Being a Lion Chaser

Right now I am reading "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day". One of the best books ever!

What if the life you really want, and the future God wants for you, is hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure...your greatest fear?
I'm about half way through the book at this point but I have already made a concious decission to be a Lion Chaser from here on out! Here is a couple of phrases from the book that got me:

• You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.
• When we don't have the guts to step out in faith and chase lions, then God is robbed of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him.
• Don't let mental lions keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer.
• Opportunities often look like insurmountable obstacles.
• If you don't have any problems you don't have any potential. Here's why. Your ability to help others heal is limited to where you have been wounded.

To Be Continued . . . . . . . . .

Close Encounter

Heather and I waded out into the ocean this morning where I had my first ever live encounter with a stingray. I was about to put my foot down on its tail as I noticed it. It was about 4 feet long. I turned around and told Heather to run. She had no idea what it was, so she assumed the worst, a shark. We took off back to shore and Heather turned around to make sure I was behind her and at that moment their was a huge wave coming up behind me and all she can see is a large black shadow in the wave. For those of you who maybe concerned, we both made it back to shore safely.




After my encounter, this is how I spent the rest of my time on the beach.

Life at the Beach

Long awaited vacation is finally here!!!! Today was our first full day on the beach, and I am so proud to say I did not get burnt for once. I do not have many pictures to post due to the fact that I left home without my camera, I did however bring my camera charger. All I can say is apparently it was a blonde moment! I do have a few pictures we took with Heathers phone check them out:

Just Cause

I know it's almost been a week since I have blogged! Everyday life has been a little on the boring side this week. It took me almost a week to get back in the swing of things and get over the jet lag. I'm now back and ready to go, hopefully this week I will have some blog worthy events!

Back to Everyday Life

Coming back to the states is always the hardest part of every trip for me. It is the only thing about going on mission trips that does not get easier. Every trip I become less and less germ conscious and each trip I get a little more and more adventurous with the food I eat. But coming back to every day life I think gets harder and harder with every trip. I see the difference I can make around the world and then I come back to everyday life that seems so monotonous. I would rather be out there making an impact in the lives of children throughout the world.

We Are Home!!

The hardest part of the whole trip is always saying good-bye to these little faces!!!!

We made it home last night after traveling for 38 hours! I never remember being as tired as I was when I finally got home. I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow!

Now I have to get back into the swing of every day life. It's not easy to come back and move on, knowing there are places all over the world where I can make a difference.

The Last Few Hours

We spent our last few hours in Mozambique at the church for Sunday morning service. It was an awesome service. We recognized the cooks and leaders who went through the leadership training all week. We presented the cooks with Cooking for Christ aprons. I had never seen anyone so proud to wear that apron as those 8 ladies were. It was AWESOME!

After having the opportunity to experience church at 6 of our 7 campuses so far (hopefully I will have the opportunity to check out #7 in the near future) I have come to the realization that no matter what HPC campus you are at they all know how to stack them chairs!

Hlame Game Park

So we arrived at the game park at around 5:30pm Thursday afternoon. Their was no electricity but we did have fully enclosed rooms this time. So once we got their and unloaded our stuff we had about an hour and a half until dinner. Well with no electricity what is their to do??? So Tina drew a hop scotch in the sand and Judy taught us how the Brazilians play hop scotch (apparently Americans play it the same way, must be old school or maybe I never played hop scotch as a kid. Not sure which!) So the hop scotch did not go over so well, so we then switched to the hand smack game. It took us several tries (not because of Tina :)), but we finally got it.

We had a great time! We saw lions, elephants, impalas, hippos, and several other cool animals.

The Drive to Swaziland

So Thursday afternoon as we are driving to Swaziland to go on a game drive, Jay is talking to Jennifer on the phone. Jennifer tells Jay to tell me that she has been reading my blog, but that I have not had any pictures of Jay on my blog the past few days. Here you go Jenn:

So then Mrs. Sherrie chimes in and says that I have not put her picture on my blog at all. So this one is for Mrs. Sherrie!

We were a little bored on the drive, but it wasn't hard for us to keep each other entertained for the 2 hours we were in the car. We had a great time just riding along laughing!

Teddy Bears

I know I said yesterday was the day I had been waiting for, but I also could not wait to pass out the teddy bears that our kids made during VBS. We showed them the picture of our kids holding up the bears that they made for them and then showed them the bears and their faces just lite up they were so excited! We were only able to bring 300 bears with us and we had 350 kids show up so we had to give the older kids candy instead.

