Updates :)

Sorry I havnt written in a while, I have had some busy days.... To catch everyone up on some things, Themba is actually walking now, the big boy :) He's almost running actually! He is learning in leaps and bounds! He says "please" "obey" "God" "I love you" and many more things, it's possibly the most adorable thing I have ever seen! Oh how my heart strings get tugged when I ask him, "Themba, who made you?" and he replies, with his finger pointing to the sky, "God!" in the cutest sing-songy voice ever!!!! Along with that exciting news, Aya (the first baby who came to the home)  has finally been allowed to move in with Newton and Vanessa under foster care! Newton and Vanessa have been wanting to adopt Aya for  long while now but her social worker, for some reason, doesn't believe in adoption, this makes things difficult. This foster care is a huge step in the right direction for all of them and we at the baby home are ecstatic!!! On Friday we (Donovan, Heather, Eliya, Kyllie and I) went to the animal park (we went to Pilansburg Game Reserve) it opened at 6:30am and you have a better chance of seeing animals if you get there early so in order to get there by opening we had to leave the baby home at 4:30am. We woke up at 3:40 and didn't get put the door till around 5am and got to the park before 7am, so we made pretty good time. We drove around all day and I got some great pictures! We didn't see any cats, but we did see elephants and giraffes and rhinos and hippos and lots of cool birds in their natural habitat, which was so cool!!! Kyllie and I went on a game drive, like a safari tour. We decided to go on the night game drive (since we got to stay in the park An hour after closing) and didn't see very much, we did get an elephant up close and saw a jackal and a black rhino (which are very uncommon) and the starts were sooooo beautiful! Even though we didnt see any lions, the game drive was so worth the experience) I think in all the day was about $50-60 (which mr Hamline had warned me in advance that it would be about that much, so I was okay with it) :) it was so much fun to experience and real safari! I felt, for the first time really, that I was actually in Africa! So, anyway, the night drive ended about 7:30pm and we left around 8. Didn't get home til 10pm and got in bed at 11something. It was a very long day, but a lot of fun!   It is so crazy, I woke p today and realized, I only have ten days left before I'm home. None days now, really. I can't decide whether to be ecstatic or sad.  I am so happy and excited to get home but at the same time it will be hard leaving here. I have grown so used to Pretoria, America will seem kind of weird to me when I get home. One amazing thing about being around Gods people, if you are a believer, you are always with family. They say that home is with people you love. I guess in a way, Pretoria almost feels like home to me. Not necessarily MY one and only home, but one of many homes to me. I love it here, I love the people, I love the experience. I am so blessed to have had this! And I most definitely want to come back someday, even if it's for a short term missions trip, I will always have a fondness for SA :)

The Question Is: Does God Love You?

Written on June 29 Hello all! I know I haven't written in a while, our Internet has been out for the past week. Thank you Africa! ;) No, despite the inconvenience, not having internet at my fingertips has proved to be a good thing. It can be so easy to become addicted to checking your Facebook page or checking email or wanting to look up just one more song on YouTube, etc. that we forget to live life "in the real world". Internet is good,but it is so much more gratifying to spend time with the people that God has placed around you rather than keeping your eyes glued to your computer screen all the time. So, in a way, I am grateful for the break, what a friendly reminder from God to spur me to spend more time getting to know the precious people around me!  Now what I really wanted to talk about...."Does God Love Us?" This is a question many of us have probably heard before. Probably the way I've most heard it put is: "If God loves us, why do bad things happen to us? Why is our life so miserable?" Now, that can be hard question to answer. But, it shouldn't be. Last Wednesday, I had the privilege to go to a Bible study with my friend Kerry. I was a little skeptical at first, I had never met these people and had no idea if what was taught at this Bible Study would actually be true Bible and of sound doctrine.  As a matter of fact, even Kerry only knew a handful of people that would be going and she was a little unsure of what to expect.  But she had been invited and she didn't want to go alone, so we both decided to "give it a try".   I must admit, what I found was surprising to me.  I was shocked.  The conversations and expositions of passages that went on in that living room, was so much more than I ever expected! It turned into one of the most memorable sermons/theological discussions I have ever had the privilege to participate in.  So sound, so Biblically saturated, so Gospel centered, I was overwhelmed with awe as I was reminded once again that I serve a big God. Here is yet another group of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that I really had no connection to (besides Kerry, who I met only a couple of weeks ago) The topic was "Does God Love Me?" I have been thinking on that sermon/discussion for the past few days and have been so encouraged and convicted even, that I wanted to share with you all, my notes from that night. In the hopes that you too will be encouraged and take something away from it as well.  The leader of the group for the night was a  young man named Pieter. And he had had the opportunity to talk about this topic to a group of teens at a youth camp/retreat a few years back. Here is an excerpt of my notes from that night.... How Does The Cross of Christ Prove God's Love? 1. The Cross of Jesus Christ Proves Gods Love, if We Remember Who it Was For: Who did Christ die for? Romans 5:6-10 -(v. 6) for the weak.  We can't save ourselves. (Eph. 2:1) We are dead. -(v. 6b) for the ungodly.  (literally without God) Before salvation, we lived our lives as if there was no God. We were our god. (Eph. 2:12) -(v. 8) for sinners.  We are sinners by nature. It's what we do.  100% of the time, apart from Christ, we will chose sin. -(v. 10) for His enemies.  Yes, ENEMIES. We were never neutral. Not only were we not neutral we had sword in our hand ready to charge, fully prepared to strike out at God. But. (v. 8) God did not give His Son for anyone worth it.  He didn't get anything out of it.  The only thing we could possibly boast in is the sin which we were saved from. That was the only thing we contributed to our salvation. 2. The Cross Proves Gods Love if We Remember Who Was Given Romans 8:31-39 (quote from some military official after they won the war) "Titles, riches, honors, does a man really care about those  things when he's lost his son?"   -God gave His only Son.  If you think it was hard for Abraham to give up his earthly, sinful son, Isaac, think about how much harder for God to give up His Son whom He loves perfectly and who loves Him perfectly. -God gave the BEST He had to the WORST. We as sinners tend to think, "if only I had.....(better car, marriage, bit home, kids, etc...) then I would know God loves me."  Now compare all of those things to Christ and ask yourself, do any of those things matter? No. God gave His best, His perfect Son, to His enemies.  What else could He have done? 3. The Cross Proves God's Love By What It alas Achieved -We Are Now Called Children of God (John 1:12) Not only did God take the weapon out of our hand, not only did He invite us into His house, He let us sit at His table. Not only did He let us sit at His table, not only did He take our sinful rags away, He clothed us in righteousness.  And not only did He clothe us in righteousness, He Adopted us. His enemies now His children. Think of someone walking into an orphanage, wanting to adopt a child, and they meet a child who is kicking them and screaming and spitting in their face, and they say "I want to adopt that one" That's what God did for us, multiplied by about a million. We are no only believers, we are not only saints, not only the church.  We are God's family. The perfect love between the members of the Trinity, God invites His enemies to join with that love. So when you are struggling with hardships and wonder "does God love me?"  Think about this, He gave His best and not only that, He adopted us into His family. What mor could He have done? Probably the most plainly put I've ever heard our relationship with God before salvation. It was so convicting to hear this and allowed me to see the Gospel again with even more understand than before. Kind of puts a greater understanding to the song "Jesus Loves Me This I Know, So The Bible Tells Me So"