Day 4- Wednesday- May 16, 2012

Today was day one of two full days in Durban.  Jolin and I started out the day with a breakfast of cereal, fruit and juice in our host home.  During the day the team worked on the church doing various tasks such as moving items, scraping, painting, building items and sweeping.  For lunch we had a South African meal called Bunny Chow.  Bunny Chow consists of a type of bread bowl from a loaf of bread with potatoes, lamb, and curry together in the bread.  If you know me, I struggle with having regular table pepper on my food.  So this was a struggle for me to eat the Bunny Chow, but I did!  On the side we had more curry to dip the bread bowl in, a salad of carrots and onions, and a delicious dessert.  After lunch we prepared for the evening’s service at the church.  Our first service as a team in South Africa consisted of introductions, songs, a skit, and a terrific message on Ephesians 5:1-2 from Tyler.  There was some fellowship afterwards where I met some of the members of the church and the other host parents.  Jolin and I went back to our host home where we had tea, biscuits, and fellowship with our family before heading off to bed.  This is what Bunny Chow looks like:

Days #1-3- Sunday- Tuesday, May 13-15, 2012

The day began with finishing up packing and gathering last minute items.  Jolin, her parents, sister, and myself went to the church that they attend for some time for the pastor and deacons to pray over us before we left.  I then began my journey with Jolin’s parents dropping us off at the Allentown Airport where we met up with Coach, Hannah, and Claudia around 11am.  We got all checked in and ready to go for our 1pm flight to Detroit.  That flight was only about 2 ½ hours.  While in Detroit we met up with the rest of the BBC team and awaited the arrival of the Faith team.  After waiting patiently for 4 hours, the whole team was together for the first time!  We all waited an hour, gathered some dinner and boarded our plane for a 6 hour flight to Amsterdam.  It began around 11pm EST and we landed in Amsterdam around 8am.  We had just over an hour to go through security and get on our final flight for the day to Johannesburg.  After a long 11 hour flight we finally landed in South Africa! We gathered all of our luggage at 11pm (SA time) and stayed at a local hotel for the night, got up and were back in the airport by 8am for our final flight to Durban.  This one was only about 1 ½ hours.  (so total hours for travelling was around 21 hours on just the planes.)  Before we knew it we were back on land and heading to our first location- Pheonix Fellowship Church.  We met the pastor, had our first meal in Africa (pizza), got a tour of the church that we will be helping to build, went to the local mall- The Plaza- and went back to the church to be given our home assignments for the next couple of days.  We were then all split into groups for our home assignments, and Jolin and I got to stay together!  The two of us, Brenda, and Coach went to Pastor Darrell’s home for our first amazing home cooked African dinner, dessert and tea.  We were then picked up by our host family who consists of a mother, father, and a one year old little girl.  Jolin and I couldn’t have been more blessed with the opportunities that God has given us so far on this trip! Now it’s time for our first real full night’s sleep since Saturday night.   This is our first host family- Brad “Bones”, Kathy and Amber.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow begins the adventure at 1 o'clock in the afternoon with our first flight to Detroit, then to Holland, then to Johannesburg!! These past two weeks have just flown by! I have been spending the past couple of days with my dear friend Jolin who is also going on the trip.  It still hasn't really hit me that we are going to South Africa! The Lord has blessed us with a great team and phenomenal leaders, Brenda and Coach Jackson, who will keep us all in line.  Without them we would have no idea of what to do! Please continue to pray for the team as we are probably all beginning to get emotional and overly excited for our first take off!! Pray also for opportunities to share the Gospel on our many flights over there.  Many more posts and pictures to follow! 

Just Two Weeks Left!

       Hey everyone! Our MOST team is getting down to the wire as we have only two weeks left before departure! Thank you all so much for your support and prayers.  I cannot thank God enough for allowing me this opportunity.  Please pray for opportunities to show God's love to speak the Gospel.  

  

       We will be departing on Sunday, May 13, 2012 (yes, we all know that is Mother's Day) and returning on Sunday, June 3, 2012.  The first week we will be at Fellowship Baptist Church in Durban.  The second week we will be at First Baptist Church in Kokstad working with church plant Horseshoe Baptist Church and Rivermead Christian School.  The final week we will be at Bethesda Children's VIllage and Central Baptist Church in Pretoria.  Our team will be doing various tasks such as preaching, teaching, worship, church planting, and anything else needed to help grow the churches.  

       The first picture is the team from Baptist Bible College, PA and consists of Claudia, John (leader), Ryan, Hannah, Rachel, Jolin, Arrianna, myself, and Jackie.  The second picture is the team from Faith Baptist Bible College, Iowa and consists of Nick, Jared, Seth, Tim, Tyler, Kimmy, Paige, Julia, Brenda (leader), Alejandro, Ciara, Grace and Ellen.  We are all anxious to see how God will use us in South Africa!