Vamanos a Miami

Early early tomorrow morning, I have to get up and get in the van to drive down to Miami. We are going for a week to work with a campus ministry.

Unfortunately I am getting sick so the 13 or so hour drive down will not exactly be the most exciting thing for me, but I am looking forward to being in Florida for a week.

After we get back, there will only be 2 weeks left until we leave for India...crazy!We leave on December 30.

No DC for me

Just found out today that I will not be going to DC for the visas. I was kinda looking forward to just having a day away and doing something completely different. But there are lectures I have to attend so I don't get to go along.

It has been a really good day...it started off doing a service project for a local ministry. They have a lot of stuff donated to them to pass on to the homeless and we went and sorted through everything and organized it in order for it to be set out for Christmas. There was SO much stuff to go through and I was so glad to be able to help...there was no way this family that runs the ministry would have been able to get it all done.

This evening, I got to go hang out with some friends from LA. One of the them, Britany, is from this area so I went with some other LA alums to have dinner with her family. Good food, great people, wonderful night!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was a very good day! Before having our own thanksgiving feast, a team of us went to serve food to the homeless. There is a program that we work with that takes over the local Wendy's restaurant. The people come in, we seat them and bring them a very tasty meal. We had such a good time being able to serve them and bless them in this way.

We are still working on preparing for our international outreach. There is going to have to be a trip to Washington D.C. next week in order to get our visas and I may be one of the two heading up there for the day! Fun Fun!

Hope you all had a great day with your families, or whoever you spent Thanksgiving Day with! God Bless!

3 in one day...and some big news!

This is the third update I have posted just today...trying very meagerly to make up for the fact that I neglected it for almost 2 months.

So on to the big news! I am going to be heading out on an international trip at the very end of December and will be gone for 2 months. One of the most exciting things about this is the fact that it will not just be one country, but two:

India and China!

We will be in India for all of January, in a small city called Manipal. And in China, for the month of February, in Tianjin. It will prove a packing challenge since India will be 100 degrees and humid and China will be below zero and snowing! I am a little worried about the freezing part of it, but know that it will be good all in all. Just have to buy some clothes fit for that kind of weather.

I don't really have too many details about what we will be doing exactly in either place, but I will post it all on here as soon as I have more information.

What's wrong with this picture?

Yes, if you look closely, that resembles the center console of a car..and it happens to belong to me. So someone thought it would be a hoot to break into my car and steal my poor little radio. They didn't do it very nicely either because they ripped apart the plastic and bent pieces of metal and broke off more than just the radio portion. Not a very good thief. Needless to say, though, that I was not terribly pleased and have to go through the headache of getting it fixed and all that nonsense. Luckily, I have a zero deductible so I don't have to come up with any money out of pocket to fix it and buy a new radio. I would have rather just given them the $50 though...less hassle.

It finally happened!

No need to check your pulses...you are still alive and there is finally a new blog posted here! Amazing, I know.

I could offer excuse after excuse as to why it has taken me so long to update (I hang my head in shame)...I will say one thing and then subject dropped and I will update better. Things have been so busy for me and I don't really have much access to the internet like I used to. I no longer work at a desk and I don't get internet in my bedroom, so at night, when I have a few minutes, walking downstairs to the office does not appeal to me at all. Ok, that's all.

A lot has been going on in the last couple months. I am still in North Carolina, currently doing a training school and on staff at the same time. And for those of you that don't know what my responsibility is here at the base...I am one of two kitchen managers! I realize some of you could be laughing since that is so far from my experience, but it has not been too bad. Things are more routine now so that helps and I have a good team to work with. I just never pictured myself doing anything of that nature and I am definitely learning a great deal!

I have thought about this blog (and have been bugged about it by a number of friends!) and knew there were things to write about, but never got around to it. But I will do better. Bear with me though. Love ya!

The Blakeney Girls

These are the three girls I live with, from L-R, Summer, me, Mandy and Kristina...and I daily learn more reasons to love them. After discovering I share the love for the show "Lost" with one of them, we ran out to the video store to rent season 2. We watched a couple of them and then all 4 of us sat around laughing and telling stories. Sometimes the best fun is completely unplanned.

Life in NC

As I continue to get settled in and learn how things work around here in my new home, I find that I am enjoying almost every minute of it. It all feels pretty natural and the overall transition has been great. There are times, though, that I feel like I am on a short outreach and will be returning home to LA and work with media again. The training school I am taking part in starts in about 3 weeks, and I am sure with that beginning, the whole permanency of it all will hit me. We shall see.

