Andrew Anderberg - Serving The Kingdom

Soon... I will be home

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hello Everyone!

Well... if you havn't heard by my Facebook yet... I will be coming home at 10AM the 29th of April from the Spokane Airport! Time flies, doesn't it. Yes, it is two weeks early than was set, but as Tag, one of the AIM leaders, said, "Man makes plans, but God allready had seasons." ... It sounded smart like that anyways... It basically means that even though a man put a date on the callander for when we would return home, God had a season for us. Our season is over now. Slowly as the days have gone by, God has been releiving us and setting us free of our responsabilities.

The decision to come home basically was unanimus in the end. After talking to Tag last Sunday, we all talked about where we were and what needed to happen as a team. Right now, we are all so broken. Basically trying to use everyone as a crutch, only to find that our crutch is borken. Really, we need to be in the arms of the ones we know, love and can support us through this greiving process. Life is difficult, but it was really God's timing, and our season here is over.

We are sad to say goodbye to our ministries, to our South African family, and our Team. This last week together has been really good. Finally, we are able to laugh with each other and our sillyness. Really, this is a good time to say goodbye, when we don't want last memories to be of times where we were angry with each other.

For this past week, we have been writing in each others books, telling each other how much we love each other, how much we appreciated each other, funny memories, doodles and much more.

Honestly, there is so much to say... which would probably end up being much larger than my other blogs, so I won't try to say much else... other than two things.

Louie Giglio, the one who made "Indiscribable" and other such DVD's heard about our team and sent us one of his other ones called "Hope". We just got it in the mail yesterday, and were so blessed by this man. For me, it was such a blessing to know that the man who talks on this DVD is the one who is praying for us half way around the world! Thank you so much Mr. Giglio!!!!

And last, I will be ariving at the Spokane Airport at 10AM on the 29th of this month!!! 4 more days!!!

Anyways... I hope to see some of you when I arrive... and if not, just give one of my family a call, and perhaps we can have you over for diner! I am hoping to have a welcome home party shortly after, just so I can see you all at once and show you the cool things God has done in my life, as well as the gifts I am brining home to you!!!

Thanks so much for the support you all have shown me. And this is not the end. When I do missions at Riverview this summer, "I got a job to work there," and in Kenya, I will still use this blog! So no need to fret. I will update this thing better when I have late nights at home where I am bored out of my mind because of 3AM jetlegg!!! Ha ha!!! See y'all soon... yes... I do say Y'all now... so do laugh at that... as well as my Sjoa!!!

Love,

Andrew

Sudden Changes

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

My Dear Family of God,

I really don't know where to start with this blog. As the leaders said to me last Wednesday, "A lot of things are about to change... just be patient." They really weren't kidding. A lot did change, and more than the leaders probably knew. As you and people around the world have been praying for us, AIM has been praying for direction on our team and where to go from here. I was told by Scott, one of the head leaders, AIM has never had a death in the First Year Missions Program, the program that I am in. There are no manuals, no quick, "Ten Easy Steps to Get Over Greif," manuals.

In this time of AIM trying to decide what to do with our team, tough decisions have had to be made. This morning, three of my team mates left to go home because of different circumstances, and were told by one of my old leaders from last semester, Christina, when she landed Sunday afternoon to be with our team. They left this morning at 7AM, and they are missed by our team.

If you haven't heard, noticed or been counting, our team has been getting extremely smaller. Nicole and Victoria leaving to go home to be with their family, Sarah is now gone, and the three that left this morning has left only six of us to possibly continue on with the work we started here in Port Elizabeth. Leah has been staying with her family this past week, "her family came to visit her here in South Africa, and were here before Sarah passed away," which leaves only five of us and our three leaders from our team.

After deciding to have the three from our team go home, AIM also decided to send the remaining half of our team and the Jeffreys Bay Girls to Cape Town with a friend of AIM named Tom to process and lead us in the right direction of grieving for our beloved friend. All day.... "well... the longest nine hours of my life..." we drove from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town to spend what might be a week here. While us students will be processing with each other, the leaders were given a complete break from us to rest and get through some of their own grieving.

For our PE team, time will also be spent in seeking God's will for our team. Most of us jump back in forth between the ideas of staying or going home. Our team is so small, and our time is so short that for some, their time very well could be done here. I realize, as they do, that the last month we have, "which now at most, only two weeks of ministry left," will be spent saying goodbye to our ministries, friends and church family. As one of my team mate mentioned, this only prolongs saying goodbye. This time will especially be spent seeking Dad for the answers.

And questions are faced like, "What if three of the students are called home while the rest of us are feeling called to stay here?" or, "What if some of our leaders need to be home, and some are left here? Can students be left with some of the locals to finish out the work?" or, "How do we continue on and try to function when half of us are gone?" Things will not be the same, even if we do stay. So for this week, we will seek Dad's will. Please pray for us as all these things are accomplished.

The point of the matter is, some of these things we have faced will not be easily fixable. For me, I don't think I will be completely back to normal when I get home. What I mean is, I think I will still be broken over Sarah's death when I come home. Emotions are not like bruises or scrapes that are healed quickly, emotional wounds are the kinds that have the capacity to stay with you for the rest of your life.

Personally, I now lean more to stay here, and really feel called to be with the youth at FireHouse, to return to Doreen's orphanage and help steer them in a direction of healing. Four weeks can be a lot of time with Youth, and I really need to be here for them. I only wish I had more time.

Pray for us now as we seek God's face for the future. And in the mean time, thanks so much for all the encouragement you have given me, and I love you all. Keep Sarah's family in your prayers. I believe her funeral in Minnesota will be Wednesday. Also pray for the parents of me and my team mates, as they all break for us in different ways. Thanks so much.

Love,

Andrew

PS The funeral here in South Africa was very beautiful, and you wouldn't believe how many lives Sarah touched at our church. They all love and miss her.

Fly Away Home

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to get you updated on things. I will be honest, things have been really tough for my team lately. This week has been full of sadness, greif and anger. We are all suffering in our own ways right now.

If you havn't heard by now, one of my team mates, Sarah Buller, passed away last Sunday in a terrible car accident. I was at home watching a movie at the time. Her and two of my other team mates, and one local were all taken to the hospital with Sarah. Sarah flew away home to be with Jesus Sunday the 5th of April at around 3:45pm.

My heart has been so broken for her parents, and her 8 other siblings back in Minisota. I actually got to meet her parents last month when they speant a few days with us, going to Sarah's different ministries. My heart is so broken that they will not see their oldest doughter untill we all speand life with God in eternity.

Sarah was a great ministry partner. She loved the kids at Doreen's just as much as I did. She had such a heart and passion for Christ and serving Him. You could see that in her decision to come to Africa for the 9 months she was willing to commit of her life. She left behind a beautiful family, four that were just adopted a little bit ago, to come here to the other end of the world... making new friends and a new family, touching the lives of all she was around. She tought me never to forget the famliy I am around. She will be truly missed by us as the PE team in South Africa, as well as her family and friends at home.

The first time I met Sarah, we were riding on a bus to Training Camp in Atlanta GA, awaiting what would be in store for us over the next few months. Her name was easy to remember, because of there being three other Sarahs on our huge team of 41 people. I will never forget the South African Team Tallent Show when all four Sarahs came out to do a tallents... where they just showed off the fact that all their names were Sarah. I really laughed hard. Over the next few months after we found out she was on our team, we had times of laughing together through the sillyness of our team... like our Bingo Family night where we all dressed as old people and pretended like our hearing was bad as our elderly wacked out leaders tried to read us the numbers... hahaha.

The day she died, the police came to our house to get her medical information. I was one of the first to find out that there was something wrong. As I searched the leaders room for her medical information, the police assured me that she was allright... they just needed to know if she was allergic to anything, and her blood type. Two hours later after everyone had started heading home from our Spring Break, Matthew came to the house to tell me that our beloved Sarah had died.

Later we would find out that the injuries she suffered was way beyond the doctors ability to save her life, and there was nothing they could have done to save her.

Today I believe that she is being sent back home to be with her family. We are celebrating her 19th birthday with our Church Family at LightHouse, remembering her and the impact she left on our life. I hope to see Doreen and some of the kids there today.

I have been doing allright. I cry here and there when I remember her. Yet, I feel such peace about her death, and such trust in Christ that He knows what He is doing. I have no doubt in that. I trust Him in this whole thing. I know we will all be together again. These feelings of greif are normal in seporation. As mom told me once, "Death is so hard because God didn't create us for it. He created us to live forever, and then sin entered the world. Seporation is hard on our spirit because it is not meant to be, and we are not meant for it." These feelings of sadness and anger that run in me are just normal...

Our team has hit a delema... what do we do now? Obviously there is a lot of greif still left in us. As Meghan J., "one of my other team mates," blew out her birthday candles, she cried and needed help to blow them out. There is almost always someone crieing in the house. Most of us have resorted to watching TV or facebooking from our cellphones to dea with our greif. We have started to spend much time here at Mug & Bean to write letters and skype from our computers... and yet nothing we can do will bring her back... and we just are left with the memories and the greif of her death.

What do we do we do now? What is to become of us after the mamorial service, after our Church family that are staying with us to help us through this hard time have gone home? How are we going to handle life when we start to do the chores again... after we go back to ministry? Will life ever go back to what it was before with us. As Dee Dee said last night at our meeting, "One way or another, thing will not be the same... and we will have to start taking everything differently."

Last night at our meeting, we talked about the fact whether the last five months was worth staying here. One way or another, we will have to process this greif. There is no easy fix... no manual that AIM can give us, no book that could help us all deal with this. There is no easy fix... and if we stay here, we could easily spend the rest of the time processing grief... waiting for the time when we could be home with our families.

Last night... I thought to myself that for me, I need to stay here... to be with the Youth. I can just picture what a trajidy it would be to not only see Sarah leave, but the rest of us go because of her death. What about Doreen's Kids? They deal with so much allready, having so many people die in their own lives, only to have me leave them too... left to deal with their own grief coming back that they didn't deal with before. What about all our team mates? We especailly need each other now more than ever... and yet... will we all be here in a weeks time?

Last night... I was totally against the idea of going home early... but this morning as I woke up... I thought seriously about going home early. I have so much to do. I have so much support to raise for Kenya, and pluss I will be around people who love me and care for me... and who support me at home. I can finally lay my head on my mom's lap and snuggle with her in the ungodly hours of the morning... I can finally go to the movies with Dylan, I can go into my sisters room and get the support I need by talking into the long hours of the night, I can see beloved friends like Querida, Ashly and Krista and cry on their sholder as the pain comes up again and becomes to hard to bare. I can see my new baby cousin, and be part of people at home's life again. I will be back in December to see people again here in SA, it won't be goodbye forever here.

What about my family here? How can I say goodbye to my South African Mummy, Carol? How can I say goodbye to my friends like Juan-Luis? To Jethro? To Tristen? To Andrew, Brad, Berry, Nikita, Bart, Doreen, Vuyo, Tsepo, Tina, Qua Qua? Faith? My Team Mates that will stay behind? The people at Debreif that I havn't seen since December? How can I give up all that?

What do I do?

I am at a cross road, a fork in the road... which turn shall I make. I honestly don't know what to do. I have to admit... this is what angers me... the stress I feel because of all this. Last night after our meeting, I grabbed a GrapeTizer glass bottle, went out to the park out front and threw that bottle at the tree to break it because I was so angry. I needed to releive stress... and the crazyness of this whole thing hasn't helped. I don't feel I have had time to connect, even with Matthew who I often confide the depths of my heart in. We are too tired at night to talk. I sleep late in the morning because I need the rest... and think to much during. Our crazy life has left us all hopeless on what to do... and because of all this... we all wonder whether our time here is up.

I don't know what to do now... I am so tired, stressed and angry that I do not know what to do now... and I am left to try to move on with life, when I miss the life we had before all this happened....

End of March Blog

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

My Dearest Family and Friends,

I figured that since I have been telling everyone... "Hey, I have a blog, come and look at it... I try to keep it updated as much as I can..." that I should probably give you all something better than a depressing blog that I posted last week. These past few weeks, I have really seen God's blessing on my life and what I am doing. I can see His work on my life and how much He cares about me through the prayers of all my South African friends, the family I have here, and the family and friends I have at home.

I am happy to tell you all that since last week asking you all to pray for me, God has been giving me so much grace and blessing me with rest and refreshment. Last Sunday when I wrote my blog... thinking I had nothing left to give and feeling like I had defiantly hit the end of my rope... through all your prayers, God gave me the energy and strength that I needed, and more... I feel so rested, as if I had just taken a month off and jumped back into ministry with enough energy to carry on to the end of the trip... and I can't explain all this energy and rest any other way than to say that God heard my cry, "literally... I did cry... just ask my marmy," and had grace on me giving me the rest and energy I needed on Monday! It was completely amazing... and I don't know how else to explain it.

