God's peace

You know you'd think i'd of learned my lesson by now....the longer I wait to update this...the longer my post is going to be. And I forget things that have happened during the week and ah..this is me saying sorry for not updating this in a good while! 

Anyways ohh how the time has flown. We have been here about 3 and 1/2 months and I really can't believe it. My family will be here NEXT WEEK!!! Still can't get over that. Jennifer leaves on Thursday to go to Stellenbosch for 7 weeks to work with the team she might move here with. So things are about to change. I'm super excited for her to be able to go out there and experience what her future may entail but it'll be weird being here alone now. Tonight us and two other girls went out and ate at the toad for a little see ya in 7 weeks kind of send off. It was much needed after a very long day. 

us at the Toad

So update on life as I know it::

Since it is child protection month, we decided that we were going to take initiative with our kids club and do something for not only the kids but for our community regarding this subject. So one day in each of the townships of Capricorn and Overcome we had a local police officer come and talk to the kids about safety and how to keep yourself safe. 

Then the next week we got the kids in each community to paint posters about abuse and things to show that it's wrong to hurt others. So we have posters about how children have rights to the number to call when you are in need of help. We then painted up everyone with black eyes and red paint and walked through the townships passing out fliers about numbers to call and info about what abuse is. We were all saying chants as well and the kids had a blast. It was really fun getting to see them wanting to be involved with something like this. When we got back to the container we had picked up about 6 new kids which is awesome..maybe they'll start coming to kids club! 

 we all got done up :]

 our march through Overcome. 

Now I must say that the best part of this last week occurred today. I don’t think I’ve laughed this hard in a good while and it was much needed. Well today we went out to Capricorn a good few hours earlier than we usually do because Stacey wanted to go and get some stuff done. Well we get out there and I go over and hang out with Eric and Anele for a little while and then I go back to where our little office is and when I walk in I see something move on the desk. Now no one is in they’re at the moment but in my head I just keep saying that was absolutely a mouse. So I call out to everyone saying we have a mouse and naturally they (Jennifer&Stacey) come running while squealing. Then Ivan walks in all bad and tough and I show him where I saw it and he walks over to see if he can find it and actually knocks it down to the floor underneath the desk. Now this is when my day turned around. Stacey started getting closer and closer to the desk trying to see it and I pulled out my phone to video this because I knew something fantastic was about to happen and there was no way I wasn’t going to get it on film. Well once I pushed the red button I looked at Jennifer and whispered to her to go and run your hand over Stacey’s foot. At first she just laughed and said no but I insisted so she did. Stacey screamed and jumped a few feet in the air and ran for the door. Oh my stars it was priceless. I’m uploading the video as I’m typing this so it might be in another post. After that happened the mouse ran back under the shelves so for the next 20 minutes, no exaggeration there, Stacey Ivan and Jennifer sat in chairs and stared at the bottom of the shelves waiting for this TINY mouse to come out. After awhile Anele came in and somehow caught it. But it was absolutely hilarious. I’ve watched the video at least 20 times and I laugh so hard I cry still.

Some documentation of the events that unfolded :]

 Ivan waiting for it to run out 

 yep I was down on the floor with it trying to look under the shelves to see it 

 Stacey however would not step foot on the ground

 && this is the tiny thing that caused so much today. We put out cheese crisps for it to lure it out and Ivan was going to sweep it away

 Stacey still refusing to put her feet on the ground

 sitting waiting for the little guy to come out

Anele captured it and set it free

but like I said, I did capture this on video and I will absolutely be posting it!!

Well yesterday I had this overwhelming moment where all these questions just flooded my mind. Now I have never been one to make plans. I've always been the person who would tell you not to ask me what I'm doing this weekend because I won't know till it gets here. Even with this HUGE trip and moving to South Africa...I didn't decide I was coming until the very end of December and I left in February. To some that kind of decision would have had to of happened over many months but for me its just never how i've been. Well for some reason, yesterday when I was driving to Capricorn Jennifer said something about me moving to Abilene when I got back because that's were Eric lives. It's as if it triggered every unknown question to my mind. All the sudden the thought of 'where am I going to live' 'Am I going to go get my masters' 'What is the future entail for me and eric' 'what do I even want to do with my life' 'where do I want to work' 'should I get a job or go straight back into school' was consuming my thoughts. I just sat there for a hour before club not saying anything to anyone and just having this mental breakdown of the unknown. This has really never happened to me so it was a new experience to say the least. Jennifer I think could tell because she kept asking if I was alright and what was on my mind. Anyways once I got home I got on pinterest, which is an addiction, seriously it's bad. Anyways when I got on the only new pin that came up was this picture. 

My jaw dropped when I read it because I knew it's exactly what God needed me to read. He used Pinterest out of all things because well lets face it...he absolutely knew I was about to spend the next hour or so on it. But these words stuck with me and I prayed about my anxiety and the worry I had about the unknown and just like this verse says I felt at peace and I haven't worried about any of that since. Even when I was talking to Eric about all of this last night I mentioned the verse to him and everything he said to me was reassuring to my earlier thought of what our future is going to look like. He simply said that it's all in God's hands and he wholeheartedly believes that God is going to give you a future that is far better than what you can think up now.  I believe that God uses people and things to get his message across to you when your in need of it most. It's so nice to know that we serve a God who cares so much about you. 

with God anything is possible 

sendin my love to all yall back home!!

** And yet God uses broken and imperfect people to challenge others and inspire others. He utilizes our mistakes and our victories to shine a light on the path so that others might follow the transforming power of the gospel in the life of each person. **