The Things We Never Knew!

• The first moment He held me in His arms and looked down at me and smiled, I didn't know that He had won my heart from that moment on...BUT He did!
• The day that He took me to the turkey barns to "help" with checking the baby chicks, I didn't know I really wasn't helping at all...BUT He did!
• The day that I declared Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, I didn't know how proud I made Him and my family...BUT He did!
• The day I declared Jesus as my personal, He didn't know how instermental He was in that moment...BUT I do!
• The day I looked out into the crowd after my performance of Hee-Haw-Hay-Ride and saw Him sitting there, He didn't know how happy that made me...BUT I do!
• The day He walked from the van to my softball game at Crown College taking frequent stops to catch His breath, He didn't know how thankful I was...BUT I do!
• The day we took the golf cart for a ride when we were on vacation, He didn't know how grateful I was for that moment...BUT I do!
• The last moment He held me in His arms, He didn't know how I breathed in and took in that moment for the last time...BUT I do!
• The day God took Him into GLORY, He didn't know He took my heart with Him... BUT I do!

My heart goes with You, Grandpa, as You stole my heart from the first moment You held me in Your arms!

I LOVE YOU, MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW OR COULD IMAGINE, FOREVER AND A DAY!!

"God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear through the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make GLAD the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. GOD is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts His voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is WITH us; the God of Jacob is our FORTRESS!

- PS 46:1-7

-SLOW-

Hello EVERYONE!

This week has been a little slow as Anna and I just sit at the house waiting for kids to come in to get their updates done! It is good though to have time to sit, talk, read and hangout. Usually we help Patricia out with the chores around the house/office.

This past week Anna and I have been sleeping at Martha's house. She has just gotten in to her new house, so most nights consist of a little unpacking, chatting and watching "Friends" (she has the complete set on DVD!) I love chatting with Martha because she says things VERY straight forward...I wish all people were like that! Sure it hurts BUT we don't spend 15 minutes on the subject that could take only 2 minutes! The other night we made a huge batch of popcorn and ate it all! The Slagter family would be proud with the amount we put away! :)

We found out a couple days ago that Gary, the president and founder of EOH, is coming to Zambia on the 2nd of October! Anna and I are both really excited; we met Gary when we were in our training in Texas and then again in the airport before we took off to Washington D.C.! We are excited to hear from him and to get to know his heart a little more!

Friday Anna and I were able to work on around 20 updates...it was great we got them done in almost 2 hours...which is really good! BUT my favorite part--we packed 40 people(5 women and the rest kids) into a 30 passenger bus! Yeah it was a little squished but I had the most amazing time! It was only a 15 minute drive but the kids sang the whole way back...two of the girls that led the songs were AMAZING singers and the kids sang with such heart! It was amazing...for lack of a better word! :)

On Tuesday night, on our way to Martha's house, we stopped by a funeral wake. Martha said that most times these wakes go on for at least 3 days sometimes more! The women are in the house and the men are outside, when you come to the house you remove your shoes and enter the room knealing, you then go around the room shaking all of the womens hands and then find a spot alongside the wall to morn with the women. Anna and I were the only white women there and were not informed that we should be wearing our traditional wraps...so we stuck out! I really had no clue who it was for but was shanken later when I found out it was for a young man (22 yrs. old) who loved the Lord. 22 yrs. old...that is me, I am 22 yrs. old! I am unsure how he passed but it was hard on all the people there...including myself! I thank God for everyday I have with these people and their hearts!

Thank GOD for everything and everyday you have to further HIS kingdom!

*Grandpa Slagter - Much love and hugs go out to my whole family in this time! I am praying non-stop for all of you!
*My sister, Hillary's back...she is ALIVE! ;)
*Dusty and his time with the family! Wish I was there with you, no worries though I am living it up over here for you!
*Little baby Sir!
*Jeremiah and Krista as they prepare for a life together! :) CONGRATULATIONS!

PICTURES!! :)

hope you are happy with this Lindsey!
Anna and I working on being Zambian!

Cypheen with one of the boys finishing his update on Friday!

Cypheen, Anna and I enjoying puppy chow during Cypheen's guitar lessons and CSI: NewYork!

Anna and I with our hungry lion box! Good food! :)

After a day of updates our feet were pretty dirty...who's black and who's white?!

One of the other monkeys...pretty excited to see them! Anna likes this picture because it looks like he is about to pounce!

My really good picture of the monkey walking right by myself and grabbing my bag!

Anna and I at the falls...it was the dry season so there wasn't much for falls but it was still breathtaking!

