Funnish - my blog?

According to a comment made on a previous post, this is a "fun" blog. Never quite thought of it that way, but if that is the case, I must write to reach my readers. If you all want a "fun" blog, then I guess I can accomodate. Scribbles leaves such long comments, perhaps I should just let her have partial access to my blog, so she can post instead of commenting? J/K, Scribbles, I don't mind. You make up for all my adoring readers who desperately want to post, but are afraid of....something. I don't know what.

Okay, another story from Africa. In Cabo Verde, there is a bird, about the size of a large robin. When it is not flying, it is a dull and dim blue color. When it is flying, the bottom of its wings show, and the bird appears to change colors and is a brilliant, flashing blue. So anyway, there are 13 of us packed into a van (called an Hiace) driving down a cobblestone road on our way back home from working in the schools. All the windows in the Hiace are open all the time, cause I guess the a/c doesn't work. We're driving along, and this blue bird flashes in through the front passenger seat window, turns 120 degrees in about a foot and a half of space, hits the guy sitting in front of me in the mouth, and flies out through his window. The whole thing took like 1.5 seconds. Then everyone's like, "oh wow, did that really just happen?" Pretty different.

Have I ever said anything about the Toyota Hiace? The van is the size of a 10 passenger van. It has 5 rows of 3-seat benches. So it fits 15 people...legally. On last year's trip, they apparently got something like 20 or 25 packed into the van. I really wonder where the put the engine on this van, though. The front, well, there isn't a front. What there is, sticks out about 5 inches from the front of the windshield, which is pratically perpendicular to the ground. I am having trouble getting my thought pictures into word pictures. Does anyone else ever have that trouble?

I just got home from a wedding music practice. My viola teacher, Elizabeth, is getting married on the 7th of July, and she asked all her students to play during the reception. I volunteered to help with organizing the music and getting all the students together to practice and what not. Well, now my friend Suzannah (who also volunteered) and I are heading the whole thing up. Elizabeth claims no part in anything. And unless we sound awful, she leaves it up to Suzannah and I to fix problems with how the music sounds and everything. That's kind of interesting, and stressful. I have enough problems fixing what I do wrong. Luckily, I have this keen insight where I can tell anyone exactly what they are doing wrong. Sometimes that gets me in trouble, though. :) So this was most likely our last practice before the wedding. Most of it sounds okay, but some... I think I might accidently be sick on the day of the wedding, you know? But I'm not a chicken, so I'll be there, attempting to help Suzannah carry the whole group along.

All right, since I've been beggeded, I'll post

Okay, it's been forever. Well, maybe more like a touch over 2 weeks, but it's about time anyway. First things last. Scribblegirl, do I know you? I was going to try and guess who you were, but I decided I'd find out if I knew you first. For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, check last post's comments.

The final statistics for our trip to Africa. Our 48-man team handed out 36,000 packets to the kids in the public schools, mostly in Praia, Cabo Verde. We saw 78 people saved. 40 from the church at the bible institute where we stayed, and 38 students. We were there a total of 14 days, including the day we got there, and the day we left. When I left, I was quite heartbroken. I really enjoyed my time there, and it feels like home. Africa is where the Lord has called me to Missions, and I felt like... well, I can't describe it, exactly. The old saying, Home is where the heart is, well...my home is in Africa. I didn't ever feel homesick while I was there. But I am making myself homesick just writing about it, so I'll hurry up and get off this point, which is starting to drag. Did you know that if you drag a point, "." you get a line? "____" Pretty cool, huh?

This picture is of Jaqa and his 2 kids. He's not exactly photogenic. I took 5 pictures, and this was the best. On the last night that we were there, Jaqa brought 2 van loads of friends from around the Pedra Bedejo (the town we lived in) to church. We had to have two seperate services. We normally combined both the English and the Portuguese service every night. We'd either have an English or Portuguese speaker, and a translator. So we'd sing songs in English, then songs in Portuguese. But the church only sat 55ish people, so most of the time, some of the TEAM would sit or stand at the back of the chapel. Well, when we had almost 45 Cabo Verdeans come to the last service, we kind of had to split the services up. I went to both. I really liked trying to figure out what the preacher was saying and attempting to follow along. This is a picture of that last service.

I finally got my first chance to really preach at one of the high schools. It was interesting, because I had to use a translator, so I'd say a little bit, then I'd hear what I'd said spoken in Portuguese. Of course, I'd try to listen to hear words that I knew. And I'd get lost about where I was going in my preaching. But the Lord helped me, and I got a fairly good gospel message across, going from how we are sinners, and fall short of God's glory, to how God sent His Son to earth to die for us. How that He was a perfect man, and when He died on the cross, His blood covered our sins, making us presentable to God. Then when Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, after taking the keys of death from Hell, He made it possible for us to also be resurrected into God's Glory. All that we have to do to get to Heaven is to confess Jesus with our mouth, and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the grave. You might think, what can I give the Lord for what His saving me? To be honest, you can't give Him anything. Nothing you had as a sinner would even come close to being presentable to God. Besides, the gift of eternal life is just that, a gift. It's free. God knew that we didn't have anything to give, so He gave a free gift. But since God saved our heart and soul from eternal damnation in Hell, the least we can do is offer our heart and soul to God to do with as He wills. Jesus stands at the door of our heart, knocking. Wondering if He can come in. He won't force the issue. The decision to open the door is yours. Will you open the door? All right, now that I've worked a mini sermon into my post, I'm happier. :) This picture is of me preaching basically the above sermon to a group of 40 high schoolers. Unfortunately, you can't see the teenagers. Oh well.