Truly, I have lately been also blessed by the people at home being such an encouragement. I was able to reconnect with a few dear friends of mine at home over the past few weeks, and they have been exactly what I needed. I have found such encouragement in them for all the praying they do for me. Prayer is truly an amazing tool to reconnect with God.

Sadly, my time is so short here, as I probably wrote in my last blog. To the date I write this blog, I have 14 days left of going to Doreens, 4 days left with the FireHouse Youth Group, and a month and a half left with my team-mates. Truly, from my heart... I could again go into a sad state about how much time I have left here... but I really want to honor God and write the blessings I have already felt this semester here in PE.

At Doreens, God has given me 15 beautiful and amazing children, who I love and will truly miss. I have been able to be used in mighty ways by God to be part of their growing process, and be someone in their lives who they can remember loved them and cared for them. For Doreen, someone who listened and cared for her just as much... who even took time to spend the night to give her a break from life. Currently, I am working with another church to get Doreen's boys a spiritual father figure that will be more dependable than I am able to be, and can continue on the work I have done in growing and maturing these orphans in Christ, someone who will point them towards their Heavenly Father and fill the gaps of abusive and parentless abandonment they have had to deal with in their own lives. I hope that they will someday feel the same love I feel from my heavenly Father.

At FireHouse, God has put me in the lives of so many Youth, to be someone in their lives who cares and loves them... through their messes and accomplishments, someone that will always be there to pray for them and encourage them. I love all the kids there so much. I pray that as I leave, I will have left an impact of someone who truly followed Christ, and who they also saw Christ in me.

Algoa, the place with the disabled Kids, I don't know if I will ever be back to that place of love. A few weeks ago, God started to release me from that place, allowing me to work more with more of the Churches ministry. However, with the time I was there, God showed me His heart and love for even the most hopeless cases I have ever seen... to get passed the smells, past the disturbing images and see the true child that was in each of the kids, even the ones who will never be able to get out of bed. I pray that God would start and then continue to give those children joy, and I am excited for them... for the time that they can walk in the fullness of God, being able to talk and play in God's glory like they have never been able to.

My team-mates all the way through have been so amazing. I truly feel loved by them and cared for. Through them, I have really felt the community I feel I have never had, and have grown and still am continuing to grow through them. For the past seven-and-a-half months, I have had to share a bedroom with others... and I have loved every minute of it. Through these amazing guys in my life, I have been filled with the love of guys in my life, like I have never really had in my life before the trip. They have grown me as a man of God.

From my leaders, I have learned and grown so much from the leaders on the trip, especially Matt S. and Tag T. They have both been such great male figures in my life. From Tag, I have been challenges so much more as a person and living out this thing called a Relationship with Jesus Christ, and from Matt, I have seen and learned so much from his example of what a real leader looks like... someone who has been such a personal leader... yet real guy in my life. I love them both, and miss them so much. I don't think I have truly expressed what they really mean to me.

One of the main focuses of this blog I wanted to make was where I could have been, and where I am now. God is constantly reminding me through little and significant things from the life I wanted to lead so badly last spring, saying, "See Andrew, how much better My plans for your life are?" I know if I had only lived things a little differently in that dream life I wanted so badly I wouldn't have the joy deep within that God has given me in knowing I am where He wants me to be. As I reflect back on these past months, back on the life I have lived here, "yes, this has been more than a mission trip, it has been my life," I don't think now that I would have wanted any differently.

As you know, I will be heading off to Kenya after a few months at home. I have to admit that this is scary for me to yet again be gone for another year... but looking back at the life I have lived here and how blessed I have been by following in God's plan, I know that I can expect to be equally blessed to give another year of my life to Christ.

Oh my word... this blog again is WAAAAY too long... I will stop it short... but I miss you all... and just about 7 weeks until I am home!!!

Love you all!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Middle of March

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

My Dearest Family and Friends,

How are you all? I have been okay. These past few weeks have been getting harder and harder for me. If you haven't heard, or haven't been doing the calculations, two months from the time you read this, I will have been home for a few days! It is exciting to think about it, but it also saddens my heart deeply. As the days go by, I bond more with the youth at FireHouse, more with the people at LIghtHouse, more with the people at my ministry, and more with my fellow team-mates. I have truly loved everyone I work with and see, and right now, I feel so at home here. I feel as if I could stay here for a longer period of time, but God has other things in mind for me.

One of the biggest struggles our team has started to face is how short of a time we will actually be here. Nicole, one of my team-mates, just left to be with her family in the states a week ago. As her trip ended, we saw how much people had bonded to her and their sadness as she left. This all brought a new atmosphere to our team dynamics. It brought a new realization to the people at LightHouse Family Church of how short a time we are here, and how cautious we all need to be with these next few months, that there won't be too much despair and heart-ache when we leave. Yet, I feel as some of them do that getting attached and getting closer is something that naturally happens when we all work so closely together, and is hard to stop.

Within our team, a lot of us now start to long for home, counting down the weeks and days until we finally get to go home. The passion is starting to die off from excitedly working for Jesus to not wanting to go to ministry. On the other hand, there are the few that realize how much more work is to be done here and are pushing ourselves to give everything our all, but fall into exhaustion, becoming physically, emotionally and spiritually drained, as I have started to feel.

Ministry has been hard lately. With Doreen, "the Walmer Orphanage," she has started to get more and more stressed out because of the fifteen kids she has. The stress is causing high blood pressure and nose bleeds. Lately, sleep has become something that she does less and less. Recently, she got four more kids in her house, which added to the stress she was already feeling. I felt like I needed to help her, so I took my day off and stayed at her house to help her with the new kids. There was so much work, and so much to deal with that I really didn't feel like I helped out that much. She still only got 3 hours of sleep when I stayed there. I am getting so worried for her, she needs a break, perhaps someone to also live with her 24/7 to help with the kids, but none of these things are happening... I am afraid that if she continues on with this getting no more help that it would probably kill her. Please pray for Doreen that she would get more help from somewhere and be able to take the break she needs.

FireHouse, the Youth Group, has been recently under spiritual attack. Individuals have been having trouble with this especially. It is more prone to attack because of what power this youth group holds, and how much Christ is working in them. Please pray especially now that God would protect the kids going there.

In me, realizing there are two months left on one hand I push myself more to making the days I spend with people count and memorable... pushing myself too much. If you ever remember my life last year while in High School, College, five music classes and everything in between, my life looks pretty similar, except instead of schooling, ministry, and I push myself to exhaustion, and beyond. On the other hand, realizing there is only two months left here, I think more and more about what life will be like when I get home. I know I shouldn't do this, but I already have started to stress about what life will be like when I get home.

I worry about what friendships will be like when I get home. I hope and wish that everything will be the same when I get back, as if I have pushed pause on my life at home and will be able to start my life where I left off as soon as I push play. But as I wrote earlier to a few friends at home, I know how sorely wrong I am about this. Not only will people at home have changed, but I have changed myself. I am not the person who got on that plane in Spokane last September. I have changed so much even within myself. I have seen heart-ache, sadness, poverty. I have overcome emotional wounds and have learned to forgive, and have grown so much closer to God. With all this change, I scare myself thinking that thing will be so different between me and the ones I love that there will be nothing left in common, and friendships will have been lost. This has especially scared me.

One thing great that happened was I got a job for when I get home, working at Riverview Bible Camp in Kitchen Staff. I am so excited, it has been confirmed that this is where I am supposed to be this summer, but at the same time I think of how this place is two hours away from where I live, which means even when I am home, I will still be far away. In a sense, I will still be on the mission field, which I am excited to continue working for Christ, yet I will not be home, close to the ones I love... to be able to go to coffee with, to a movie with or truly have time to catch up and be with everyone I love. I feel that everything will have to be done by appointment over a very tight weekend. I wonder if I will even truly get time to rest after this adventure.

All of this in combination and with a spiritual attack that happened last night, I started to shake and worry. I even got worried that something might have happened at home and panicked. I had my mom call me, and when she did, I wept from the stress that I have been going through for 15 minutes, letting out all this emotion bottled up inside of my spirit... the frustration, fear, sadness, stress, tiredness, everything relieved inside of me as I cried. After it all, I took out my Bible and read the Psalms to comfort me through this stress.

I especially need prayer with these last few months that God would renew my strength and give me rest, so that I could continue with the work I do here in South Africa to the end. And do pray for my team. We found out yesterday that another team-mate, Victoria, has been called to go home to be with her family and will leave in the next few days. Pray for me as well that the Lord would relieve my stress and give me joy that I might continue to keep the people around me laughing with joy as well.

Thank you all so much for praying for me, and for all your support. I love and miss you all.
Love,
Andrew

PS-I DID IT!!! Finally... a two page blog, instead of one.

Everything... The Drama I Directed

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Here is the Drama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upHOM9GVpTs

Hope you like it!!!

MARCH... ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIER... ok... I got carried away with the month

Mon, 2 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

HEY EVERYONE!!!

I am excited to be writing to you again!!! How are you all doing? I have been doing pretty good lately... I think I am now noticing myself to get a little more tired every day, but a good kind of tired... it lets me know that I am working hard for Christ, which is probably a good feeling for a missionary to be getting...hehe. I was talking to Leah Rush the other day about how crazy it is to think we are missionaries even though we feel quite normal... except for the whole EXTREEM God stuff and our work aspects. Though it is weird, I do feel quite blessed and thank God every chance I get for allowing and giving me/us these wonderful opportunities to serve Christ and show our love back to Him through our work.

So today I decided to take the day off, "we get 5 days to take off this whole semester... this is my first day off since the beginning of this trip since I didn't take any days off last semester," and get some work caught up on, like writing this blog and communicating with my lovely family back home. Yesterday was the first day I was able to get on Facebook and my email in a long time, and after spending almost four hours talking to family and going through emails, I still had more work to do. So it will be nice to get some family work done. In this time of not being on the internet, God has so blessed me in my relationship with my team-mates, wonderful new church family at LIghtHouse, the Youth Group kids and my ministries that I work in between, "for more information about these, keep scrolling down until my last blog, it will tell you there..." He has also blessed me in my feelings towards myself. I think I have told you that for a while, I was going through a pretty bad depression within myself wondering where I belonged and not finding my place here. All that is gone now, and I feel so healed of all that. God is truly the healer... isn't He?

Oh... Thank you all so much for praying for the Taxi Strike, it did end that Friday, so this month, we have been able to get to ministry all right! So.... Thank you again.

I have been writing letters to people and I feel like a lot of these things I am about to say I have a least written four times, so please forgive me if I fall asleep to my own writing and start jumbling up letters here... I am sure you will have much entertainment in what I am about to say, even if you haven't heard already. And if you have heard.... Just wait for the sleep marks... and the rest of you should get a kick from me.

So I was able to spend the night in the Walmer Township, "this is the township that Doreen's Orphanage is at," twice. The first time our whole team went into the township to this church that wanted to host and have "some fun" with foreigners... so they took us in. The stories are pretty crazy, and I am sure you want, most of my other team-mates have probably already posted stories on their blogs.... One of the stories was when Kevin got to sleep in a twin bed with his big host dad!!!! HAHAHA.... We all got a hoot out of that story!!!

Matthew and I got put together to go to our hosts house. He is about a year or two older than us and he had all his friends over. We walked about a half hour to his house with his friends, then walked to the grocery store, which was another half hour away, and got a bunch a junk food, "AND THESE AMAZING LAYS CHIPS WHICH ARE CALLED BALSOMICK VINIGAR AND ONION CHIPS WHERE ARE FANTASTICK!!!!" and walked back to our hosts house. Then we ate the junk food and his friends left by then because it was getting late.

Then we had dinner with his family, and soon after, I went to bed because I was pretty tired, and Matthew was soon to follow. Our wonderful host gave us his queen bed and He slept on the floor. I have to say that Matthew Hussey is a blanket thief.... But that is ok, because I am too. We got up, went to another three hour sit down church service, "ok... well we did do the stand up, sit down , stand up, sit down thing which was once referred to as what a man in Jeffreys Bay calls, Christian Aerobics," and came home. It was a great experience to be able to talk with all the guys. I was truly blessed by this experience!

So one of the other things I have been doija;lsdkfja;sd f asd;fas........*snore snore*l;aksjd;flaksd fla;sd*snore snore some more*;asldf a;lsd;aeir ......... just kidding....

