So, last week we got our final calendar for the year. The final calendar!!! I couldn’t believe it! For about 15 minutes we talked about “the rest of the year”. It was kinda hard to take all that in and think about the days when this would all be over. I can’t believe that time is coming up! We now have 11 full weeks left…that’s all! Time is really starting to wind down. However, we still have a very full schedule. Yet to come is a girls’ trip to the Drakensberg mountains (where the apprentices went in the beginning of the year…should be great!), hopefully a visit to my World Vision sponsor child…still working out the details to that, ministry as usual (time with the girls and time with Sister Melanie), an environmental weekend here at Pangani, Life Compass (where we look at where we have been and try to see where we might be going), and our final celebrations. It should be a great, full time…although I know it will be tough! I am really excited to get home and see my family and friends, but it’s going to be so hard to leave this place and these people! I am sure that will leave me with some crazy emotions in the coming weeks. But, God is good and I know He will be directing and guiding me through it all.
We are in the Imagining posture right now (and will go into the Entrusting posture to end the year). I am looking forward to revisiting all that I have done here and beginning to imagine what God could have in store for me down the road (this is where the Life Compass comes in). I am praying that I have an open mind, heart, and ears to all that God could be speaking to me during this time. I don’t want to be closed off to His ideas out of fear or by my own ideas getting in the way. It’s always an adventure with God…I want to be ready and willing!
Recent adventures:
Feast of the Clowns…a week long conference/celebration/festival that focuses on diversity in the city and taking back the city for the children. TLF (Tshwane Leadership Foundation…who runs Lerato House) puts this on annually and I believe this is the 8th year. Throughout the week there are seminars, productions, classes, and a march to conclude the week. It’s a great time! Some of us went to see the Soweto Gospel Choir during the week and they were awesome!!! It was an amazing opportunity! We actually only got to see half of them so I am interested to see the whole group! The march at the end of the week was great as well! It was full of youth from all over the city singing and dancing through the street. I took some fun pictures of my girls from the Lerato House as well as all the other youth marching through the streets. See my pictures online here.
We also had our second (and last) week off during the week of August 17th- 24th. It was a great time to relax and enjoy this wonderful country by heading to
The Road Trip of eight also finished up their time in the last month. They were here for a total of 2 weeks. It was cool to have visitors here who were checking out what we do and thinking about doing this same thing next year. I loved being able to share all that God has been doing in my life throughout this year and being able to encourage others. It was also fun to feel like a local in
Ministry with the girls continues to go well. Some of the girls are becoming more and more comfortable with us and I enjoy them all more and more. However, I have to say that it is difficult only seeing them twice a week. Sometimes it feels a bit disjointed and I often feel like I should be doing more. It makes me wonder how things could be if this were my full time job. It makes me wonder about the future and if this kind of thing will be apart of my life when I return to
Oh yeah…speaking of Sister Melanie…the march for human trafficking! So, Mariah and I tried to be apart of the March at the beginning of the month. We got a flyer that said the event (speakers back at City Hall also) was going to be from 10-1. Well, we got there at about 9:45 and went on a wild goose chase trying to find the march. Apparently there were a few things going on for Women’s Day so people were a bit confused when we asked them about the march. We finally just went back to City Hall to find that the program was almost over. We had completely missed the march…which ended up starting at about 9! Typical
I guess that’s about all I have been up to recently. As busy as it’s been I have managed to have some great times with God and am still trying to read through the Old Testament. I am currently on Esther and hope to be through Job by the middle of next week. My friend who I am reading with is on Isaiah so I am going to just skip Psalms and Proverbs to try and catch up with him. It has really been a highlight for me. I love reading through big chunks of the Bible at a time and highly recommend it. It brings a whole new light to it.
Prayer Request: Please pray for my health. I got sick the first couple days of
I hope you are all well! Send any prayer requests my way as well!
Much Love to all!
manda
1 comment:
Thanks for the update, Amanda. The "imagining posture" sounds cool. I'll pray that you (and Jody) start feeling better soon.
Grace and peace,
Matt
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