The last couple days in Africa have been absolutely amazing! Every morning before we start our day, I like to walk by myself down the road to spend time with the Lord. While on my walks, it has become normal that I talk to the security guards that work on our road. At first it was just normal conversation, but now it’s real stuff. It has been fun to watch them understand more about our culture, while I learn so much more about theirs. The last couple days, I have walked down to the supermarket and picked up some coca cola for the guys, which they go crazy over. Last night, Gosnati, a 20 year old guard who I have become close with, had to work the night shift. To them, it is very cold at night so I made him some tea and walked it out to him. It was awesome to just talk to him for about his dreams and ambitions and he got to see that I cared a lot about it. Before I left, I prayed for him and gave him a big old bear hug. He thought it was funny.

            Our trip is starting to come to a close now. Today, all the kids are with me in the internet café checking their email and such. Tomorrow, our team is going on a tour of Swaziland, which should be so cool! Friday, the really nice hotel down the street from us in holding a Fourth of July party for all the Americans. It should be a great time because another team that is here is going to be meeting us there! Then next week we do our last days of ministry and then our all day safari as a surprise! I can’t wait for that either, I will be taking lots of pictures!

            Thank you so much for praying for us, and please continue to! The team has really come together and it has been fun watching them make the ministry their own, and not just something they are forced to do. I’m dreading the day when I have to say goodbye to Sabelo at the orphanage. I absolutely love that kid and am really going to miss him. It is crazy how attached you can get to people in only 2 weeks!

            By the way, I would love to post pictures, but the internet is sooo slow! I will post them when I get back :-)

I have so much to tell you and so little time! I am sitting in an internet cafe which is pretty cool, but the internet is very slow and not sure how I feel about everyone looking at my computer screen :-) Now on to what the team has been up to; One of our biggest ministries that we do is our Homestead ministries. It is when we head up the mountain and just build relationships with the people who live up there.  My team goes all the way up the mountain and have been really blessed by the people we have met. The family that really means a lot to our team are the ones who live close to the top. They have 30 people who live on one homestead. They asked us if we wanted to climb the mountain and help them carry fire wood back down for them. We jumped on the opportunity and woke up early to help them. They were so happy to see us that after we helped them, they took us on a tour of the wildlife reserve and we saw some monkeys. When we arrived back at their home, very tired and sweaty, they invited us to eat dinner with them. It was definitely an interesting meal, but I ate all of it. As if that wasn't enough, they gave me the Swazi name Sabelo, which mean Chosen One. So now everyone I meet yells "Sabelo!" (Word travels fast in the neighborhood when you are the only Americans haha) I am loving every second of being here and God is revealing more and more about Himself everyday! The team is really coming together as well. We went to the Mbabane Hospital today and visited the children’s ward which totally broke my heart. They say that that is the hospital where people go to die and to see all of these children, some of them disabled and abandoned, makes me wish I could do more. We shared the hope of Christ with them and prayed for healing. Please keep the team and the people in Swazi in your prayers. They are beautiful people and have accepted me as one of their own in only 2 weeks. Thank you for your prayers so far and for the encouraging comments! Love you and miss you all so much!

Yesterday was really our first day of true ministry. 10 of us went to an orphange for abandoned babies, and the rest of us went on prayer walk around our neighborhood. I went on the prayer walk, and the Lord revealed to us what He had planned right away! As soon as we walked down our road, we ran into a preschool that just got out. They were all sitting in the yard waiting for their parents to pick them up. As soon as they saw us, the started yelling "How are you?" repeatedly! We couldn't resist but laugh and we played with them for like and hour and a half! They would yell "Shoot Me" which meant they wanted us to take a picture of them, and we could then show them the picture we took...thanks to digital. As soon as they saw the picture, they would laugh and yell, That's me! My camera also flips the picture automatically from horizontal to vertical, and the kids would stare is awe and laugh. The kids are so open and just want to be held and loved. My heart completely is wrecked by these children and I just want to take like 3 of them home with me :-) After that, we walked around the neighborhood talking to people, trying our hardest to speak Swati. They laugh at us when we speak to them in Swati, but it's a good laugh, they really respect us. We met a pastor on Sunday that has lived here 7 years and still doesn't know how to say thank you...it's really sad and disappointing.

We headed up to North Georgia in the mountains on Sunday for our team debrief. Basically a time for us to talk about our year and reflect on the good memories and just thank God for doing so much in us and through us. It was a great time of fellowship and fun. We got to play a 5-hour game of Risk, hike up a mountain to a waterfall, worship lead by Josh Gross, Bible study, and community. It was a great way of finishing off this internship. On that note, I also finalized everything about next year. I will be working in the office starting August 1^st in Technology/Marketing. It will be such an amazing opportunity! I will get to be mentored by experts in the field of marketing and web design, still get to work with the youth group, and continue to be discipled. I will be on AIM staff as a paid employee but will still have to raise some support. I will be sending out newsletters when I get back from Africa, but please consider partnering with me again.