striving for obedience: An Unforgettable Valentines day

First off, sorry for the lack of blog posts. It has been busy here at BG and at the end of the day I usually am very drained and tired, so blogging is not high on the to-do list. I will try and update multiple times this week, about the events in Lesotho. Now unto the blog...

The Geurinks invited my housemates and myself to celebrate their daughter Faith's birthday on February 14. I was so excited, because it meant we were going to be heading to Templehoff and I was going to be able to hold and play with baby lion cubs. We all piled into one of the backies (trucks) from Beautiful Gate and were off on our adventurous day. Shortly after crossing the border into South Africa, the backie broke down and we were stranded on the side of the rode for some time before a BG worker came and "fixed" the problem. While we were on the side of the rode, my roomie Paige and I made some really fun videos about our adventure. Unfortunately I can't post them on here, but let's just say that I am not a good rapper and will not be pursuing that as a career. While we were driving the backie it broke down 2 more times. During the last breakdown, the owner of Templehoff, just so happen to be passing by (God thing) and offered to take us in his backie, and then get another backie to pull ours into town. The only thing was those riding in the back of the backie would have to sit on top of three dead pigs. Thankfully they were covered with a white sheet, so you couldn't see a lot of them. I had to laugh, because it was a really hot day and riding with the African sun beating down on you could have been a hard thing to do, but thankfully my foot was wedged underneath a frozen pig, so my foot was cold and that experience made you forget abou the heat. Only in Africa folks!!! Our time at Templehoff was a lot of fun. The lion cubs were awesome and I definitely loved being able to cuddle with them. The youngest one even gave me a few kisses, and not matter what everyone says, I do believe they were kisses and not the cubs attempt to taste me!! The backie was a quick fix and we were able to enjoy our day and trip home.

Before coming to Africa, I was nervous about living in community with others. I love the Geurinks and didn't have any doubts that God was going to bring us closer together through this adventure, but in Michigan, I am alone a lot. Working, living and being in community with people, means they see your junk, and beleive me, I have a lot of junk. They see the moments of selfishness and the moments in which you try to hide in the safety of your home. Now that I am living in community, I have to say that even though there have been moments of "realness" living in community is good. As a group we have joined together to laugh, to mourn and to celebrate. There always are struggles when taking people from different walks of life and placing them together on a crazy mission like this, but at the end of the day, the only thing that is represented is the body of Christ. Jesus never said our lives would be easy, but He did say they would be full (John 10:10). Living in community with the Geurinks, Paige, Kristen (my housemate) and the other volunteers that will be coming and going during my time here, has made this experience full. I want to encourage you all to let go of your personal feelings and start living in community with others. In the end you learn a lot about yourself and a lot about God.

Enjoy these photos from our day trip...