Crazy Beautiful Life

The rest of the week has been busy and exciting with lots of fun and little sleeping. It finally caught up with me and I must get to bed soon, but before classes started off tomorrow (service learning orientation for me) I thought I blog about the RAG week events and the weekend with the rest of the Arcadia students.

At the beginning of the week I listened to the vintage21 sermon from a few weeks ago, because I am trying to keep up with the series we have right now because I am really passionate about the church and what it really means to be a child of God and member of the church. That is just what Pastor Tyler preached about in the sermon from January 17th. I continue to think about my community in Raleigh and it is strange not to be there in a time where my church family in Raleigh is talking about being a body. I tried to think about the universal church as a place I can find comfort while I am here, but still want to be connected to my local church. I must continue to pray about what a local church will look like here for me. I hope to visit the local Presbyterian church, but also some other services where many students from Stellenbosch are going. It is always exciting when I get to see young people passionate about God and serving him through actions. Maybe tomorrow in the service learning orientation I can begin to meet with and talk to people about what their faith looks like in relation to service learning. It is just so connected to all I have thought about for my time here in South Africa and even for the things I involved myself with at home. While the church is working together as a whole body in Raleigh, I think if we worked together universally we could make huge changes in beautiful and unimaginable ways. I have already seen love and compassion with new friends in South Africa. They comforted me with love this past week when I was upset about Smokey. They consider the hearts of all people from our own country and from the people we are meeting here from all over the world. I hope we can continue to encourage one another along and be a family building up love for each other and the lives of the people here in South Africa.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. –Hebrews 10: 24


Switching gears to the events of the week, I must talk about the skits that the first year students (Freshmen) had to perform on Thursday. Each first year dorm has to create a skit and they normally incorporate dances, which they obviously practiced more than the rest of the script as we know from over hearing practices all week leading up to Thursday. To any of my Meredith friends this would sound a LOT like Cornhuskin, and that it was. I felt like I was home for a bit. It was great to see guys doing these skits too though, because just like some Cornhuskin dances these were clever and fun, but also well choreographed and practiced. There was even a parade Saturday, but because we were with Arcadia we missed it.

Friday Lenny picked us up for an Arcadia trip, which would give us the chance to meet the rest of the Arcadia students from University of Western Cape and Cape Town University for the first time. There are 31 of us in total, but because I am so close to my “Stellies” already we sort of ended up clinging together a lot on the trip. I did meet some other cool students and we hope to spend some weekends in Cape Town. We were taken to a place called High Africa, which was an adventure center with a river. We did a low ropes course (Saturday was the high ropes course and swimming) and after dinner found out they did in fact have a bar if people wanted to drink. Although we originally planned to take a break for a night, we shared some drinks and talked with new friends and then a whole lot with the staff at the camp about South Africa and all sorts of things. After everyone went to sleep of COURSE myself, Maria, and Justin were the 3 people still up with the guys that work there (note that we had to be up at 8am and its like 2am at this point). We got to sit under the stars by a river in the middle of mountains in South Africa. The stars were more beautiful than stars I have seen anywhere. We could see the Milky Way clouds and Mars. I was blown away. How can you not believe in an awesome God with something that beautiful?! Perfect moment of joy—check. Few have already come, and many more remain.

Love the Time

Today I cried for the first time since I left for South Africa. My dad called at what was about 7:30am at home, and I knew something was up when he was so worried about me hearing him. He let me know that yesterday morning Smokey passed away. It’s so hard to believe I can’t be home because Smokey was my baby, my beautiful grey cat named after the best mountains ever. She always slept with me and I loved her, so did everyone else that ever came over. I was scared that my parents were going to tell me something had happened to my grandmother, which would have been even harder of course. That put things into perspective, but didn’t make losing Smokey any easier. She may have just been a cat but she was the best cat ever! It was one of the first times I really wanted to be home and was sad not to be. I have been so happy here and this just turned the day around. I had just had sushi with Hannah Lyon who is studying here for the year and I was with Kaitlin and Cindy, two really good friends I have made. I was glad that there were some close friends around just to be there. Smokey was like a friend, even if she was just a cat and for the first time in a long time I have just been upset.

In just the past few hours I have put into perspective some of the emotions I have had in the past few years. I have realized that recently I cry less and that getting upset doesn’t come as often as it did just a few years ago. I guess I have been able to find some comfort in things I wasn’t able to before. When I got back to my room I played my itunes and Love the Time by David Bailey came on. What a perfect song, because I was thinking about how much I loved having Smokey around and how I always looked forward to getting home to have a sleeping buddy.

