A Beautiful Beginning

So this is day 3 in South Africa and everyone has finally arrived. The apprentices are seven in all. Today we began our weekly tradition of gathering for a braai (Afrikaans for barbecue and pronounced "bry") . During this time we invite all staff and friends to Pangani (the name of the place where we are living) and partake in the braai and then gather for a time of worship.

Arthur (our trip leader) in the background trying to clean the grill and Jody (another apprentice) not helping.

Extremely cute baby

The baby was very photogenic.
Luc and Roger are in the background discussing todays cricket game.

Good stuff right there!

The finished product!

Arthur got a hold of my camera. Roger doesn't like normal pictures.

Still Arthur.

Arthur once again.

We had to move inside because of rain. Still a good time!

A beautiful time of worship.

The name "Pangani" was given to this house and grounds over 100 years ago and it means "come together" which seemed to be an almost prophetic name when Nieucommunities acquired it because this is now a place where people can com together to experience God, to rest, and like us to be trained and sent out. This was a great start to the week being as that our apprenticeship officially starts tomorrow. The team seems to click very well and I truly believe that this is going to be one of the best and challenging years of my life.

Now this will also mean that I will be taking some time off of the internet. As a team we are all going to take some time to really acclimate ourselves and dive into our lives here in South Africa and these next couple of weeks of orientation are crucial. Don't worry though, I will be blogging again next Sunday night and taking a ton of pictures. I will also have many stories to tell! Feel free to comment and email me, I will get them. Just don't be surprised if I don't get back to you right away. After a few weeks we will get into a regular rhythm and I will be able to be in contact more often. At this point I expect to blog once a week, most likely on weekends. So be looking for my updates then.

I also added a section on the right called photography. There are some photos I've been editing myself and there are just too many to put on here so I've been putting them in photobucket so you can take a look.

So you all can really be praying in this next week that I can begin to acclimate to the time (lots of jet lag!) and that I can begin allowing God to speak to me about my purpose here, that I wouldn't be distracted or thrown off track.

Also for all who are supporting me financially I want to again say thank you and just give you a reminder to send in this months support as soon as you can if you haven't. On the practical side it may be easier for some of you to give online and that is possible through my section in the upper right of this blog entitled "Support Me In South Africa!!!" Just click on the link and follow the instructions. You can even set up an automatic withdrawal if that is easier for you. It is just extremely important that you remember to do this so that this year can run smoothly and uninterrupted.

Thanks again and I can't wait to hear back from you all!