Just want to show you the view from my front door. I am blessed with a small one bedroom apartment that a New Yorker would pay BIG bucks to have as a vacation spot! Over looking a game reserve, I can wake up and look over the "veranda" to the hills to find giraffe and perhaps a wilder beast herd running through the field. It is an amazingly beautiful and peaceful view from by front door. Sometimes the kids walk down (5 minutes) from their houses to come to my apartment and so I get a nice mix of quiet and company (I also have 3 neighbors).

This weekend we helped the teenagers plan a big dance party, with decorations, a dress theme, and great DJ-ing! It was a blast! they had so much fun! And WOW no one can dance like a Zulu!!!!!

And for all those who know how much I love to bake, amongst all the things I am doing, one project that I am doing is helping some of the teenagers to start selling small cakes at school. They are getting so into it, from scoping the market (there are other kids who sell cakes) to pricing, to the actual baking, it is so fun to see them get excited about this!

Week 2 done! Wow, the weeks are flying by here and every day makes me more and more excited about what I am doing! God is so good because as we struggle with Him, He then brings great blessings. He brings us, in His time, into things He wants us to do that we ALSO LOVE. He is so kind in that way.
This week I really dug into the planning and also did a lot more with the older kids. There are about 30 of them, so it takes time to connect with everyone and it is a bit challenging to know who to focus on. All the little kids want to bake cakes with me, but it is hard to say no.
Amongst some of the activities this week, was a great fellowship group last night with the teenagers. We talked about God's faithfulness to us and ours to Him. Awesome discussion and I was amazed at how the kids are maturing in their faith!
Then, this morning we decided to go on a 14km (9 mile!!!!!) run! I have been running on the road on the property, so a group of staff and older kids, who play soccer and are in pretty good shape, ran out onto the public road through the farmland! At our halfway marker, there were huge fields of sugarcane and the kids broke off a stalk to chew on and get some refreshment. Man, the way back was hard and long and I probably would have passed out if I didn't have the sugarcane stalk!! But I just barely beat all the boys back, except one!!

So today was quite a day! We had a brush fire break out and sweep across the huge fields we have. And there is no such thing as a fire department in these parts so everyone sort of knows how to fight fires on their own. All the staff and children knew what to do, and so the American learned a lot! Take a branch and hit the fire! Who knew that would be the way to do it! It rushed up to the back window of my house, and I had my important things in my hands ready to get out! After about 3 hours of running water buckets here and there, swinging branches, and lots of help and strategy the fire burned itself out. But our nice field is a bit black now. But nothing burned and no one was hurt. Never a dull moment.

I finished my first week here! It involved quite a bit of everything! My time now is mostly focusing on major planning for the teenagers, so I spend the mornings working on that. Then in the afternoons when the kids come home from school, I focus on reconnecting with them, just hanging out. It has been so great to be back in their lives again! I baked a cake with some, watched movies with others, sat in on some hip hop dance practices (the boys are preparing for a competition), and did a few bonfires for the older kids.

This week the orphanage was short drivers, so I drove some of the little girls to a special day camp for kids with serious diseases and they were able to get their faces painted, dress up, get their nails done, play fun games, eat lots of cakes, and meet Miss South Africa 2006!

But now I see why God has brought me back here. For the past few months, I felt His urgency for me to come and the importance of it, but I wondered if it was just my own feelings or impulses. But now I see how clearly God did speak! It is so great to see that and know that as the challenges start to come, He has made it very clear that I am the one for this job, even if I don't feel like I am up for it at times.

Sorry I haven't written for so long!! SO much has happened. It has been a week of intense and very sad goodbyes, then sightseeing, then a lot of joyful hellos!
My last day in New York I spent with my very special friend on the beach, having some final quality time together on a perfect sunny summer day. That was then followed by frantic final packing and then a rush off to the airport in the evening for the first of 2 overnight flights (and I don't sleep on airplanes!).
But actually I managed to get a few hours of interrupted sleep, however I got a terrible migraine and ALMOST threw up in front of everyone during landing!
Recovered quickly to rush into my 10 hour lay-over in London! Met a friend for lunch and then walked and "Tubed" around the city! It was such a peaceful and beautiful city. I had never been there and was able to see a lot of the main attractions. Then back to the airport for my second overnight flight. And THAT one was pretty hard.
Then I had a 5 hour lay-over in Johannesburg where I had to continually walk around or move, as I would instantly doze off if I didn't.

BUT I MADE IT! And I was bombarded with hugs and screams! And that moment made it all worth it!! Now I am starting to unpack my job and find my barings with my daily routine. One day at a time!

I can't believe I'm here again!!!

The past few weeks have been characterized by much running around, especially countless times to the South African consulate. Luckily there is never a line (or I should say a Que!). Today, I went for the last time, retrieving my visa! DONE!!!! On the way, I pass a corner each time at 42nd street and 2nd Ave, where Nelson Mandela meets the Chrysler Building. It is a special sight, and each time causes me to stop for a moment.




Another part of my days has been cleaning up and cleaning out! I have so much stuff that I haven't looked at for years! So going through my stuff has been quite a process, throwing it away, giving it away, organizing it. Luckily the summer has not been so hot, so I can spend the days in my NOT-air conditioned room. One week it was over 100 degrees, but otherwise, it has been tolerable. But definitely I have been a beach bum! Taking trips on the subway to get out to the beach nearly every weekend!

I am thankful for God's grace. He is patient and kind with all my crazy emotions, one day to the next is a new and crazy thought process and emotion-mostly of course super dramatic. FEAR, EXCITEMENT, JOY, SADNESS...DOUBT...TEARS. The goodbyes will be so hard but the hello's to the kids will be SO wonderful!

YES, believe it or not, New York City has it own beaches! And the hot summer sun draws everyone out there! This picture does not show the crowds that flock out to the beach, where you stand on the trains jammed in like rush hour, except its beach Saturday rush hour.

I haven't written for a long time. I have been deep in thought, deep in turmoil, deep in "What do I do?! Have I really made the right decision!?"...You may be wondering what has happened with my decision to go to South Africa. It has been a hard decision. It has been one that takes a HUGE amount of trust that God will be faithful and really take care of me and see me through. It is a position that is what I am so excited about and uses my talents, but also it is going to be incredibly difficult. So, I have been in some deep turmoil over what I should do. But I have come out the other side feeling that I need to trust God and give him the opportunity to show himself to me. If I decide to back out, it will be counting God as dead, as not-living, not able to speak or to show himself to his people. Therefore, I bank on his words and his leading.

It is now a count down, about 5 weeks to go until I leave this great city, this World Central to go to a little township, off the beaten world path, in Nowhere Land so to speak, to build into the lives of these special kids that God cares for.