The second time I spent the night in the township was when I stayed at the orphanage with Doreen. I had such a great time there. The kids were so excited for me to be spending the night that they wouldn't even believe me until I didn't get on the bus that should have got on to go home. Doreen had me start a Braii, "the South African Version of a barbeque," and she made one of the most wonderful potato salads I have ever tasted to go along with lamb, chicken, three bean salas and much more. It was a very good treat to have for diner. We had a braii because one of the other students from Switzerland was going back home. It was very tasty.

When it was time for bed, I took over for Doreen to give her a break and got the kids ready for bed. I slept in the boys room that night, after telling Doreen to go to bed early, "she goes to bed at 12AM sometimes and has to get up every day at 4:30AM, she is often very tired and stressed because of it all," and that she had to stay in her room until 8AM, and I would lock her door if I had to, to keep her in bed. Luckily, I didn't have to do that because she slept in until 11AM that morning!!!

When I got into the bedroom, the boys were all arguing on who was going to sleep in bed with me, finally I allowed Voyo to sleep in bed with me. It was pretty hot and we were all sweating, so I asked if I could open the windows and Voyo said, "No don't open the window, the bad people will come and put snakes in our room if you do that." Obviously they were allowing their imagination to get carried away with them, so I waited until they were all asleep and opened the windows. I was half asleep the whole night, so any movement in the room I kept my eye on. Then, I saw a hand reaching into the room and, "being scared for my life," tried to act brave and figure out how to break this man's arm without getting stabbed. Then I looked at the shadow on the wall to see the outline of the man's face... only to find it was just the cat going in and out of the bedroom!!! So all that worrying was really for nothing, *Andrew rolls his eyes in embarrisement.*

Later on that morning Voyo woke me up poking me and saying, "Who is that?" I said, "It's me... Andrew." Then he said back, "Oh Andrew.... I forgot it was you..." Then he started talking to me a little, "this was all about 4AM," then he finally said, "Andrew, I need to go to the bathroom." So I told him to just go then and he said back, "No, I don't want to." So I waited in silence for two minutes and asked him back, "Do you want me to go with you?" Then he said, "Yes please, I just don't want the bad cat to come and bite me!!!" I laughed to myself inside because of this.

Needless to say, I got up an hour later, "for those of you that are not good at math, an hour later is about 5AM..." and started getting everyone ready for school again by waking them up and making them cold cereal with..."this is what Doreen told me to do... I was not being cruel and unusual to them," heat up some milk and make a concoction of half milk and half water to give to them... "EW hugh!!!" I fed them and they went off to school at about 7AM, and I went back to bed and slept for two hours. Later on that day, I told Doreen about my experiences with sleeping with the boys and she said, "Those boys are such scardy cats... they are even worse than the girls!!!" It is true....

Another thing I have been keeping myself busy with is the drama. I think I told you about how Leah, Matthew and I have been working on a drama called Everything by LifeHouse, well, this last Saturday and Sunday, the students were able to perform it!!! We bathed it in prayer and it had such a HUGE effect on the Youth and the Church. I am still working on film editing it at the moment, so be a little patient with me... it will be up soon. You are probably not the only ones that want to see it, I think that the Church will want to put a link to it so the LifeHouse. By the way, their website is http://www.lighthouseministries.co.za/ if you ever want to check it out! You can listen to some of the sermons, or just check it out. I have to say I have really found a Church Family here in South Africa... I have felt so at home here at this Church, and I will really miss my South African Church Family....

But getting back on to topic... I was so impressed with all of the students involved. We also did it with live music. I don't think my camera did the show any justice, but at least you get to see some of the fruit that has been coming from this.

Well... I think yet again, I have written you all a book!!!! So I will let you go for now.

I love you all and miss you!

I will talk to you all later!!!

Few... Long Time... No Write... gulp

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Everyone,

How is everything going at home? I have been doing pritty well. I feel as if now I am settled, and I am really ministering to the people of Port Elizabeth. I have been involved with my ministries for at least two and a half full weeks and have had a great time. I just love it here. So here are my ministries and a little bit of the explination.

Algoa Frial Center- I go here two days a week for a few hours. Here is where all the extreme physically and mentally handycapped children in the Port Elizabeth area go. They have about 250 kids between the ages of 4 and 30... "even the 30-year-olds look and act like kids here," live here. And somewhere between 150 and 200 have Cerebral Palsy, "I hope I spelled that right." Many of them are orphaned becuase culturally it is a discrase to have handicapped children.

Sadly, there are so many kids and too few nurses that these kids don't get too much individual attention, especially for physical theriepy, so they a lot of them have it so bad that they have started to curl up and because they don't move their bones have fused together. One of the girls there has her legs all the way up by her head, and her arm goes over one of her legs, yet all of it as well is fused together. This place has a lot of hard things to see. I think I have cried being there two times in the short time I have been there, but there is so much room for love. To be able to go in and she these kids that they are valuable, and they are loved is one of the most precious things I have done here.

It is so much fun to go in there and love them by singing songs/ teaching songs to the few that can sing, tickle any and everyone that will giggle, hold the fused hands of Cerebral Palsy children, and just sit there and rub the legs of the ones who cannot move and mentally are not there. I love those kids to death, and they really are so precious, even in Jesus sight. What a blessing to show God's love to those who need it the most.

Walmer Township Orphenage- Walmer is the name of one of the many townships here in Port Elizabeth. In this Township, there is an orphenage with about 15 kids between the ages of 3 and 15. I go here 4 times a week for about 4 hours to love on and play with the kids. Dorine, "the owner of the orphenage," is so excited to have me. She told me that most of the time they have girls going in, and for the four boys there they never really get a father figure, so for the next few months, my main focus is on the boys, loving on them, as well as the other children, being that fathrer figure to them. I mostly just go and talk with Dorine for a few hours, do a few dishes, and hang out with the kids. It is very easy going, so there is a lot of room for intentional relationship building. The kids adore me, and I love them to death as well. I miss them so much... which I will explain later...

FireHouse- This is the Youth Group for LightHouse Family Church, the chuch our team is partnering with. Here I help out with the Youth Group, help with the Worship team, hang out with the youth on the weekends, get involved in their lives and I am actually starting FireHouse's Drama team. I am so excited to do this. We are starting with LifeHouse's "Everything," Drama first... which should be good. I will give you all the tag to Youtube later when we do it. It is looking so amazing!

So back to why I miss the kids at the Walmer Township Orphenage. I actually have to ride the bus system to get there every day. But lately the taxi's have been on strike and it has gotten pritty nasty. They have started to shoot people who pick up others from the township to go to work, "which no one can go to work because of the strike," they have set a taxi on fire so it would blow up and the buses are afraid to drive anywhere because of all this. So, because of all this, even the buses are afraid to drive into the township, and it is probably not safe for our team to drive anywhere near there, so because of all this, I won't be going into Walmer until this strike is over. Sadly, the newspaper and people are saying this strike will last the rest of this month, so I might just have to find something else to do untill then. Please pray that the Taxi's will stop their strike soon, or that God would show me where else He would have me to go.

Also pray for the people who are being affected by the Strike. Many cannot get to work, and so they can't get any money, so they stay home and drink. Kids can't get to school as well... so the adult men that are on strike or can't work are bored allong with the kids that cannot go to school. As I have seen in St. Francis Bay, this combonation is really bad for the kids because there are more chances of them getting raped. So pray for protection for them as well.

As the weeks go by, "which they are going by extreemly fast," I start to grow more in love with my team, and God shows me more of how I can love Him. As the weeks go by, relationships start to grow, friendships start to increase, and I start to love the people of PE so much more. I know that I will be so brokenhearted when I have to leave. Even now, I hope to come back to PE one day, and possibly live here, I have loved it this much, yet I know that God has bigger plans for me, and will take me to many more different places in the future, yet I will never forget the people of PE, and how much I have learned here.

Oh, good news, for my total support, I only need $1,075! I am so excited, and I would love to get it all paid off by March, so now, if 11 people could please pledge to give me $100, then I will have ALL I need for the rest of the trip! I really need to get it all paid by May, so if God would allow you, please help me pay off the rest of this support! Thank you so much for your support at home, financially and prayerfully. I miss you all, and hope to hear from you guys now and then!

In Christ,

Andrew

PS To those who have started to send me letters, I have been getting them in and LOVE THEM!!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!

First Blog of PE

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

"This was written a few days ago.... God has provieded all of our furniture... and we paid verry little for it. God is Amazing... I will write another blog by next Sat.... if I can actually get myself to sit down long engough and write it... hehe"

Hey Everyone!!!

As you all know, I am now living in the new PE house. You can't imagine how nice it is to know that I won't have to move again for another four-and-a-half months! After having to move everything all the time, I am excited for stability. The house is pretty sweet. I am trying to make a movie about it, so if I get it done I will let you all know. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms. All my girl team-mates are staying in the largest room that has a bathroom in the closet... "I know... hahaha," there are 9 of them all together. They have three bunk buds that are three beds high, "It is scary, thinking about rolling of the top bunk onto the floor... I did that at UCSA a few nights before we left, and it wasn't fun... I think I still have that battle scar on my leg from falling." Then Chelsea and Dee Dee are staying in the second largest room with a bathroom in the closet as well. Matthew, Kevin and I are staying in the third largest bedroom. This does not have a bathroom in the closet. We have two bunk beds with two beds on each, so for three guys we have 4 beds. I am sure we will have fun with that. Becca, our third leader gets a room to herself, "which she is very excited about because this is her first bedroom all to herself!"

We didn't have any furniture when we moved in. We had to buy a few bunk beds, which sounds like it took up quite a bit of the budget, so when we moved here all we had was a refrigerator and three extra beds. One of the beds went into the guys room, "hence the four beds in our room," and the rest are being used for couches... hahaha.... Except one of them doesn't have a cushion on it yet... and Kevin broke one of the boards from standing on it... so for now, we don't use that "couch". So, we had two beds for couches and a refrigerator when we moved in. Then Bigger and Better came into the picture. Two days ago, the leaders split us up into three teams and gave us all paperclips. The point to this game, Bigger and Better, was to go around our neighborhood and meet the neighbors while taking this paperclip to the neighbors and asking for something bigger or better than this paperclip, then when you get the second item, you go to the neighbors and ask them for something bigger or better than that. I played that in my youth-group days and came back with a HUGE stuffed dog and a broken computer.

This time was AMAZING, "we have very wealthy neighbors." The leaders not expecting what would happen at all, a team came back with the book, "The Purpose Driven Life," some nice African Jewelry in a frame, and our team pretty much won with two pillow cases, a water heater, "which the list from now will actually be some things we needed but didn't at all expect from this game," an iron, a microwave, and a HUGE REFRIGORATOR!!!! That's right.... Pretty much my team won. We needed a second refrigerator and a microwave, and they both work very well!!! Perhaps when we play the game next time, we might be able to come back with a television!... I don't think we will be playing the game again though...

This week has actually been pretty chill, all we have done would basically be described as moving in and getting settled. We haven't been able to start our ministries yet, especially since we don't know what they are yet. We will probably start soon sometime next week. Tonight we are going to start getting involved in the Youth Group called FireHouse, and we are all pretty excited to help out. I have heard, but haven't seen yet, that the Youth Group has about 100 kids come each meeting. So they will need more leaders. I am going to get involved. I have been thinking for the past few years that God will probably someday, "whenever He is ready to put me back into the American Society," have me working with Youth. This will be such great training for working with youth. I am very excited to possibly be one of the leaders. I met a kid named Charlie that I am really excited to get to know better. It will be fun to get to know all the kids better.

So lately I have been trying to spend more time with God. I think I had a rant on this blog already about how all my life I have been leaving phone messages and not even trying to have an actual "phone" conversation with God. So my prayer life and devotions have mostly been spent learning how to stop asking for things and start finding out what God wants me to do with the time He has given me here in PE, to actually get to know my creator in a MORE personal way than finding out about Him through what others have told me. It is crazy to think a year ago I would have never believed I could actually hear God talk back to me. I have been going through this book called, "The Art of Listening Prayer," a book that the head guy from AIM wrote. It is basically a devotional that teaches you how to actually have conversations with God, and making this so called relationship we have with God into a REAL relationship. It is quite good and really is teaching me how to actually hear God and making His heart for things more accessible to me.

