Growth Requires Change

Hey everyone, 

I apologize for the significant delay in posting an update! I'm taking advantage of the day off to rest and get caught up on a few things, including this blog. :)

I want to quickly say thank you to everyone that commented, emailed or sent me a message to tell me they were praying after my last post. The appointment with the doctor went fairly well. He is confident that the course of treatment he has placed me on will cause symptoms to subside and says I should start seeing significant improvement within the next couple of weeks. I am very hopeful that this plan will start getting me back on the right track!

In other exciting news, I bought a car! Yes, I'm learning to drive on the opposite side of the car and the road in another country and in a big city where it is often considered optional to follow the rules of the road. Being from a small town in the middle of Kansas, the idea of this did cause a little stress! I don't even enjoy driving in city traffic back at home, and I never thought I'd be brave enough to even consider trying this. However, the transition is going much smoother than I expected it would. Although I have had a couple of small scares, I haven't hit a curb while turning left, driven into oncoming traffic or ran into anyone or anything.

Having a car has already been such a blessing. It is giving me so much more freedom to explore and get around, and I am able to help transport others in need of rides as well. It will still take some getting used to though. A couple of days ago, I got into my car, put my seat belt on and lifted my arm up to put the key in the ignition before realizing that the steering wheel was on the complete opposite side of the car. Ha! The car is a 2003 Nissan Almera. My plan is to sell it before I return home. 

Colour Conference was March 13-16. As I mentioned previously, I attended the first one and was signed up to serve during the second. Unfortunately, I came down with a stomach bug the night after the first conference ended and stayed home sick through the entire second one. Those were a somewhat disappointing and lonely two days since everyone I know in South Africa was in one place while I was in another, but I am so thankful that I stayed healthy enough to attend the first one. It was absolutely incredible! All of our campuses gathered for church together at the Grand West Arena on the Sunday following the second conference. To the left is a photo of me, Norbert and Phil in the Hillsong welcome shirts. Since the Grand West facility is so much larger than our Century City church campus, we were asked to join the Welcome Team before the first service. The entire day was such an awesome celebration! The first two photos below are from church together and the second two are from Colour.

We had Monday - Wednesday off after Colour week, and I spent those days buying my car, catching up on sleep and spending time with friends. It is amazing how much the people I have met have quickly become like family. Below is a photo from a little braai (Afrikaans for barbecue) get-together some of us had last Tuesday night. 

I had my first big driving adventure last Friday night when I drove to the Hillsong campus in Mitchell's Plain for the weekly youth gathering. Phil spoke the message that evening, so me and Norbert wanted to be there to listen to and support him as well as experience what youth is like there on Friday nights. The following day, the three of us ventured down to The Castle of Good Hope, which is an old 17th century military fort. It is a fairly big tourist attraction in Cape Town, so we thought we'd check it out. After that, we went to a popular beach area called Big Bay for dinner. 

This last week at work was a busy one! We are starting to move things forward with a plan for the newsletter and an official social media content plan. I've also joined the small team that will be creating a magazine for HAF's Family+1 adoption education and support program. All of the interns in the year-long church internship program currently are on a week-long holiday. It will be a different atmosphere without all of them up in the office next week, but I'm excited to keep working on those projects.

For another example of how my car has been a blessing, I drove Phil and Norbert to the airport early this morning so they could catch their flight to Johannesburg. They're spending the holiday week there. I was a little nervous about finding my way back home alone at 4 a.m., but I made it safely without any problems thanks to my phone's GPS, Siri and the lack of traffic at that time of the day.

Winter here is quickly approaching! The weather here tends to be quite unpredictable, but average winter temperatures are around 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. Compared to Kansas winters, where temperatures can easily get down to the 20's, that doesn't seem bad at all. I have been warned, however, that I'll probably be colder than I'm expecting because winters here do get quite windy and rainy. We also are right by the sea and houses here don't have heating and cooling. The main winter months are June-August, but it has already started cooling down quite a bit over the last week or so. I'm interested to see what happens, and I hope everyone back in the States is enjoying the spring weather!

Since I have been here, and especially over the last couple of weeks, God has started to show me how much growing I have to do in my faith and walk with Him. There are some things that I am going to have to confront and work on within myself. The thought of that is a little scary because I know I'll have to get uncomfortable in order to work through them. But I also I know I have to start letting God peel back the layers in order to become more aware of His presence in my life, to further allow Him to mold me into the person He's made me to be and to chase after the plans He has for my life. Growth requires change. It is a far more dangerous thing to listen to fear! 

Spending time with God through consistently reading and reflecting on the Bible is one of the steps I'm going to take. Sitting down to read the Bible has always been a challenge for me. Starting today, my goal is to read through the New Testament in six months. I have a calendar set out and am planning on waking up 15-20 minutes earlier each day. This YouTube video that Norbert and Phil shared with me, "Coffee With God," really inspired me! It is more than worth the ten minutes. I'm excited to get started and to find out what God wants to reveal to me through His word.