Mozambique and Uganda

On Sunday we woke up early and drove a van into Kruger Park. The trip started off well when it only took us 5 minutes to find two rhinos walking down the road! They graciously allowed us to follow them on their morning walk and even let us join as they "recycled" (a.k.a. Eunice's way of saying going to bathroom). After the rhinos we saw zebras, were surrounded by a herd of elephants and giraffes. We also saw hippos and their huge teeth, a crocodile, warthogs, and hundreds of impala's. I've seen these animals at the zoo before, but they are so much larger when they are in their natural home. I can look around everyday and see how beautiful God has created this world, but spending the day surrounded by these beautiful animals gave me another taste of God's immense beauty in creation!

This week we are beginning our outreach preparations! On April 6th we will be leaving for outreach in Maputo, Mozambique for two weeks and southern Uganda for four weeks. While we are in Mozambique we will doing ministry with street orphans and helping to establish a YWAM base to continue the work in the future and in Uganda we will be working with a YWAM ministry called Orphans Know More. This week we are working on preparing different ministry activities for the children and also building team unity so we are ready to share God's love as one. I am really excited for this opportunity and know the power God has to work through us on our outreach. As we prepare though, there is certainly a lot of details that are in the works and planning and preparing that we have ahead of us. So I thank everyone for their prayers on my trip so far and I ask that you would pray that God would be guiding us as we plan ministry this week and make the way for us this coming month as we prepare!

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18

NSF

This last week’s class focused on God’s Nature and Character. I wish there was a way to describe it all in this blog, but the depth of it is too much to fit into words here! But, I’ll try give to give you all a taste. We described God’s Nature as triune (3 in 1), eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and possessing a personality with will, intellect, and emotion. From His nature, God makes choices that form His character—love is the center and from love comes righteousness, mercy, wisdom, truthfulness, and faithfulness. The biggest part of the whole lesson for me though, was realizing the risk God takes in making love His highest law. Love wouldn’t be love it were forced and God, being all-knowing, knew this and makes loving Him a choice! In class we used the example of a boy asking a girl out on a date. In asking, he runs the risk of being rejected. The same is true for God. He runs the risk of being rejected everyday, yet He continually runs after us because He wants to love on us! Just as him loving us is a risk, we can choose to lead our lives in faith as risk or no risk. I’ve heard in church before and read it in the bible to “let God’s will be done.” At first it sounds like no risk involved on my part, God is in control and He runs the show. But looking at it a second time, completely submitting and letting God’s will be done is a HUGE risk. To let God’s will be done means I have to let go of my own will, my own desires, and let them die. That isn’t always the easiest thing, but if I look at God’s character, there is no reason to doubt that God’s will is the perfect, and most rewarding, way anyways.

Not only does God love, but also He is fun! So yesterday we had an NSF day—non-stop fun! We drove to a resort and spent the day swimming. They had a two slides—a big slide that reminded me of the slides at work and one that reminded me of a smaller version of those green and yellow slides at the Wisconsin state fair! We spent a lot of time going down those or relaxing in the different pools. The weather and the company were perfect!

The rest of the week was great too. Wednesday we threw a party for Monique. It was a surprise party for her and trying to keep it a secret from her almost killed me! You can watch a video her and Jocelyn made about the party and other updates from here, look at Monique’s blogspot— http://www.moniqueslaughter.blogspot.com/

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:6.

family.

This is Elizabeth, also Eunice's mother who run's the care center in Kabowkweni and below is a picture of the meal that the children are served three days a week at the center. The white is the pop, then there is chicken stew, beets, and a tiny bit of coleslaw. 

This is a picture of our view on the ride home from the retreat this past weekend and a picture of the DTS group, except we are missing John and Carla! From left to right it is Jocelyn, Stanley, Eunice with adorable Sandile, me, and then Monique! 

"When God loves us, He saturates us with Himself in order that our discovery of Him be real and legitimate. We each begin to discover how much beauty is around us, and we begin to notice His touch and His plan. Once we embrace Him and say 'I am soft now-- I don't only want you to be the God, I want you to be my God'-- that is when He gets aggressive and changes us. The unexpected twist is that He changes us by allowing us to change others. We follow His example. We get into others' lives. We are attentive. We help meet their needs and reveal to them God's beauty. This softens them until the point when they are prepared to have a true scar of love left behind." --From Flashbang by Mark Steele 

ee-taow! It is truth!