The Devotion is set up with a bunch of questions, basically they are question the book wants you to ask God, then you just listen and wait for answers, questions like, "Are there ways in which I have offended you?" Something interesting I wanted to give you an example of was today when I was going through the devotion, I skipped ahead to tomorrows devotion because I felt like God was giving me the silent treatment today, "which He really has every right to do that because that is all we ever give Him back," and the first question that I read asked, "How do I hear Your voice?" and God told me, "Just listen. You have the ears to hear Me, so hear." God is so smart... in my own life, I think even before the reason I rarely ever heard God was because I never gave Him the time of day to answer back. I was on my own schedule and wouldn't give God the time that He needed to answer back. Think about this, if you called your mom and only you talked to her for three minutes at a time when you needed something, do you think you would ever be able to hear her talk back, or have an authentic conversation with her? Often, that is how I have treated God. So this is how I have been spending my time, trying to learn to listen to God's voice better, and part of that has been just sitting and listening to hear His voice.

Well... I think that is all for now, I will write back soon!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

MY NEW ADDRESS

Wed, 7 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys... we have a physical address now.... HERE IT IS!!!

Andrew Anderberg

19 Trichardt Road

Parson Hill

Port Elizabeth 6001

South Africa

I can't wait to get some letters from y'all!!! I still can't find any good internet yet... but when I do I think y'all will know.... Love you all!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

In PE

Tue, 6 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys,

Well.... I am in PE now... I am on a computer at the Mall right next to us and I litterally only have 10 minutes to write... so this will be extreemly short, "some of you are probably praising Jesus right now." Our house is amazing... I am exctied to live there. I will post pictures later. We have a house addresss.... so no more PO box... we just need to find out the postal code here first before I can give you our address....

Um... I will write later.

Love tou all!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

After Christmas

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Everyone,

How is everything going? I am fine. I have had a fairly relaxing break. I haven't gotten to the point where I am bored yet... which is probably a good thing. I have been sitting around, watching, movies, reading books, talking with my team-mates and going on the internet quite a bit. A while ago I started to buy 12 hour sessions instead of the regular 3 or 6 hour sessions on the internet. Sadly, I used them up in a matter of 5 days... probably because of the holidays and such where I talked on Skype most of the time. I haven't slumped quite as bad into the terrible homesickness as I did quite a bit ago, but my homesickness has been pretty bad. On Christmas Eve I called my mom and had her open her present from me early because I just needed a little joy and to have them feel close. It helped a lot.

So since the break started I have been making nice breakfasts for the guys. Quite a few times I have made French Toast, "we haven't had that since we got on this trip." On Christmas morning I made baked oatmeal, which tasted amazing. It has been really nice to make our own food.

I have been working on two projects since the start of the break. One was the Christmas cards I have been working on for people at home, and also reading, "The Heavenly Man." I read that 350 page book in a matter of three days. It was a very good book, and I recommend it to you all if you ever want to hear stories from the China Home Church. Both projects are done now, so I have to look for something else big to work on.

For Christmas all us team-mates decided to have a Christmas Diner, so we all did the same thing we did for thanksgiving where we all would make a different plate for everyone. We guys worked on two small turkeys for diner. Then we all got together for Christmas Diner, then we got around a television and watched "It's a Wonderful Life," and, "White Christmas." It was very nice to be together on Christmas. I got 4 letters between the 23^rd and 24^th and saved one card for Christmas Day night. It was very nice to get those letters. So thank you all for sending them. If I haven't received it already, I am sure that I will receive it between now and the end of next week. So I think my present opening will be spread out just a tad!!!!

So now after Christmas being over, we guys have been walking up to the main AIM house, watching movies with the girls, and spending time together as guys. In a matter of a week and a half, all of us will be split into our different areas, so we have been spending time together for the little time we have left.

Well, I think that is all for now, "and probably a relief for all of you that I haven't written yet another three page blog," so have a good New Year, and I will write back again soon!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Almost Christmas

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Merry Christmas to my Dearest Family at Home,

How has everything been going at home? Everything has been pretty good here, perhaps a little sad. If y'all didn't know, this last week was debrief week. A lot of our time was spent resting, focusing on the past, remembering what God had done in our lives, and saying goodbye. All in all... I would say this last week was full of laughter, and full of tears for everyone. I celebrated my 19^th birthday with all my team-mates and then went to a restaurant for dinner with my Phase 3 buddies. So I think this blog will probably be pretty short, and mostly about what was going on in my head...

Monday was mostly spent moving from UCSA to a house by the river in St. Francis Bay. The house was so huge. All 36 of us easily fit into that house. I got to sleep on a queen size bed... which was fabulous, we had a TV and cable, which we haven't had a television since we have been here in J-Bay, and we all seemed to be more together because we were all in the same house.

In the evening, the leaders asked us to write down our most favorite things that have happened over the past few months, then our least favorite things that have happened. Then we talked about all of them. During the meeting, it came up that whenever you go anywhere on a mission trip, you always expect everything to be cool and great, but the truth is that there are sad moments, depressing moments, or heartbreak that happens on a trip like this. There is still more memories of gladness and joy to come, but also moments of sorrow and grief that are still yet to come as well. We are only about halfway through the trip, and there is still so much more work to be done.

Tuesday, the leaders had us fill out this series of questions asking us how we have seen growth in us, how much we have learned on this team, thinking about the times when God used us, our feelings towards leaving, our biggest challenges on the trip, and our favorite day on the trip. After filling these things out, the separated us into little groups to discuss the question given then present. I was asked to present what the biggest challenge I have had to face. I of course said homesickness, and I think I explained it a little to you in my last blog, so you can go there for more detail because what I told the group was basically the same.

Wednesday was my birthday!!!! It was a very nice day. After our morning session talking about goals, they took those of us who wanted to go to a cliff diving place north of J-bay!!! First off, I have never gone cliff diving before, let alone swimming on my birthday. It was so much fun!!!! I jumped so many times from one of the cliffs that was about 20ft. Then I jumped the big one once that was about 40-50 feet high!! Extremely scary, but now that I have the excuse of saying, "eh, I have jumped off a bridge before so this should be a synch," so it was no sweat... well... it did take me a while to finally jump off of it. But I did it!!! Then when I got back, Third Phase took me out to dinner and we talked about my best year, and my worst year of growing up. They also asked me what I thought God would do with me this coming year. I am excited to see what God does with 19. I am sure He will do amazing things.

Thursday was one of the saddest days of debrief. That morning was spent telling each other what we admired in each other. The thought that we will not see a lot of these people for a long time started to hit us. So halfway through the first part of the session, we started to cry. A little bit later, our crying turned to sobbing. Then we talked about what we felt we needed to tell each other before we left, and how much the group meant to us. It all got so much more personal that we all started to weep over the separation. After the session was semi-over, they told us we could be done, but if we needed to tell anyone anything more that it was our chance. Then I went to a few people holding them close, I was weeping so hard. It was not just like a tear, it was full out vocal chords in it as well where I was crying out loud and just weeping over these people telling them how much I loved them and how much I would miss them so much not having them around. The family I once had was splitting up, and who knows if we will ever see a few of these people ever again in our life. I have said this so many times, it is probably my year quote, "Being a missionary is so hard, mostly because it is full of saying goodbye..." which is so true. I have learned how hard change is for me. The people I love will soon be on other teams, and I truly can't imagine not having them around. It is one of the saddest thoughts I could ever think of.

We spent that night together as a team again, and watched one of Brittany's Rap videos, "which if I haven't said too much about how much I admire and love Brittany, I will say it now because she is always full of joy beyond understanding, she always makes you laugh all the time, her laugh is so contagious, and she is not afraid to get embarrassed, which is probably why she is always going full on out there, just wacked out all the time... hehe." We then watched a video of all our pictures, which was so much fun to watch. Then we watched a confession video, which was also to die for, just the funny things people have done living together.... Oh my gooness... It was such a good night, we all just adored that night. After the video, we went outside and had a campfire, which officially ended the Awakening part of our journey, ended our first semester here in J-Bay, and started Christmas break which will last until January 6^th.

Friday was spent packing, and saying goodbye. Luckily none of the guys are leaving, I can't imagine not having them around anymore, I know I will miss them so dearly. I think I will spend a brief moment talking about how much I love the guys I am with.

Blair- He is the oldest on our team. To me, he is such a great role model. I truly love that guy, I could not ever fully speak as highly as I would ever want. He is just a good example of what I want to be... someone who doesn't settle for easy solutions or answers, maturity beyond years, knowledge beyond my understanding, yet realness that is unreal. Could I say that I want to grow up to be just like him? He was always there to listen to me, to challenge my way of thinking, to make me want more and more from Christ, to really try to understand what this Christianity thing looks like. I think of all the guys, I will miss him the most. He is truly an inspiration to all the team, and especially me. I pray and still pray that this is not the only time we will spend together, and that we will someday be on a mission trip together again, but for another time... "Hey y'all... lets all start trying and ask God to send him to Kenya with me next year!!! Maybe if we pray enough, God will just have to give in and make him come with me..... he he... just kidding......... um.... Well.....partly J!!! Hehe"

Davie- He is one of the finniest and yet most sarcastic person in our group. Not only is he black, "which seems to give him that something extra being the only black one on the team," but he is also cool. He lived in New York....which I think according to my best friend Mary at home, would make him amazing. He is learning like the rest of us, and God is sure using him on this team. I am sure that he will do amazing in Swaziland... and Mrs. Ingram... he still picks on me, so you probably owe him another pep talk.....

Ryan- He is defiantly the earthy one on the group, so close to nature. He had dreads that I have helped him with over the past two months, "which should have only taken a month... I might just have to really think harder about whether I want to put in that much work for my own dreads...and I don't think I will get any because they take forever to put together." He is so wise as well... just gives a perfect example of how to treat others. He gets so much joy in God's creation, and would easily sleep out in the woods all by himself for the rest of his life if he could... which I could never do. I think by the first night I would freak out and cry about how scary everything is, and then run back to marmy....which I can really see myself doing. He is so cool, and I will miss our times of dreading his hair for long periods of time while we talk about everything.

Matthew- well... not much to say about him... JK Hussey!!! He and I are both going to PE, "which I would like to remind you is not Physical Education... he might like that stuff, but I do not," and already we act like brothers. He beats up on me, and I beat him back. He steels my food, and I steel his. You would think for being such a quiet person he would be quite a bit different. Maybe I brought that out on him, I have been mean to him before... but that is okay. As the girls on the PE team say, "Oh goodness, they act like brothers." I think we will have a fun time together in PE, if he still wakes me up in the morning and doesn't wake me up at 4AM in the morning when he gets up... "all right... maybe he gets up at 6AM... still too early for me." We will have fun together.

All in all, all the guys have been amazing to me. I have felt so blessed to be with them. I think the hardest part about saying goodbye to them is that all my life I have needed them. I have always looked for a group of guys that could love God and each other. I needed them to help heal to wounds in my life, to be the group of friends I never had, to be the accountability that we all still need, to be there for me in the hard times, to see what love looks like in a group of guys. I am truly blessed by all of them, and I can't imagine my life without having them on this trip with me. I will miss them terribly.

Gladly, there are no goodbyes with them yet, and thank God we all have 2 last wonderful weeks to spend with each other. I love them all so much. Well, I think I have written too much yet again this week. I should probably get off this top bunk before Matthew gets back and kills me for writing with his laptop on the top bunk.... Farwell Y'all!! Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! And don't forget why we truly celebrate this holiday. Love you all!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

First Two Weeks of December

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

My Dearest Family and Friends,

Goodness time flies here. I can't believe I am already finished with the first semester of ministry. Yesterday was the last day, and this next week will be spent debriefing the past semester and then Christmas Break after that. It seems like yesterday we were rolling in here to UCSA half asleep and jetlagged. Between then and now, God has done some amazing things in my own heart that goes beyond what I could have ever learned in a textbook. The stories of what I have seen and witnessed here might be considered crazy by some, odd by others, but God has defiantly worked through me and my team-mates in amazing ways.

First off, let me explain what has been happening the past two weeks. I have started to really journal lately; "mostly because I can be such a forgetful person when it comes to what Christ is doing in my life," so know that I am most likely going through my journal as I write.

My St. Francis team felt led to show the movie Beat The Drum to the township of St. Francis, so we had been working on putting everything together to show the movie. After going to the township Community Hall they have, we got an okay for a spot one evening to show the movie. We advertised and told people to come, and the night that we showed the movie, "December 3^rd," we only got a few people that actually came to the movie and then the power shut off in the middle of the movie. Everyone left pretty much immediately after that happened, so there was no chance to finish it that day.

We felt very discouraged over this happening, but still felt called to show the movie to everyone in the township. So the next week, we got the space again and started the movie. So many more people came to the showing the second time. I was outside praying through the whole movie so I didn't really get to see people, but the other girls told me that the people were going, "Sho," (which basically is the word South Africans use for when they are like... Wow, hugh, WHAT?, interesting, Really?... all combined into one....... I am sure you will hear me say it a lot when I get home if you haven't heard me say it already on Skype) and were very into the movie. Then at the end God gave us a word for them after the movie. Basically it was a call to stand up for what is right in their community, to speak out against sexual immoral lives, to tell the truth.

