By the way--Week 12! Braai post STILL forthcoming...

*laughs* Guess what? A policeman kicked down our door last night! :-D

.....

Okay, ya, I'll explain. ;-) You see, Charlotte, Heather and I were going all abouts yesterday, to the bakery and to Kalk Baai and to the flat, etc. Then we all went to the internet cafe, and from THERE I was set to meet Ronel for supper at Nando's, to sort of give her a break from studying for her FOUR EXAMS on Saturday (5 hours straight--crazy! Keep her in prayer, if you wouldn't mind). Anyways, so I gave Charlotte and Heather my keys, since they were going to walk straight back to the flat. Ronel and I had a nice supper, a brisk walk back to Pinewin Place, and then a nice discussion at her flat for a bit, and then I headed back to my flat--only to realize that Char and Heather had not yet crossed the summit of door-dom. Apparently, they didn't realize that there were three locks to unlock, and one of my keys was off its chain loose in the purse I gave Heather, so they thought the door was just jammed, instead of still locked, and had jostled it and rammed against it and stuff. This was NOT good for the health of the lock.

So, I tried to unlock it with the proper key--no way. Not a happy lock, wasn't budging one bit. If only it knew the fate that was in store for it... *sighs tragically* So we called Orit and while waiting for her went to Ronel's and hung out a bit, because she graciously said we could crash in her room while she studied with a friend in the lounge. Then, when Orit got back, we walked down to the police station that happens to be located on the block, and they said they would send someone over (honestly, they seemed kinda relieved it was just a lock thingy). So, rightly figuring that we'd have to wait a bit for the police, we oiled and jostled and jimmied that lock every which way from Sunday--HAH! Nothing. In fact, when the police got there, they said we had made it worse. Fun stuff!

So they tried to maneuver the lock for a bit, and then one of them asked us if he could kick the door in--it would permanently damage the lock. We said sure, go ahead--I mean, the lock was broke anyway, we just wanted to get inside. So with a few kicks--door's open! Yep, just like on TV--craziness doubled! Char said she doesn't feel quite so safe with all the locks now, because she knows they can be kicked down, but I'm just happy we got in.

Okay, in other news--Eastern Cape Trip leaves tomorrow! Lots of packing and preparation and purchasing of special foodstuffs to do! We'll be back on April 7th. The trip involves the following fun stuff:

-Adventure course through Cango caves (yep, tight spaces)
-Ostrich farm! (tour, and I WILL be riding an ostrich! :-D )
-visit to Knysna heads (whatever those are) and ferry trip. Also, horse riding on the beach! Now, I've never ridden a horse in my life, so that should be interesting!
-bungee jumping at the highest jump in the world (I will be TAKING PICTURES of the jumpers, thank you very much!)
-sunset safari (those are fun)
-visit to lion and crocodile park (I'm hoping I might get to pet one of them too, for an extra fee...oh, c'mon, it'd be fun! *laughs* But I dunno, we'll see how much money I'm willing to spend--I'll be keeping in touch with the parents and Steve-O, so I might get talked out of it--who knows?)
-river cruise--yep, another one, always nice
-ecological beach walk
-two nights in a "traditional xhosa cultural village" for tourists. *rolls eyes a bit* Okay, I'll be open, but really, *wrinkles nose* I'm not expecting anything earth-shattering...we shall see...
-mountain bike ride *blinks* Okay, should be interesting.

So yeah, toss in a few breather days, and there's our trip!

In other news, exams went really well--praise God! I'm glad they're over and done with--and it was the same sort of format as the US: multiple choice, short answer, three essays. *shrugs* Now I just have that term paper due, and then Quinton is going to assign us a reflection paper on our township volunteer work week, and that's about it! Well, and there's that paper Crossroads wants...*shrugs* Eh, it'll get done. It's not like I have a huge lack of experiences to write about!

I'm actually really excited about my term paper for the TRC (and not just because John gave us a two-week extension--though that definitely helps! ;-) ). I'm studying the translators of the TRC--the entire proceedings was translated into the eleven different languages! The translators had to interpret everything in the first person, which is seriously psychologically traumatizing if the subject matter is gruesome murders and racist attitudes and such deep pain... Google the play "Truth In Translation" for more info. Basically, I'm taking their experiences and showing how that was modelled in the story-telling of some of the victims, as many of them were the "translators" for relatives who died, so couldn't exactly tell their story. I'm also addressing how even some of the perpetrators were really "translating" through the beliefs Apartheid instilled in them. In each case, true personhood is denied because they are living someone else's story. I tie it together with the liberating power of that story-telling and some person ideas and voila! A paper!