Hippo infested water, down by the river! haha

Anna in Livingstone with the kids doing updates!

Cypheen and I with the beautiful fish that Mama and he had for supper that night! Anna and I opted for the chicken and 'chips' also known as french fries...Oh yes and Hillary notice the shirt!

Livingstone!

Yes, yes it has been a while since I have last blogged and I am sorry about that! BUT here I am now! All this past week Anna, Cypheen, and Mama H have been in Livingstone attending meetings, doing updates, and buying the food/supplies for the kids. On Monday before all the work began Anna and I were able to go to Victoria Falls and on a Safari!! At Victoria Falls there is bungee jumping :) Yes this another of my life long dreams...and I would be in Africa, at one of the 7 wonders of the world BUNGEE JUMPING!! You ask if I did it...no (said in a very bland monotone voice because that is how I feel now that I haven't done it!) Main reason for not doing it; it was in Zimbabwe...and yes Brian we listened to you and didn't go into Zimbabwe! Plus Anna had some point about if I got hurt there aren't as good of hospitals here and if I died my family would have to pay for my body to be shipped back to the states, etc. Anna what a Debbie Downer! ;) I did enjoy the falls even though it was the dry season, it was still amazing to see! Gorgeous what God can do with a bunch of water!
Also, this story is for Grandpa Slagter, I seem to recall telling you at one point in my life that I was going to have a pet monkey when I got older. You responded by saying that you would never visit me if I did! As a child this made me quite upset...but now that I am older I realize I most likely will never have a pet monkey! But I got really close to one at Victoria Falls...haha, I was walking on the path and was super pumped because there were many monkey's swinging in the trees around me. I whipped out my camera when I saw one walking down the path and wanted to get a picture of how close it was to me! I was going to take it as it walked right by me but through my view finder what do I see the monkey is reaching out and grabbing my bag...of course I did not stay calm in this and screamed scaring off the monkey and getting a blurred picture of some trees! So Grandpa, I will not be getting a monkey, but I was right they do have an attraction to me! :)
As for the safari it was all pretty boring until one exciting moment! Halfway through the safari they stop for a bathroom break and if you want to go down to the river and check it out! So Anna and I get out of our SAFE vehicle and head down to the river. While we were down there I ventured off to check out some monkeys in the trees and see some tracks from some large animal, I am not really up on the tracks of safari animals quite yet. I got some good pictures and then headed over to Anna who was sitting on a large rock near the river. While we were there we heard some slashing of water, it sounded kind of like if a bunch of kids were all let into the lake at the same time; we turned and looked and from our left there were 4, what I later found out were hippo's running at us! I heard the tour guide yelling at us to get back to the vehicle and some other men with tranquilizers running down toward us. Anna and I took off back to the van as fast as we could and got in and shut the doors. The guard tranquilizer men didn't have to shoot but said we were lucky that we weren't sitting closer to the river than the van because they wouldn't have had enough darts for all the hippos, only three! This may be a slight exaggeration...as there were no hippos, no tranquilizers and no running back to our SAFE vehicle! Basically just the sound of many kids running into a lake at the same time...other than that, nope nothing! Although we were able to witness elephants swimming and then coming on land right by our van, this was quite exciting as it is Anna's favorite land mammal! I will defiantly try to put up some pictures of both of my EXCITING adventures!
As for the rest of the week we did updates, updates, and more updates! Actually on Wednesday I was not allowed to leave the Lodge because I had gotten sick and dehydrated from the day before, so Wed was a pretty boring day for me...We were thrilled with the amount of updates we finished! And left this morning at 4:22 to get home in time for a bridal shower Mama was attending! As for this evening it has been pretty relaxing, having supper,doing laundry, and just being "home", back at the office! Oh yes and I wanted to tell Lindsey and Hillary I thought of them when I made puppy chow with Anna for Cypheen and Mama this week! I guess they don't make treats like that! Sadly we had to use Rice Krispies instead of Chex because they don't have much for cereal here...Rice Krispies works just as good just harder to eat as fast (might be good for us), you will have to try it and tell me what you think!

*My Grandpa Slagter- I LOVE YOU! Always thinking of you and Grandma!
*Dusty - he is back in the States! Praise the Lord!
*Anna and My health...someone wasn't praying on Wednesday ;)
*Sister Hillary's back as she injured it in V-ball, and I am not sure if she is living...I haven't heard from her in 2 1/2 weeks ;)
*Little Baby Sir! Size of a Turnip this week :)

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!