The first three days of last week were a chronological bible teaching! Franz and Brenda led the class and they began it off with a puzzle. They gave us a puzzle for children 8 and under, but didn’t give us the picture of the box. Easy, right? Well, after a few minutes of not being able to figure out where the pieces went, we finally said the magic phrase—“This would be easier with the big picture on the box”. Well, isn’t it the same with the bible? In school and church we are given stories in the bible, bits and pieces, but never have I had the opportunity to sit down and have the story of explained throughout from beginning to end. Franz started in the Old Testament and went through the New Testament, explaining stories of Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and Jesus to highlight God’s constant grace and mercy shown to us. Then the last day we watched a movie of the gospel being presented to a tribe in Papa New Guinea. The tribe lived in fear thinking that their ancestors would send spirits to kill them if they didn’t follow certain traditions. A couple went and lived with the tribe for 4 years, learning their language and their culture, before they even mentioned God. Then they held classes and everyday, everyone from the community would come to listen to the gospel in their native tongue. It was such an awesome testimony to the power in God’s word and just the desire within people for something greater with hope and love that will cast out fear—Jesus. It’s sometimes hard for me to realize that there are people in this world who have never heard of God or the hope of salvation. Seeing this movie really opened my eyes and put a new passion in me to share my faith with others! (And no mom, I don’t plan on going off to a far away tribe any time soon so don’t let the tears start going yet!)

Thursday and Friday we had a man from ACTS clinic, an AIDS clinic in the community, come and speak to us about AIDS. Him and his wife run a Christian clinic in Masoyi where they estimate about 35% of the population has HIV. He was very informing, but the neatest part of it was seeing how God is taking control of the disease. Nothing has changed—AIDS is still a terrible thing and not something anyone should want to live with, but Harry explained that there is now medicine that can help someone with HIV lead a more normal life. However, the disease carries such a stigma in African cultures that often many will die, not because they can’t be treated, but because they won’t be treated.

On Thursday we went to Kabowkweni and served about 100 children a meal of pop, chicken stew, beets, and coleslaw. Pop is basically steamed cornmeal and water mixed into a sticky substance. At first it looks like mashed potatoes, but once you taste it you realize the texture is really grainy and not as delicious as potatoes! Monique, Eunice, and I put the food on plates while Carla carried the plates to the children. The time we had there was really great. I spent most of my time chasing the little boys around in the playground area. Then a few would come and attach themselves to my legs until I tickled them and they would run around again. The kids there are so precious. I asked Eunice at night what kind of houses most of them lived in. She said, and I’ve heard this before, that many live in child-headed houses where the oldest child, maybe around 13-17 years old is in charge of the house. Others live with their aunts in houses that are too small or have leaky roofs where the rain falls through. Even though I keep hearing that the children are the head of the houses, I can’t wrap my brain around it! I can barely care for myself now, at the age of 20, without my parents. These children are leading lifestyles that I can’t comprehend or even imagine.

This weekend we went on a retreat with the church we attend during the week to lead the children’s program. First off, it was nice to get away from the base for a weekend to relax. We also had the opportunity to talk with different members of the church, so it feels more like a home now. And we were able to have a hot shower for the first time in weeks! Truthfully though, I was happy just to be in a place that we could shower. Our water at the base was turned off when we woke up Friday morning and now that we are back, and it is Monday night, it still isn’t on. Once again, I am thankful for every drop of water. Harry even mentioned during his talk on AIDS that if Africa had clean water it could reduce the amount of children that died young significantly. The retreat was a great time though and we had a beautiful weekend for weather. It seemed like the first time we’ve had 3 sunny days in a row and I even got some sun, imagine that! 

love.

"And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us." 1 John 3:23

Father God

Well this week began with what we have all decided was the world’s quietest superbowl party! But before I get to that exciting story, I think God has given me some other stories that are just as worthy of telling! 

1) We finished up our lecture last week titled the Fatherheart of God. Each day was full of great teaching that I think will continue to challenge me throughout all of my time here. On the other hand, it was also a good reminder that God is not just a distant God but He desires to be our heavenly Father who provides, comforts, and loves us all. It says in Galatians 4:6 says “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out “Abba, Father”. God has adopted us to be his children and invites us to reap the benefits of that with Him. Mmm, pretty sweet if you ask me.