*laughs* Now I just have to actually WRITE it! Oh well, I have that outline and a rough draft of the introduction and first paragraph--no worries! Giving them up to God!

I want to try "smiley" while I'm in the townships. Smiley is cooked sheep's head. Frankly, that just sounds interesting.

Verse Of the Day

"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time."- 1 Timothy 2:5-6

I like this because it emphasizes testimony given at the proper time--it can be so easy to see ANY time as being the right time to just whip out your faith and life story, but really we need to rely on God's blessed and perfect timing to guide our actions.

And right now, I need a nap. Catch ya laters everyone! Miss you!

Praise Report! Praise Report!

I have been praying about what I should do with my laptop. It works perfectly fine, but I've been looking at smaller models--if I'm going to be travelling a lot, I need something compact. Then again, I'm not going to be travelling hugely for the next twelve months. On the other hand, it would be nice to not have to carry it through airports and things--on the other hand, that's a pretty sad reason to get rid of a laptop.

Actually, all of the above are, yet somehow, I kept praying about it, and I felt like God was calling me to give it away to someone while I'm here. I was thinking perhaps someone from the townships, but that wasn't sitting right. Then, I remembered a friend from Cornerstone, Bonolo, who always looked tired. She said it was because she worked and volunteered for the school as well as attending classes, and she had to borrow other people's computers at odd hours of the night, because she couldn't always use the computer lab (conflicted with work hours or class hours or also was just plain full of people). I thought she had a job and was saving money from that for a computer, but God kept putting her on my heart, through listening to His voice and the confirmation of a good friend, Charlotte.

Now, when I was praying about this decision, I asked God to specifically to have the person who needed the laptop to be praying for it, and to let me know they had been praying for it. So today I go up to Bonolo and I tell her that I'm giving away my laptop and if she wants it, she can have it by the end of the week. The first thing she does is scream and then, when she caught her breathe, she tells me that she has been praying for a laptop--praying since January, in fact!

See, her desktop computer had gotten stolen or lost in storage or something in January, and she had been scrambling to get her assignments done ever since. She had in fact been praying specifically for a laptop, because she needed it for her fieldwork placement in third term. And she HAD been saving up for a laptop, but God told her to give all the money away to someone who needed it.

God works in such amazing ways! Now, I've just got to clean off the laptop, both in terms of content and physically, and then hand it over by Friday! Zach's going to look it over tomorrow, and I'm going to download the latest version of Norton Antivirus.

God is so good!

Week Eleventy!

Yes, I know I said a braai vs. barbeque post would be forthcoming, and so it shall be--as in, forthcoming from today. This is just a regular update.

So I've realized now that I have less than six weeks left in South Africa--ack! So much has happened here, and so much has yet to happen! God is still pushing me to my limits in terms of relating to people--yesterday I spent part of Easter taking the train to Athlone with Charlotte, and taking the train on a Sunday is a no-no because of the supposed danger. We did sort out some shady characters around, but we were singing "The Easter Song" by the Second Chapter of Acts and other songs and God was SO with us. This guy next to us actually enjoyed it and asked us if we were in a choir. I ended up talking to this girl next to me--used to go to church, but is lazyish because she works five days a week and takes a computer class on Saturdays. I referred her to Church on Main, because its services, while sometimes starting late, always end on time because they understand that college students (or "varsity students" in local lingo) need their study time! I'm praying she'll take me up on the offer and start going there--she likes to go to Cavendish on Sundays anyway and Church on Main is right nearby Cavendish. Oh yeah and Charlotte had bought some baked goods from Martin's Bakery, so we were handing out cookies to people on our train-riding way. ;-) Altogether, a blast. ;-D