Love the time it takes to watch the sun rise
Love the time the thunder splits the air
Love the time the snow covers the rooftops
Love the time we have to share
-david m. bailey

The other Arcadia students got me sunflowers when they were out. They are too sweet. It is nice to be creating family here already. Maria asked if I wanted an elephant she has seen at the store and I had been looking for one since I forgot my bear at home so I figured it was the perfect day to get a little something like that so introducing my new elephant (not that I need another). He will have a name after the night I am sure.

Smokey lived a good life and she will be missed, but tonight I shall celebrate her awesome and long cat life of 16 years!

More Thoughts

I began to write in my journal some when we get free time and I haven’t had internet, but here some of my entries.

January 18th
A cleaning woman came in and took my trash and while I really appreciated it I felt bad because not even in my dorms at Meredith did they come and take your trash out of your rooms. The comfortable accommodations make adjusting a bit easier (the bed is quite hard, but I’m easy to please and can sleep anywhere), but I must remind myself of the reasons why I came to South Africa. It wasn’t to be pampered or sleep on a comfortable bed every night; it was to go to school to meet awesome people and most importantly for me, to volunteer. I agree that going abroad to get a different look at things and learn different is great, but at the same time I appreciate learning opportunities I have at Meredith and came here for more than that. The first downhill phase has come and after lugging pounds of groceries all the way back to our apartment (which was twice as far as the store at home that I drive to). We didn’t get to put internet on our computers yet. I know how much I appreciate it and count on it for entertainment and communication, but it is nice to not have it and get to know everyone right here better. The woman who was here earlier cleaning said that the “white girls” who stayed in my apartment last semester didn’t ever talk to her. I asked her about living in Stellenbosch and she said that she lives here but has to walk an hour home every day. And to think that I complained about a 20 minute walk with groceries. My, the way things are being put into perspective.

January 19th
While it was nice to get a few minutes of internet today, there wasn’t much I felt like I was missing. Most of my emails were junk (minus a few from mom and pops), and while large numbers of Facebook notifications and messages from my best friend are appreciated and exciting it’s nice to know I must be in the right place. Orientation helped make things better because there was a set schedule (I’m finally admitting that the darn things help my sanity) and we got to meet even more students. I finally met some students from NC (yay south!) and they even go to ASU (oh NC mountains). It appears I can’t help but be active and never bored no matter where I am so hopefully I am getting involved with Habitat, ISOS (an international student organization that takes us on trips) and the Kayamandi project, and the dance society.

January 20th
Because the currency here is so different (divide the prices by 7 to get an average amount) we have been joking about how we are “spending mad rand.” Well, after eating out a little too much and going out (I won’t say TOO much yet) my “mad rand” is disappearing a bit fast. Orientation activities continued today and I discovered one of my classes is 9 credits. I am excited for it because we will be volunteering, but the scheduling process doesn’t work the way I wish it did. At orientation there was a really awesome guy who taught us isiXhosa, the language of many South Africans (especially in areas like Kayamandi). We learned the different clicks and needless to say it is a very difficult language to pick up, but fun. I am trying to find beauty in a only somewhat structured schedule. When orientation is over we will have lots of free time and I hope I can find the beauty in that. I can wake up then decide what I want to do with the day. It is quite a different change of pace from Meredith life.

January 22nd
I thought that I should write about all my new friends! There are four students here with Arcadia and they are Maria, Justin and Brianna, and I. We all arrived to Cape Town then rode here to Stellenbosch together. There are other Arcadia students arriving to South Africa now, but they will be attending University of Cape Town and Western Cape. We get to go on an excursion with them this weekend. I have really connected with everyone from Arcadia and they are all from the north (Jersey, NY, and Rhode Island) so they enjoy picking on things I say but we’re already like a family. Since we have been here we got close to Cindy, a WVU student who is doing direct exchange and our really nice neighbors which include some girls from ASU. There are quite a few American International students, but there are also International students from France and countries in Europe. Emma, Allen and Lenny took care of us Arcadia students the first few days we were here. Allen is the director here Emma is a grad student at UCT that acts as our “mom” here. Lenny is our really awesome driver. He drives students from Arcadia programs and he is the one who picked me up at the airport the night I arrived. It is cool to have met so many people that come from so many different places. Although we are all from “the states” as everyone says here in SA , we are all from different cities and states and have different backgrounds. I am glad my close friends agree that it’s important to meet the locals too. It is easier to relate to the American International students, but we should make local friends too. Today we went on bus tours through Cape Town. I wasn’t 100% but some greasy food helped and I bought a CD from a group that was performing on the waterfront where we stopped for lunch and shopping.