This past week has been an experiment in cooking. Living in places where the food is made for you and all you have to do is show up at a certain time for the last 3 1/2 years has certainly made me a bit rusty (ok, I was never considered a culninary artist, but I could make a few things). With only a few staff here right now, one of my marvelous new roommates, Summer, and I braved the grocery store and made some pretty tasty, well-balanced meals for ourselves and a few other people. And to top it off, I actually enjoyed the whole process!

The weekend excitement was my family coming to visit...my parents, two of my sisters and my grandma. This was the first time they have met some of the people I have talked about for years. And while it was so good to have them here, it was wierd to see people from two completely different parts of my life in the same room. We didn't really do anything spectacular (seeing as how there really isn't anything to do around here anyway), but it was great to see them and hang out with them.

One last thing...my foot is definitely getting better...still a little sore, but I can walk without crutches and the limp is not quite as drastic anymore. I just walk more carefully down driveways now. Who knew they could be so dangerous?!

this blog was updated just for karyn! ;-) giving into pressure!

What joy...

I seem to have my most graceless moments in front of my friends...though I suppose I wouldn't really want it to happen when I had no one to laught about it afterwards. The first was at the jacuzzi (for those of you who know, commence laughing at the memory of it)...and the second was last night.

I was minding my own business, walking over to someone's house when my ankle decided that it wasn't going to perform it's normal functions and I went very quickly and painfully to the ground. To insult to injury, it was raining and I was laying on my back getting very wet. I was right outside my friend's house so they all came running out and had to help me get up. And now I have to use crutches. Thank goodness it isn't broken, but it is sprained very bad! sigh...no fun!

Business Trip?

Today was my first day at work and at the morning meeting, I was told/asked about going on a little "business trip" to Atlanta. There is going to be a concert night at Six Flags and we are setting up a booth with information about the base here in Charlotte.

The catch: the event is from 12 midnight to 6 am. And we are driving down this Friday at 3 pm, setting up the booth, starting at midnight, and leaving at 6 am to return to North Carolina. Can we say energy drinks?

Despite the long hours and mass amounts of caffiene I will have to consume, I think the thing I dread the most is getting back in the car...again! I just seem to keep having to make long journeys by car and should be used to it by now. First it was the trek across the states, then the 6 hour drive to and then back from the beach this past weekend and now to Atlanta this coming weekend.

I have to look on the positive side of it all and be excited about the opportunities I have had to get to know my car mates very well. Below is Alicia and I on day 3 of our drive to North Carolina. We were still smiling, so that was a good sign (and we had just a had a great lunch and most of all, we were out of the stinkin' car!) Love ya, Alicia!

beach days

A few of us staff from the base went on a little weekend getaway to the beach. I am currently looking at the beach from an air-conditioned venue (a coffee shop) because I got a little red yesterday. And Karisse, before you get mad, I did wear sunscreen and sat under a stinkin' umbrella the whole time (I have witnesses), so I really don't understand how it happened. But in an effort to not make it worse, I am inside today.

We went fishing last night, with very little success. I know, I barely believe it myself...I went fishing! I have a picture coming soon as proof for those skeptics out there. One of us 6 actually caught a small little fish, but with goodwill in mind, we threw it back.

I have been in North Carolina for a week now and spent a few days unpacking and relaxing and trying to adjust, which has been really good, considering. I will actually start working on Monday, and I think reality of the whole move will begin to set in.

At long last!

Monroe, NC: A small southern town about a half hour south of Charlotte that I now call home.

After 8 states lines and 2500 miles, Alicia and I finally made it! As we passed the "Welcome to Monroe" sign, we definitely let out a HUGE sigh of relief and joy!

I think I am in a bit of shock, knowing this is where I am going to live, not just for a visit. This shock is by no means a reflection of my excitement to be here because I am looking foward to what I am doing, but more a disbelief that I don't live in LA anymore.

I am going to check out more of the town in the next couple days and start unpacking my things. I don't know exactly how that is going to work because I am pretty sure I have more things than I have space for. But I will figure something out.

Day one over!

It has been a long day and I am glad to be out of the car. Alicia and I left LA early this morning, after I only slept about 2 hours. Saying good bye was hard, but I don't think it has all hit me yet. It probably will my first night sleeping in my new bed in North Carolina.

We are in Albuquerque right now in a hotel. Originally we were going to stay at a hostel...until we got there. We didn't really feel safe and parking was sketchy. I didn't like the idea of having all my stuff in my car. So we left the hostel and went to 2 hotels before finding this one. It's not that much more than the hostel and the extra $20 makes me feel safe, so it is worth it.

