This week I finished the lecture phase of my Discipleship Training School and feel great about it. As a team leader I feel like I am being held to a higher standard both personally and by the work I get to do for God on this team. We are a team of 6 in total 5 girls one guy from German, USA, Holland and South Africa.

Adjusting to life as a missionary has been interesting and I often crave a tall vanilla soy latte from Starbucks, but I am learning to enjoy what Africa has to offer such as a traditional food called "pap" which is made from maise (corn) meal flour which is cooked in water to make basically a white mush that you are supposed to eat with your fingers after dipping it in usually a tomato sauce-like a pasta sauce-with lots of veggies. This is often served with chicken which is the main meat here.

It often amazes me with the need that is so apparent in the community that I have been living. I am actually in quite an affluent part of the country but just 10 minutes away is what is called a "township" where people are living in shacks and "containers" as their homes. 

I have found a church I attended regularly and over the past few weeks I have connected with a family who has one grandmother and her husband who are supporting 13 people in a small three room shack off of approx $23 per week. Some of the students in my class and I have gone to their shack to pray with them and to fellowship. Last week I purchased about $75 worth of basic food and we delivered it to their home and then I helped to lead the 27 year old granddaughter who has three children under the age of 4 to Christ. It was amazing! We prayed with her as the little black children ran around while we brought God one of his children to rest in the salvation Jesus has given us.

 We then prayed for healing for the grandmother for her blood pressure and the four of us students as well as the three small children laid their hands on her. It was like nothing you could ever image participating in, truly like something you see in a National Geographic magazine and God chose me to be there, to share his goodness with this family.

As I live in the will of God and seek him first in all I do, I am being truly trained as a missionary and as an ambassador for God. The greatest lesson I am learning is to trust God for my finances and to know that if I live in the will of God he will provide. I never expected that I would spend my 30th birthday in a nation across the world just one short year after becoming a Christian... but to do this for God's glory is more satisfying that I could even express.

Last night we had our Class Christmas Party and it ended by me announcing we were going to jump in to the pool on base which often looks like a swamp it is a very, very small pool and we never use it as they do not maintain it about 15 of the 28 students including me jumped in to the pool it was probably about 15 degrees outside...a cooler night!

In less than 8 hours I will be off to Johannesburg which will be a 2 hour flight we then take a taxi over the Swaziland boarder to the capital city Mbabane and stay there over Christmas(I hear we will have a Braii – a BBQ outside in the dirt) we then go to a community called Bulembu which is an old mining town being built up to sustain itself. We then cross back over the South Africa Boarder to stay on the edge of Kruger Park at an Orphanage for 2 weeks on January 31^st we go back to Johannesburg to work with an HIV clinic, Refugees, as well as Inner City Youth(Johannesburg is one of the top most dangerous cities in the world) and we will be working with the young gangsters and drug dealers! …keep us in your prayers! J We fly back to Cape Town on February 26^th to have one final week of lectures and then it is up to God where I go next!

Many of you have donated money or have committed to monthly donations to help support me and I just wanted to give you an idea of how I can live off of $500 per month. I currently have $150 in monthly support so here are some of the places where that money will go over my next 10 week Missionary outreach:

• Flight to Johannesburg $215.00
• Bus to Swaziland ( a 5 hour trip across the boarder of South Africa) $24.00
• Housing for 10 weeks(including a mattress on the floor for 6 nights, bunk beds for 44 nights and 16 nights of tents near one of the most sought after National Parks called Kruger)$500.17
• Food for 10 weeks at 40 rand per day which works out to be $400.00 for 10 weeks of food!
• Sunscreen for 10 weeks in approx 30-40degree weather(yes even over Christmas) 5 bottles at $10.00 per bottle = $50.00
• 2 long skirts to do ministry and work in to be respectable to the African culture = $40.00
• 2 pairs of leggings(like bike shorts) to wear under our skirts to protect our legs in the heat from sweating and rubbing…yuck!  $24.00
• Hepatitis A Vaccine due to possibility of contaminated food or water $60.00
• Vitamins to help keep me healthy and pain free while in some stressful and physically taxing situations $100.00
• Malaria tablets I have yet to decide if we will need them… will listen to the host in the areas we go once we get there but I am prepared $70.00
• Bug spray to try to avoid malaria-even if you take the tablets you can still get it- 3 bottles @ $5.00 per bottle= $15.00
• 20 Small Soccer balls to be handed out to children who have no toys or anything to play with $42.85
• Combi taxi rides within Swaziland and on to Kruger Park…basically a mini buss that you stuck as many people in as possible usually have about 9 seats but fit 15 people  $72.85
• Food for 66 days $400 which is approx $6 per day, which in total say $10.00 will go to Pap which will be a staple in most of my dinners and some of my lunches it is a corn meal mush kinda like pilenta.
• Crayons, colouring sheets, blowing bubbles, sidewalk chalk and children’s bibles as we will go to 3-4 Orphanages $32.00

It is exciting to live by faith and so if you wish to support any of theise items feel free to paypal me or mail me for an address to send a cheque…no obligation!!  It sometimes can just be nice to help out from home if you cannot be here!

I do not know when I will blog next as I have no idea what the internet access will be but please do send emails so when I can I can feel the connection back home!

Have a very Merry Christmas and stay blessed!

Mucho Kisses,J