We asked everyone who would make a commitment to stand up for what is right to actually stand up in the audience. Only one man stood, but I feel that I would much rather have one man that would actually do something than a whole audience that stands up, and wouldn't do anything. At least the audience was given a lot to think about. I am sure that it made a pretty big impact on the ones who did see the movie, and I hope they would decide to do something about AID's in their community.

Our last day of ministry was yesterday, so after the movie, this whole week has been basically saying goodbye. Florette, one of the people that we visit, asked me what I am doing next year. I told her that I might be in Kenya next year. She then asked me, "Why would you be in Kenya."

"Well," I said, "because God probably wants to use me to fill needs there."

Then she said, "But we have needs! Why can't He send you here? We need you."

"Well, why don't you tell God that? Maybe you could change his mind."

Then she said chuckling, "I think I will."

I will talk to you about the Kenya thing later on. In the mean time, it has been pretty hard saying goodbye, knowing that all these people that we have invested in will probably never see us again, and vice versa. It was hard to see them cry. I don't think we ever realized the impact we made on these people until this week when we saw them in such sadness over us leaving. We will defiantly miss them.

One cool thing that happened was my PE, "people down here call Port Elezibeth PE a lot, so if I do, don't think that I am talking about Physical Education... besides if you don't know anything about me, just know that I hated Physical Education, and I don't think I would go there for fun," team was able to work with the Church that we will be partnering with next semester. We got to meet the youth, play with the kids, and meet the pastor. I am so excited to see how God uses us all next year with that group. One of the leaders of the youth worship band wants me to play piano and harmonize with him next semester, so it will be nice to have a piano to play after this.

Now for what has been going on in my heart... Maybe I should start with Kenya so y'all, "hehe," know what I am talking about. Before the trip started, I got accepted into AIM and another group called International Christian Youthworks. I got to a point in June that I knew that I got accepted into both, but I wanted to pray about where God wanted me more. Then He showed me that He wanted me to go with AIM this year. Even though I have been with AIM, ICY, "International Christian Youthworks," has still been on the back of my mind. One cool God thing that happened is that I had been thinking about them for two weeks wanting to catch up and see how they were. The same day I was going to write to them, Ruthy, "one of the girls that works in Kenya at the moment and wrote to me to tell me that I was accepted," found me on Facebook and added me as a friend. Since then we have been writing back and forth to each other asking about our mission work and what God has been doing in our lives.

God has been giving me little messages here and there to say that He wants me in Kenya next year, but I have been trying to make sure that it is what God wants, and not what I want. I was talking on the phone with my mom at one point, and she said to me, "Andrew, I get the sense that God may want you on the mission field for more than one year." I could go on and on and on about how many times I have thought I felt God taking me there next year, but I still want to pray about it and make sure that Kenya is where God wants me before I truly say I am going there or not. Please pray for me that God will give me clear direction if that is where He wants me next year.

I am still pretty homesick, but I have also been realizing that even though I am physically here in Jeffreys Bay, I am still mentally at home. I am such a big family person, a big friend person, a big home person that I have been feeling like I am missing out on a lot at home. I am not saying that I have hated it here, or that if I had it all to do over again that I would have stayed home, I just miss everyone. I feel as if I a missing out on so many events. My sister turned 16, my Aunt is pregnant, I have heard of people dying or moving away, I am missing Christmas with my family, Thanksgiving with my family, being there when people need me. I am afraid even to the point that when I get home that people will change so much that it won't be the same when I get home. Friendships that I dearly love, even here, will fade away. I have tried to compensate and hold tightly to family and friends so much by using Skype, Facebook and email that I have really almost forgotten about the family here that God has given to me, and through this, God has been silently whispering in my ear, "Just let them go. Focus on me, I am here for you. "

A few days ago I was reading Matthew 12:46-50 where Jesus' mother and brothers wanted to see Him and talk to Him, so they get someone to go get Jesus, but Jesus looks at the man and says, "Who is my mother and brothers?" I thought that it was silly of Him to ask that question, because He is Jesus, and He obviously knew everything. But then Jesus did something that really struck me. After asking/telling the man that, He looked at Hid disciples and said, "Here are my mother and brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brothers and sister and mother." To Jesus, obviously family to Him was more than just His biological family, it was also the people that He was around that were doing His will. Here, everyone on my team is doing God's will and we are all here to serve God, and be there for each other. To in essence, be a Family, to be each other's brothers, sisters, and mothers/fathers in Christ.

I realized this and how often I have been clinging on to the people at home too much. Tag told me that I will probably find that the people at home weren't the ones that changed, but that I had changed a lot since I was gone, which I have. I struggle so much with missing you all and wanting to be with you. Perhaps the Holidays, "and my birthday next Wednesday, the 17^th," are a lot of what's causing the homesickness, but if I am to be a brother to anyone on this team, I know that I almost have to stop being that to the people at home, and put myself in the position of being there for everyone on the team more than for the people at home. God is taking care of you, and you are in His hands. I need to stop trying to be God and take care of people, and start mentally being where God has placed me.

To explain those three paragraphs in short, I need to start limiting my time at Office for you/the internet caf and start being here more for everyone. I don't know what that looks like yet, but I am sure God will reveal to me what He wants me to start doing.

Well... I have again written almost too much for you all. I am surprised if anyone reads my blog anymore with all these long explanations of my week. Anyways, I miss you all and I love you all. I will try to remember to write again soon.

In Christ,
Andrew

PS. I found out today that I have gotten to the $1,000 needed left mark!!!! Of course there are a few more things I will still have to pay for, "like staying home for Christmas, For the expences before the trip and the filght to Johanesburg when I come home." All together I still need $1,600 left. After From monthly I am getting $100 per month, so by May I will have $1,100 left to raise. Please consider helping me get this money paid down before May. Any amount will help... it all adds up. Just clidk on "Support Me!" under Main Menu and you can get AIM the money through your Credit Card! Thanks!!!

November Post :-)

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

My Dearest Family in Christ,

How is everything going with you all? Life has been full of ups and downs for me lately here. I have been so busy that I haven't taken time to write a blog for a while. "Yikes... it looks like it has been almost 4 weeks!!!" I don't think I could explain everything that happened, but I will try to do my best to let you know a little of what has been going on lately.

I kind of went into a slump for about two weeks this month. I was feeling homesick and starting to feel very lonely on this trip. "Isn't it amazing to think you can live with 35 other people, go about your normal day, but not really connect with anyone throughout the whole day? I did this quite a bit in these two weeks." Almost everything is starting to go by so fast. Weeks are just starting to fly by. I have so many projects on my mind that I haven't been able to get them all done. So... this morning I woke up, "I am on Thanksgiving break right now, I get Friday through Monday off," and decided to just get this project done so you guys wouldn't feel left out.

One of the first major events that happened this month was when Kevin and Tyler went home. So out of the seven guys that used to be on our team, five are left now. It has been hard on us. As Blair once said, "There is a lot of personality that left the guys when they left." As a group now, we can just tell that there is something missing. It is hard to believe they have been gone for almost three weeks now. We miss them all very much.

The second major even that happened this month was learning where we are going for the last semester of our trip. The three locations were Jeffreys Bay, Swaziland and Port Elizabeth. We have already found out where we are going. I am going to Port Elizabeth along with Matthey Hussey, Sarah Buller, Lisa, Jessica Emerson, Johanna, Meghan J., Nicole, Sarah Patterson, Victoria and Leah along with our leaders Chelsea, Dee Dee, and Becca. We might get another person on our team, but we won't know that until after Christmas. This should be a good group. I am excited to see how God uses us. We will be working with a huge Church there, going into different places for ministry. One of the ministries I know is possible is working with the Church's youth program. We are not sure what other kinds of ministries we will be going to, but I will let you know as soon as I find out. We think we found a house... well... two houses right next to each other. They sound great... but we will see.

Another thing that has been going on is I joined a group called Third Phase.... Basically this is a group within our 36 people that decided to start living like the early church. We all took the money we had and put it into a big pile, basically saying that now the money is not mine... it is the groups. We live as simply as possible, " we live on $14 a week, which I might add is more than most people in Jeffreys bay live off of," spend the money on most of our needs while buying things for people in the group. I got a new pair of flip flops from the group. We also do things together as a group like we went and had pizza together one night, "I am posting that picture for you all." We also get together every night and pray for each other. It is a pretty good representation for what the early church did. There are 8 of us all together. The people in the group are me, Leah, Kepp, Matthew Hussey, Sarah Patterson, Nicole, Mary and Matthey Spainhour.

In my ministry group, we have gotten to know the community a little bit more. We have started to visit a few new people, praying for the community, and even having fun with the kids. Our ministry is stretching all of us in our group. You can tell that all of us are growing as people while we work with each other. There are so many new challenges every day... just trying to do ATLs every day is hard enough, let alone meeting new people and trying to figure out how we can minister to them. We are starting to have all sorts of new people come to us though, because for the most part, most of the people in the township know who we are. A few times we have had people come up to us so we could pray with them. We also found two house Churches and got to pray over them. I can surely say that God is truly using us in House Ministries.

As I said before, I went into a slump of almost depression for about two weeks. Just being overwhelmed and missing everyone so badly. Mom said on the phone that this is probably because of Thanksgiving coming up. That might be so. During this time," I have to admit," what I mostly did with my free time was go to the internet to talk to people and watch my Muppet Show movies I had with Blair. "For those who don't know this about me.... and don't feel bad if you don't because some of my team-mates don't even know... I love the Muppet Show and will watch them when I am depressed or am sick... and I was depressed... so I watched like 7 episodes one night after diner and went to bed." I think just being overwhelmed with the homework they had for us, and trying to get other personal things done.... I just went bleh... which is why it has taken me so long to write this blog. I am feeling better now though. A whole lot better. I have so many people around me that loves me, and helps me get through hard times. I think I just had to switch my brain to thinking that these people are my family now, and that no matter where I go, Jesus is always with me.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. They split us into different groups to make different things. I was in the group that made mashed potatoes and stuffing. I mostly cut up all the potatoes and did a little bit of the stuffing. It was really nice to sit at a table with everyone and have dinner together. It was a little hard to eat all that food when starvation was only a few blocks away. So we took our leftovers, put them in doggie bags and took them to the hungry on the other side of town. So all together, it was a good thanksgiving.

Now we are on break... and I have to say that already I have had a blast. Yesterday I went to the WORLDS LARGEST BUNGEE JUMP!!!..... and I did bungee jump!!!!! I am going to post some pictures of my jump for you all to see. It was so scary.... And I jumped as soon as I could so I wouldn't have to think about what I was doing.... And yes I am still alive. It was amazing.... And now I can say that I bungee jumped at the world's largest one in Africa!!! YAYA.... I will have to use that for two truths and a lie some time.

Well.... That is about all I have for you all. I love you all so much... and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Please Pray

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

There is so much on my heart... but so little time to explain. I promise I will blog something bigger and with more detail by the end of the week...

I also need you to pray for a friend at home. I can't give too many details here either... but he will be receiving a letter here pritty soon that could change his life. Pray that God would really speak to him, that he would be open to what God is telling him, and that he would turn around and change his life to live for Christ. Especially this one... bath it in prayer... please.

Thanks so much for being part of my family.... and I will try to update you for last week and this week!!!

Love you all!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Last Days of Talhado

Sat, 1 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

My Most Wonderful Family and Friends,

This week has wrecked my life in so many ways, I cannot truly express to you how much God is truly working in and wrecking my life. I am so happy for the change, though change comes with so much responsibility. I am not sure how ready I am for this, but I gladly accept the new change that is accruing in my life. I don't know how I could ever go back home now and be the same, yet I know there is such great temptation to fall back into the mold of norm. I truly feel that this "easy" Christianity is no longer for me, and it is time to have faith in God, have faith in His abilities, and just rely on Him with my life. Blair, "one of my brothers," has been so stunned and quoting so many times from a book he is reading, "What in your life right now requires you to have faith?" How amazing would it be to completely put yourself in a position where you completely and totally relied on God for ALL your needs?

But first things first, I have so much to tell you about Talhado. Last Friday we felt so lost with our team. We had no idea what to do, and were just broken deep inside for all the things that had happened that week. To each other, we realized that we had not been completely faithful to each other and needed to change some of the things we were doing. The girls appointed me as a leader for the group, and we decided to start meeting for breakfast to pray together for the day. Every day we spent time praying for our ministry, for our team, for the teachers and for the leaders and workers at Talhado. Wednesday we decided to start having more focused prayer, based on a sermon Tag had given in Somerset.