The drive was pretty good. My 4 cylinder car longs for flat roads and I finally decided after 5 1/2 years what to name the car (because nothing really stuck or seemed to suit very well)...her name is Eileen ...and every time we are creeping up the hill, I start to sing (in my head and sometimes out loud) "Come on Eileen" the oldies song. It took longer to get here than we thought it would because of the mass amounts of hills to climb, rain, traffic and accidents -- we saw 4 truck accidents in the span of 50 miles and one of them happened right in front of us...a truck blew a tire and the metal seal from the tire just barely missed hitting my car and when he swerved off the road, he went right in front of me and barely missed me as well. not exactly exciting, but very grateful that all went well.

My car (other than fighting up the hills) is doing great with gas mileage...definitely a HUGE plus!

We are setting out early again tomorrow morning and heading to Little Rock. we are hoping for only a 12 hour day rather than the 15 hour day that we had today.

There will be pictures coming

Someone pinch me!

I have 8 1/2 hours until I leave...and I still have not finished packing and cleaning my room yet. Can we say procrastinator? And now I am sitting in my friend's living room, trying to not think about it all.

5 days!

Hard to believe I am leaving LA in 5 days! And I am willfully sitting in a car for so many hours. We are going to take 4 days...the first two days long 12 hour days and the second two will be shorter days since there are some people on the way I have to visit. And I wish my car ran on something other than gas that costs $3.35 per gallon! I am hoping other states are not as expensive as California. I heard there was one place my friend just drove (on the same route I am taking) that it was $4.09 for gas! Ouch!

I love my friends!

I think at this point, the majority of my belongings have made it to North Carolina by now. I got to put it all on a moving truck with my friend's stuff which was a huge blessing. I am leaving here on August 8 and driving with my roommate, Alicia. A small part of me is very much dreading the drive because it is such a long trip, but for the most part, I am looking forward to it.

In the midst of trying to finish up sorting and packing my life here in LA, I took a much needed break for the weekend to hang out with YWAM LA-alumni, Sarah (AKA Smiller). This is a picture of her (on the right), me (center) and Karisse (left). It's a "framer"!

Beware of Heat Stroke!

Just a quick note...today's temperature was 119 degrees! No joke...I wish I was exaggerating, but I am not. And to top it off, we don't have air conditioning in our house. Those of you with central AC, be grateful!

Packing...at the bottom of my "love to do" list

If there was an award for the World's Slowest Packer, I would win, hands down! I have been working on packing my room up for the last 5 day and I am still NOT done! And I realized tonight the reasons why this is the case:

*I am VERY easily distracted and would much rather sit and talk to friends (or update my blog)
*I go through EVERY item in my room and evaluate if i still want it (that also includes any piece of paper)
*I pack a box and then unpack it and move it to a new box to organize it better (because there is usually a more efficient way)

I sure I could come up with more reasons, but I'm sure you get the picture. I have to do my best to not get overwhelmed by it and just put things in boxes...it's all going to get moved either way! And I have to have it all packed by Sunday night...no pressure. Some good friends of mine are also moving to the east coast and they offered to put my things on their truck and they are getting the truck on Monday (and my stuff has to go in first so it comes out last once they get there). I am SO grateful to them for doing that.

I am driving to NC about a week or so after them, so my things will already be there. My housemate, Alicia, is driving with me and that is a huge blessing!

I should probably get back to packing...not my favorite thing, but it must be done!

After Dark Excursions

There's something strange about nighttime that makes Denny's seem like a good idea...don't know what, though. Last night, Danny, Alicia and I were sitting around the living room when the mood struck to do something...and Denny's was the grand plan we came up with. I guess it's the company that makes it fun. This is in the car on the way over...


And drinking our milkshakes...



Ode to Danny: "I am nobody's S.W." You should remember what that means ;-) Why did it take so long for us to be friends?

Ode to Alicia: Story of the old woman terrorizing the senior home, using walkers as weapons. Love you friend!

Big News!

It has been the topic of a few whispered lunch table conversations, mass speculation and straight out questions that I have avoided answering by laughing and changing the subject. Well, it's out now...the big news is that I am moving from LA and relocating in North Carolina.

This is a picture of the main house. There are a few other houses in the neighborhood as well. Isn't it beautiful!



You can read more about the base and see more pictures on the website: www.ywamcharlotte.com

So what am I doing in NC? I am still going to be working with YWAM, just at a different campus. And I will have a very different role. The last 3 years, I have been working in film production, where we make short films and documentaries. This fit so well with my passion for media and I count working here one of the best experiences in my life for so many different reasons. It's been incredibly hard decide to step outside of that field to do something else. To be honest, I lose track of how many times each day I question whether or not I am making a huge mistake and that I should just stay here. But each time that thought crosses my mind, I have to tell myself that this was not something I jumped into quickly and I have prayed a lot about it for a very long time. And I know it is right. I am just a little nervous. Change is always like that though.

