Hello everyone! Its been way too long since my last blog so i will try to sum my last few months of my life for you. I wanna start at New Years. I had visions in December of being in a stadium full of worshipers. They were on my mind a lot. On new years day, we were having a party in White river in South Africa with all the kids and one of the Founders of the largest missions organization in Southern Africa, Surprise Sithole. He started telling me he was going to an all night prayer and worship meeting at the rugby stadium. I knew i had to go. So i told i was going with him. A few hours later we show up early to what he called a worship "meeting", where there were already 5 thousand people. once we got there he told me he actually organized the whole night (he forgot to tell me that). The place was filled with worship in singing and dancing. I was honestly the only white person. By the end of the night there were ten thousand people that entered the gate and an estimated 2 or 3 thousand that jumped the fence. It was so amazing. Check out the video at the top to see the end of the night of worship. sorry its sideways.

 

       After a couple more weeks in Nelspruit, we left for Mozambique again. We were serving with another missionary who lived about 5 hours north of Maputo (the capital city). We did the normal visits and playing with kids in addition to doing some gardening in the mornings. My heart still is pained for a baby we visited who was burned to a crisp all over his body. He mother said that he fell into a boiling pot. We prayed for with hope to see a miracle but aparently we didnt have the faith. In the last few days we really had fun with the kids. We put on skits and sang songs and played "chase the white people".

 

       After a few more weeks in Nelspruit, we left for more Mozambique. In case you havent noticed the pattern, we felt is was obvious that the Lord wanted us in Moz. This time, we went further north to Vilanculos for two months. We lived in the bush with a missionary family of four. They started a church named "Jesus for Africa" in the city right in between a bar and a motocycle shop.

 

We did preaching at the church and did lots of house visits. On one of our house visits we pasted by a blind man on the sand road in the middle of a bunch of shops. I asked all the people around if they wanted to see a miracle. Then the team and 20 or 30 people off the street started praying for this mans sight. After a couple failed attepts, he said he was starting to see things. So to test him, i walked away from the crowd and asked him to walk to me and did it while saying "im walking to the white person". he never got his complete sight back but it was enough to put a smile on his face and for the other people to wonder what was different about us. My favorite ministry that we did there was teaching and preaching at the prison. the prisoners loved when we came and i got to get really close with some of them.

       After our month at White River at the beginning of our trip, we asked God to send us back there at the end of the trip. Now, because of His faithfulness, we are going back to live there for our last few weeks.

For the last month or so,  I have been living and ministering in White River, South Africa. This video shows a very normal morning in White River. While we were there, We had the privilage to work with Iris Ministries and their daily feeding program.

 

I loved every minute of it. We lived in a compound with about 15 orphans ranging from ages 1 to 15. We really got to know these kids and they really loved us. But the kids didnt have very many things to play on or with around the house so i got to help start the making of a huge jungle-gym. It was made out of trees that we chopped down.

 

Outside of the compound, we were able to really be involved in a very tight christian community. We all felt very loved and accepted there. And I told all the Orphans that they could come back to America with me, so mom, iv got some more Richlieus for you. thanks.

 

     One day after I got to South Africa, i went to Mozambique to work with a missionary who works with prostitutes and their children. The city we stayed in was Matola which is just outside of Maputo (the capital city). On the first day we dug up and planted an organic garden at the new center for the women. and the rest of the days, we played with children of the prostitutes of which some have TB or AIDS. The children live in an orphanage seperate from their mothers. They were the Sweetest kids. We got to sing with them and play soccer and have races and give them their first pizza of their life.

 

     

 

 

       Hello all! Thank you so much for your support to get me here! I love it! I am in Nelspruit, South Africa. I got here about two weeks ago but its been too crazy to blog. I spent the first week in Mozambique partnering with another missionary who works with prostitutes and their children. other than that, I have been getting to know the city and my hosts and the lifestyle of Africa. the house im based in a is a missions guest house. missionaries from all over the world come and stay/rest here for a couple days. Its a busy house but im used to it. my hosts names are kent and Shay, please keep them in your prayers. Nelspruit is well known and big city in South Africa. It has 200,000 people in the city and 3 million people in townships/slums surounding the city. One of the many exciting reasons of being in South Africa right now is the World Cup is being hosted here in june of 2010. Nelspruit has one of the 5 stadiums that were built for the Cup. 

          Everything is really great and exciting and Im pumped to see what God does is the long run because He has done so much in just two weeks. I am getting a lot closer to being done with my support raising but Im still not done. I still need around $2000. please keep my last bit of support raising in your prayers. thank you. love you. peace. 

 

      This past week i was on a mexican island called island of Love. Ten of went to help out a sweet old pastor and his wife in their ministry. the first day was great! we met tons and tons of people.

 

the next day we took boats to get started on building a childrens church on another island. we worked on that for a couple days before a major sickness came from our shrimp and fish diet. within hours, the whole group was terribly sick and not sleeping. we ended up leaving a day early to go to the doctor and checked out. its turns out we all got ecoli. But, thank the Lord, we got our medication and recovered very quickly.

I was downtown in  Matamoros with some guys one night and we came across some break dancers. We watched for a while and me and Bryan made fools of ourselves by trying to dance with them. But the cool thing is that a couple days later, our team decided to go to the square where the break dancers where to give food out. When i went to my room to grab my back-pack, I really felt the Lord telling me to Bring my stereo/ipod player. So i did. We arrived at the square and i saw that only one of the dancers was there. But he wasnt dancing. "Isnt this story predictable?!" I thought to myself. Then a few minutes later some of my friends and I go to talk to him. I asked him why he wasnt dancing tonight, and of course, it was because he didnt have his stereo. I quickly wipped mine out and started dancing with him. After that he ate some food we brought and then he hung out for a couple hours and talked about Jesus with us. Praise the Lord. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a little Elementary school right next to our base in Mexico. Its only for kindergarden and 1st grade to learn the basics. From then on, their education is up to them. They can either be done with school or drive 30 minutes to school. The reason I wanted to share this with you is because in a weird way, I feel that i belong to that school. Every night that I can, I sneek away to that school with my guitar and worship the Father. The acuostics are great. But it has been so precious to me because like the children in the school, God has been teaching me some basic concepts about Himself in that time. I seem to just hear His voice so clearly in there. He tells me things about His love and faithfulness and mercy. For this reason, its gonna be hard to leave Mexico.  But I know He will meet me where ever I am in the world.

          For me, I've made the city that I've grown up in, a mission field. I've spent my life serving and giving, with my friends and family. After high school, I felt called to northern Minnesota to a small church, where I would do the same thing. Shortly after I was there, I led worship for a missions conference, which got me thinking more about the opportunity to go over seas for missions. This brings me back to the verse that has been giving me motivation through this process. Acts 1:8 seems to directly relate to my story. It says that you need to "be jesus" in your city, in your state, and in your world. Through prayer and communication with family, friends, and my church leaders, I made the decision to serve God in a place I felt called to. I am excited to see how far God can push me, and I expect to see His miracles.