WOW...could it get any better!? I am really feeling at home after a few days here! Anna and I both are feeling comfortable with our Zambian Family! We haven't done too much work yet because the Family has been going to classes during the day for some child training. So we have been doing a lot of work inside! We have gotten to know Patricia and Tommy really well and have grown to love the time we get with them.
Tommy has now learned 9 hole Golf (card game, my G-pa Slagter's fav game). He really enjoys it even though he isn't quite that good at it yet, whenever he is struggling he says, "The Lord is Faithful"...even when he loses "The Lord is Faithful, I will win this time" It is great to see how they put God into everything. Along with that we have had long discussions about how we can't drink their water. He doesn't understand and thinks that we should at least try it..."how do we know?" he would say and I asked him, "If I try it would you hold my hair back as I puke?!" he laughed and said, "Of course, if you try it, we are family!"
As for Patricia I have grown to love this woman...she is so excited to show us her culture and let us watch and learn how to make Nshima (shema) today. We were challenged by Cypheen later that we would not be able to make it well! So turns out Anna and I will have to step up tomorrow...
As for our trips to "My Fathers House's" it was amazing the kids are so respectful and excited to see us. Most of them were quiet almost like they were nervous to meet us. They all came up and gave us hugs or shook our hands. Then they showed us their rooms and around the house. I am so excited to spend more time with them over these next weeks!
I also was able to see the house that the GEMS built and also sponsor every month. They were excited to hear that I once went to GEMS. I will make sure to get pictures of the kids to show the girls back home! They would love to receive mail from you girls, so if you get the chance send it to me and I will make sure to get it to them (there's 8 total, 4 boys/girls) They were so gracious; it is amazing the amount of respect they hold for others.
I have grown to LOVE my Zambian family! I love the way they are so laid back and don't worry about time is amazing...I didn't think I would like this being as I am usually 15 minutes early for everything! BUT in Africa, it is not an offense to be late...it is almost expected, not really but it is not rude! So I am totally fine with being late, although I usually say sorry 15 times and then explain. :s I will get there... I love how they are so kind...always greeted with a smile and cheek kisses! They show their love here and not just for people for the Lord too. This is one area that I have been challenged! I hope by the time I leave here I will have the infatuation they have for God...You can see He is number one in their lives! I have never really seen it this obvious before! I can only pray that is the same for me!
Thank you all for your prayers they mean more than you know! Also thanks so much for your emails and comments...I get SUPER excited to read them!!

*G-pa Slagter's health, I have heard he looks well and has been having some good days! Please continue to pray for him, my G-ma and my family in this time.
*Health for Anna and I both
*Thanks that we have adjusted after that one night to the time here!
*Safety for my cousin Dusty who is coming home from Iraq in a few days!
*Thanks for the people that I have already met and feel in LOVE with and that they are so accepting and gracious!

Interesting Experience!

Mama H. allowed us to sleep in as late as we would like today; Anna and I both decided that we should only sleep eight hours so that we don't get on a weird sleeping pattern. We woke up around 8:45 and started figuring out how to work things. We were up and ready to go by 10 and gave Mrs. Harawa a call. The plan was to go get groceries...Cypheen drove us to Shoprite and we headed in not knowing what to get. We walked around for about 45 minutes and figured our last stop would be the vegtables; on our way there the power went out in the whole store...we sat there for a bit and then continued to shop by cell phone light! When we were done an employee told us they were still unsure as to when the power would go back on. Cypheen and Mama H decided that we should just go to another grocery store. Since we had already found everything in the other store we made it through finding everything pretty quickly! We then paid with qwacha...that was interesting I think our food cost us 364,000 Qwacha!
On the way home we dropped off Mama, I was excited to see where she lived...except I wouldn't be able to find that back if my life depended on it! Cypheen helped us get everything in and then left. After putting everything away Anna and I had the reast of the day to relax. We had a PB sandwich and then took naps, wrote in our journals and chatted about life.
The naps turned out to be a not so great thing...I was up ALL night! At about 1 I turned my light on to check the time and Anna sat straight up in bed. Turns out neither of us could sleep...so I whipped out the handy Bible and read to Anna. We read Colossians, Proverbs 7, and James 1...Anna said that was enough and she thought she could get to sleep so I stopped and figured that I would be fine as well...NOPE! For the first time in all my life I was unable to sleep! It gave me a nice quite time though!
Sounds of Africa at night...many dogs and one really off rooster who was crowing at 2:30 until I got up at 6; since we had church at 7.
So far today we have gone to church which was amazing! It wasn't a very large church maybe the a bit smaller than Unity CRC and yet more than 10 people gave their lives to the LORD! People here are so hungry for life and find such excitement in the word! That kind of excitement we are missing back home and it was an AMAZING experience to see people on fire for God. Cypheen sang in the choir so Humphery brought us to church; we were able to spend most of the afternoon with him as well as we realized we were locked out of the house because no one had a key for the padlock on the door in the back. Both Cypheen and us girls thought the other had a key. We were able to make it out to the Airport though to pick up Anna's luggage so that was a blessing. Then we brought Toma (Martha's sister...who plays BASEBALL, yes Ryan I encouraged her to continue!) out to her school, she is a sweet girl and I am hoping to make it to one of her games before I leave! Anna and I got really comfortable with Humphery and that was nice since we haven't really had time with anyone else to get comfortable. Turns out his middle name is Thomas...I asked him if we could call him Tommy, at first he wasn't so much for it but later warmed up to it; we will see if I actually keep calling him that! I confessed to him that I thought his name was Ephriam for the past few days said that is why I needed to call him Tommy! haha...well later We (Anna, Cypheen and Mama) are heading out to a couple of "My Father's House's" so Anna and I are both excited to finally meet some of the kids!