I know it will be a challenge, but I am looking forward to being stretched and learning new things. And I am praying that the lessons I learn about discipleship and leadership will one day be combined with my experience and passion for media and something else big and exciting will come of it.

Viva Mexico

I took my friends from Florida down to San Diego and to Tijuana, Mexico yesterday. I am not exactly the greatest tour guide seeing as how I don't REALLY know my way around and I have a "slight tendency" to get lost...I can almost hear a few of you that know me well laughing with memories as they read that last line...it is more of a curse rather than a tendency. I have come to terms with it though (and come to expect it) and consider each outing an adventure because you never really know where you will end up or how long it will actually take you to get there.


That aside, though, it was fun to walk around with them. Shopping in Tijuana is not like shopping here in the states. They stand outside their stores, almost begging you to come into their shop, telling you they have the best deals in town and better prices than their neighbor. And prices are always up for negotiation. I am not really good at the whole bartering thing, but you do learn as you go.



We actually parked and walked across the border to avoid the chaos that are the roads in TJ. And the line to get back into the states by car can take a couple hours!



Just after you cross the border



View of the houses on the hill...very crowded!



A mariachi band

No pets allowed...

The mouse is no longer is my house. We are hoping that it was just one and not a family.

High and low for the day...

While we were on outreach, we would go around the group and do "highs and lows", with each person saying the best part of their day and the worst part. I figured tonight I would do that...share my high and low for the day. Here you go:

My high...some friends of mine came to visit me here in LA. Tony, Janine, and their son Josh, are out here in California for vacation so they came up to the base and got to see where I live and then we toured a little of LA...a couple of the "must do" things when you've never been here before. We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen at the Kodak Theatre and looked at the different handprints at the Grauman Chinese Theater....took a drive through Beverly Hills...went to Santa Monica to see the street performers and walk along the pier. It was such a great afternoon and I am SO happy to have them here!

My low...once we made it back to my house, we were sitting around, having a great conversation when the situation turned a bit chaotic. Why? Because we had a four-legged, long-tailed visitor running through my living room and I was not feeling very hospitable. Tony was the more humane one in the bunch and wanted to catch and release it. That did not turn out as planned. Other than giving me a HUGE laugh as the 4 of us tried to catch a mouse, it did not bring results. That little sucker ran just past Josh and under the door and into the hallway...the way to all the rooms. I keep telling myself that it DID NOT run into my room and I blocked the space at the bottom of my door to keep him out. I am hoping with all I have in me that I am not keeping him IN my room instead.

I had a small instance with a mouse in South Africa as well. The quick version of the story -- for two nights I was kept awake because I heard something in my room. He was pushing papers around and even knocked a box of crackers off the shelf and tried to get inside. Hard to believe, but true! And in Africa, you never can be sure what it is that is terrorizing you in the night. After two different people checking my room in all the obvious places, I figured it had left. Much to my surprise when I opened up my back pack to start getting my things together to come back to the states...I didn't own anything gray and furry! My bag quickly got thrown out of the room as I yelled for one of the guys to come "dispose" of the creature. I am a self-proclaimed wuss when it comes to things like this so no comments on that! Once that was taken care of, I saw that the mouse had chewed through the different pockets inside so i no longer have different compartments...they are all connected now. And on top of that he had torn up a dollar bill and was nesting in my backpack! A bit presumptuous when he wasn't invited to set up camp in my room! And we are hoping this mouse here in LA isn't planning on a warm cozy place to live in my room either. Or my house at all, for that matter!

Pictures galore!

A group of kids in a Johannesburg township.









Serving the kids at a soup kitchen










Speedy the chameleon...he kinda became our team pet for a while










One of the main projects was to build this workshop next to the youth center in progress.










None of the students had any real experience doing a project like this, but they stepped up to the challenge brilliantly.











The guy who this was built for is named Oupa, pronounced o-pa. He is the man standing on the righthand side of this picture.









So the building was affectionately deemed the "Oupa Cabana". This is the finished product.







Here are a few of the shack houses in Leseding, the township in Vaalwater. There are an estimated 25,000 people living in the township. And as many as 8-10 could live in one of these shacks.







A couple kids praying at the soup kitchen.