First off, lets jump to that sermon. He said that so many times, we are like little kids going to God. We are like the kid on the playground that had a ball stolen from him, he goes to the playground coordinator frantic and crying to the coordinator, mumbling so much that they can't understand what we are saying. We go to God so often in these frantic modes wanting things, when really we should get down to business and pray concentrated prayer. We did this on Wednesday, we prayed for times to have the girls open up to us, and that day they talked about their boyfriends, "which is HUGE because they had never even talked to us earlier!"

But back to what we did at talhado, this week we spent times getting to know the kids so much better. One day we made edible play doe!!! We also made pretzel necklaces, Root-Beer Floats, "or cream soda floats, or orange soda floats... hehe." We had a lot of fun food crafts, but it was just so wonderful to be able to have fun with the kids and just be there to play, tickle, hug and love on the kids. God opened the doors for so many opportunities to just LOVE on the kids we ministered to. I have posted a few pictures of me and Sylvano in my pictures. Please have a look. I love this kid to death!!! Sadly, Thursday was our last day with Talhado, because it is closing down for the summer, "I know I know, it is strange for me to be going into summer when all you people in America are just getting into winter!!! Haha." It was so sad to say goodbye to all them, but I know that it is not forever, and we will see them when we start our new ministry... house visits. This is a whole God thing that I will talk about in a few paragraphs...

Today we had a day of going to put stickers on cans for fundraising with Talhado, and the next few days will be spent wrapping presents for the Christmas party next Tuesday. This morning when my team met, we decided to pray for efficiency with our work so we could get to see some of the people in the township of St. Francis. I feel so much like Christ was just giving me so much joy today working with an elderly couple to put stickers on cans. There were so many things going wrong at first. The wrong kind of stickers had been purchased, so it was extremely difficult to peal the stickers. There were 7 boxes full, probably 200 cans in each box. The work was slow, and a few of the people were just frustrated with it all, then God kicked in and gave us new ideas on how to make everything go faster, and guess what? We got all the work done watched a movie on Africa, and even had AMAZING GLORIOUS South African tea, "YUMMY!!!" all within 2 hours. Isn't God wonderful to answer prayer?

Now to get on to our new ministry, our team has so much felt like God has called us to start doing house visits in the townships. In between our time working at Talhado, God has opened the doors to three families in this one little community spot. What do house visits do? Well, house visits are FULL of ATLs, "Ask The Lord." "You can check out my first experience with this in Septembers blog." You go around and do what God wants you to do in communities. From praying for people, ministering to people, serving people, praying for people, visiting people, to basically anything here can be up for grabs. God just keeps confirming and confirming that this little community is where we need to start our ministry.

Once when Faith and I were taking a kid to his home, "who actually lives in that community," because he had sprained his ankle, God told me when we walked in there, "This is your home base for House Visits," and Faith confirmed that feeling later on. Another confirmation was involved in Samuel and Christina's House... read under that section below.

I am going to go through the people we have already visited in that little community, and I would love if you could remember them in your prayers.

Ellen- Ellen was the first person we met from this community. When we first met her, she was very sad, and had been crying because to her, her life was going downhill. She had been smoking too much, she was involved in drinking, still lives with her "boyfriend" and actually has skin cancer. When we first visited her, she was sick to the stomach and was very shy, but after praying for her, her stomach ache went away, her face looked clearer and clearer, and looks like it just gets clearer and clearer every day. She is still in need of prayer that she will draw closer to God, and that she will stay strong and away from drinking and smoking.

Samuel and Christina- This is a family that Leah and Alyssa have been visiting. When we first met them, Samuel needed prayer for his side. He has been out of work for three years ever since he was stabbed. The stab wound has never healed, and when Leah and our leader Christina first saw it, the scar was oozing and pussing out gunk. Leader Christina and Leah prayed for his side that God would heal it. Sure enough, today when we visited them, he ran out to tell Leah and Alyssa that the pain was gone and it is actually healing! One thing that they also said today, which was also a confirmation that this is where our home base is, township Christina said the first time she saw us, she saw Jesus leading the way, and us following Him into that community. Please pray that God will continue to heal Samuel, and that Christ would bless them, and that we will get a translator, "they speak Africance and it is hard for them to say a lot, but they have a lot to say as well in English."

Christopher's Family-I think I have all my facts straight when I say this, basically there are three women who live together in one home. They have no husbands, and have 8 kids to take care of, two of whose had just been orphaned in the beginning of October. Their father had AIDs and died from that disease. Sadly, they both also have AIDs, and will probably not live to be 20. Their father who has died is not yet berried, and when Faith and I were in the house they kept pointing towards the kitchen, "most likely he is in another house still because he wasn't in the kitchen clearly when they were pointing over in that direction." They talked about how they don't have enough money to bury him, "it cost 2,000 rand or 200 dollars to bury Him," and all the money they make needs to go to feeding the kids. One of the girls that also live there who is between 5-7 was raped last month, and this has also been very sad for the mothers who live there with their kids. Faith and I will most likely go there to watch the kids so the moms can have a break. Please pray for them as well, they desperately need the prayer.

God has also been wrecking my entire foundation these past few weeks. As I was saying earlier, I need so much more to put myself in a position where I completely rely on Him. Soon we will be writing our own statements of faith, and I have so much to ponder over. Monday we talked about God, Wednesday we talked about the Bible, and Friday we talked about the Church. All these sessions have completely wrecked all of us in different ways. We have so much more to think about and do when we get back home.

Right now we are going trough "The Spiritual Disciplines". It is SOOOOOO good, I would totally suggest it for anyone who wants to richen their life in Christ and in themselves. I will also soon read a book called "Irresistible Revolution" written by Shane Claiborne, an amazing radical Christian. My team-mates have told me so much about it, but I don't know if I should tell you too much about it at the moment, since I am not even half way through the introduction yet. I will post some quotes and let you know how it goes.

Oh, one last thing, we had a Halloween party tonight. Most of these South Africans have never experienced Halloween before, our Leadership Experience buddies, and YWAMers, "Yes... there are TOTALLY YWAMers here! We haven't interacted with them too much yet, but I totally want to keep getting to know them if I get the chance," and ministry people came to the party. I dressed up in my..."ehem," South African Costume... "here in South Africa they call bathing suits costumes... hehe" Blair made the Funniest Banana, and Davie made a Portapotie of him in it.... IT WAS HALARIOUS!!! Fun times tonight.

I am still short almost $2,000 in my support, so if you could continue to pray for my funds to all be raised, or even donate some money, I would really appreciate that. I will also be on a fast this next week, and won't have internet, but I will come back on Saturday to read emails and stuff.

Well... love you all and have a wonderful day!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Two New Posts, and Announcements

Sat, 1 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Everyone...

I want to say sorry for taking so long, and writing so much in my blog. Two new posts you will have to read, read Somerset East first, then Last Days of Talhado.

I also thought you would like to know my schedual

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

8AM Breakfast

9AM-12AM Group Meeting/God learnign time

12:30PM-Lunch

1-5PM Ministry

7PM-Diner

Tuesday, Thursday

8AM Breakfast

10AM-12AM Small Group Meeting/God learnign time

12:30PM-Lunch

1-5PM Ministry

7PM-Diner

8PM-Worship

SAT-Sun

Free day except for Church on Sunday

I also posted a bunch of pictures... so take a look!!!

Love you all lots!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Oops!!!

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys,

Sorry about being so short lately. I have been sooooo buisy, and God has been teaching me SOOOOO much. I just want to say that I am working on a new post at the moment, "well actually... for the past week." I have sooooo much to catch up with you guys. I will try to post soon.

I posted some new pictures for you guys to look at when you would like. They show a little of the countryside. I just need to post a little of the Jeffrey's Bay.

This next link is to see the guys... AKA the serority!!!! We are amazing. Matt pritty much put a good discription of us on there.

http://matthewhussey.myadventures.org/?filename=the-brotherhood

I will try to get you a little up to date soon!!!

Love you all!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Somerset East

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

My Dearest Family and Friends,

I am finally back in Jeffreys Bay after a long, but good, week in Somerset East. The whole week was bathed in prayer, and God did some amazing things through us at Somerset East through Beat the Drum. But first before I tell you about my experiences and about what God did, I would first like to tell you about the Beat the Drum program.

Week of the 13^th

Beat the Drum is based off the movie Beat the Drum. Beat the Drum was a movie made here in South Africa about a little boy called Musa, whose parents die of AIDS and goes to Johannesburg to find his uncle... but in the process finds out about what is killing his parents and community, and learns about the lies of AIDs. I am sure if you wanted to rent the movie from a movie store, you probably could... I just have to warn you that it is a little graphic, and has a few awkward scenes in it. I have to say that it is a VERY good representation about the lies here in South Africa like having sex with a virgin will cure you from AIDs or that condoms give you AIDs. It is more relevant for South Africa than it is for America, but if you are interested, I would suggest you watch it.

So the program Beat the Drum first goes into schools and shows the movie to the kids. Then in the days after, we have lessons that teach and talk to the kids about AIDs and how it is spread. There are five lessons that talk about the movie, what happened, what is going on in the kid's lives, and how they could change their lives for the better. It is a Christian program, so we mostly taught Abstinence and saving yourself for marriage. And in between, depending on the Spirits leading, we are able to bring them to Christ.

So we went to a place called Somerset East on the 10^th of October to start preparing and training for the program. The training involved teaching a lot of ice breakers and how to handle certain situations, and how to talk to the kids about a life of abstinence. It involved a lot of sermons, a lot of going through the book, and a lot of prayer. By the end of Sunday, I was exhausted, and on Monday we showed the movie to the schools. There were about 4 different schools, and another group that did the program with the community. My school was a black school called Arival. Out of all the schools we had, Arival was probably one of the most frustrating schools. On Tuesday, the school went on strike because of a new principle. So we decided that we would go to the Hostel that the kids were staying in. "Some of them live 20-50 kilometers away from the school, and it is cheaper to keep them near the school in the Hostel." We talked to them about sex, and the lies that are spread about AIDs.

Then on Wednesday, we had an opportunity to show the movie to 7^th and 8^th graders. So most of us went to the hostel near Arival to talk about the movie and sex, and the smaller group, "I was in this group," stayed at the small school to show and talk about the movie. That evening, we had a youth night where we showed a very graphic film called "In Your Face" about the effects of AIDs, the steps, and even showing pictures of other STDs! I think the kids really got something from that movie, and a lot of them that night gave their lives to Christ and chose a life of abstinence! It was an amazing night, and so many kids came to Christ that night. Then Thursday, Arival opened up again. So we went in on Thursday and Friday to talk to the kids about abstinence. There are so many lies about sex, and I don't think this blog should ever go into all of the lies, but if you ever think about asking me, go ahead and write to my email address.

In between this week, God was working so much in my own life. On Tuesday, God spoke through my team-mate Faith, telling me that though He gave me my music ability, He wasn't going to use it on this trip, and that He was going to grow me up as a leader. Then she said she had a vision for me that she couldn't explain. The vision involved Jesus holding my hand taking me to the edge of a cliff, and then Jesus told me to jump of the cliff. Then I jumped, only to find that Jesus was at the bottom waiting to catch me. She couldn't understand this, but shortly after that, I saw physically what that cliff was. So in between "Beat the Drum" I was dealing with a life of sin that I was involved in, and God had told me that I needed to confess all these things to my leader... being the things I never had told anyone in my life, and being afraid of what would happen if I did jump. After finally writing a four page letter and telling three of the guys about my sinful past, I gave the letter to my leader and spiritually, "jumped off the cliff." As the last part of the vision foretold, Christ was at the bottom to catch me, and had put the loving people in my life that I needed to be able to jump off this cliff.

As the last part of the week came to a close, we all were so thankful to finally be "home". "Home being UCSA, and really, I do feel very at home here. I probably realized that more when I finally was able to get on to my bunk and just felt at peace and, home. " And our ministry started up again.

Week of the 20^th

It was so wonderful to be able to go back to our own ministries. Our group, "working at Talhado," decided to do something interactive in our lessons with the kids. We decided to teach them a name/attribute of God, and then go out and see how this name applies to our everyday life. This week we decided to do God as a provider, so we told them the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and then took the kids out into the slum communities and had them give out food to the people, having God use us to provide food to the poor community. Towards the end of the week, we were very discouraged because things weren't going as well as we hoped. First off, whenever we would get outside the gate, we would have thirty kids from earlier in the day crowding around us to get food, when it was supposed to be for the community. Then some of the kids were so dishonest and would take a Narchi, "a little orange, which is what we used to give to the community," eat it, and then ask for another one, eat that one and come back for more. We were hardly able to get a 500 ft. away because of all the kids that crowded us. In between this, we found out that Talhado was closing for the summer, and would be done the next Thursday, the 30^th.

