LECTURE PHASE IS OVER!!

Hey everyone : ) Here is some of whats been going on in this past week. I just want to let you all know that this is going to be my last blog for a while. Our team leaves on Tuesday for Zambia! Please keep us in your prayers for the next two months. I know God is going to do great things! I love you guys and have a great next two months!

April 8, 2010

It’s been a week of putting things into action…the beginning of taking the steps. This is our last week of lecture and after four days of class, our teacher, Fiona, still hasn’t opened up her class materials. Fiona told us at the beginning of the week that the material was us. She spent a lot of time looking over all the notes we’ve taken since we got her and she concluded that we have a lot of head knowledge. But we need to take it and put it into our hearts. Our class lives in isolation. We live in isolation but we long for unity and intimacy. We keep talking about it, but Fiona was the first to give us the nudges that we needed. We went from our normal class time of sitting in awkward silence when a teacher asks a question to all speaking out and sharing our thoughts. One word that really struck me in the beginning of the week was [speak]. We all have thoughts and we need to share. Again, we need to share. And I learned that need to open my mouth and share my thoughts.

This morning our leader Brittany told us all to pray about how we should start the morning. We prayed but then when Brittany asked us what we heard from God, we all sat and stared silently and awkwardly, saying that we heard nothing. Fiona then told us flat out that she didn’t believe us. She told us to pray again and that afterwards we were going to share. And next thing you know, we all were talking and sharing J And after that, we then had an over two hour time of worship, free communication with God- if that even explains it. God showed up and it rocked. And I don’t expect it to be the last time.

This week was also our last time to go to the communities L So yesterday I had to go to my home in Mbonisweni for the last time. But it was an incredible afternoon. I spent the afternoon with a small group of amazing young girls- one who I pretty much fell in love with. Her name was Sandra and she was just a beautiful girl J A few of us also did a song, skit, and then colored in small groups with the kids. It was great to feel even more involved and to have even more of a personal connection. So it was hard to have to say goodbye….but it means Zambia is coming!

April 9, 2010

So my lecture phase is officially over. But it ended in an awesome way J Last night we just had a time or processing and just responding to God. We had different symbols and a wooden cross in the middle of the room. We all individually prayed and asked God how He wanted us to respond to what he taught us this week. I think we all were definitely moved and convicted J Today we spent time leading our own worship time and then we had creative expression, making collages of what we look like. It was pretty sweet J Its been an awesome week but now we are all pretty restless for outreach!!!

March 27, 2010

This week has changed incredibly since the beginning of the week. To be honest- it started with a lot of frustrations and irritation. We had a lot of tension and disunity within our group. But God is ironic- it was “relationship” week. For the first two days we watched a video series on relationships. It was good but nothing like the last three days when we had a speaker from the Texas team now on base. Our speaker was the man who is pastoral overseer of Ten Thousand Homes. He talked a lot about how incredibly important relationship and unity is to God. Yes…I have heard that many times before but it really changed my entire view. We know that love is how we show Christ but that means that our relationships with people and our unity within the Church show our relationship with Christ. We learned about being transparent to others, confronting others, and what forgiveness really means. And the amazing thing was that as we learned this week, I could see it all being put into practice J We went to Dwaleni this week for the last time L It was sad because we didn’t realize it was the last time until we had left so I didn’t really get to say goodbye to my friends. I made a great friend named Nolwazi who I spent time with each week and even wrote me notes every time that I came. Its getting sad to start having to say goodbye to people. Today we went to Iris for possibly the last time. It was a tough day. My little group of three dug about 20 holes for fence posts and then worked on the wire going on the fences. It was super hot and tiring but even with all that, I still had energy to play with the kids before we left J

April 1, 2010

I feel at home. This Sunday I went to Pastor Stambiso’s Church in Mbonisweni- where I lived for a week. Going back felt like going home. I love it there and I love the feeling of belonging. It’s a great feeling to know that your home can consist of more than one place- even on different continents. We have had an interesting week because our teaching was actually cancelled for the week. After all of the teaching on relationships, we as students and the staff were convicted of a lot and there were many things brought to our mind that we needed to confront. Our speaker for the week is staff here and he decided teaching us would mean he wouldn’t be giving his all because of that, so we have had a lot of down time- which has been very needed actually. Yesterday we had a “family meeting” where the staff and students just sat and talked about things that needed to get out in the open and be dealt with concerning our relationships with each other. So we sat in a giant circle and just talked for a couple hours. It felt really like a family meeting.

We have also had some closure this week. Monday night we had a bonfire to close off our Identity week from a long time ago that never worked out before. We each stood in front of everyone, threw our old masks in the fire, declared our new names and what God showed us in that week, and received a plaque with our names and a verse on it. I wish I could explain how amazed and proud I felt watching my family declare their new names and seeing even after a few weeks how they have really started to become them. I am proud of my family and so excited of what God is going to do in our outreach. We were able to share the bonfire and many other experiences with a team here from Texas. We are pretty much in love with their group J They made us a full out Texas breakfast this morning and have shared their pictures and experiences with us. It’s just so amazing how close you can feel to people after only two weeks. They also shared in our “giving night” last night. We had a night where we put up on a white board how much people still needed to pay for their outreach dues. Then we simply worshipped while praying and handing in pieces of paper with amounts we wanted to give and to whom. Over $3,500 was given! It was a humbling experience to see how much God can work when you take him out of the box we put Him in.