One last random post for the day

I just wanted to put up this one last post. Oh, and in case your wondering why so many posts it is because I can't figure out how to spread pictures out in the post so that the picture can correspond with the topic. So, I am putting up a new post for each topic :)
Anyway....I just wanted to introduce you to my new African friend. She is a little cold at times and has a heart of stone, but she's so beautiful!
I met her recently at a tourist shop. How would you like to be the tourist that tries to take this stone carving home?!

A Visit From Home

Okay, this is my second blog today. In this blog I thought I would share a picture of my friend Andrea's visit a couple of weeks ago. She came as an ambassador from my life group in Lubbock. We planned her trip before I came and she made the commitment to come and help me settle and see how I am doing. It was great to have her here!!! I really enjoyed the encouragement from home and it was fun getting to show her around. She had a great half ministry, half vacation trip.
This picture is from her very first night. We tried to go see the sunset over the ocean, but these amazing clouds were out. There is an ocean under those clouds! I've never seen clouds like this in SA. We had some of my friends with us on this evening and the clouds were new to them as well. Andrea got to see an unusual Cape Town sight.
Oh, and she is really not that much taller than me. She is taller than me, but we are on a slope so I look much shorter than I really am....just had to point that out!

Laundry in South Africa

Well, I had a few minutes extra today so I thought I would write up a few blogs about random things in South Africa.
First, I'll tell you about doing laundry here. This may not be a big deal to anyone else but I have finally learned to hang laundry well. Hanging laundry really has a bit of an art to it. You can't hang t-shirts from the shoulders our you'll get a pinched spot on top, but if you hang them from the bottom you have to make sure to clip them in the middle so they don't stretch on the sides. You have to space things out correctly and turn them towards the sun. Okay, maybe its not that complicated, but my first few attempts left me with funny looking clothes.
I've discovered I actually like hanging the laundry out. There is something so peaceful about it. I think South Africans must like the peacefulness of it, also. They have clothes dryers here and many people own them but they are seldom used. They are considered bad for you clothes. The people who own them just use them in the winter when it is raining for days on end. Those without just learn to do laundry often in the winter to give it time to dry in doors.
Anyway, the picture in this blog is of the first good hanging of laundry that I did all by myself :)

Brrrrr.....

Here is my new winter coat!

Well, there is good news and bad news with the winter weather. First the good news, I survived the rain and it wasn't too cold! The really cold weather did not come this past week, but the rain definitely came. It was wind Lubbock style, wind that will knock you over. But rather than the West Texas dust in the wind, this wind blew rain. I'm telling you, it rained and rained. Wow! And then it rained some more and the wind blew the rain in every direction. But it was not so cold...until tonight. Tonight the rain stopped but it is sooo cold. Now for the bad news, apparently this was only the beginning. The cold is yet to come, the real abundant rain is yet to come, and the wind is yet to come. This was a small intro into Cape Town winter. As I say this I am sitting in my living room looking out the window at the most beautiful view I could ask for with mountains right outside the window. But I am shivering in the cold, bundled up in a jacket and blanket and socks and fuzzy house shoes. Brrrr.... But I think tomorrow the sun will return and I will have to keep waiting to see exactly what this winter here is all about. Praise God it hasn't gotten really cold yet, that leaves me with more time to pray and ask God to prepare me!
But, in the midst of the rain this was a wonderful weekend! I spent the weekend doing things at the House of Prayer. On Friday night we had all night prayer with a church from a local township. About 10 church members came to the prayer room here and prayed from 11pm until 5am the next morning. The church members were from all over Africa and most of them very new believers. We got to pray with them and build them up in their walk with God. It was fantastic!!! Then, on Saturday I got to go with the HOP to help facilitate prayer at a local church praying for the city of Cape Town. Awesome!

Next week will be a very busy week!!!! I will be working with Eagles Rising (community program) to prepare for a team from Lubbock Christian University that is arriving on Saturday to spend 10 days helping at ER. Also, the HOP begins the 10 days of extended prayer leading up to Pentecost Sunday and the Global Day of Prayer. Just as the disciples sought God in the upper room for ten days leading up to Pentecost, the Global Day of Prayer initiative encourages people all over the world to focus on fasting and prayer for ten days before GDOP. At the HOP I will get to help with facilitating a lot of corporate prayers times during this time beginning on Thursday. There are normally 4 corporate prayer times during the week when anyone can come join in, then most of the prayer hours in the 24 hour House of Prayer are filled with an individual person praying by themselves. During the ten days leading up to GDOP the HOP will have more than double the amount of corporate prayer times plus setting times throughout the day and night when groups of people will be praying together. If you can, look up GDOP on-line. It is so awesome how God has put this together. This initiative was started by a South African business man who owns a construction company. Now, every year people all over the world pray. The number of nations represented has increased each year. This year every nation in the world will be represented except for a small island off of Canada, but there are still a couple of weeks before GDOP so maybe a church on this island will sign up before Pentecost Sunday. But this year will be the biggest prayer meeting that has ever been held on the earth with all these nations praying together on the same day. Wow! Now that is something to get excited about! Check in your community and see if a church near you is hosting prayer on Pentecost Sunday so that you can be a part of this largest prayer meeting that has ever taken place on the earth! And if you happen to know anyone living on a small island off of Canada, let me know!