So yes, Easter was good--we had a sermon on holiness, with a holistic sense of the term as doing everything to the glory of God. He had this interesting metaphor of a "holiness sandwich": moral goodness is the bread, which is necessary for a sandwich, but not sufficient--you need all the taty stuff inside to make it work out. And he talked some about Eric Little giving God pleasure when he ran and about not being dualistic, which was a refreshing reminder of what we learn at Geneva College (gotta love all those Humanities and Bible classes! :-D ). Then we went to Athlone to Charlotte and Maren's homestay and watched the Sound of Music with some of the Betheld students; watching that movie is an Easter tradition for Charlotte. Oh, and my family called the house--I got to talk with Steve-O and all his family for a bit, and also my family! *laughs* I feel so bad for them, because they call when I'm tiredish at night, but there really isn't any better time to call, because during the day I'm all over the place.

Speaking of night, it is weird for it to be getting dark earlier at night and staying dark later in the morning (like winter), but to still have it be "summer weather" of 70s and 80s!

By the way, I've discovered another happy treat at Martin's: feta cheese and herb flavored corn tortilla chipses! Lovely tasting, especially since it's hard to get a good corn chip here, and also they're baked AND gluten-free AND MSG-free! *sighs* I can see it now--my second little bag is just going to be packed with (pre-packaged) candy bars, chips, drewors, biltong, and gluten-free cookies! ;-)

So, I need to write a four-page paper for tomorrow, I have a group paper due Wednesday, an exam Wednesday, and then an 8-page paper due Friday, but I'm getting an extension for another week--classes are done! Time to move on to the final stage!

Orit needs her computer now--more stuff to come later!

Greetings world--week ten!

Howzit? It's good over here! Let's see, a rather quicker rundown than usual.

Sunday: good services in the morning and evening, and in between Ronel and I went about Cavendish mall, which was a blast. We were supposed to be going clothing shopping, but it turns out that both of us are rather impatient with the whole trying on process, so that didn't really take up much of our time. ;-) Instead, we went to a CD shop and a book shop and a housewares shop. Mostly we didn't buy anything, because Cavendish is known to be affluent and therefore expensive. I was looking for a bargain book bin at Exclusive Books and when I asked the sales clerk about it, she smiled and said they did have bargain book bins at other stores but "not at Cavendish". *laughs* Oh well, at least that also meant really nice plush couches for lounging in between stores and not one, but TWO health stores--one which is accurately name "Wellness Warehouse!" It's the largest health food store I've ever seen--anywhere! Okay, there's Whole Foods, but this was exclusively health-related, including selling exercise equipment and having a massage area. Between the two stores I ended up buying some liquid stevia, some more muesli, and two wheat-free, sugar-free, all-natural "candy bars" (in other words, waaay healthier for you than a proper piece of candy should be ;-) ). As far as food went, we stopped by a fish place in the food court and had calamari and rice for lunch--I also bought a salad there, and some poppadums and a deep-fried spicy potato patty from the Indian place, because I could. :-D Then later at tea I had some of the "candy bars" and a carrot-ginger smoothie from Sumo with echinacea immune defence booster in it. Altogether a nice treat of an outing! :-)

Let's see, as far as this past week is concerned:

Just working on things and stuff like that and some cooking and cleaning and etc. The "bad" news I have something major due Mon-Thurs next week! The good news is that all of the assignments are laid out and explained, so I know what to do--I just have to do it! It's still so strange to be staring down the barrel of my last week of classes, and then exam week and then a trip to the Eastern Cape!

Let's see--the presentation on Monday went really well--it was God-blessed and I enjoyed it a lot actually! Also, I've watched two more movies this week. Thursday was Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow while working on the framework of an assignment, since framing an assignment is boring work(the bibliography and skimming the readings, etc). I found it to be very silly and fun and altogether a great movie to watch while doing something else, because it really doesn't require your full attention to understand. The other movie was Tiger and the Snow, made by the same guy who did Life is Beautiful. I watched it last night with Ronel. It's not nearly as heavy as Life is Beautiful, and I found it charming, though I do find Benini, well, slightly annoying, and not laugh-out-loud funny.