This is the way they carry small children...strapped to the back with a towel or blanket. And many of the older brothers or sisters would be in charge of the smaller ones, even though they were not that old themselves.






We went on a bush walk and climbed some of the rock formations out there, just enjoying the beauty and diversity in creation.






A giraffe, close up. By going on the bush walk, we were able to get pretty close to the animals. But it also helps to have a good zoom lens.






We went to a rhino musuem and were able to feed a 1 1/2 year old female. I never knew that rhino's make noise, but they sound a bit like a whale and she would make this noise when she wanted us to feed her.






Avery's favorite movie is "Madagascar" and he absolutely loves to dance and sing to the lemur's song, "I like to move it, move it." Here he is singing along.




Wayne, one of the leaders, rode in a mountain bike challege/race while we were in South Africa. It was organized by WWS, the Waterberg Welfare Society, that we worked with for the 2 months. The proceeds all went to continuing to build the youth center for the kids.






One of the skits the students would do involved putting on clown outfits and dancing around. It was amusing to watch and the kids loved it too.





Orange bounty! We were invited to go on a tour of a citrus farm and at the end, the farmer was generous enough to give each one of us a bag of oranges for ourselves! We ate so many oranges and drank A LOT of freshly sqeezed orange juice in the last two weeks of our trip. This Florida girl was delighted!






On the left is Mary, our contact and marvelous host for the 2 months in Vaalwater, and on the right is Anja, one of the students, from Switzerland.






This is the whole team, just one day before we left South Africa.

My middle name is Slacker!

I admit I have not been the greatest blogger in the last month....ok, the truth is I haven't blogged at all as you can see from the massive amount of time between entries. If I could come up with some elaborate excuse as to why I have been such a slacker, I would tell you. But it all boils down to the fact that I forget and then when I do think about it, I don't have time to do it. But here I am now, writing again. Please, hold your applause until the end.

Since there is so much to cover, I will give you the highlights:

May 30...After traveling for roughly 40 hours in cars, at the airport and on really long plane rides, we arrived safely in LA.

June 5...I was overjoyed at the prospect of sitting on another plane for the day (note the sarcasm), but looked forward to going home to Florida.

June 10...Imagine my enthusiasm to once again travel by plane! I flew up to Pennsylvania for my old roommate, Danielle's wedding. It is a long story, but this weekend did not turn out as I had hoped. It seemed that nothing worked out as planned and after all the work of getting to PA to see my good friend get married, I missed the actual wedding! It took me 1 1/2 hours to go 10 miles and I still had an hour and 15 mintues to drive after that. I left with plenty of time to get there in a perfect world, but alas, this is NOT a perfect world. But I did get to see Danielle for a few minutes at the reception and she was gorgeous! It was all worth it to see her in the wedding dress and see the joy in face as she stood next to her husband!

June 12...Flew back to Florida, after getting hopelessly lost in Philadelphia and having my flights delayed numerous times.

June 17-18...Went to Sarasota and Lakeland to visit friends and family

June 26...Made the trek by plane back to LA.

I realize that if I had been updating this blog as I should, you would have a lot more detail on the random things that happened during my travels to the east coast, but I don't want to overwhelm you. I will be posting a few things with pictures, as well as some of my favorites from the South Africa trip.

Only one week left...and I am sure that time is going to fly by. The next week is pretty packed with school assemblies, work days and other meetings.

Yesterday we went to a rhino museum and a school. At the museum, they have a 3 1/2 year old rhino and we not only got to feed her, but we also got to go on the other side of the fence to stand next to her and pet her. Crazy to think you usually only see these animals through cages at the zoo.

At the school, the team performed their dramas and did testimonies and played with the kids. This trip is different for me since I am not a part of the dramas and things of that nature, but I am certainly learning a lot through more unique ways, for which I am extremely grateful.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!
This is a rhino. This is NOT the rhino that Heather got to pet. This rhino may have killed her if she tried.

Seeing the Bush...(not George Bush, the AFRICAN Bush)

Giraffe...Zebra...Wildebeast...Impala...Blessbok...These are a few of the animals I got to walk next to yesterday. We went for a bush walk on a game farm and it's amazing to realize that this is not a zoo and there are no cages that stand between you and these animals. Of course you can't get too close because they have a lot of space to run away, but it's quite an experience. And on the way home, we saw a rhino in another game park, wandering around close to the outer fence. So as most people would do, we quickly stopped, turned around and drove back to get a better look at an animal that we only see in a zoo in a small caged area. It wouldn't be a proper African experience without getting to see these animals. And we have another game drive planned for next week in a park with the "Big 5," which are the 5 most dangerous animals: Elephant, Lion, Water Buffalo, Rhino and Leopard. This time we will be in a car...