Shopping....I need a coat

First of all, I just want to let anyone waiting on an e-mail from me know that you are in my thoughts and prayers and I am so sorry you have to wait so long for e-mails. I'm trying to keep up with everyone...truly...I wish I was better at that, but in all my imperfection I am still trying :)
I also have about 10 different things that I would love to blog about just to share experiences with you all. I had a friend from Lubbock here last week and we did so much that I want to tell everyone about!
For today, I'll just let you know how I finally bought a winter coat in South Africa.
In my infinite genius I left my winter coat with a team from Lubbock Christian University who is coming at the end of May to South Africa to help at Eagle's Rising. Winter should only come at the end of May and I thought it would be early enough to get the coat then. But apparently there is a cold front coming bringing in lots of rain. I'm still getting used to the idea that winter is the rainy season here...when I was here for almost a year before, I went back to Texas just before winter began, so I have never had a winter here. The cold front is suppose to be coming this week....burrrrr. So, I've known for the past two weeks that I needed to go ahead and buy a coat. My wool coat from cold winters in Lubbock will only help when I can stay dry here anyway. Going into the township with Eagles Rising will require something made better for the rain at some point anyway. So, I've been watching the shops (that's how they say it here...."We're going to the shop" or "I'm looking at all the shops for a coat"....If I'm remembering right we say I'm going to the store back in Texas...its already getting hard to remember for sure how we say everything back home.) But anyway, I've been watching the shops. I've never needed to buy anything like this in South Africa before. So, I've been doing my normal shopping strategy....look all around for a few weeks, find the best options, watch to see if anything will go on sale, then buy. Not going to work here! My shopping strategy is going to have to change :( Oh, man, this is a hard one for me. Most changes are not that hard for me, but I laugh at myself as I discover the things difficult for me. I love how I shop in America. I like to think it is good stewardship of the finances God provides. Plus it is somewhat of a sport and challenge for me. Well, I've been looking at different shops as I've had the chance for over two weeks now. This weekend I thought I better start making a decision before the cold front comes. Well........they're gone!!!! All the coats I've watched, the warm winter boats I've been pricing...they're gone. A sadness sweeps over me even as I write this ;) In South Africa clothes and shoes don't really go on sale that much. Shops get one shipment of the item and when they're sold they are sold. Sometimes the entire stock of something might be gone in just a few days. Or in the case of my desperate search for the coat yesterday, things can be gone in a matter of hours. No more strategic shopping for me!!! I really may have missed the chance for some of the best winter boots because of my delay. What?! Oh man, life is going to be different here ;)
So, yesterday Estell (leader at House of Prayer) insisted on getting me to the shops for this coat. We rushed through all the shops worth looking at for a coat in less than an hour and with her encouragement just to buy whatever is available, I bought the only coat in my size that fit me right. So there you go. Last week I probably would have had 10 more options than I did yesterday. Yesterday I had one option. And I ended up with a white coat...I've never had a white coat before. They were all out of the black coats in this style and actually only had 4 white ones remaining (fortunately one of them was the right size for me). I had looked a few hours before and seen a black one like the one I got. But when I returned with Estell's encouragement just to go ahead and buy something, the black one was already gone. So, here I go with my white coat. The good part is that it was the cheapest coat I've seen since I've been here. So, if the white doesn't stay clean enough, then I can just try again next year. In the end this coat was only $15! People layer clothes a lot here so all these coats are really just nice rain jackets that you layer with hoodies and sweaters and things. So, to me most of them are expensive...most of them are closer to $50 for a rain jacket. But, God was gracious. The one and only coat that fit me was at the cheapest store around...we'll see how the quality is by the end of winter.
But that is my story to share for now....so more strategic shopping in my world. And the reality of changing cultures has become more real to me...all over a coat :) But the up side is that shopping in South Africa should increase my prayer life and faith level. I better pray hard when I find something I'm looking for and trust God to say yes buy now or no wait because that moment of prayer may be the only moment I will have to make the decision.
More later...just like with my last blog...it is now 10:30 pm, I've been running all day, I've got a prayer slot at 7am tomorrow, I'm exhausted, and I need to get ready for bed. This 7am prayer slot is a huge challenge for me! It is not easy to get a slot in the prayer room so I'll take whatever I can get, but it is not only early for me in the morning (I know some people are morning people but 1am prayer would be easier for me) but it is also really cold outside at 7am when I walk to the prayer room. Plus I've learned two things in my month of 7am prayer. The first is that it is not fun to be in intercession at 7am when you have not had enough sleep. The second is that you really can't focus on prayer when attempting to put in your contacts and apply make-up in the prayer room :) So, I've got to get some sleep so I can get the contacts in before leaving home for prayer and so I don't waste my prayer time begging God to help me stay awake!