Alrighty, in other news: package from parents! T-shirts! It's nice to have more to wear, and they have a lot of sentimental value too--with everyone else wearing Cornerstone college or Bethel University t-shirts, it's nice to be representing the Geneva College marching band! Wo0t! Also, she packed in the "Silm" shirt and the Susque shirt, so I am seriously going to be representing over here in Cape Town, South Africa! Double Wo0T! Oh, and speaking of which Camp Susque accepted my application--I'll be working there Fellowship weekend and Changeover week! I'm so glad opened doors so I could return and help out for a bit--it's a great place to be, and will be a nice break from the work-a-day world, even with all the craziness that happens at camp as well! Camp craziness is totally different from normal craziness.

Now I need to leave so I can grab some tea and study, because there be plans tonight! I'm invited to an American-style barbeque--all the exchange students are, courtesy of Dr. Wayne Herman and his family. I'm looking forward to the ostrich burgers, and they're going to put aside some potato salad without the mayo (with a plain yogurt dressing instead) so I can have some! And a green salad too! And Woolies has MSG-free hot dogs, so I'm bringing some of those along. It should be fun! It's weird though--on the whole, I really prefer braais to barbeques--remember how I reminisced over braais in the US all that time? I need to make sure I make it to at least one more before I leave for the US. Be forewarned, a post comparing the American barbeque to the South African braai will be forthcoming!

“then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”- Acts 4:10,12

Yay Easter! God bless and keep you all!

Hi there

So, this is me--and it isn't one of those "new week" posts--that'll come sometime later. This is a bit more personal, which is something I'm not comfortable with on a public, rather highly advertised (for me) format.

So here goes:

Through my classes here, God has been shedding a lot of light on how I interact with Him and how that needs to change. Big surprise, right? That's called spiritual growth, which is something I was expecting, anticipating, and even praying for on this trip (though I'd like to be growing every day no matter where I am--spiritual stagnation is something I've lived and it's a sad, lonely place to be in--but that's another story . . . ).

One way is just learning to listen to Him more, not "just" to obey, but to understand. In Reconciliation and Peacemaking we've been learning about our own generally preferred modes of dealing with conflict situations, what the biblical perspective on conflict is, and that ultimately conflict is dangerous, but it is also an opportunity for positive growth and change for the better, which is an idea that is really cool and new to me. Honestly, I tend to shy away from conflict situations in my own, face-saving way because I've always associated that conflict with a bad thing--and in avoiding the situations, I become part of the problem, because nothing is solved.

Okay, back to listening--I get the whole thing that real listening is an active process (which is one reason why being around people a lot wears me out) and should be selfless and all that--basic COM 101, and I loved that class, so I remember the stuff. It's helped me a lot in working with other people. However, then the guest lecturer mentioned that when the Bible speaks of listening, it mostly means "listening to obey God" which is a good thing, don't get me wrong--I still need to do more of that kind of listening. However, she separated from that "listening to understand" which is just a complete empathetic focus on the other person in order to help them be understood and affirmed. This doesn't mean you have to agree with the person, but you need to respect their dignity as a person made in the image of God (yep, back to that stuff! *laughs* ) and part of this is listening to them. I understand this to, but somehow yesterday it just connected that I should also be treated God this way--especially God!

You see, listening to obey God is great, but without a true, complete focus on Him, it can almost be like "okay God, what are the orders for today? I'm ready to go out there in obey!" A Martha approach over a Mary approach, always wanting to quantify God's Word into action when sometimes the only action that He wants me to take is just to be still and meditate in Him and His love, to surrender even my own gifts to serve. This is hitting me in a time where I feel like, having certain gifts, I should be using them and going out there and figuring them out--and He wants me to know about them too, but He's been telling me "stop worrying yourself trying to figure out and use something you can't even begin to understand. Seek Me first and my righteousness and I'll be happy to explain, in My perfect timing. Be still, My child." Crazy, how self-centred distractions can sneak into even the most altruistic-sounding things, hm?

As far as work God has been doing in my life, He's basically been reshaping my personality and I'm not always terribly thrilled with that. I mean, we're all fallen and so even our personalities need to be redeemed according to His grace and mercy displayed through Christ Jesus and His sanctifying Holy Spirit, but still... *whines* It's not easy to come out of my comfort zone! *laughs* And I've realized how much I like to try and hold onto my sense of identity, to place it in a box, to at least be able to quantify what I already know; it gives me cold comfort because I realize how much of my own personality and life experience is still a mystery to me. God is not letting me do that! ;-) He's been forcing me to face up to parts of myself and then taking the figured-out parts out of the box I store them in and reshaping those parts for His Divine and divinely amazing purposes. I wish I could be happy about that all the time, but I can't. *sighs* It's painful.