Best Day Yet

Today was my most favorite day of the trip so far, but also the hardest. We had at least 450 kids show up today. Today's theme was walking on water. So for our craft today we were going to give every child a pair of flip flops and have them decorate them with strips of material. Well it took us the whole time just to size the kids and pass out the flip flops, a lot longer of a process than we had originally anticipated. Today was the day I had been waiting for for months. The idea of having the flip flops for a craft was my most favorite, because the kids would be walking away with something that they really needed. I was so excited about today, until half way into it when we ran out of the larger sizes. I had to tell kids we did not have a pair to fit them. They were shoving their feet into flip flops that were up to 4 sizes too small. We had a few that a smaller size was just not an option and I had to watch them walk away upset because they did not get a pair. It broke my heart!

A little girl checking out her new flip flops after having them put on.

She is holding on tight to her flip flops and her baby brothers!!!

My sizing chart I made to measure the kids feet with. You see the gap in the middle, that is the sizes we did not have so we had to go bigger which caused us to run out of the bigger sizes so fast.

A Walk Along the Indian Ocean

Well I actually had a few minutes before dinner to take a short walk along the beach. Where I picked up a coconut and drank it's milk!!! Seriously who believes that??? :)

Day 2 of VBS in Africa

We had around 400 kids today. Today's theme was Jonah and the whale. Our craft was salvation Bible candy, the game was potato sack races and then our story of course was about Jonah. The kids loved it, their little faces just glowed!

I have never seen kids so excited to do a potato sack race!!!!!!

Kids continued to come all day!! The one fact I was told today that shocked me was that some of these kids walked as far as 3 miles to come today!!!! They are so hungry!!!! Not just for food, but for God and to be loved on!!!!

We waited until the end of the day before we told them that the Bible Candy was really edible. A few of them figured it out before hand, but they were so excited!

1st Day of VBS Mozambique Style

Well this is the view of the Mozambique Campus this morning! We had over 300 (had trouble getting an accurate count) kids show up for VBS today. It was an awesome day! They all received a t-shirt as they came in this morning and got their picture taken. We taught them the lawnmower song. Mrs. Sherrie told the story of David and Goliath while Jay and Abraham acted it out. It was awesome!

This is were I spent most of my day. I sat in the car printing out the kids pictures on a portable printer as Jay took the kids picture. We started at about 11:00 and at 4:30 when we left I was still printing pictures. Seeing those kids get so excited over seeing a picture of them self makes it all worth it! I love it!!!!! No place else I would rather be right now!!!!!

Are they that HUNGRY or is it that GOOD???????

IT WAS chocolate Mousse from the hotel buffet!!!!!!!!

Another HPC Campus

2 weeks ago I was able to check out a Sunday Service at our Danville Campus. Today I got to check one out at our Mozambique Campus. It is so awesome no matter where; it's an HPC Campus with an awesome anointing. This is a picture of their children's service, where I spent my time this morning. It was an awesome service. I didn't get to hear it, but was told Mrs. Sherrie did an awesome job preaching in the adult service. We spent the afternoon preparing for this weeks VBS. More to come............

HAMBURGER

We went to a pasta restaurant for dinner tonight, but some how I ended up with a cheese burger! Imagine that!! It was not half bad, just not an American cheeseburger. We had a good ol belly laugh at Jay trying to order his egg hamburger in Portuguese!!! Just try to imagine the pink panther saying hamburger and that was Jay!!!:) We love you Jay!!!! Needless to say this trip has not been without the laughs and we are just getting started!!!

Preparation

We spent the afternoon sorting through all of our supplies getting

ready for our Awesome week!

Tomorrow we will split into 2 groups: 1 group will be doing the adult service and the other group will be doing the kids service.

It's going to be awesome!

I'm Back In Africa

It was dark when we got here last night, so this is what I saw first thing this morning as Traci pulled open the curtains and blinded me! What a view!!!!!! For all of you that were worried I did get to take a shower this morning! It was still brown but at least it was hot, no shower had ever felt so good!!!!! It's not so easy bathing with bottled water. We are about to meet Isaac & Carol for lunch and then we will spend the rest of the day preparing for tomorrow and next week. PRAY PRAY PRAY!!!!!!!!!

We Made It!!!

Well we left the church a little after 9am on Thursday and we arrived in Maputo at about 2:00pm Baton Rouge time on Friday, 9pm Mozambique time. We made it safe and sound! We have had no problems at all (thank you for all your prayers). When we arrived here we were missing one suitcase of supplies. Please be praying that it will arrive on the first flight in tomorrow. It is almost 1am here and I am waiting for the water to be fixed so that I can take a shower. We started off with no water, now we have brown, cold, water; praying it turns clear and hot real quick! This is an awesome team God has put togther, I know He has awesome things in store for this week! PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!

Finally Packed

Well it is about 1:30am and I just finally finished packing. I'm ready to go! WooHoo! Who is ready for a 19 hour plane ride??!!!!

No matter how many times I go, every time I'm just as excited as the first time I went. Their is just something about being in Africa and seeing all the kids, that just helps put life into perspective. There is no place else I would rather be! I Love it!

Here is a little trivia question for my Danville Buddies!!!!!

Who can name this snake????

I Love You Guys!

PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!