I AM HERE!!

Can you believe it guys?!? I am actually here, in Africa! After many hours (21 hours) of flying my feet are safely on the ground! Last night when I arrived ALL of my luggage made it so I was super excited about that; although Anna wasn't as privileged, her luggage went to Europe for some reason and will be arriving today at around 1 PM so that isn't so bad! We are both just so thankful that all of our trips went so well!
When we got our bags we were greeted by Mama Harawa, Cypheen, and Humphrey. Hugs all around and smiles!! I was so happy to be on the ground in Africa! SI DENOTE: yes, mom we did get to unload directly from the plane and go down those really cool steps like you see really important people do and many pictures (or just one) were had! :) Anna and I both couldn't stop smiling! We arrived at EOH and got the tour from Mama H. and not long after went to bed...we were beat!!
During our training Gary told us a story how their first intern was struggling because the God he witnessed here in Africa was different from the God he was use to! Gary said that one night the man cried out to God and saw O'Ryan's Belt...he was so thankful to see something familiar in all of his frustration. When he looked again he noticed that O'Ryan was the same but from Zambia it was upside down. That is when he realized that God was the same God just now he was seeing Him from a different point of view! When I looked up for the first time into the African night I saw the moon, the same moon you all see but from a totally different point of view, it was smiling at me! It was great; when I was younger we use to say that it was God's thumb nail, last night for the first time ever I saw GOD's smile!! :) For the rest of the night I couldn't stop smiling, I wanted to pinch myself to say it is all really happening my dreams have actually come true, I am HERE!!
I will probably write in a few days after we get settled! Thanks MUCHO!

Prayers:
*THANK HIM we are here!!
*Continue to prepare us for the people we will come in contact with
*Help us to adjust quickly to the time here...I think we will be fine, been drinking lots of water(bottled water)
*Remember why we are here and to live with no regrets!
*Grandpa Slagter, always in my prayers!

TEXAS!!

So, I am in Texas; after many months of waiting I am here! In one of my previous posts I said I would be freaking out...and that I was!

Yesterday morning I was told that my flight was leaving two hours earlier than I had originally read! Basically I read the flight schedule wrong :s Good thing I was arriving 2 1/2 hours early for my flight and that my mother knows how to speed...just a little! So after an hour of traveling and PRAYING we made it to the airport with and hour to get on my flight! My Aunt Nae said that she prayed that God would just clear the way for me so that I could make my flight and there was no one in line at Frontier! He definatly answered everyones prayers and I made my flight even with a bathroom break before! So that WAS my freak out moment!

As for the rest of the trip everything went super smooth! I met Brian Smith the coordinator for the trip along with Gary the President of Every Orphan's Hope and my partner in crime, Anna! We went out for dinner and learned a little information on how EOH came around! I am enjoying my time in Texas that is for sure and getting really excited to experience this adventure!

Today we just have "Team Bonding", basically more learning and training! Oh and just so you all know, especially Lindsey, Brian said that Zambia is like the Mid-West of Africa...so we will be really safe! :)

We will be flying out on Thursday and traveling all day! After talking with Brian I have an update as to how long my flight is...we fly 2 hours to Washington D.C. and then from there we will leave and have a 12 hour flight to South Africa, following that we will have another 2 hour flight to Zambia and arrive there early in the morning on Saturday!

LOVE you all and thanks for your prayers!