I love my spiritual gifts....

Friday was a really awesome day out on ministry. I was so excited to be with my team again. The first house that we went to, the lady seemed kinda closed off and distant from us. She did tell us a lot about how she goes to the witchdoctor and asks for lots of spells and protection from evil spirits. She also told us that she prays to her ancestors so that they can deliver the message to Jesus. This may seem really strange but this is how the people here in South Africa think about Christianity. She did open up more and we told her about what we believe and we left her with some flyers with the church that we are working with.

In the afternoon, we went back to our first house. I love these people. They are so amazing. We made their garden a lot bigger and planted some spinach and cabbage for them. We also left them with the rest of the seeds that were in the packet. We got to play with the kids for a while after we were done planting. I was really excited to get to play with them. Meme was a lot of fun. She was like my grandma.

For dinner we had delicious wildebeest...well it smelled more like poop. So I kinda gagged.

Thrive Church was really good. Neil talked about and read out of Jude. This is a book that I think is very over looked. There are a lot of valuable lessons in it. The message was about building others up, something that every team needs to practice more often. If we don't build each other up then we are allowing satan to devour us and we will become divided. I thought that this was a very good message for my team to hear at this time in our trip.

Today, Friday, we went to the hospital and wow... this was one of the hardest things that I have ever done in my life. I was torn. We spilt up into our MIGs (ministry in groups) and first we went into the children's ward. As soon as we walked into the ward, I thought that I was going to burst into tears. Small children who have bandages wrapped around their heads. These children had: Tb, burns, been attacked by a dog on her face, one was 12 days old and her eyes were bleeding, pneumonia, flu, diarrhea, one baby was born prematurely and her twin sister died during birth, and many other things. These children were in metal beds that were spaced about 2 feet apart from each other. As soon as I walked out of the ward, I bursted into tears. I just weeped for these children. The simple Tb vaccination that I got for $5 is killing children over here in Qwa Qwa.

After the children's ward, we went to the Women's ward. There were a lot more women here than in the children's ward. To look into these ladies' eyes and see that they have no hope and are in so much pain just broke me. The first lady that I prayed with she had Tb. She was just laying there an in a lot of pain. The second lady that I prayed with, she had diabetes and she was getting ready to go home. PRAISE THE LORD!! The third lady that I prayed with, the only reason why she was in the hospital is because she ODed on pills. She was in such great health and she was just depressed and not enjoying her life. I prayed that Christ would heal her and that she would find love in Christ. The fourth lady, Elizabeth, she had a really bad kidney infection. While praying for her I broke into tears. She was in so much pain, she was screaming while we were praying for her. Jesus is the ultimate healer and I know that He will heal her.

Emotional day. Enough tears for the rest of the month.

I am enjoying my time right now in the Living Room... Rocking out to Backstreet Boys. "I want it that way"

Love to all.

Say moo much??

This week we started our relationship evangelism. It has been a lot of fun getting to know the people on my street. The first day, my friend Kristin and I washed all the curtains in this one family's house. We thought that they were going to give us a few to wash but they just kept coming! After that we washed the windows inside and out. Now... this was a HARDCORE cleaning job. My arm was sooo sore afterwards. In the afternoon we built a pigeon house. It was a lot of fun getting to know the little children. I was nick named the Pigeon Police because I was in charge of making sure that they didn't get out.

The next day we prayed for a few people and just sat and talked to them. A few houses down my MIG (Ministry in Group) dug out a driveway. That is some back breaking labor. No me gusta. After lunch we went to a house and a man came and poured into us. He was such an encouragement. I also washed dishes at this house and made bread with his mother. It was a lot of fun.

Today, it was a big day. We went to this one house and met a blind lady and we had our own little worship service. It was really cool. She wanted to know so many things about America and she spoke such good English. I was very impressed. We also learned about the Sesotho culture. We learned about dancing at the traditional wedding. It was very funny and Caleb felt very awkward because it is pretty much booty dancing. haha After we talked to them, we planted a lot of beans and after lunch, we brought back some different seeds for them to plant. We planted some spinach and cabbage (two things that I don't eat). While we were leaving to go back to another house, there was a heard of cows walking down the road, I asked our translator, David, if it was ok to walk and he was like Oh sure! Well I trusted him and so we were about a foot away and one of the african guys cracked a whip and they were starting to run towards us. I have never been so scared in my life. I had my little experience with running with the bulls. NEVER AGAIN!!

Tomorrow is our last day out with our street. Then on Friday we are going to the hospital and praying for sick people. I know that people are going to be healed and it is going to be amazing to witness God's power! Then Saturday is a SECRET! mmmm I can't wait!!

Tsamaya hantle loves!

*Mallory

Mount Everest

I love South Africa. God's beauty is seen all over the place. I walk out of my cabin and I see the three mountains that surround the base. I also see the beautiful brown fields that are all over the place. The only not pretty thing so far... is stepping in poop. They have horses all over the base and they are able to roam where ever they want. :/

Last night my friends and I laied out under the stars and it was such an amazing experience. You can see sooo many stars. I didn't know that so many existed. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, I didn't realize that there are different constellations. I was trying to find the Big Dipper...but that is not able to be seen down here. Now I need to study the stars! haha

Yesterday we went to the local orphanage in Harrismith. Those children are so precious and I love them. They have the most beautiful voices ever and one song that they were singing really hit home. They were singing "Thank you Lord for everything that you have done in (someones) life". This really moved me to tears. These orphans have absolutely nothing and they are Thanking the Lord for everything that He has done for them. It really humbled me.

Today is our off day and a few friends and I decided that we were going to climb one of the mountains that are here on base. We decided that we were going to climb Mount Everest. Oh my gosh. It only took us a little less than an hr to get up there. I was SUPER impressed with myself. Granted it is the shortest mountain on the base but still.... I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN! WOOT! It was a lot of fun. Granted I couldn't breathe a times but... I caught my breath.

Well that is all from Africa...

Love.
Mallory

Mah-widge

Well it seems to be that time of year again/stage in life, where people decide that they are going to get married/engaged.

Part 1

To my friends that will be getting married,

I will be in South Africa for 2 months and I am sad that I will be missing out on so many of my friends weddings. I love going to weddings and supporting my friends in their life time commitments but I know that God has called me to South Africa for a reason. (Maybe I will meet my future hubby there... JUST KIDDING! BUT... that would be awesome.) Oh I make myself laugh sometimes. I just want to say CONGRATS to my friends who will be getting hitched...Justin and Kathryn, Michelle, Kim, Chris, Jessica, and if I forgot you... I am TERRIBLY sorry but there are soo many weddings. I wish you all the best lives and happiness!!

******************************************************************************

Part 2

To my friends who are thinking about getting engaged over the summer,

Just because I am in Africa and I won't have my cell phone on DOES NOT mean that I get to find out about your engagement over Facebook. That is NOT cool. If I was in the states, I would receive a phone call so I should receive an e-mail instead. If you want to call my cell phone and leave a message, that is great too but I won't get to check it until August 9.

Especially if this is a HUGE surprise... I must know!

Well I will be leaving in 5 days so you all should get engaged fast so I can have a few days to celebrate it and call and hear the story! Yes!

Love,
Mal