Pretty much by the end of this week, we were very discouraged. Then we had thought that maybe it was because we had spent so much time trying to teach them something, and hardly any time to actually get to know them and play with them. So we decided to take the whole last week we had with the kids and just play with them, have fun with them, and have "intentional" free time where we would ask the kids questions about their life, and try to get Jesus into the conversation. This sparked new hope, and a lot of fun because we decided to do food crafts with the kids.

In between this time, God was teaching us a lot about how we see Him, who He REALLY is, and how He sees us. Through our discipleship teaching the topic, Christina, "the person who was teaching this week," showed us that how our parents treated us often changes how we see God. For example, if you come from a family who you have to do things to get attention, you will often do things to get Gods attention. If you come from a family who abandons you, you will see God as someone who could possibly abandon you. If you have a parent who is abusive, you will have trouble with feeling secure in God's love for you. How your parents treat you can also come out in how you treat others. So many of us have come from abusive homes, and so many of us need healing over all these emotional hurts. Please pray for us through this.

We also went through a section of changing how God sees us, and how we need Him to be our identity. It is so refreshing to find out how God created us to be just how we are, and how He loves us so much beyond all reason. One quote, "that I absolutely adore," is a quote that was taken from a short clip. And it goes like this, "He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because He loves you, because that is who He is. It is His nature!" Wow, He loves us, because He loves us... saying that over and over again just doesn't allow for anything else. And He does love us, beyond ALL understanding.

Another quote mentioned was, "I am He that loves you outrageously!" God loves us so much, and He created us to have a beautiful relationship with Him. So often we don't take time for Him out of our lives, don't even spend the time we should with Him. I have found myself soooooooo many times giving God my left-over times. Even in my prayer life, I have just left too many phone messages on an "answering machine" with just all requests and thanks, never giving Him a REAL chance to talk back to me. I am so sick of this and my selfishness.... I am not trying to be a hypocrite, but I need prayer and support from the body, just as we all need support from the body. We all need to give God the FIRST PORTION of our day, to actually wait for a reply from Him, to show Him how much WE desperately Love Him... have I really loved him with all my heart, I don't know if I really ever have. Showing love is often spending time with the person. I defiantly need to do more of that.

I hope I haven't bored you all. I just have so much to say, and I put it off more than I should. Love you all and miss you all!!!

Love,

Andrew

Somerset East

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys!!!

It is so exciting to write to y'all, "he he... I love to say that," again!!! Unfortunitly... I only have 17 minutes and no money to buy more time on line... so I will have to put a short post on.

I will be going to a village called Somerset East for an Aids Awarness Program called Beat The Drum. I am not quite exactly sure all that I will be doing yet.... but I know God will direct us all. Just pray for me next week. I will be living probably all by myself with a family that will host me there. It should be exciting... and if I can keep my voice down and excitement to a minimal... "most of you know allready that even a little excitement in my voice causes ears to go, "ouchy." :-p hehe" then it should be an amazing time with my host family. Pray for the program that We will be willing to be used by God.

I was able to start my minstry at Talhado in St. Francis Bay. The kids are so much fun to be around. I love to play with them. My Team and I came up with some lesson plans to give the kids something more real than a Sunday School lesson. Pray that the kids will open up to us as we show the different names of God. Unfortunitly... I won't be able to work with them next week because of Beat The Drum. It should all be amazing though.

Just so y'all, "he he... I said it again!!!" I probably won't be able to get internet access... go ahead and write... just know I won't get on till the week after next.

I will give you a better update than this little thing next week. Keep me in your prayers... and I love you soooooo much!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Missing Everyone

Sat, 4 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Everybody!!!

I have been missing you all so much. I am so excited to tell you the news of what has been going on. I will try to fill you in from when I last posted about week 1 here in Jeffreys Bay.

Week 2 here in Jefferys Bay

So to begin... we had to go to a camp called the Bush. I had fun... but as I have explained to most people.... it was hard on me because I was not able to really feel settled there. I wasn't able to really rest. I was just moving to another place becasue we couldn't actually stay at UCSA becasue of a camp that they had going on. Then later on in the weekend, some of us found out that UCSA was yet again kicking us out of our home again the next weekend for another camp... and we would have to move somewhere else for the weekend. At that point, I started to feel so angry and frustrated with the conditions of us staying at UCSA. I was so frustrated I went to bed at 7:00PM and just laid there in my bed asking God why and telling Him how my trust had been shattered. Then He told me lying there that though I didn't know what was going on, I just needed to trust in Him that He knew what He was doing.

We were able to move back on Sunday and on Monday we found out our Ministries. I will explain my ministry later. On Tuesday AIM took some of us, including me, aside and told us that we were chosen to be leaders for the camp the next weeked. On one side, I was so excited to be a leader of a group... but on the other side.... I was scared because I had never been a leader before. What would these kids be like? Could they even speak English? There was no time to really think about the whole thing because Wednesday night we started our training for the camp. Every day we would have training, worship and prayer. At that point, me and my team-mates who were leaders were under UCSA, not AIM. So we were on that schedual the rest of the week.

Friday finally came, and the kids started coming into the camp. That evenig, I was assigned 8 guys, Brandon, Phumlani, Simon, Nico, Stephan, Jp, Johan and Luleko. Another thing happened that evening, I started to get very sick. My throat ached, my cold was pritty bad, and my lungs started to have trouble breathing. Every Morning and night I would come to our new home, for a week with MXP, taking three showers every day to cough up the flem in my lungs. I was so week, but I prayed every day, and my brothers prayed for me that tis week in particular would be more of Christ, and less of me at the camp, and that He would give me spiritual caffine to stay well while I was working with the kids. God was so faithful to answer my prayers. I would get up, work with the kids from 7:30AM-11PM and when I would get home I would crash with my sickness and tiredness... I just new that God had been giving me strength while I was there. On Sunday, I was told by three of the our Leaders that I needed to go and sleep. So after lunch on Monday, I went to the MXP house and slept for 4 hours to get rested.

In the mean-time of my sickness, God was working with me and my students in amazing ways. We were growing closer and closer as the days went on. We were diging into our spiritual lives and starting to really see what it means to be a Christian and follow Christ. By Monday, I started to wish that I could have had more time to spend with my guys, and get to know them better, but knowing that the next day they would be gone. We opened up so much with each other. If you all could pray for each of them as they are back in school, that God would keep them strong in Christ there, and help them to really live for Him.

Week 3 in Jeffreys Bay

The begining part of the week I was helping out with the camp, and on Wednesday I had my first day off since September 6th!!! It was so wonderful and nice to relax. I slept ALL DAY LONG. On Thursday, I was finally able to see and start a little of my ministry in St. Francis Bay.

My ministry in St. Francis- Monday-Thursday, I work at an after school program playig with kids and investing into their lives. Fridays are spent doing house visits around the community praying for parents and visiting them in their homes. Most of the kids I work with go home to Abusive homes where the parents probably drink, do drugs and abuse their kids physically and emotionally. Often times, the parents might be at work, so the kids come home to an empty home. A lot of these kids have probably been molested once before if not multiple times. Our job is to be a "parent" to them, loving them and caring for them... being probably the only one that ever gives them love at all in their life. One of the kids I have grown fond if is Sevano... a little boy who is probably 6 years old. He is my little "buddy" who comes and gives me hugs and has me hold him every time I see him. Please start to pray for Him. I truly love him with all my heart.

We were not actually able to start our ministry this week because of it being a national holiday here in South Africa. Monday will actualy be our first day of real ministry. I work with Alyssa, Leah, and Faith. Our leaders are Chris and Christina. On Thursday, we looked around the place we will be working at. We also did house visits bringing Darche's, "little Oranges," around the community praying for people and letting them know that we would be there in Friday to do ministry. One place we stoped at, a woman named Ellen, was sitting outside in the dumps. We started to talk to here and ask her what was wrong and how we could pray for her. After a while, she opened up telling us that She had problems with Smoking and Drinking, and every time she tried to quit the devil would tempt her back to doing all those things. Along with smoking and drinking, she was distraught becasue she had Skin Cancer and didn't feel like she could go to God about it all. We talked with her for 10 minutes telling her about the passege in James 4:7-8 where it says, "Submit yoursleves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." Then we went into her house and prayed for her for 5 minutes asking God to give her strength and to heal her. Afterwords, her skin looked like it was starting to clear, her face started to shine with happiness and she felt more at peace. We left and told her we would come and visit again to pray for her. Please continue to pray with us that God will give her Self-Controle and that she will resist the Devil, and that Christ will continue to heal her.

Monday will be our first day of ministry. Pray that God will give us strength this week.

Account wise, I would like to ask you to pray that God will continue supply what I need. I know God could so easily supply all I need by December. I am about $900 short by December. Even if God could provide all I needed by November, I would rejoice.

This next week I will be doing ministry at St. Francis and the week after, I will be doing a program called Beat The Drum... which is an Aids Awarness program... at a place a Somerset. Pray that God will start to prepare us and everyone else working. And that He will also prepare the hearts that will hear the message.

I Hope I havn't bored you all with this huge update, so I will be short now... But I want to thank you for praying for me and being there for me. I love you all!!!! Keep me and my team-mates in your prayers!!!

Love,

Andrew

Small Update

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys,

I am leading a camp at the moment. The kids I have are so great. My guys have been really great and have opened up so much. Today we did a scavenger hunt around Jeffreys Bay. We have also been stressing to the kids about surrendering your life to Christ, turning your life around and following Jesus. Besides the biblical side, we all have been having fun eating together, talking together, and just getting to know each other. Please pray for me. I am a little tired, and have a pritty bad cold. Pray that Christ will continue to give me strength as He has been.

Money Update,

I have $7,420.04 in my account right now. I really need and would like to have everything paid for by December. So if my monthly givers give for all months months, "October, November and December," and I get the last bit from Cheney Community Church, I will have around $8,800. The total cost of the trip is $9,700. I am so close. If you could give up to $900 in one time gifts, that would be such a blessing to me.

Well.... I better get going. I love you all so much. Keep me in your prayers.

Love,

Andrew

The First weeks of JBay

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

My Dearest Friends and Family,

I am so excited to tell you that I am now in South Africa and made it safely!!! Now that I am down here, I don't know how often I will be able to write, but I will try to keep you all updated as much as possible with what I have been doing. They told us we would at least get on the internet once a week.

I have started to miss you all very much. I don't think I am quite homesick yet, but pretty close. The Lord has been so amazing with me and all my team-mates these past two weeks.

Week 1, Training Camp

The first day, was mostly spent getting to know each other. They also had a lot of different activities to do during that week. Most of our time was spent either doing some kind of team-activity where we learned how we worked with each other or in some kind of ministry church service. One of these events included an obstacle course where the whole team had to get through different things like a balance bar, a rope ladder, a large tire swing that we had to get through without touching anything, and finally a wall that we had to climb up. Though we didn't complete most of the challenges we faced, we did learn about leadership and where we play a role in the leadership of our group.

Between the team builders, we got about three sermons a day about different subjects like children, spiritual warfare, ATL, "Ask The Lord," and many more. Then we had worship almost every night. You could pretty much say that this week was full of things to do... and little time to ourselves. Finally we were able to leave Gainesville GA, and go to Africa.

Week 2 Up to this Point

Most of our trouble started right before we left. Three of the people had trouble with their passports and had to wait to come down here for a few more days. They will be here probably tonight.

When we got here, we realized after getting off the plane that most of our bags were still in Washington DC and we would have to wait for a few days before getting any of our luggages. On top of that, one of our team leaders lost her passport on the airplane and couldn't get it back, so she was deported back to Canada. If she is to continue on with us, she will need to get a new passport and pay for another ticket down to Port Elizabeth. Please pray for her that she will be able to get the money to come back down here. She is very discouraged.

We got here about 11PM, so we pretty much went straight to bed. The next day, they gave us a little time to explore "downtown" Jeffreys Bay. I am so amazed by the beauty of this place. The beach is just a 3 minute walk from where we are staying. Pretty much anywhere you want to go, it is between a 2-30 minute walk. On one side, you have the rich housing and shopping centers. On the other side, the further you go, the worse the housing conditions.

At the beach, I picked some sea shells off the beach, I got a cell phone for me to be contacted by my team-mates and contact leaders, "mostly for safety reasons." I also got an internet card to get on line, "we have to pay for internet access."

