Two weeks!

In the almost two weeks that I've been here, I've definitely seen God moving in my life. I'll try to make this somewhat brief, but bear with me. We had orientation last week, so during our lectures we talked about living together, accountability, dealing with conflict, lots of really good topics. We have time for small groups and we're doing something called accountability triplets, where we pray with two other people on Thursdays while we're fasting during lunch. We have worship time in the mornings and we're learning how to tell our testimonies so that we can do some evangelism on the street. My group went out to the Carlisle town center on Tuesday and we spoke with four people about Jesus. It was more just listening to them, but that was ministry in itself.

We have a regular speaker during the week that stays in the house with us and this week is Katherine from South Africa. She's been talking about the Nature of God, Personal God, and Characteristics of God. It's been awesome and she's been praying for us individually as well and sharing words from God's heart to ours during lecture time. It's been really encouraging.

Last week we bought our plane tickets to South Africa. We'll be leaving on January 15th from Manchester and I'll be returning to Manchester on March 22nd with 3 other people. I'll be staying in South Africa for about 4 extra days.

Our team is meshing together really well and sometime soon I hope to have pictures to send so that you'll have a visual of the people you're praying for.

Last night we had an outreach prep meeting to just talk about the different things we'll be doing in South Africa. It turns out that there are two different outreaches. One doing the Garden Route, which follows a particular path along the coast of SA and will be doing evangelism to the people along the way, in townships, hospitals, through churches and different mission groups. It'll be backpacking and we'd spend no more than 10 days in each town on the way from Cape Town to Jeffrey's Bay. The other option is to stay in Cape Town for 4 weeks doing ministry in local schools, orphanages, food drives, and door to door evangelism. Then four weeks in Jeffrey's Bay working at a home for street children and AIDS orphans. There'd also be the opportunity to teach children and spend more time creating relationships with the locals. So we were asked to pray about it for 15 minutes to listen to God and help us decide where He is leading us for the outreach. I really felt that God was impressing upon my heart to do the Cape Town and Jeffrey's Bay outreach (not the backpacking). I'm pretty certain that that's the one in my heart. It's somewhat what I've been trained to do in that we'd spend a lot of time working with kids and teaching and I think that I would love it. If we need to change up the teams, there's the possibility of me being moved to the other team, but I'm pretty certain that I'll stay on that outreach team.

That's the most recent news. It rained the entire walk to the Graco this morning and it's quite cold of course. I'm settling in better and spending more time by myself to just process and think. I can't imagine being anywhere else right now. And although there are times when my heart aches to be at home, for the most part, it's been really good. Let me know how I can be praying for you.

Thanks to those who've written me back or sent me mail. It's been amazing.
Love you all!

Carlisle Castle

Carlisle Cathedral

Our House at 205 Warwick Rd.

Not our house, but a pretty one on Warwick Rd.

Carlisle, Cumbria

I've successfully made it into Carlisle after a 6 hour train ride from London on Saturday. When I arrived in Carlisle it was raining a bit and there were police all over the train station because a football (soccer) match had just been let out across the street. It was ridiculous how busy and crazy it was with police dogs and many men in bright yellow vests. We're staying in a house that is 3 stories. The lounge/living room, dining room, and kitchen are on the first floor. The bedrooms, toilets (bathrooms), guest rooms, prayer room, and closets are on the 2nd and 3rd floors. There are two girls' rooms with 4 in one room and possibly 6 in the other, but one girl might not be coming. I'm in the room with 6, but we've been okay so far with storage and all that. There are only 2 guys in our DTS and two more live in the house and are doing a BLS . There will be a total of 10 girls and 2 guys, but we're still waiting on 2 girls to arrive this week. I'm one of three Americans. I still love British accents and I'm learning tons about proper English that we obviously don't speak in the U.S. We started lectures today, but it's more of an introduction than anything else. I'm on clean-up duty for the next two weeks following lunch and dinner (or tea as some call it). It's been sunny both yesterday and today, absolutely lovely weather.
The address that you'll need to send mail/packages to is as follows:
205 Warwick Rd.
Carlisle
CA1 1LH
Cumbria

Like I said, I love mail, so get sending. Missing you all. Having a blast.

Jolly Old England

Hello from Jolly Old England!I've made it here successfully and I'm in Rachel's flat in London. I had an uneventful flight yesterday from Jacksonville to Charlotte, with no one in the middle seat, so I definitely had some extra room. After a 4 hour layover in the Charlotte airport, I boarded the plane for London Gatwick. There was only one crying baby on board and even then she only cried very occasionally. Once again, I didn't have anyone sitting directly next to me in the row of four middle seats. Lots of space meant more opportunity for sleep, so I managed about 5 hours on the plane. Amazingness! My biggest worry was going through customs and luckily they decided that I am allowed to stay in the country, so I have a visa in my passport for 6 months. Grabbed my luggage, took the Gatwick Express train to Victoria Station and met up with Rachel. What a joy to see her smiling face after traveling alone for 18 hours! We took the tube back to her flat and I'll be staying with her until tomorrow, when I take the train to Carlisle. I can't believe that the adventure has started already. It still seems pretty surreal, but I'm loving it and I know that God has some awesome plans! Love you, love you, love you!