My weakness is His strength

Wow. I can't believe it's been three weeks tomorrow since I got on the plane to come here. Somehow it feels like so much longer yet so much shorter than that. We now have our ministry placements, the area of ministry with which we'll primarily be working for the next 6 months to a year. Now that we know that, our schedules will start to take on some form of normality. I'll be working with Impact Kids, which has three different preschools in the communities of Diepsloot, Kya Sands, and Kwagga. My job will include planning events for the preschools, finding sponsors for students whose families can't pay for their schooling, and following up with and discipling the kids' parents. While it may seem odd that Impact Kids only has preschools, I've learned that it's very important for a child to go to preschool, because that child is 60% likelier to graduate high school if they attend preschool. 

This week we start our Zulu classes! So far I've learned only simple things like sawubona (hello), Unkulunkulu uyakuthanda (God loves you), and salle kahle (goodbye). I can already tell this is going to be really challenging. 

God has been really challenging me to rely on Him and showing me how I really can't do anything outside of Him. The truth is, I'm not all that good at evangelizing. I walk up to talk to someone and my mind goes completely blank. I can hardly keep up a conversation with a stranger at home in the US, let alone in South Africa with cultural and language barriers! But through this God had shown me how much more I need Him than I ever thought before. And the best part is, He chooses people like me who are horrid at this kind of thing to do it because through my weakness, He will glorify Himself. 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 says, "I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but in God's power." Praise God that it doesn't depend on me! Please pray that the Spirit will move in power through me and that God will ultimately receive the glory for what's happening here in South Africa. 

Communities

February 6, 2015 

We have only been here for a week and God is already doing amazing things. We have now visited the communities of Diepsloot (pronounced deep-sloot) and Kya Sands, walking through to get a feel for the people and cultures there, learning all sorts of tips and safety stuff, and meeting some of the people Impact Africa has met and discipled over the years. The communities are just that - communities. They are completely self-sustaining. Impact Africa has actually met people who haven't left there in months. You can get everything you need there: clothes, food, household items, anything. All these are bought a from little shops run out of shacks called Tuck Shops, or if it's big enough to walk into, Spazas. Today as we walked through Kya Sands, we stopped at a Tuck Shop and got come cokes for R6 ($0.60). Almost everything you can buy from the tuck shops is okay to eat except for meals that they prepare for you and anything you eat the skin on (apples, etc.). 

Some of you had asked me before I left the States if the water here in South Africa is okay to drink. The answer is yes! Joburg's water is the second cleanest in the world, so we're perfectly fine drinking the water. 

All the interns have all jelled really, really well together. Our Intern Advisor Katie said that she had never seen an intern class get so close so quickly. We've been taking turns telling our life stories almost every night, and it's created a bond that is already so strong. I'm excited to see how we work together during ministry and look forward so much to making awesome memories.  

Something that God has really been exposing in my heart just in the past week is my lingering insecurity. I have always had deep self-worth issues, and I thought that they had pretty much all gone, but I'm finding that they were only buried and ignored. He's pulling them up out of my heart and laying them before me, daring me to ask Him to do something about them. I love that God is already working in my heart after just a week. 

Second South Africa Update

January 31, 2015 

We have been in-country for 3 days now. So far we have been settling in, trying to beat the jet lag, and started getting to know the ministry, staff, handbook, expectations, etc. There are only about 10 American staff and 20 African staff, so it won't take long to get to know everyone. Yesterday we went grocery shopping for the first time. The ministry gives us food cards each month, and we have to budget out a certain amount for each week's grocery shopping. The South African currency is Rand, and 10 Rand is the equivalent of a dollar. So basically if you move the decimal place over once, you get the dollar price. We get R2000 a month, which is R500 or $50 a week. I have never planned my own meals before or done my own shopping, and doing it for the first time in a giant foreign grocery store that has the organization of a toddler's playroom is stressful to say the least, and that's not even touching on having a time limit, budget, and constantly converting rand to dollars in your head to make sure everything's a good price. 

Tomorrow is church, and I'm excited to see what it's like. After that we'll either go see a waterfall and have a picnic or play some volleyball. This next week will be more training and we'll get to actually go into the squatter camps to see some of the ministry areas and we will probably get our ministry placement, which is the area of ministry that we'll be working with all year. 

I love and miss you all and I will try to update you as often as possible!