I have been in Africa for a week and I absolutely love it! Jeffrey's Bay is gorgeous and I feel so at home! Our first week was just exploring and getting to know J Bay. We are staying at a place called Ucsa. Its right in the middle of the town and we are close to everything. I walk outside the gates and make a left and I see HUGE gorgeous waves. It truly is a masterpiece that God created! The people here are so friendly. You can't walk down the street without being greeted. We are getting to know a lot of the local shop owners and I think they are happy to get to know some new faces. J Bay looks so gorgeous but there are so many hidden hurts and secrets of the locals.

We spent our first weekend in Africa camping in what they call the bush. (aka the middle of nowhere in the wilderness of Africa). I love camping, but the thought of camping in Africa made me feel a little unsafe, but when we got there the nerves let up and God provided. It was BEAUTIFUL! Just to give a mental picture...think of the lion king, or a typical picture of Africa and that is what the bush is like. We were able to do a lot of different things. I even repelled down a cliff!! AH! Scary but AMAZING! We cooked our meals over a fire and they were amazing! While in the bush I discovered African Ramen noodles....AMEN! Just stick the noodles and boiling water in your nalgene water bottle for two minutes and you have a delicious gourmet meal!! The only thing about the Bush I would change is how cold it was!! It was 2 degrees Celsius which is about 30 degrees Fahrenheit! FREEZING! I wore everything I brought and was still cold. It's the end of winter in Africa right now so it's still pretty cold. Over all though, the Bush was amazing.

On the beginning of the second week we started Ministry! I was placed at an after school program called Ithemba. I have to admit that Ithemba was not my first choice for ministry but I am so thankful God placed me there. Ithemba is a place where children can come after school to get a meal and learn a little more than they do at school. The education for the Afrikaans and Xhosa people is extremely poor, and most of the time the meal that is provided at Ithemba is the only meal they get for the entire day. Also a lot of children there have HIV or aids, but they are beautiful!  As soon as we walked in the gates of Ithemba the children flocked to us. At one point I literally had 15 kids on top of me and hanging from me. It was like one GIANT dog pile! So amazing! They love our hair, and after I left for the day my hair was one giant rats nest from all of the braids the children gave me!! They also find our arm hairs really interesting because they don't have arm hair, in other words they like to pull our arm hair out! HAHA! We sang and danced and got to know the children a little better. PRAISE GOD!  Ithemba is a blessing and I'm so thankful that I get to work there.

Thanks for your prayers and support! The lord is Good, and he does provide! AMEN! Keep reading the blogs because there is more to come!!