Other than the animal sightings, this last weekend was full of activity. On Saturday was the inagural mountain bike challenge for this area. The Waterberg Welfar Society (who we are working with) planned a bike challenge/race in order to raise money for the youth center they are building. So as a team we went out to work the race in various capacities. There were stations set up around the course for water and directing the riders. The entire day was a success and those who organized it are already thinking about what to do (and what not to do) for next year.

It's crazy to think that we only have 3 weeks left here in South Africa. We fly back to LA on May 29th. I will be there in LA for a week and then get on another plane to Florida for 3 weeks. I am looking forward to going home but I must admit I love being here in Africa and it will be sad to leave here as well.

Just a note on the last entry...I do greatly thank my good friend Karisse for typing up the blog entry and if I did have the capability of buying her such a hefty Starbucks card and a car, I would do it in a heartbeat. I do hope though that she will settle for a DRINK at Starbucks as we catch up on the last two months :-)

Alive and Kicking...

I am really enjoying my time here and love the bush of africa. The team has been busy every day working with the Waterberg Welfare Society on an AIDS hospice, gardening the grounds and putting in a path for the ambulance. There are tons of kids to play with here in S. Africa so they are working with them in the afternoons, playing games and hanging out. There is also a soup kitchen they volunteer with each wednesday.

The community is building a youth center where children and teens can hang out. It is a place where they can go to get off the streets and hopefully stay out of trouble. They are short on funding, though, so the team is taking part in a "mountain bike challenge" on May 6 to raise money. All in all the team is great.

I spend my days with Avery and have already read all but one of the books I brought with me on the trip! Avery and I have tons of quality time together. Despite Avery's fabulous "tarzan" impressions I do love the "grown-up" conversation I get when the team gets back each night. =)

The animals don't seem as plentiful as they were before, but i have seen ostriches running on the side of the road. That's a crazy site!

Please keep me in your prayers and be praying for the team and the ministry they are doing as well.

Mucho thanks goes out to my longtime pal Karisse who typed this blog out for me. She is wonderful and fabulous. I will be buying her a $100 starbucks card and a car when I return from outreach to show her my appreciation. (This last paragraph is strictly the interpertation of the keyboardist and does not necessarily reflect the thoughts of Heather)

Welcome to South Africa

Somehow I quickly went from having 8 days until I left to being in South Africa for almost a week now. Crazy how fast time flies. Life was a bit hectic and only really got stressful in the last hour before I left the base because, well, quite frankly, I was still trying to pack and had to take a shower and clean my room and take care of things to be ready for me to leave, along with a whole list of other things. My friend Karisse got great joy out of watching me be a bit stressed at the last minute because she said I was just too calm to be leaving on outreach for 2 months up to that point.

I am used to having internet at my disposal anytime I want, for however long I need it but here you have to use internet cafes, which I am grateful for, but can't say I am a fan of. I am not sure if I will be able to post any pictures while I am here, but if not, I will do a series of them when I get back.

We have been in Johannesburg for the last week. Yesterday, we went to an AIDS home/orphanage. They house adults and children, but we were working with the kids. They say that 85% of the kids in there have AIDS themselves. Some come with their mothers or fathers and then when their parents die, they just live in the home as well. We did dramas and Bible stories and just sat with the kids. I am not in any of the skits so I get the pleasure of sitting with the kids and being able to enjoy the program with them. The second we walked in the gate, a little boy walked up to me and put his arms up for me to hold him....and that is what I did the entire time we were there. We then went over to another area for smaller kids, and again, as soon as I walked in, a little baby boy crawled up to me and held his hand up. I will never complain to hold a baby. Unfortunately, we can't stay forever so when I put him down, he stared weeping...like the "gasping-for-breath" crying. It's so heartbreaking to be in that position because I want to hold him and love him as much as possible and that is what he wants and needs. But there just aren't enough people working in these places to give them the attention and love that they need.

Please be praying for our team as we head north in the country to a small town called Vaalwater on Tuesday. We will be staying in the same place for the rest of the outreach (until the end of May).

8 days and counting...

It has recently come to attention that I leave for South Africa in 8 days. Please understand, the date has always been the same, but I have been so busy that I failed to grasp the small amount of days until I leave. And then on top of that, I got sick. So I haven't really had time to think about it. But now that I have thought about it, I am trying not to get overwhelmed with the details. Not the details of the actual trip and the time there, but the details that I have to take care of before I leave. I am working on making a list, which is quite long and involved. Anyone who knows me knows my love for making lists and crossing each thing off as I accomplish it, so there is a part of me that is looking foward to getting it all done. Plus, when it is finished, it means that I am getting on the plane for South Africa! I have to think of it as a great reward for a long, busy week. Bring it on!

