It's a bit of a waiting game...

This week has been one of waiting and transition. Initially this was upsetting because in my head I had "come to South Africa to help young adults." I had this 'do work' attitude, but to be honest I had no idea how to do this work to the best of my ability. I am by no means making the claim that after one week I have high risk youth (HRY) all figured out, for all I know I won't have an experts knowledge when this is finished, but I have already learned a great deal. This week was perfect for me to be able to interact with the Warehouse staff and to form relationships with them. I feel like I am slowly becoming part of the community here and I am seeing places where I can plug in and be helpful to this incredible team. As I said though, I was initially upset, but I have learned in this week of waiting what it truly means to rely upon the Lord. Had I been able to come down here and immediately start working, I may have never learned that truth. Waiting on the Lord is more that just a sitting back and doing nothing. If I could redefine what waiting means in my life it would be more of an active waiting! I learned to not be lazy with that time, but to see areas where the Lord is at work and join there. I do not know the plans the Lord has for me while I am here, but He does! He is not surprised that my week has not been what I planned. In this week I was able to see the Lord work in my own life. I feel as if He is preparing me before I go out. There is so much I need in my journey with him before I can hope to encourage and empower these young adults, and this week was an answer to that prayer. I feel that I may be all over the place so I must apologize, that is just how my mind operates from time to time! I did have the opportunity to meet two of the guys I will be working directly with! It was a great time! I had been anxiously awaiting the time when we would meet. I was able to gain a better understanding of their life and experiences through those conversations. Meeting them took away some of the anxiety of going into Manenburg, but it also made me aware of the struggles they faced every day. I was just informed that today I will also be given the chance to go into Manenburg to meet with these guys again! I am excited about the opportunity to get out of the office and finally interact with these guys a little more!

Life outside of work has been a transition as well. I moved into my new home for the next several months on Wednesday. The family I am staying with is very kind and giving! I will try to post some pictures of my room and the house for you guys if you want! I have been able to get out and explore Cape Town a little bit the last couple of nights as well. Wednesday night I went to a mall and saw a movie and last night I went to a book launch with some new friends! I have been asked to play on a baseball team with my host mom's son-in-law so I may do that as well! I think they assume that because I am from America that I am naturally good at baseball, but they are in for a rude awakening! I am doing my best at getting on a touch rugby team, but they are pretty strict on who they let play...at least that's what they are telling me! I am overwhelmed by the landscape here! No matter where you are, there is something amazing to be seen!

I am going to stop rambling for now and get back to work! This was a nice break from my reading! I have read countless books and articles on HRY. So many that I am finding that I may be high risk as well! I can't thank you all enough for your prayers and support! I love reading your comments so please, feel free to just start up a conversation! Have fun in your snow storm...I'm going to the beach!

To quote a fellow South African in Dave Matthews...don't drink the water.

That quote has no relation to anything I am going to write, but I thought about it on the way over to South Africa. It rang as a good title if the water did turn out to be harmful, which thankfully it has not! The water is actually very nice and refreshing in case you were wandering, which you weren't, but now you know!

In more relevant news, today was an exciting day! After a few days of sitting around today I was able to explore Cape Town and I quickly realized how amazing a city it is. One cannot ask for too much more than oceans and mountains all from the same vantage point. It really is breathtaking. The passage of Isaiah 40 comes to mind as I write about what I saw. The culture here is also very interesting to say the least. There are a mix of several different cultures and it is interesting how they interact. I have enjoyed learning bits of pieces of South African history, culture, language, etc. already in my first couple of days here, and I am excited to see this knowledge expand as I work.