January 23rd/24th
I think I’d have to call this day the perfect day. I love having relaxed Sundays and this one started with Emma picking us up for a little trip. We thought we were going to the market, but since it was closed she said that she would take us on a wine tour. The place we ended up going called Laurensford had not only wine tastings, but coffee, cheese and chocolate. I was in food/drink heaven. It was such a great day for it too. After smelling beans and tasting cheeses we picked four wines to taste and I bought a bottle for less than $5. Emma even took us to the grocery store on the way home, which was a HUGE help because we didn’t have to walk across town with pounds of food. We rested for the rest of the afternoon, and then smoked hookah downtown at a really cool restaurant. It was a nice way to wrap up the weekend. We are now in the midst of rag week, which here is like rush for fraternities and sororities, but for first year students. There are all kinds of activities and people screaming and dancing, and of course there is lots of alcohol consumption. It’s like my sister reminded me though; not only is it expensive to drink it means lots of sugar which makes lots of fat. Classes start in less than a week, so hopefully I will have those things straightened out by the weekend as well. Yesterday there was an activities and clubs fair (Monday). There were a lot of cool organizations to sign up for. I signed up for Habitat, the hiking club, and the conservation club. I got some information for the dance society and wine tasting club too. I am going to be part of ISOS and that is the International Students Organization of Stellenbosch. We go on excursions and volunteer in Kayamandi. I got lots of information from different churches in the area and that was really exciting. Hannah Lyon, a Presbyterian from home who is studying here, invited me to attend the Presbyterian Church with her so I think I’ll join her Sunday if I am around.

It’s off to the beach now I believe and hopefully getting my season ticket for the football (soccer) games.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;
Yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.
That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-this is the gift of God
I know that everything God does will endure forever;
Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.
God does it so that men will revere him.
-Ecclesiastes 3:11-14

Initial Thoughts

Lookin at me, blogging already! But I thought people would appreciate first thoughts since internet is lacking for the moment. Excuse tenses because it was written here there and at all sorts of times.

Day 1-Jan 14
Well I made it to South Africa! I am sweating from running around the airport to go through customs, recheck baggage and then find my gate all the while not really knowing what time it was. Man, I should have remembered a watch! Not to mention there was a guy on the elevator, after going through customs, offering to help and saying “just follow me.” Well, I decided to take that as “how about I won’t follow you and I’ll go THIS way.” Of course my way was right. Wish I could always walk away from men like that. It’s hard to remain a confident looking person when you are tired and would actually really love some help.
I thought that I was going to be really upset when I left my family after all of the overwhelming feelings I had preparing for this trip and this day and this flight. I guess because deep inside I have been preparing for this trip for years now. I thought the flight to Dakar would never get there, but I was able to sleep the majority of the trip from there to Johannesburg. Now I am waiting to get on the last flight (yayyy) to Cape Town. The woman told me the gate number and everything, so I really hope that I am at the right one, because the screen tells me if it somewhere else, actually it isn’t on the screen.
Go figure that the woman wrote the wrong one. Luckily I wasn’t the only one confused and the correct gate was just over one gate from the incorrect one. I must say it is weird being the first. I was so happy to meet Lenard at the airport. He picked me up and I am staying in Cape Town for the weekend. Let me just say that “Toto we are NOT in Kansas anymore.” I rode by some townships already coming in. It is all only going to get more real, and I am only going to feel more at home and less like I am in the Land of Oz.

Day 2-January 15th
I am not quite sure what I dreamt about last night, but I know that it kept waking me up. It was as if I was dreaming about sleeping but either way I was happy that I could fall back asleep each time. My alarm went off and I actually got up (after a few snooze hits that is). I must say I was proud of myself. Either the double espresso or pure excitement is all that is keeping me up now. I am excited for the other students to arrive and see their reactions for everything.
Ok, so the rest of the student got here. Everyone is awesome, however when I mention that I will miss sweet tea or Bojangles they look at me funny. Yes, I am the only southern girl with the Stellenbosch group! Today was pretty sweet. Got to go on the beach in a skirt and t-shirt and stick my foot in the sand. I broke down and bought a sun dress already. Do I have an addiction? How can you blame me though?! The gorgeous weather inspired me. Looking out the window eating dinner at a pizzeria to see the ocean=blissfulness. Look one way you see the ocean, look the other and you see Table Mountain. I’ll take that any day.