God, when I said I wanted to be grown, I wasn't thinking I'd be grown this much!

*laughs*

From Philippians 1:

"3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. 8God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."

This is the sort of verse I like to give out and quote to others, but something I need to remember is that these encouraging parts of the Bible were written for me as well!

So there's a page out of Nene's private journal entries--who knows, you may get another one or two before I come back...

Cheers!

Week 9? No way.

Well, it's the start of it anyway--I'm trying to keep track of passing time in part due to:

"Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

-Psalm 90:12

Whether or not this is making me wise, I'm not sure. I think so--the daily private journal entries an things are keeping me accountable and I'm sure later I'll love to page through them. God's been taking me through quite an adventure thus far, and I'm just enjoying the journey with all of its ups and downs and hot sun and semi-tendonitis--meh. Yeah, my right arm and shoulder has been giving me trouble, I think just due to overuse--I'm getting quite the muscle in my right hand! I think in part it's because I'm having to put more pressure on my hands here. Some of the locks required you to open then while turning the key and if you're doing that one-handed and it happens to be your RIGHT hand...yeah, not great, especially for someone who has notoriously weak wrists! *laughs* I'm putting ice packs on it periodically, which help, and trying not to push myself too much.

This week was another day at the classes--and incredible examples of God's grace abounded:

-in the TRC class, two assignments were pushed back a week from their original due dates. Also, we were given the weekend to complete the last of our reading summaries.

-in Urban and Rural Development, we were notified that we could, in fact, turn in assignments later than the class as long as they were emailed to the lecturer by midnight. This is a wonderfully understanding mercy, considering most of us rely on the sometimes-fickle copiers (only two!) to print out our assignments.

Together, these two things really give me more confidence and less stress about the oncoming three weeks. Yes, it means that I have more things due exam week, but I've decided I'd rather have them spaced out than crammed together into two weeks! I don't want to be rushing through my time here--I want to enjoy every minute!

Yesterday (Thursday the 6th) was soooo hot! It was definitely in the thirties (uh, which means...really hot!) One of those days when I just want to live on plain yogurt and salad and muesli and smoothies--so I did! Sort of. The yogurt and muesli was out because I'm out of both yogurt AND muesli, but we stopped by Fruit and Veg city, so I picked up some nuts, seeds, and veg--including a cucumber! And Orit has a smoothie maker--mwahaha! :-D I made and shared avocado-cucumber-plum smoothies with vanilla and a little stevia and some milk to make it just the right texture. The maker was really easy to clean too--watch out South Africa, Nene is armed and dangerous! :-D Though I'm not sure Orit and Edith are ready for carrot-cranberry-almond! ;-)

After the smoothies, I did some devotions and prayer. One area God's really been working on me is just trusting Him for everything. Here in South Africa the schedules are often not followed--and "Africa time", while a novelty for the first few weeks, gave me some issues later on, because for certain reasons I find schedules very comforting and I need them, in a certain way. However, here even "set" things like the trains can run late, or run early, or get cancelled, or you end up crowded into a rail car with a bunch of high school students whol speak Afrikaans but use English profanity and like pop music--*sighs* I thought was flexible, but God's really been stretching my limits! It's really a blessing to be able to come back to the flat and decompress in my own room after a long day. I've started to decorate it with Scripture verses and different pretty landscapes and interesting pictures on the walls with press-it tack to really make it a restful place.

Then I watched Hairspray, because it really was too hot to study and I've been wanting to see the movie and today was two-for-one day at the DVD shop. DVD rentals here are different than in the States--you can only take them out for one night and they have to be returned the next morning by twelvish or you get a fine! Basically, if I took out a DVD for R10 and then returned it late, I have to pay another R10 for each day it's late! I'm really spoiled by Netflix and Blockbuster. Maybe it's because DVDs are in short supply, or maybe they don't trust people as much-I'm not sure. Maybe a bit of both, plus a dash of a third option I can't think of right now.