2) Saturday morning I cooked breakfast! And Sunday night I also helped cook, although I am still working on building those cooking/baking skills. Now, this may not seem like a big deal to everyone, but I was pretty excited that nothing burned on Saturday morning. And attempting to cook muffins on Sunday only reminded me that it may take a while to overcome the challenges of baking I’ve inherited from the family. Anyone who knows my dad understands that once a Hokanson starts to bake something, it may not be perfect at first, but we don’t give up. Right pops? (a.k.a. our first few attempts at cookies…. J )

3) Saturday morning we went to Mbonisweni for outreach. We began by helping the children clean their clothes. We had a difficult time finding any clean water though. They have big containers of what is supposed to be clean water. So Eunice and I began to pour it into a bucket. At first it was clear, but by the end it was all black and dirty. So then we went to a different container to try to get water. That water was clearer, but had lots of little worms that were all over it. God is really teaching me the value of clean water! Eventually we were able to find a bucket of rainwater that was cleaner and we helped to wash the clothes.

Once the clothes were hung up we went to play with the children that were there. Two of the girls were taking bricks from the yard to build mini-houses! I wish I had had my camera to take a picture of their houses. It was probably about two feet wide and about a foot tall made out of broken bricks. One of the little girls crawled into the house and even swept it out. She invited Jocelyn to crawl into it, but there is no way any of us would have been able to crawl into it. It was cute nonetheless! We then went down the street to the soccer field where Stanley was with the boys playing soccer. I tried to jump in on the game, but I’m pretty sure they just laughed at me. So, instead, I raced one of the girls around the field. Whoa! I was so tired afterwards, but it felt great to race them. I tried to race Stanley too. He gave me a head start and still beat me by about ¼ of the field. I told him, by the end of the DTS I’ll be able to cream him—he understood the sarcasm. J

Soon it was time for all the children to go eat their pop and for us students to go prepare the crafts. There is a large dirt area under a tree that is a good place to organize crafts and things, but it had to be cleaned first. Brittany sent me to get a broom to clean it up. I was a bit confused at first, but then they handed me a thing made of twigs. It looked a bit like a duster, but made out of twigs. So I bent over and used it to sweep away all the leaves from underneath the tree. Eunice said that if I could do that, I could be a strong African woman. In her words, that is a compliment! Once the children were done eating, we had paper and paint for them to use, stickers to give out, play-doh to be used, and balloons for them.

4) Sunday night community night was another good time of fellowship. Dave Song led us in a time of worship and then we prayed together for the coming week. Then we celebrated our last night with the rest of the Orlando team watching Kung-Fu Panda off a projector outside with popcorn! The rest of the Orlando team left today to go to Mozambique for the rest of their outreach. Now things are a bit quieter on the base. When we first got here there were over 60 people here and now there are about 10 of us left!

5) Now for the superbowl! I will forever be a Packers fan, but I figured if I was going to cheer for anyone, Pittsburgh would be a pretty good option in this game. We found a church in Nelspruit, about 20 minutes away, that has cable and let us use their t.v. to watch the game live. The game began at about 1:30 in the morning here, so at 12:30, we piled into a van and drove to the church. About 20 staff members, students, and Orlando team members came to join in on the American tradition. I stayed up for the first quarter of the game, went in and out the second quarter, stayed up to watch Bruce sing and dance away on stage, then fell asleep until the last 5 minutes of the game! I think out of all of us there, only 2 stayed up the whole time! I enjoyed watching the game, but because we are in South Africa, there were no commercials! However, Lynn was skyping with her relatives back home during the game, and we learned that we saw the game faster than everyone in the states. With no commercials, they didn’t have as much time in between plays during the game! Crazy, but I think I would have preferred the commercials. By the time the game was over, it was 5:30 in the morning here and we all sleepily piled back in the kombi and drove back to the base to get a few hours of sleep before we were up for class at 8 this morning!

That’s the update for now. God is continuing to make Himself known to me, whether it is working in the communities, in class, or just in fellowship with everyone here, and I’m enjoying every minute of it. My love goes back to all of you at home!