my heart everyday and I miss it a lot! But I know that I'm hear for a reason, and probaly more than one reason and I know that being back home is a blessing from God and that I need to make the most of being back! And just enjoy being here and not always wishing I was back in Africa. I will be going back, that's for sure. Unsure of the dates yet but I'll definitely post it here when I know : )

Here are some pictures since I've been back home.

I'm Coming Home!!

Sorry everyone for the really long space between this blog and the last! I don't have excuses so I'm just gonna say sorry. Anyhoo, I'm coming home in 7 days!!! One more week in Africa! Really I'm so super exited to go HOME! One year definitely does fly by but still, one year is one year! I'm so excited to be home and be in Canada and see my family again and my FRIENDS!! Praise the Lord I was able to see my family in May. What a huge blessing that was for me and for them : )

I'm feeling fine about leaving in a week. Yes, a bit stressed but emotionally I'm ready. It feels good to know I'm going home... and I think its been easy for me emotionally because I am trusting the Lord to bring me back to this place in a few months time. I plan on coming back for another year or so. It is a big step and decision and it was quite difficult to discern what God wanted me to do a few months back, but about a month ago He revealed His desire for me to come back. Honestly some days I question Him... but that is only because my desires get in the way of where He is leading me. But ya, if you could pray for me about that. Just that I would not shift and waver but continue to follow and walk in the way God wants me to and that I would be thankful about it and have peace.

This weekend Judy, Andrea and myself went CAMPING in AFRICA!! It was about 2 hours away from Dundee. It was such a great experience camping in a little 3 man tent in the middle of the mountains with baboons, jackals and warthogs roaming free around us. hahaha serious! It was crazy. Yes there were other people around us : ) We climbed a mountain 4.5 hours on Saturday and had a picnic at the top with the magnificent view of the Drakensburg. So incredibly beautiful! And perfect weather too. The Lord is so good to us. AND He protected from the swinging baboons in the trees above us. haha. We went Friday afternoon and came back Saturday night. And during the night there was some strange animal outside our tent sniffing and make a clunky sound as he walked. We still had no idea what it was. We thought maybe a Eland (big buck) then a cow with a bell on it... and then Pastor Peter heard the story and thinks it must have been a warthog.

So I will see you all very very soon!! I leave South Africa September 8 and I arrive in Hamiliton, ON, on the 9th. I need to stay there for a few days for de-briefing and then I'm home home on Saturday (13th). I'M SOO EXCITED!!! Till then, God bless you and enjoy your week!

Love you all,

Lindsay

Just wanted to share a few things with you that have been happening around here. Exciting things, new experiences, randomness and just other different things : )

Two weeks ago the creche was donated this awesome playset by a couple from our church and the kids absolutely LOVE it! The first day or two Sibongile said she couldn't even get the kids inside at all! They were all just piled on this thing! As you can see you can barely see what is actually is! haha.

Yesterday we received the biggest donation we have ever recieved from a local frozen foods place called Cold Chain. So many bags of fries and mixed veggies and pizza's and meat pies. Me and D had fun with the Pastor Peter and Angeline as we sorted through it and packed it all in the coolers. We don't even have a freezer big enough to put all of it in so we gave some away and stored the rest in coolers.

Also this week we were able to give out nice toques, mitts and socks to some of the children of the families that we give a food parcel to each week. It was so nice because it is soo cold at night and in the mornings here! I just wish every child could have a pair! It's so hard to see and think that most of them feel so cold for so long : ( Next week we hope to give out some blankets.

Last weekend we have an outreach for a group of virgins from the township here at the mission. Every month these girls get together on a Friday night and they are encouraged and go through a testing to make sure they are still virgins. The pressure to have sex is SO high in the townships but these girls have been very strong and we are proud of them for it! There was a morning program set up for them and then at the end they performed their virgin dance and song for us. So different from what our culture would think! Topless girls would not be thought of as virgins! It's so interesting/wierd how different cultures can be.

Then on Monday night us girls had a crazy night of dressing up random and funny and sharing a meal together and having fun laughing lots in a game of 30 seconds : )

So ya, there's just some things that have been happening over here lately : )

Cheers!

Family in Africa!!

My time with my family was soo incredible! Wow! They were actually HERE with me! That is just way too cool : ) Once again, I give all the glory to God for making it all work out for them to come to Africa. They truly enjoyed, each one of them and they experience A LOT in just two and half weeks! But even though it was busy it was well worth it. Plus there was many times for us to just relax as well. Praise the Lord, they didn't experience ANY jetlag! Really that is a miracle because 8 hours difference really can mess up your body.. Dione and I sure suffered for at least a good week! I think Dione a little long even.

They arrived May 12, in Durban (a city on the coast) and we spent a few days there, seeing some of the sights, going out for supper and playing in the waves and Aaron and I tried to learn how to surf. Oh yeah! And my birthday was so awesome, first because I got the best b-day present ever! (My fam coming to Africa of course) and also because the restarant we went to was very African style and the waitress and waiters were all dressed in their African gear and our waitress came around washing each one of our hands and painting our faces. And the BEST thing was having 4 black singers dressed as the Jackson 5 come around the table to sing happy birthday to me in a sweet African tune. haha, so great.

Then we flew to the famous and BEAUTIFUL Cape Town, on the other coast-side of South Africa and spent a few days there. I didn't realize how much there was to do in Cape Town so our time was quite a bit too short but I'm still so thankful we went because we were blessed so much there. Every thing that we were able to experience and seeing and getting to know Joseph and Eileen better was so worth it. Such wonderful, hospitable people who really love the Lord. While there we got to see a castle, a beautiful botanical garden, HUGE crashing waves. Seriously I've never seen such big ones! We did a lot of street vendor shopping and got nice cheap stuff.. haha. We went to Robben Island which is the island where many blacks, including Nelson Mandela, were held in prison during the aparthied years. We enjoyed a very nice fancy meal along the waterfront. We saw magfinicent mountain ranges, and rocks and so much green! There were a few things I would have loved to do but they just didn't work out for us but that was fine. That will just be for the next time I visit!

Having my family get to see what I've been doing here in Africa was so special to me. And I'm sure very special to them also. They enjoyed it a lot. Playing with the children at the crèche, play center, during the hospital visits and in the townships on outreach and Kid’s Club; giving food parcels and praying with families in great need; gardening (my mom), and physical labor around the mission (my brother). For those of you who will be seeing them soon, I’m sure they will tell you much more! They were touched with the great need here and at the same time greatly encouraged at the work the Lord is doing here at Melusi.

As well we got to enjoy some African animals on the Saturday. We went to a game reserve called Ithala with Dione and Judy and it was fun just to see more of Africa and enjoy the fellowship together. Warthogs are now my favorite animals...well one of my favorites! They are TOO cute!

The Lord is so good and I know I have been very blessed to have had my family share with me the ministry here in South Africa.

Enjoy the pics!

Lindsay