One Last Time

Sunday night I was able to go to Vintage21 for church one last time. It seems the sermons at Vintage are always placed perfectly with something going on in my life, the life of a friend, or with MCA (Meredith Christian Association). Sunday it was able to make me think of MCA and the journey for which I am about to go on.
Tyler (the pastor at V21) talked about how we have to be "regenerative believers," meaning that we have to share the word and scatter God's love to the people of the world. While we are not a perfect people, we must push ourselves everyday to be more perfect, so that through us people may see Christ's love. Tyler also talked about "training our minds" to labor and do good. I see fellow followers striving to do this and it inspires me. At Vintage and in MCA we have brought up Matthew 25 where Christ gave 3 men talents, just as we are given talents and for the 2 servants who multiplied their talent Jesus said "Well done good and faithful servant." How beautiful a gift to be given talent with which we can use to be faithful servants of Christ! For whatever we have done for the least of the people in this world we have done for Christ's kingdom (Matthew 25:40).
I think this helps me answer why I want to go to South Africa. I feel that I have been called to pick up my cross and be in this new place (Mark 8:34), to live recklessly and with an open mind. I must see the mystery of this experience as something beautiful rather than something to be worried about or afraid of. As I lie in my bed one more time I anxiously await what I hope to be 5 of the most beautiful months of my life. It is a gift to be given this opportunity and it is blessing to be supported by family and friends.

I have set the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
-Psalm 16:8-11

Saying Goodbye

As I prepare to leave the goodbyes must begin. Leaving Raleigh Sunday night came as a change in my original plans to leave Monday night. The weekend that began rather enjoyable became very emotional and overwhelming quickly. I realized that for what felt like the first time in months or even since before leaving for Italy, I was afraid. I was filled with doubt for what is to come and upon realizing how soon I would be away from all that felt familiar I was getting nervous.
What I realized amidst this series of emotions was that I can't be so nervous and worried about leaving if I want to have a full experience abroad. These emotions come with new things, but I wanted to be more at peace so that I could leave less afraid. I was asked why afraid by a friend. Perhaps that is my response because I want things to be perfect. I want this experience to be everything that I have thought it would be for the past 2 years. What I have to find comfort in is God's plan for me while I am there. I have a feeling that it's going to be more incredible than any preconceived ideas I can create for my experience. The goodbyes intertwined with the desire for peace were perhaps what pushed my emotions over the edge throughout the weekend, making me so overwhelmed. Either way all of those feeling have brought be here now and fearless or not I am leaving in just a matter of days!

Isaiah 61

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.

4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
5 Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
6 And you will be called priests of the LORD,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast.

7 Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.

8 “For I, the LORD, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the LORD has blessed.”

10 I delight greatly in the LORD;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.


This scripture's beauty was first brought to my attention when Vintage was having an Oaks of Righteousness series. I believe that was either at the time I was in Italy or it was at the time that I had no free time because of school work when I returned. Therefore, I was left with NO TIME to really dig into this scripture passage. Time, time, time; it sometimes seems everything is just centered around that one word, but we can get back to that!
This passage has come to mean more to me in the past couple of months as I try to get more involved with the Plant:Uganda Vision at Vintage21. Not only are great things happening in Uganda but in the city of Raleigh. It has brought me great joy to see the community I am a part of work in our community use their talents to bring people out of darkness. Hope for Hunter, Plant:Uganda, Young Life, and InterVarsity are just some of the ways. I think the desire to comfort those who mourn and provide for those who grieve (v2,3) is a longing Christ put in our hearts so that we may also be fulfilled when we see what we are capable of doing as blessed children of God.
I hope that as I prepare for my trip to South Africa I can be in prayer that God with lead me to those people in South Africa that need comforting and hope. Nerves are rising, and packing has yet to begin! May I be filled up with confidence so I can be prepared to use my talents without hesitation.
Time is flying by as the day of departure arrives. May I use my time wisely as I prepare to leave and while I am in South Africa for good works! I will be given more time than I have when I am in school in Raleigh, and it is my hope that I can use the extra time to volunteer and have time for stillness.

H