Today is my first day on the job. The Warehouse truly is an incredible place to be. There is so much work being done here, and it is very evident to see that this is the Lord's work. Even as I type this I can overhear conversations about children in need to poverty to helping entrepreneurs. I am quickly realizing my inability to describe all that goes on here, but hopefully the wonderful agency analysis that I have been assigned by Union to complete will help me to articulate these thoughts! I will be leaving shortly to go look at two houses that I will potentially be staying in. I am pretty nervous about the decision at hand because each house has it's strengths and weaknesses. One provides a better social network but is farther away from the Warehouse. The other is closer but the social network is nonexistent. This could come across as a trivial concern, and I realize that, but it is a concern nonetheless.

I am anxiously waiting to get to work with my team, but sadly they are not all here at the moment so wait I must! I have found that I will have 3 young adults that I will be conducting case studies with so that is exciting and nerve-racking, all in the same moment! This week will be one of orientations and meetings with different staff members within the agency, but hopefully field work is not far around the corner.

Thank you all so much for your prayers! I cannot tell you how important they are to me. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. The transition has not been an easy one, and will continue to be challenging, but this is where I am supposed to be so I can rest in that! Psalm 31 and 34 have continued to be passages that have comforted me! God has set my feet in a spacious place...

Hello from South Africa!!

This will be a fairly short post because I just want to let everyone know that I am here!! It is 3am Friday morning TN time so hopefully everyone is sleeping well! The flights were not too bad at all. I was able to change seats and get aisle seats the whole way which was very helpful for my long legs! I was greeted by Grant and Caroline when I got off the plane in Cape Town, and for the next week I will be staying with a man named Paul. After that I am going to be moving in with a family. In other news, the weather is incredible here so be jealous! I will try to update soon, but that will have to do for now! Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

To say I'm leaving on a jet plane seems cliche`, but accurate...

Well tomorrow is the day. Today I have been saying my goodbyes and making the final preparations for the trip. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but to be honest this is no fun what-so-ever. The good news is that I am extremely excited to get over there and get to work. I think that the reason I am so anxious is because I have had so much time to prepare for this experience and now I just want to get over there and get started. I have had a few conversations with the staff from the Warehouse and they seem excited to have me come over there, but it's hard to tell on account of it is through e-mail so excitement is hard to pick up over that! For those of you living vicariously through me on this trip I will tell you what I know about who I will be working with so you can feel like you know them too! But that will have to wait until I actually meet everyone! Hopefully the next time you ladies and gents hear from me I will be in South Africa!! (I used two exclamations points there to show added excitement.) Thank you all for the prayers and support. I love you all...well I assume I do. I don't know everyone that is reading this....

T.

Wonder if they will accept my SmartCard over there...?

Welcome?

Family and friends,

I was encouraged by Union and others to keep a journal of my experiences in South Africa and I had planned on doing just that, but I decided that I would do my best to be up to date in this new decade and give blogging a shot. I will be honest on the front end with whoever reads this...if anyone at all...and say that I am already not a fan of this because I feel that as the blogger that I am under the assumption that my thoughts and feelings are of more importance than you, the blogee. This is not the case at all. I am simply doing this because I was urged by others and I know that some will want to know prayer concerns and the ins and outs of this trip. I hope to update this regularly, but I will not make any promises there! I am not sure the proper ways to address a blog audience so please forgive me if I appear to be ignorant...I am a rookie at this! I am excited to be able to communicate with you all. If you did decide to follow this blog then you have some vested interest in my life and for that I am very thankful.

I leave for South Africa in less that 2 weeks. I honestly feel that I need more time. I do not know what I need more time for, it may just be that I am beginning to grow very nervous about the trip in general. These feelings of anxiety are mixed with those of excitement and they seem to be waging war within me! I am confident that God has orchestrated this trip to South Africa for a reason and that he is planning on using me in a great way, and that may be the most nerve-racking thought of all. I am by no means qualified to be used by Him and the thought of it frightens me. As these last couple of weeks pass by I hope to gain some sort of confidence in what God has laid out for me, as well as make the most of my time here with friends and family.

I hope that you all have a great day and I will do my best to keep these suckers packed full of fun and exciting posts...but don't hold me to that!

TG