One of the High Schools we went to about mobbed us just to get to the literature. Here's a picture of the students around the truck. The truck is in the back of the picture. It's got a green canopy cover on it.

All the roads outside of Praia (the capital) are cobblestone. At least from what I saw. I think some are dirt, and the roads tend to be a bit rough at times. They are extending a paved road out of Praia towards Pedra Bedejo (about 40 miles away) that goes about 2 miles out of Praia. It's getting there, though.

Okay, before I left, I had no idea how to pronounce Cabo Verde (the Portuguese spelling). After going there, I've come to the conclusion that unless you want to call somebody wrong, there are 4 correct pronunciations of the Islands. One is the "European Way." Cap Vert (cap vurt). Vert is pronounced like spurt except with a v. The next is the "American Way." Cape Verde (cape ver-dee). The locals pronounce it two different ways, as far as I can tell. One is Cabo Vurd (cab-o vurd). The other is Cabo Vurde (cab-o vur-day). So there you go. Call it whatever you want. I prefer either of the Portuguese pronunciations.

Meal times were wonderful. It always good to eat. Most days when we were working at the schools, we went out to eat. From 12 PM to 2 PM, everything but the restaurants closes down, including the schools. So we'd go eat somewhere. When you go to a restaurant with 45 people, it takes a while for the meal to be prepared. 90% of the time, we had Fried Chicken, Rice, and French Fries. Good chicken, cooked the way chicken should be. Rice is a staple, and a good addition to any meal. The French Fries were so much better then they are in the States. Not nearly as salty, which is probably better. We'd just hang out and talk at lunchtime, since we had a lot of free time. I said 90% of the time we had chicken, rice and fries. The other 10% was fish and fries. For drinks, we had water, sprite, coke, or fanta (orange, pineapple, or fruit cocktail). I love Orange Fanta. In Portuguese, it's Fanta Laranja (fawn-ta la-ronj). Great stuff.

Okay, maybe I'll post more on Africa later, but I've just spent a solid hour at the computer writing about Africa, and it's making me homesick.

We had the Ice Cream Social for our Homeschool Orchestra tonight. It's like the year-end performance. We had 200+ students this year, so we split the Ice Cream Social up into two different days. Last Friday was the 3 younger classes, and tonight was the 3 upper classes. I went to both, since my two younger sisters are in the younger classes, and I'm in the upper classes. The performance was interesting. I hadn't played with the orchestra for 4 weeks, and I hadn't played my viola for 3 of those weeks. Some of the songs that we played, I'd never played all the way through with the orchestra. And I am the Principal Violist of the chamber orchestra, so I'm supposed to know all the songs and what not. Oh well, extenuating circumstances. I'm so sad. I've seen a lot of the people at orchestra every week for the last 8 or 9 months. My best friends go to orchestra, and I won't see many of them till the start of the next orchestra year. Boohoo. Waahh! I'll get over it.

PRAISE GOD!

JAQA HAS BEEN SAVED! GLORY TO THE LORD OF ALL!

Jaqa is one of the drivers for the team. I'd really felt like the Lord put a burden on my heart to pray for Jaqa's salvation. I really felt like he'd be saved before we left Cabo Verde. And what do you know?!

Jaqa hadn't ever come to a service before. But he came tonight. And the preaching tonight was really good and clear. Jaqa had been semi-following along with the service with a Portuguese New Testament we'd given him. Toward the end of the service, he was starting to look umcomfortable. He was covering his face with his hand. He finally pulled out his cell-phone and started playing with that. Inside, I was screaming "NO!" I started praying. Brother Joe Welch gave an invitation that lasted forever, which was great. He gave plenty of time for people to think about the service. Well, Jaqa just sat there the whole time. I was sad, but I still felt like the Lord was going to save him before the week was up. I left to go to the Brother Welch's house so I could e-mail and blog. I got here, checked my e-mail, started to blog, and Brother Russell came in. He was like, "guess what?! Jaqa has accepted Christ as his Saviour!" PRAISE GOD! Apparently, after the service was over, Jaqa was just aimlessly walking around in circles. One of the older ladies here asked a translator to come over, and started showing him some things in the Bible. He's not walking in circles now. He's on the straight and narrow path to heaven!

Everybody here calls Jaqa, Primo. And Jaqa calls everyone here, Primo. (Primo means cousin). But now we can call him by a new name, Armon (air-moan), Brother.

First Week

I finally have gotten the chance to use the internet. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to.

Well, I am almost done with my first week in Africa. It's been amazing. From the first step onto Africa soil, to giving my testimony in front of a class of 40 2nd graders, to singing in Portugese, and seeing people saved. We are going to mostly elementary schools, and some High Schools, and presenting packets with the New Testament and a couple other pieces of literature. We split into teams, go into a classroom, and our interpreter will talk for a couple minutes to the class, explaining what we are doing. Then one of us will give our testimony in English, and our Interpreter will translate for the class. After that, we hand out the packets, and then sometimes we'll sing "God is So Good" in Portugese. It's called Deus e Tao Bom here. Then it's off to the next classroom.
So far we've had some 40+ people saved. Especially in the high schools that we've visited. Keep praying for more souls to be saved. We only have a limited amount of time, and we want to reach as many people as we can in the time frame that we have. Pray for Unity in the team members, that we'll be able to work well together.
And if you're wondering, we aren't roughing it here in Africa. We have hot showers at night, good food, okay transportation, etc... We can get our laundry done anytime we want. :) I sometimes wish that it had been rougher, but then I get my common sense back. :)

Hopefully I'll be able to post once more before I leave, but we'll see about that.