Saturday, August 13, 2011

My Kingdom go...


Well it's about time for an update, now that I finally have a little while to write one! I spent 5 days last week in Zambia at the Love Africa conference, and this past week I've been attending the Communications Training seminar hosted by OMer Greg Kernaghan. There were 650 people in attendance at the Love Africa conference and it was amazing! The schedule went something like this: 6 am - wake up, music, sermon, music, sermon, tea, music, sermon, lunch, workshop, workshop, music, sermon, music, sermon, music, sermon..in case you didn't catch my drift, it was a VERY full conference. But it was really inspiring to hear all the stories about how God is moving in Africa, about all the lives being turned to Christ and the miracles He's doing!  There were missionaries from all over Africa and all over the world. Two men, one from South Africa and one from Zimbabwe, started walking from Zimbabwe on June 13 to make it to the conference in Zambia - and they were stopping in villages and cities along the way to share the Gospel. They said they plan to keep walking until the end of the year, and then walk the whole year next year. Talk about dedication to spreading the Gospel. The communications conference was also a great experience for me. It was really in-depth about how to be the most effective communicator for a missions organization, I learned SO much and I'm getting excited to see how I can put these skills to use in Madagascar. Speaking of Madagascar, I'm leaving for Tana in 3 days! Ahhh. 

I went this morning with a couple of friends to work at Mamelodi AIDS Hope center. Some OM missionaries run the center, and kids come from all over Mamelodi (a township outside of Pretoria) come for the after school program or on Saturdays for the Kids Club. It's mostly kids who have been either infected or affected by AIDS. They were adorable and had a great time playing soccer, on the playground, or coloring. I asked one girl what her favorite thing to do is, and she responded "play princess" and her friend said "play house" -- I guess kids are really the same no matter where you go!

To sum things up I think I'll go ahead and write 5 lessons I've learned since I've been in Africa:
1. You'll feel much better if you learn to laugh at the small things and especially at your own mistakes.
2. Learning to use the metric system and celsius temperature scale would've been extremely helpful. C'mon America, fahrenheit really?
3. I sleep better with ear plugs in no matter how quiet it is.
4. Carry toilet paper with you wherever you go.
5. Before I can pray "Thy Kingdom come", I must pray "My Kingdom go..."

Here's a couple pictures from the Love Africa conference:

                                             Dinner time!

                                                     a cute little girl


Thanks for all your prayers! I love you all.


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