Long live VIND!

To the fellow members of the VIND club...
We will not know the fate of our dear friends until April 19! What happened to the promises of coming back in March? For this and other offenses, I say we find J.J...I have a few questions for him.

Life outside my 4 walls...

Today was day 5 of my nasty illness...it was a horrible little virus that was floating around here and I just so happened to catch it...lucky me. I have been in my bed since the middle of last week. I felt, sounded and looked terrible and finally today I felt ok enough to walk out of my house. It was a big step but a necessary one.

Not only was I feeling a tad stir crazy, but our interns arrived today so I needed to greet them and show them where to go. I could not have gotten sick at a worse time because we were trying to finish preparations for the internship to start, but I had to leave it in the hands of the people I work with because, well, I couldn't get out of bed. And so now they are all here and I think things are going to go well.

I will write more tomorrow and tell you a little about them. But for now, I have overexerted myself as it is and I need sleep. Adios for now...

Ode to Ebony

As you can probably guess from the pictures above, Ebony was the name of the car...my friend Karisse's car. And I just so happened to be riding shotgun when the car went from looking normal to the damaged state it is in now. I was coming back from the store with Karisse's sister, Kristel, when she looked away to check the next lane to try and change lanes and looked back because she heard me screaming. Thankfully we were all ok...a little shaken up and a little sore the next day. But all in all, we are fine. A moment of silence for the car though...

Ok, well, Karisse was so kind to be a pseudo chauffer for me for a year before I got my car out here...now I get to return the favor.

This has certainly not be the best week because not only was there the accident, but I got really sick the next day, leaving me to lay in bed for the last 3 days! I have to admit that I am not a very good sick person because I feel very overwhelmed by the littlest of things and I just get impatient and want to start doing things when really I need to be relaxing and getting better. And I have way too much work to do to be laying in bed, but alas, none of that matters when you can't actually sit up for longer than 10 minutes at a time and have temperature over 100. That is when you have trust the people you work with to get stuff done because you aren't much help to them then. I am praying to be better by Monday because that is when our internship starts. Everything is coming so quickly!

What is going on here?

I never claimed to be the best at remembering to update my blog on a regular basis...but this was something that just had to be shared! There is snow on the mountains right behind the base and some of my friends saw what appeared to be snow on the ground and on cars in the little town 5 miles away from us. It has been so cold and rainy that we have had small pieces of ice/hail dropping all over the place and today it snowed. I know there are a few of you skeptics out there that figure it doesn't snow in southern California...well, today it apparently did. I will see if I can't get a picture of it tomorrow. And I would like to add that this Florida girl does not exactly cope well in the cold weather and is admitedly the biggest wuss when it comes to the cold. I am just not prepared or built for it! :-)

I will manage though and I am looking foward to the warm weather of South Africa. T minus 3 weeks (and counting) from today. Can you tell I am excited?

Team Avery

This is a picture of the South Africa outreach team that I have traveling with. Avery, an 18 month old boy, is the "mascot," thus the team being named after him.

Full weekend...

I write this as I sit and admire my new living room. I know it may sound funny, but something as simple as redecorating my living room seems to have brought me great joy. And how we did it is a great story...I will give you the short version.

On Saturday morning, two of my roommates, Jodi and Alicia, got up to go garage sale hunting for some new things for our living room....keep in mind that you have to get up early to go to garage sales and early is something that I don't exactly like to do. But our house desperately needed some attention. We were driving around all different areas of the northern part of the valley for three hours...and very unsuccessful. Almost at our wits end and giving up on scavenging though other people's belongings, we headed to IKEA. For those of you who are not familiar with IKEA, it is a marvelous store that sells everything for the home and the prices are not outrageous, some of it very cheap.

We went down to the "as-is" section with floor display items and returned items and that is where we got the items to furnish our living room. We started talking to this guy that worked there and asked him a couple questions about some of the stuff out there. Turns out he is familiar with YWAM and worked at our Christmas tree lot a couple years ago. So he was more than willing to continue to reduce the price on items for us. And we didn't even ask. So we got a couch, bookshelf/entertainment unit (that we tailored and put a saw to it to get exactly what we wanted) and a rug for so little money. The three of us just kept throwing glances at each other in complete disbelief! That night, we got the urge to paint...and so we did. We finished around 1 am.

