convention at Bloumfontein

For me when I hear convention i think sometimes of a time with people to praise and worship the lord. This weekend we went to Bloumfontein to a church conference where around 800 people were. What made this convention as special as it was were the preaching of God the preachers would talk for 45 minutes and it still wouldent get boring. They were filled with passion and fire to speak,it was extrordinary, as well as the worship singing people would laugh , dance, sing, cry it was filled with emotions and power of the holy spirit. Another thing was the people. They had such warm heart and welsomed us with oppen arms. There when you walk somwere they will smilie and greet you. In canada it was hard to find that frindlyness in th people. We also got to share our testimonies as an encouragment for the youth there to go on missions and to let God shine a light in the world. For me this weekend was a blessing. I truly enjoyed every minute. I thank God that he is giving us this oppurunity to get to meet new people, people in christ that are true belivers, and worship from all there heart. There were questions as well that came with it, what plan does God have for me? where does he want me to help here when I feal helpless compared to this culture. It feels like i am the one suppose to learn and not teach. But i know God has great plans and i want himto work through me.

trip tp south africa

We as team left on september 21 for amsterdam. The flight went well and we had a 8 hour flight. From Amsterdam where we had a 3 hour delay the trip continued to Johannesburg wich was a 10 hour flight. We had actually planed to stay at a hostel at Johannesburg for the night, so we were exeited to get some sleep. When we got to Johannesburg we noticed that the money that we were suppose to use was not on the account yet. So we had to think about what we were going to do next. Some of our team members said that we could take some money from theres. But we decided not to use monay and stay at the airport for the night. That was the longest night of my life. We spent 11 hours at the airport. At least there was no one at night so we could get some sleep, what was 4 hours for me. The next day we borded then for Pietematrizburg. Finaly. The interesting thing was though that we got transported in a bus to our airplane. Which was small airplane with probably 15 passengers. When we arived in pietematrizburg we were welcomed with smiles and open armes. Our group was taken out for lunch and then we setteld in to our new hous, wich by the way is great. At 5 we went to Phil and Kristine's place for dinner and the whole staff was there. It was an amazing evening with a llot of laughter and fun, even though we were exauhsted. I had probably goten around 6 hours of sleep from the 60 hours. Around nine we could finally go to bed. yes. I was so happy to finaly sleep ina bed and not an airplane seat. This morning Tim came and woke us up and what ws the time? 2 oclock in the after noon. That was the longest and best sleep I have ever had. A little bit about south africa. we have cold and rainy weather. It is nice though first thing that came to my head when we landed was the lion king movie haha.
Thanks for all the prayers. Please keep praying for the group and this weekend when we have to go to a convention. That he may give us peace and the energy to do his work, since we all are still tierd.

This expirience to be here at orientation has been a great blessing for me. I feel a great change in me that I have never feelt before. This growth has been spiritual, emotional as well as phisical. God has transformed me and I want to let him transform me in such a way that I could just possibly dream of.

I have struggled a lot in my life with eating disorder or not feeling good enough. Just by being here for a month I have grown and learned that I am worthy. I have struggled with not feeling worthy all my life, know I feel exepted the way I am. I have learned that the outer apearance does not matter as much as the inner appearance. It is going to be a long and hard journey, but I wnat to get better and first work on my self and then let God transform me to someone who I didn't know I could be. Through Orientation God has made me want to be a true follower and I want to let him use me this coming year. I want to let him transform me and use me to be a blessing for others.

I am very greatfull for all the friendships that have been established here at orientation. They have been a blessing for me when I needed to talk to someone or just a word of encouragment. I thank everyone for the prayers and support. I hope that everyone can expirience Gods greatfullness and love the way I have.

Orientation is a month where we learn and get ready to go to our countrys. For me this has been the most important month of my life. I have come to so much realization about myself, and God. I have had a difficult past with learning to accept myself the way I am. I have learned that God has made me the way I am. And he loves me that way. I am learning to really put that as number one in my life. I thank God that he has blessed me here in such a great way and that he always has something new for us to learn. I thank him that I am special in his eyes and that I am made in his image. I want to honour God with all my heart for that.

hospitality

What is hospitality? or what does it mean to us these days. We have become lazy and not really recognized how important or in what litle ways we can show hospitality. Becca and I went around and tried to smilie at people and see how they would react. It was interessting. A lot of people would totaly ignore us others gave us the look that we were wierd and some appritiated it and smiled back. Those people were the least though. I realized that to show hospitality can be done in so many ways, and how important it is. I have learned to be thankful, if I recive a smilie on the street to be thankful and replie with one, or just to respect the littlest hopitality. Ihope that people realize that to show hopslitality is so important to show Gods love and care, and to be the example that he was.