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!