Hey!

   Wow. So much has happened, and I've learned so much in the last week and a half. This is my first day off and it's been pretty busy. Last weekend we had to leave the base because another group was coming in for the weekend so we ended up going way out on a mountain into the African bush. We roughed it. It was freezing, we didn't shower, we cooked all our meals over an open fire, and we crawled in the dirt. But over all, it was a lot of fun, not to mention BEAUTIFUL. I have so much respect for the people who live up there year round and it made me appreciate our base here in Jeffreys Bay so much more.

   On Sunday night we told the leaders what our top ministries were, they had a meeting and tried to put everyone where they wanted to be. On Monday morning we found out what ministry would be apart of and that afternoon we started. I am apart of the house visiting group with Mary, Blair and La. Pretty much we walk around the "community" (which is where all the government homes and shacks are) and look for people to be friends with. Our goal is to build relationships with these people and show them the love of Christ. We have no schedule and we're not told what to do, we just have to go out and meet people. This makes our job hard but at the same time easy. I have a love/ hate relationship with my ministry. At some points I'll be thinking to myself "I have no idea what I am doing, I feel like an idiot and I hate this." And then God will allow us to share the gospel with a random person and it's all worth it. I truly believe this is exactly where God wants me.  We've met a lot of people this week. We've visited a young lady with HIV aids named Sweetness (we can't pronounce her Xhosa name) and she just sits at home all day, and doesn't do anything so she loves it when we come visit. We also met Rafeekee (spelling?) and his family who is praying for a new job because the fishermen have been on strike for a while and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better. Yesterday Mary and I made a Muslim friend from Somalia named Mohamed in his "grocery store" which is a one room tin shack and we had a great conversation. He was explaining Islam to us and we explained Christianity to him, he had a lot of questions for us and we did the best to explain the trinity and a loving God. He is so funny; Mohamed told me he wants to marry one of us girls before we go home so that he can get a passport. Anyways, that's a little bit about some of the people I've bet in ministry so far.

        This weekend is the first time that we get to go to church, and there are a bunch of different churches to pick from so you guys can pray that I'll be in the church that God wants me in. Thanks for you prayers.