On Sunday morning, after we eagerly put everything together, the three of us (Jodi, Alicia and I) sat down on the couch to take it all it and see just how much we had been blessed in the day before. We are all proud of what we did, but more so than that, we are in awe of how things came together and it was just a little extra "I love you guys" from God!

I don't have a picture right this second but I will take one and post it on here in the next day or so.

I love...

I love the winter olympics! I watched the opening ceremony with a couple of friends and I am one of those self-proclaimed cheesy people that love to watch as much as I can possbly fit into my schedule. I like to live vicariously through all of those people who thoroughly enjoy the cold weather and being outside for long periods of time in the snow. I myself am a warm weather type of girl and even though they are having fun, give me 75 degrees in southern California and I am happy.

Urban Plunge...

Today was the day for the urban plunge. What's that? It is our version of a scavenger hunt...with a twist. The outreach teams start out blindfolded on the bus and dropped of in various locations so they really have no frame of reference as to where they are at. None of them know the LA area so it makes it that much more challenging. They are given clues of things that they have to find, only it's not that easy. Along with each clue there is a challenge that they have to do in the meantime of trying to find the location on the clue. For example, the first challenge for the team I was with was that the leader had to walk backwards the entire time. The second was that all but the leader had to be blindfolded as the walked to the next location. This is a particularly difficult when there are 10 people on the team and only one of them can see. Takes A LOT of trust crossing downtown Los Angeles streets when you can't see. Other challenges were to tie their shoe laces together...the leader can't touch the ground at any time forcing team members to carry them for blocks on end, up hill at times...blindfolding the leader and everyone else has to be silent, making a blindfolded, and very nervous leader I might add, walk up to strangers and try to talk to them and understand the directions they are given enough to convey them to their silent team...that is just a name a few. it is definitely a team buliding and character revealing adventure. I must say, though, that it was nice to be on the giving end of this scavenger hunt this time rather than the one struggling to walk many blocks in the wrong direction while tied to 9 other people...

A Couple Big Things...

So a few things have changed since the last time I wrote. For starters, the film school that we were going to run has gone from being a classroom intensive program to an apprenticeship where the students can learn by doing. This fits our style so much more and allows us a little more freedom to teach them how we make films. We will have 4 or 5 students rather than the school of 20, which obviously will allow more time for them to actually get their hands on the equipment and allow them a little more creative freedom as well. We have officially accepted one student and 2 others unofficially. We are all really excited about this new venture and know that this is the right direction for our department.

As the organizer in the department, I am working on scheduling the speakers for seminars once a week as well as making a basic plan on deadlines for the individual films that they will be producing. In addition to that, I am waiting on final scripts from 2 people in my department so that I can prep for filming. We are hoping to have one done completely before the apprenticeship starts on March 20 and the second one almost ready so that the students can work with us. Each year, our films take on a new level of complexity, which shows that we are growing. And it also means that I am being stretched a great deal because I have to figure out how to make these grandiose ideas that they come up with. I am always learning something new, which I appreciate.

The apprenticeship will run from March 20 to May 13. I, however, will only be here in LA for the first 2 weeks of it. On April 1 (or somewhere right around there), I will be traveling to South Africa for two months. I am going as a co-leader/nanny with the Discipleship Training School Outreach team. The main leaders, Wayne and Karyn, were actually the ones that I went to South Africa with the first time 3 years ago. We will be traveling to some of the same locations to see the progress that has come from soem of the things that we started or worked on back then. I am really very excited about this trip! I realize this is a big piece of news and very little detail, but more is to come.

Back on the West Coast

I made it back to LA safe and sound a couple days ago and hit the ground running. We are doing the prep work for the film school we are starting in March and it is no easy feat. Logistics are my thing, but this is definitely a challenge And seeing as how none of us have ever pioneered a school like this before, we have to rely on God a lot more in order to get it done...and to do it with excellence. I definitely covet your prayers!

Other than that, things here are going good. I always realize how much I do enjoy being here in LA and working on the base when I am away for a little while. My break at home in Florida was great, but there is something for being here and doing what God asked me to do that brings life to me. A busy life, but life nonetheless.

Shout out to the BYH!

One of the highlights of my trip to Florida was getting to see a lot of old friends. And one night, I went to a community dinner and got to hang out with some of my good friends from college and the BYH (Big Yellow House). The summer after I graduated, I lived in a house with 8 other girls. We didn't have any extra space, but we did have a lot of fun! I count that summer as one of my favorites. So I got a picture with the 4 of us that were at this dinner. We missed you Karisse, Sara, Julie, Linda, and TJ!



L to R: Kristen, Kelly, Me, and Erin