Today we did a scavenger hunt that was really fun. We had to run all over the place in order to get certain items, or take pictures. Our only problem was at a gas station when Leah Rush put down her camera for some reason. She left and half way to Deo Doxa, "a international church here in Jeffreys Bay," we found out she didn't have her camera with her. So we went back and the people at the counter said they didn't see a camera. But we are thinking they were being dishonest because when they opened the counter, they didn't open it all the way, and the leaders said that they probably did take it. So Leah lost her camera already. Pray for her.

Our team did win the scavenger hunt. On the list, we didn't get two things. So they gave us money to go and get a milkshake!!! Oh my gooness!!! THE MILK SHAKES ARE AMAZING!!! They are so much creamier than the ones at home. MMMMMM!!!! The food has been pretty good actually. It is different, but very tasty. "The mango soda is quite amazing if I do say so myself!!!"

With all the greatness about the place we are at, there are a few drawbacks. It is a campsite. So this week we will have to pack all our stuff again and move out for the weekend. We are going to a place called The Bush. I don't know much more about it than that. I am having a hard time with this, mostly because I just want to feel settled before having to move out again. Please pray for all of us. I am not the only on having trouble with this.

I love and miss you all. I will try to keep you updated as much as possible. Oh, and please be patient with the emails, I don't usually have that much time to write back when I get them because it is expensive to get on line, and I am not only on my time, but every one else's. We can't travel alone here, we have to be in pairs of three or four, "mostly so we don't have any problems with the community." Thanks again. And I still need support, so if you were thinking of giving, please send it in. I am about $3,000 to go. I will give you a better detail when I get the chance to look at my AIM account.

Love,

Andrew

HA HA.... my weirdness

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys,

Just posting because I need to for a scavenger hunt! It is so much fun. I got here safely and I will post later!!!

Love You All!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

On my way to Africa!!!

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys!!!

I am so excited to tell you... "though it has been such a long time," that I got all the money I needed to enter training camp!!! The Lord provided the money.

Camp was amazing! We all have grown so close together over the past week. I had thought at first that this week would tell us things like, "don't drink the water.... if this happens... then do this... don't eat raw meat..." stuff like that... but it turned out to be a week of intence spiritual training.

Some of the first things they had us do was leave our pasts behind, and start walking in Christ more and more. They also taught us how to listen to Christ more and more. Some of the things they had us do was this thing called ATL or Ask The Lord.

In Ask The Lord, we were told to go into a certain area and start praying to ask God to tell us how He wanted us to work in our area, and what He wanted us to do there. My team went to a park and prayed for about a half our asking God where He wanted us to go. Our team felt called to worship God for a while. After about a half our of that, we felt called to go around the park and pray for people.

God showed me that He wanted me to pray for some of the mothers on benches watching thier kids play in the swing and slide area. So I went there and met two amazing women of God, Andrea and Colleen. I got to pray for these women for their tri-athalon the next week, and also wisdome as they raise their kids. It was such an amazing experience meeting these women.

Yesterday was our last day in America. So all the teams going out, "Swaziland, Kenya, South America, India, and South Africa of course :-)," all went to a the park and had diner there, talking and having fun with each other. It was very nice.

As I write this, I am waiting to get on a plain to go to Washington DC and then to Johanesberg, and then to Port Elizebeth. From there, we will drive to Jeffreys Bay. We are thinking that we will get to Jeffery's Bay around 3PM tomorrow, Pacific Time. It will be around 12-1AM by the time we get there. We will then start our ministry probably on Wednesday or Thursday.

Aaryn, one of our team leaders, told me that I will probably go with the Joshua Project, working with the kids there. From what I hear, there is so much oppression there in the people. I feel I am ready for my heart to be broken when I see them, but I know that it will still be hard.

Please pray for safe travels as we go to Jeffreys Bay today. Pray for our hearts to be broken for the people. Pray that Christ will even now start to prepare us for His ministry and work as we start working where Christ wants us to go. Most of all... Pray that our team will be Dangerous for Christ.

Love you all,

I will write later to you all!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Support Update

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

So I wanted to let you all know that I am well on my way to getting the rest of the money for this month. I just did another calculation.

From the new money that has come in or has been pledged I now have a total of $5,200.04!!! YAY!!!! Thanks to all who have given to my account!!!

Thanks to Jerry and Judy Malone for contributing!!! I miss and love you guys soo much!!

Thanks SOOOOO Much Kalen Mckinley!!!!!! I appreciate your gift sooo much.

Thanks soo much to the Millers for giving monthly!!! You bless me SOOO much!!!

In pledges the total is at $5,200.04... but at the moment... I only have $4,245.04 in my account. So if you havn't sent in your pledges.... PLEASE send in the money soon!!!

So at this point with my pledges... I need $1,000 more before the end of this month!!! And for monthly... I still need people to pledge $371.11 per month. If 19 people were to support $20 per month... then I would have the monthly support taken care of!!!

Please pray for me and my team-mates that Christ will provide what we need. I am in a better spot than MANY MANY of them. We all need prayer. Feel free to check out their pages at www.08africaawakening.myadventures.org If you have the heart to give monthly to them too... I know they would also appreciate your help VERY much.

Thanks sooo much yall!!!

In Christ,

Andrew

Sunken Hopes... But Arisen Dreams

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

So I found out today that the 60% we need is AFTER they take out the plain ticket money... So the $5,000 I had... will soon sink to $3,000 leaving me at about 50% of the support I needed before I leave in September.

At first I was frustrated and worried about this amount. I had figured that my time for MAJOR MAJOR fundraising had been lost, now I had t scrounge the bucket for the last $1,200... But then an idea came to my head... an idea of "God's Marvelous Provision." Think about it... in one month, Christ provided $5,000 in my account... in ONE month!!!!!!! Here the Lord has taken care of me, He brought in the money I needed, and here I am, little me, complaining to God, "God... now I have to raise another $1,200 before the end of next month... $4,200 was bad enough... but now I have to raise $6,200??? WHEN WILL THIS STOP!!!" Then Christ showed me how the $5,000 was completely HIM raising it for me. "Yes... it was not little me.... I admit it." And even with my first guess of having to raise $2,200 like I first thought last month, the Lord has allready put me in a better position than I hoped. It is only $1,200, which is $1,000 less than what I thought I was going to need. Even with this new ammount, the Lord knew about it, and took care of me.

I started to wonder how often we act like the Israelites in the dessert complaining to God, "THIS ISN'T AT ALL WHAT I WANTED!!!!" And here God is, supplying our every need, taking care of us... knowing what is to come. Over and over I have told myself, and my team-mates, "Trust in Christ, He will supply what you need." Often I have found that He knows what we want... more than we do. And here He is... taking care of us every step of the way. We all have been sinfull of not trusting in Christ, complaining to Him that He didn't do things like we wanted... like me earlier today. And now it's time for andrew to practice what he has been preaching to everyone and himself all along.... It is time for me to trust in Christ.

So... lets get out the money stats so you all know my needs...

I have $4,995.04 towards my account at this moment.

"The $2,575.04 from the Church got in today!!!...before they baught my plain ticket to Africa!!!"

ONE TIME GIFTS

I still need $1,205.96 before the end of next month. "These need to be sent in before the middle of August so they get processed in time."

*As I have said... if you are still at the pledging stage... please take the next step SOON and send in the money.*

MONTHLY SUPPORTERS

After all the money needed for next month is in, I will still need $3,800 through monthy support.

$3,800/9=$422.22 per month

$422.22

-$180 "details are listed in "Gods Marvelous Provision" under Monthly Support

$242.22 still needed in monthly before I go.

At this point... I am still looking for One Time givers. The more that comes in from that side, the less that will be needed on the Monthly Support side... though both are very needed and EXTREAMLY appreciated.

You CAN support me On-Line here by clicking on the link, "Support Me!" under the Main Menu.

A Dream that also came to mind later on today was... "If Christ gave me $5,000 allready... then He could cirtanly get me the last $5,000 before I go in one time gifts!!!" Isn't God Amazing!!!

Pray for me that Christ will give me wisdome on what I need to do next in this support raising endevour.

Pray for my team-mates, as they also face many deadlines like these. "You can see all of them and read a little about them by going to www.08africaawakening.myadventures.org to check out their prayer and support needs as well. We are all under Main Menue where all the names are placed at."

And I pray that the Lord will bless each and every one of you... whether you support me financially, or prayerfully by even coming to my page!!!

Love,

Andrew

"We are not people of wealth, but isn't it amazing that Christ has allowed our kids to go on these marvelous adventures around the world!!!" My mother talking to Genny.

Gods Marvelous Provision!!!!

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Ever since Bunco, God has been supplying my needs more and more. I have been calculating how much people have decided to support me, and how much more I need. Well... each day brings a new ammount, "this is from people calling my mom and letting her know how much they will support me, people letting me know, and people putting money in the offering for me."

Last night, as I was calculating how much more I needed, I was astonished by finding out that with the money I have, the money being sent in and the money that people have pledged, I now have $4,995.04 towards my account!!!!! Because of this ammount, I have OFFICIALLY hit my September deadline, "and the amazing part about His provision is that it is not even August yet!!!" Thank you to all who have started to support me.

Thanks to Sandi for your generous gift, "and for all the desserts you baught at the Bunco night... yes... I LOVE YOU!!!! You are totally AWSOME!!!"

Thanks to Barbary H. for all the money you gave me. It sure helped a WHOLE BUNCH!!!

Thanks to Edna W. for your generous contribution. You helped me out soo much as well.

Thanks to Barbara B. for supporting me monthly at $20 a month!!!

Thanks to Mary B. for supporting me at $10 a month!!! I am so blessed by you!!!

Thanks so much Grandmama and Papa for your gift. I Love you both SOOO much!!!

Thanks to the Cheney Bible Bookstore for giving me a job, and for your pledge!!!

Thanks to all who contributed at our Church into the offering!!! I have gotten $575 just from there alone. You, "my church family," have always been so generous to me. I love you all!!!

If you are still in the pledge stage, I ask that you please send in your pledge by the middle of August. It takes a week for AIM to get the money, and longer for them to process it. If you send in your money by the middle of the month, then it should get there in time so I am not behind when I get there.

From the $10,000 I need by the end of the missions trip, I now need $5,004.96!!!

At this point, I now need monthly support. Here is my breakdown on monthly at this point.

$5,004.96/9=$556.11

$556.11

-100 monthly from my Parents

-50 from the Aders

-10 from Mary

-20 from Barbara*

376.11 needed monthly at this point.

If 19 people can support me at $20 per month, then the monthly support will go down.

I am still accepting one time gifts as well... they will also bring down monthly needed support.

You can support me on-line any time. Just click on "Support Me!" under Main Menu on my page.

I am so excited to see how Christ moves next, and can't wait to go to this place that Christ is taking me. As Kandace, "my sister," said as she was talking to Mom about my support, "Well, I guess God really wants Andrew to go!!!" Ha ha. I guess He does!!!

Pray for me as the rest of my money and paperwork gets turned in. I will be applying for my VISA soon.

In Christ,

Andrew

Results of Bunco

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Guys!!!

First things first... Sorry for not writing in a while. God has been REALLY working over the past few weeks. One exciting bit of news I want to tell you, "besides the Bunco Night results," is that the Cheney Community Church Mission Committee decided to give me $1,000!!!! Thanks so much!

I am also SOOO excited to tell you that the total from the Bunco Night was $1,325.04!!!!!!

God is sure wonderful isn't He!!! Thank you so much to all who came to the Bunco night. We all sure had LOADS of fun! "I probably had the most because I was laughing the whole time." All the desserts you all brought were so beautiful. I could tell that all who came pourd their heart into every dessert. I want to especially thank a few people;

To Kirsten and Winston, for helping to put on this wonderful event on. I couldn't have done it without you!!!

To Marco, Margo, Niah, and Cia, who made that amazing dessert, the Giraffe cake, "it looked amazing. I will post it if I can get a copy of the picture," which made the most money, $175 that night!!!!

To all who bid and gave SOOO Generously that night. I wouldn't be as cought up as I am without your help!!

To everyone who helped tear down everything after the dessert auction. I appreciate your help a lot.

Cheney Community Church will be sending a Check of $2,575.04 to my account, which means that I am at $3,175.04 in my account.

At this point, I only need $1,024.96 by the end of September, "PRAISE JESUS!!!"

I am now on track for the August deadline, and have a good head-start on the September deadline!!!

I look forward to see how and through who God will continue to raise the money I need. Thank you all again!!!

In Christ,

Andrew