This weather in South Africa is reminding me of back home! This week was hot hot hot, Thursday or Friday reached just over 100 degrees, but today, Sunday, it's maybe mid 50s and raining. But this sign of rain means more hotter days to come. Esh!

I do apologize for not putting up a blog when I've said but its just a lot harder than I thought. They are keeping us, the DTS students, busy! Monday through Friday we have classes, quiet time, book reading and work duties so we are pretty busy through out the day and Sundays we have church in the morning, then straight to our outreach families that we hang out with for a couple hours, THEN later that day we have our own church service at the base. Saturdays our only free day and we like to get off the base and have fun, so it's hard to find time to type out a blog. I'm not complaining though!! I'm loving every day of DTS. 

(I'm actually typing this out before we head to church and the long day ahead)

I can't believe that we are going into our 5th WEEK OF DTS! Time is flying. Our speakers have been awesome so far. Last week we had Jen Price, one of the founders of Ten Thousand Homes, speak about our identity in Christ. Who am I, who are you, in Christ? Well first off check out Ephesians 1:1-6. Boom. Before God even created the world He chose us! What?! That whole week we read all of Ephesians ands its so powerful how much God loved us and what Jesus did for us, what he's teaching us. Please read it and digest it! It's deep. Then this past week we had Mr. Schalk, an Afrikaner from Nelspruit, teach about cross-cultural principles. This week encouraged me SO much because if you saw me here I'm always trying to speak siSwati and just learn more about the culture. A picture that Schalk shared us was a river.... So picture a river, what do you see? Water, waves, rocks, plants, fish, but what's down below, deeper in the river? Everyone sees a river the same way some one else does, so dive deeper in the river and find more. Being in the mission field that's what you need to do in cultures they're working and living with. You can't go into a new environment and change everything, culture, because its not the same as your culture and judge because its wrong to you. A culture is a script, like a movie. If you bring your script to the Middle East it won't work out. To really spread the word of God and plant the seeds in the hearts of the people you need to LIVE their culture, speak the language, eat what they eat, etc. Become a learner, a humble servant and create relationships. 

After that week of listening and learning I have noticed that I'm still an observer to the Swati culture. A goal I've had for a long time now is to really learn the siSwati language and understand the culture, I'm in love!! With the culture. But now I need to dive into the river and stop observing it. And maybe in the future years, in their language, teach children or anyone needing the truth about our Creator, planting the seed in them and let the Holy Spirit do the rest!

Talking about wanting to see more of the Swati culture Adam, another DTS student from Texas, Nontobeko, and I went to a wedding in Nelspruit! Some pictures are below! We were sitting at the back so the pictures aren't the greatest. Such a fun experience, but it was sooo long!! Haha

WOW! I almost forgot. Some awesome news. Friday we found out what 2 countries we are going to for outreach! 

                   Drum Roll Pleeeease..........

Swaziland and Uganda!!!

I almost wanted to cry because since DTS started I prayed and prayed for Uganda as one of our destinations. Now I want to say its not about me and God answering only my prayer. But about a week before the reveal of the outreach one of the DTS students felt God telling her to pray for Uganda. She wasn't sure why but said yes and eventually the rest of the girls in her room wanted to pray for Uganda too. I just feel like God has something HUGE waiting for us in Jinja Uganda. I am so excited. And PLEASE I ask for each and every one of you to pray for Swaziland and Uganda. Pray for the bases and in the bush where we will be at. Pray for guidance and wisdom in our leaders. Pray for provision, financial. And pray for me and the rest of the students for the days leading up to the outreach to being in the countries. That God may stretch us out of our comfort zones, that we plant seeds of the Holy Spirit into the hearts that are lost. Better to start now than later! We don't leave for outreach until November 18 or 19. And the cost is 17000 Rand...about 1700 in dollars. If you feel called to donate any money please pray about it and please send me a message so I can thank you thank you!!

Thanks for taking your time and reading my blog, it means a lot! Share it with everyone!     Some wedding pictures will be on my Facebook page, I can't seem to put them on here..