Life Compass and Slumber Party

(my awesome apprentice crew that i have had an amazing time with this year!
left to right...kellie, jody, andrew, laura, roger, me, mariah, and chris)

Eight weeks from today, Monday, I will be home! That’s really hard to take in sometimes. I’m not quite sure what to do with that yet. There is a lot to do here still, a lot to do to prepare to come home, and a lot to do once I get home. But, I have already promised myself that I will definitely take the time to enjoy family and friends over the holiday season and just get re-acclimated to American culture…try to at least. I know that will be a pretty difficult part of this whole process.

Throughout the past 3 weeks the apprentices here worked on our Life Compass’, which I mentioned briefly in my last update. The Life Compass is something CRM/NieuCommunities created to help people gain direction in their lives. We used all the personality tests that we took at the beginning of the year and a timeline of our lives (along with the actual Life Compass workbook) to bring all the pieces of this year together. We took an in depth look at our lives to see where God has taken us in the past, and what our gifts, talents, interests/longings, and values are. Sometimes I think we might know what those things are…but how often to you actually take the time to really think of those things? It’s a big part of who we are and most of us probably couldn’t truly answer the questions: What are your values? What do you like to do? What are your passions? What do you think you are good at? What has God gifted you with/in? (Take some time to think about those!) It was a hard but great process. All of this culminated in a Vision Statement for our lives. This was a bit difficult for me because I had never done that before. When I was out of work last year the questions above as well as “where do you see yourself in the future” kept coming up when I was job searching. It was really frustrating! Mainly because I didn’t feel like I knew how to get to the bottom of those questions. So, I was really glad to finally be able to answer some of those tough life questions to come up with a Vision Statement. You are now probably wondering, “What is your Vision Statement?” (or not!) Well, I still need a bit of time to work on it. We wrote our rough drafts and got feedback from the community, so I need to go back and revise now. I will be passing it along when I get it done as I am excited to share my future plans with you (as well as who I feel God has made me to be).

Speaking of future plans…I have definitely gotten the question, “What’s next for you?” many times! I am really glad to get it in one respect…people care for me and want to know what God is planning next. So, thanks for asking!! But, it’s also hard to answer that question. One reason is that my plans aren’t completely settled…which is ok. Another is that I am not quite ready to share what’s on my mind yet. That will come out more though when I share my final vision statement with you. For now, I am planning to be back in Atlanta. There are some ideas beyond that, but again, that will come later. Thanks again for your interest!

My ministry to the girls at the Lerato House has been great lately!!! I have been having so much fun with them! They just make me so happy, and I love being around them!!! I get so sad when I think about leaving them soon. I try not to think about it too much. They are just such amazing girls!! I feel so blessed and privileged to be apart of their lives! This past weekend, Laura and I had all the girls over to our house for a slumber party. It was so much fun!! The girls hardly ever do anything over the weekends so they were excited to get out of the house for a change. We picked them up on Saturday evening and had them at the house until about 1:30 on Sunday. (When I asked them what they did on Saturday they said, “we waited for you to come”. Priceless!!!) We made dinner for them on Saturday night and watched movies (Stomp the Yard and The Beauty Shop). Laura made cookies and popcorn for them as well…she is definitely gonna be the favorite mom on the block when she has kids!! Sunday we made breakfast and then the girls either played in the pool or watched another movie. They loved the pool!!! They never get to do that so even though the water was still pretty cold they had a blast! It was fun for Laura and me to watch them have so much fun this weekend! It will definitely be one of the highlights of this whole year.

(fun cooking breakfast)

Another part of this past Sunday was a baptism. The oldest girl in the house, Buyi, came to me a couple of weeks ago and told me she wanted to be baptized. I was so excited for her! She said she had decided that she wanted to start following God more seriously now and get back His path. She is such a great girl!!! She is a great leader in that house…a quiet leader. She is determined to do well and get her life back on track, both spiritually and in getting back to school to further her education. Buyi is 21 years old so she is already a bit behind. She wants to get to college so that she can move on and get a good job. Sometimes I am amazed at her attitude. There are times when she is really down, but mostly, she is positive and works really hard. I know it has to be extremely difficult to be living in a shelter at 21 and not even started on college. I am so proud of her though! Please pray for Buyi as she starts on a more determined path with God. I hope for such great things for her!

me (yes...one of the girls braided my hair), buyi, and laura

I guess that’s all for now. My blog posts and updates might be coming more rapidly…as busy as I am there will be a lot to tell in the coming months. So…be on the lookout! Thank you so much again for all that you have been for me this year! You all mean so much to me. I can’t explain how great it is to know how much I am supported and to be able to share this journey with you! Thank you!

LOVE LOVE

manda