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!