Sawubona!!!

In this picture: Me, Natalie Spera, and Heather Stewart

HEY GUYS!!! For all of you who haven't heard, I'm going to Africa! That's right! I am SO EXCITED. I've really developed a heart for missions over my time in Elevate, and I can't wait to get out there and love on those hurting babies!

My team will be leaving for Swaziland, Africa on May 14th. While we are there we will be helping the team from Children's Cup get the Healing Place Swaziland campus up and running.

While we're there I will get to visit a good friend of mine, Natalie. Natalie is leaving next week to move to Swaziland, and will be there for nine months. I'm really glad that God is letting us share a part of this experience together. He is so good!

I am also going to be visiting Mozambique, Africa, while I am there. I sponsor a child in Mozambique through Mission of Mercy. There is a good chance I will get to meet him. I can't wait!

Please keep us in your prayers!

P.S. Sawubona means "hello" in Siswati.

katie

I live in an apartment with a girl who characteristically says of herself, "I'm the funniest person I know." Recently, she decided she wanted to borrow our other roommate, Mary Beth's, computer. Unfortunately, Mary Beth was asleep, and the only way to unlock her computer is by fingerprint recognition. Here's a video of Katie trying to swipe Mary Beth's finger while she was sleeping. It's not very good quality, but it's still funny if you know her. :o)

Live the Dream Opener

Finally found the opener online. Check it out. Our productions team is amazing.


Live the Dream 2007 - Live Opener from Healing Place Church on Vimeo.

P.S. I'm the first dancer.

reflections

It's strange how quickly time passes us by...

And how if we aren't careful, we'll miss all of the important moments in life

Holidays are perfect for reflecting on where we've come from, what we've learned, and where we're going.

Some things I've learned this year:

1. Even though I'm no longer the youngest in our family,

It's still ok to act like a kid sometimes!

2. You can never have too many friends.

3. God brings people into our lives

and when the moment is right, He moves them away.

4. The best part of Christmas is giving

and the best gifts are suprises.

5. Even though our family is growing,

there's always room for a few more.

5. And most importantly, there's no place like home for the holidays. :o)

God's Wrath

It's been awhile since I've posted a blog, so I figured "what the hey" I'll post one today... No rhyme intended.

Today I want to talk about one of the funniest and most disturbing passages I've ever read in the Bible: Judges 3:15-25

At this point in the Bible the Israelites have not been very nice people, so God has given them over to the Eglon King of Moab. The Israelites cry out to God and God feels sorry for them and sends them help in the form of Elhud, a left-handed man(yes, it actually specifies that he was left-handed). Then the Bible says, "Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half [e] long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man.

At this point I'm imagining this rich obnoxious blue-blooded nasty sweaty meanie, but as if that isn't bad enough then it says, "21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it." Can we say gross?

Ok so to top it all off, God puts a line in the Bible that I think is in there solely for my intertainment:
3 Then Ehud went out to the porch [h] ; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

24 After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house." 25 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? They're king was in the upper room dead and they thought he was CONSTIPATED!

The moral of the story: Don't mess with God's people or else you will be remembered like King Elgon, a fat and constipated man.

fabulosa

Here is a picture that we Gabi took of me after "mandatory fun time" on Tuesday night.

We are all so busy that we are sometimes required to just chill out and have fun. All of full-time and evenings went to Celebration Station instead of going to class on Tuesday. It was a BLAST. I about killed some people on the go-carts. We had a few wrecks, but I guess now they know I DON'T PLAY! That's just how I roll yo!

We were hyped up for a long time afterwards, so when we got home, we turned on the radio and danced. At some point I put on that hat, and Kelly Pitts decided she needed some props too. She escaped into her closet, and then came out looking like this:

Needless to say, I had to borrow her glasses. It was muy fabulosa.

Another recent and cool happening was our outreach marathon. We spent the whole day last Friday reaching out to our community (from 6:30am to 3:00am no lie). We cleaned houses, painted houses, gave out bottles of water, and even had a little time to buy some ice cream from the ice cream man. It was a blast.

The first thing I did on Friday was clean Ms. Violet's house in St. Francisville. Ms. Violet was born on a plantation and has live in St. Franny all of her life. The property she lives on now was actually part of the plantation she was born on. The owners of the plantation left some of the land to her family when they died!

She was so happy we were there that she gave us some free copies of her cook book! It is a cookbook that she wrote which has old plantation recipes in it. It is called "Aunt Shug's Favorite Plantation Recipes." She autographed it and everything! I can't wait to cook something out of it.

I think we were blessed all around. She was happy to have us, and we were happy to listen to all of her magnificent stories!

Joy, Katherine, Ms. Violet, Me, and Cousin Heather

a quick look back

This picture is from the first week of Elevate.

On about our third day here, the second years kidnapped us

in the middle of the night, and made us clean the church.

Stephanie, Joy, Mary Beth, and I

The first prank of the year!

Clockwise from left: Marybeth (in red), Hannah, Kelly, Shana, Stephanie B., Me Middle: Stephanie D. aka my lovely roomie