Later on in the day Celeste came over and we watched "As It Is In Heaven" because Orit and Celeste have to write a paper on it for Faith Development class. It's a Swedish movie, very interesting worldview, if predictable in parts--I couldn't really appreciate it fully because I was also working on an assignment at the time, and I went to bed before it finished anyway. The assignment is a group presentation due Monday: we have to present a sermon from a Western missionary to an African audience with a traditional background on Jesus as the source of power. I have two Africans in the group, so they're handling that perspective and so I'm supposed to come up with the Western ideas and my concepts of what contextualizations might need to be made in these circumstances. I think I might also be the one actually typing it up, but that's what we're going to decide when we meet today.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”- Psalm 139:23-24

Be careful praying this verse, because He'll definitely do it! :-D But it is one of the best experiences in the world to be worked on and led by the Most High, because even at the craziest, most challenging times, you know He's right there beside you and is ready and willing to catch you when you fall--and help you fly! Yay for bird metaphors! :-D
Anyway, that's it for now! God bless and have a great weekend!

Week Se--no, wait! It's week eight!

As of this Wednesday I will be roughly halfway through my stay here. I think I've overused the term "wow" in reference to that. As it stands, I can't imagine driving on the American side of the road--it looks weird on TV and movies. Little things like that show me how acclimated I've become so far; it will be an interesting re-adjustment! ;-)
But I'm not there yet anyway--physically or mentally. I really need to be here, focusing on God's plans for the now now, as well as the just now. Plus, assignments coming up!

I went to a party last Wednesday that was a send-off for a young woman, a graphics designer, who is going to work in Amsterdam. It was so odd to be sending someone else off--and so cool to be able to tell her that I know a little of what she's going through!

At that party, Orit started really showing signs of a flu bug, and by Friday, she was flat-out sick. I've taken over supper cooking since then, quite of my own volition.
Reasoning:
1.) she should be resting, not worrying about supper.
2.) I love to cook, and sharing that food with others is a fun ministry.
3.) I don't want to catch what she has.

So on Friday we had over a friend, Celeste, and I made pasta with a beef mincemeat/tomato sauce that wasn't quite spaghetti sauce(I can't picture coriander/cilantro in spaghetti sauce) and, unbeknownst to them, had my "secret" ingredients of cumin and a dash of cinnamon--it gives a nice, earthy flavor to balance out out the tomato, especially when you don't have a lot of mince. I also fried cabbage with oregano, olive oil, garlic, basil, and this garlic-herb salt, which is just comfort food. :-) Then we watched this movie, Touched, which was actually pretty effective and enjoyable.

Saturday was the traditional xhosa wedding, which was very loud and very celebratory and very interesting--we didn't stay for the whole thing, because this pastor started preaching in xhosa (of course) and he was going to go on for at least an hour or so before the couple was officially hitched! I liked the custom of the bride being met halfway down the aisle to the alter by the groom and his father: the two fathers put the couple together and then the couple walks to the altar together. It symbolizes the union of families, that the two families are "married", and that the family is in full agreement with the marriage. Also, the bridesmaids and groomsmen actually danced down the aisle AFTER the couple went--and not goofy dancing, this purposeful stuff with serious expressions and an excellent sense of rhythm.

Afterwards, we were going to go to the reception, where there was going to be a TON of food(acccording to the pre-emcee at the ceremony), but it wasn't ready yet since we left the ceremony early and we couldn't stay for it because our driver had an appointment to pick up another group at that same time. So we went out and bought food instead. I got 1/4 chicken (remember, these are SMALL chickens), potato wedges, and a water--Nando's potato wedges are da bomb! The best I've ever had by far.

Saturday evening I made soup: black-eyed peas, potatoes, cabbage, onion, tomato paste, and these two beef cuts that made a lovely broth. There's still some in the fridge today, even after eating it for lunch and dinner Sunday, so I'm going to have to avail meself of that later on. :-D

Aaaand, what else to say?

To Geneva people: enjoy Spring Break!

To everyone: have a blessed day!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”- Isaiah 55:8-9

PS--> this passage is always good to remember! I've been struggling this semester with understanding where God wants me and why, when I need to be seeking His peace and rest and setting my mind to obeying His will and hiding His Word in my heart--then He'll reveal things in his perfect timing!