Thankful.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Obviously, South Africans do not celebrate the 4th like Americans do; therefore, no BBQ was eaten and no fireworks were displayed.  With that said, I am still incredibly thankful to have this opportunity to be in Cape Town and experience new and different things all around me!


On the same note of being thankful, let me just say how much of a blessing it is to be living in a nice house with a roof over it.  On Tuesday night, it stormed for more than 4 hours.  When I say stormed, that is an understatement.  I'm talking like high monsoon winds and heavy torrential downpours.  It was insane.  It actually took me longer than 60 seconds to fall asleep.  As I was lying down, I just thought to myself about how many thousands of shacks in these communities lack an actual roof and floor.  Many are built using sheet metal to use as all 4 sides of the shack and the roof.  I just take that simple part of my life- having a roof over my head- for granted all the time.  Many of the kids that I see each day live in absolute poverty.  Physically seeing it in person really makes me ask God why He has blessed me with so much when others have so little?  I believe this is a question that many people struggle with, specifically Americans in the way of which we live our lives.  I believe that I must use the resources that the Lord has blessed me with to serve those throughout the world, whether that be working in Cape Town for 6 weeks, or helping out in downtown Birmingham.  Wherever He leads me, I pray that I will listen and obey to His calling for my life.  


The next morning (Wednesday), William and I went to Ocean View and helped prepare the craft for that afternoon.  We arrived and helped out in the office for several hours.  Today we had orientation session #2, so we left around noon to go to the LH main office to eat lunch and get started with the next meeting.  It was great to hear more information about working within the community and learning ways to approach the community.  We watched the trailer for the series, "RESTORE" which I highly recommend checking out! Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAF1965EE680397C6&feature=view_all 
Definitely check it out!  Towards the end of orientation, we were taught the history of South Africa.  Fascinating stuff.  They really explained how (over the course of many years) hostility has surfaced due to apartheid and other unjust acts.  


After being oriented, we went back to the house and rested for a bit before dinner.  While my family and friends would be eating BBQ, ribs, watermelon, and potato salad for the 4th, we had beef tips on rice with potatoes, peas and carrots, and a greek salad!  Still delicious! 


Around 10:30,  I was sitting in the kitchen and the beloved Fransi (prounced Fronzi) walks in the door. Now this guy is awesome.  He is our driver for the week (David will be with us for the rest of our time here) and is absolutely hysterical.  He is always so caring and makes sure all of his "angels" are doing well.  
Fransi: "Angels, are we happy?"
LH Volunteers: "Yesss, are you?"
Fransi: "I'm happy if you all are happy!" (might I add, he has the biggest smile)
So, he came and sat down with me.  We began to watch youtube videos of his favorite gospel artist, Donnie McClurkin.  Soulful.  After 30 minutes of listening, I opened the Photo Booth program on my computer.  Oh. My. Gosh.  We had an absolute BLAST taking pictures!  He had never seen anything like it, so he was shocked that the face could be distorted by the camera in so many different ways.  He was making me cry because I was laughing so hard at his reaction...and obviously the actual photographs.  Hahahaha, it was fantastic.  I have attached a couple of pictures so you can see!  Great quality time spent with Fransi tonight.  Thankful for his friendship!