Four Days To Go

Sometimes we'd rather forget something or someone because of something that happened to us or those we love. Yet, sometimes we need to remember something so that we can learn from it and that it won't happen again. For me, that year in South Africa was, well, eleven months I'd rather forget. Yes, I met some awesomely incredible people, but only a handful of people in the world actually realized that the eleven months I spent in Hoedspruit were my wilderness. The Lord led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years. Yet, even though my time in the dry and barren place was nothing compared to what the Israelites had to go through, I found my strength in The Lord and His Word. He has promised me something and I've clung to His promises. He's always with me and always has. He taught me so much when I was in South Africa and sometimes it wasn't always easy listening to what He had to say, but it was needed. Whilst I was in Hoedspruit I was fortunate enough to have some housekeeping lessons from my incredible mum. I knew quite a bit already but they were just sharpened up a bit, and were some of things I learnt whilst I was there. I also learnt how to do the ironing and using a washing machine (though don't ask me how a tumble dryer works because I have no clue in that area, we didn't have one is South Africa). I think you might be aware that I already did a counseling course whilst I was there.

A bit of depressing start to a blog post, I know. It's just something I've been thinking about and I kinda ended up writing about what was on my mind. I want to remember the past, but not to the point where I'm lost there. I've done that before, when I used to be a person of extremes, I'd either be living in the past or living in the future. My emotions were also in the extremes and with the flip of a coin. Some dear friends prayed for me with this issue when we were in a team meeting on outreach in Brazil. With God the impossible is possible and thus this hasn't bothered me since. Now, as the BLS (Basic Leadership School) approaches I'm in that place of expectation. I know that great things are going to happen over the next few months and I'm really looking forwards to that. I'm already praying about what's going to happen after that, but it's in God's hands. He'll confirm the way ahead in the right time. Thus I'm able to be fully focused on what's happening now and to prepare for what's going to be happening in the next few days (which I'll get to later on in the post). I can't believe how fast time is moving. I can't belive that I've already been in the UK three weeks and three days and that in four days time the BLS will be starting!

The nice thing about me living in England is that I'm going to be able to see my mum's relatives more that I ever have before now. Growing up in Africa means that the extended family don't live just around the corner, or within a few hour radius by train. It'll take about eight hours by plane to get from Uganda to England and flying out of East Africa isn't as cheap as flying from Southern Africa. For us, coming back to England and the Netherlands were usually two or three years apart (right up until 2010, when I was in England every summer until 2012). So, because of that, we've never been able to get to know our extended family well. However, that's about to change for me. Thankfully I've been able to get a rail card, which takes off a good amount off the train ticket prices, so travelling to see them on weekends shouldn't be too big a problem, cost wise (I just need to make sure I'm on the right trains and stuff). I used to be ever so apprehensive of traveling in Europe by train, simply because I wasn't used to doing it on my own, and I didn't know what to do. When I was last in the Netherlands, about a year ago, I wanted to see friends (from my DTS) before I left for South Africa and had to deal with what I thought of traveling by train on my own. You see, I think Now it's not a problem. So I'll be ice skating with my mum's niece, Amanda and her boyfriend, Jason and my mum's great nephew, Taylor. I'm really looking forwards to seeing them!

Over the weekend some friends of my host family were getting married and I was able to go along. We spent a good part of Friday afternoon and evening as well as Saturday morning helping with the decoration. The photo on the right is one of the rooms (for the meal) in the process of being finished. You see, the bride and groom were having a meal with their families and close friends at the church (on the right) and then later on there was a party for those who'd been able to attend the wedding ceremony at the church. The bride's favourite color is purple and she loves pinguins, so that was the theme through both the decoration sessions. Each table also had its own sub-theme, as well. So there characters from different movies, like the Hobbit and the Avengers, she also had a pinguin and a camper van themed tables. Even one of the wedding cakes was a camper van! It was an incredible day! I was able to wear my lovely Arapapa dress! I'm so happy I could model a bit of Africa in England and that the weather was nice enough for me to do it. I'm guessing you've seen the photos on Facebook and Instagram. Sadly I wasn't able to get one of the bride and groom. They were both radiantly in love with each other. What was unusual with this wedding is the tune that was playing when the bride walked into the church. Usually it's something along the lines of "Here Comes The Bride" but today that was different. The tune playing was called "Conserning Hobbits." Yes, it's from two of my favorite trilogies, The Lord Of The Rings and the Hobbit (the last one comes out on December 17!).

Here are some dates that you might want to keep a hold of. The next few days are going to be a little bit hectic for me. When the wedding finished, yesterday afternoon, I came back and did a few things towards this blog (write a blog post isn't as easy as you might thing, especially when it comes to trying to persuade the photos and the text to behave themselves and not jump about) and towards leaving tomorrow. This afternoon I'm go to finish my packing, and try to get as much of it done as I can before tonight, otherwise I'll be up, packing and I don't want to do that. Thankfully I'm been able to make a bit of a dent on that and now I've only got a few things left to put in the cases. Tomorrow, Monday, I'm bring dropped off at the YWAM base in London. I know the school doesn't start until Thursday but they've said that us students can arrive from Monday, so I'm going a bit early to settle in and unpack. Then on Tuesday I'm planning to go and see Amanda, Jason and Taylor. Wednesday I'm probably going to stay at the base and get a feel for the area and then on Thursday, the 10th of April 2014, the April 2014 Basic Leadership School starts at Youth With A Mission Urban Key, London! Can't believe that this adventure is coming on so fast! The BLS ends on Friday, the 5th of September, 2014.

The words for the pictures. The reason I'm writing my captions down here is because the layout of the whole blog will go down the drain if I tried to put the caption under the photo (in order of appearance on this post): me, all dressed and ready to go to the wedding (you've probably seen this photo on Facebook and Blip); a love heart decoration, one of the bits of decoration I helped put up; Lucy, she was sitting under the table in the kitchen whilst dinner being prepared with the hope someone who purposefully, on accident drop something for her to eat  the rooms in the church, in the process of being decorated; then we have the campervan cake, which was cut at the church with the family and friends, and finally, the cake at the hall. Sorry about get cling film on the cake. I took it this morning on the way out and I didn't want to touch such a beautiful cake. As you can see, the bride's love of purple (the purple ribbons) and penguins (the cake decoration on top of this cake are a bride penguin and a groom penguin) were taken into account when the cake was being decorated. I'm really glad I was able to attend the wedding.

I'll write again towards the end of the week about life at YWAM Urban Key and being a BLS student!