The People

This is one of the ladies from the the ywam team that was here for two and a half weeks. We spent an afternoon at the home our one of our church members. It was very nice to go and relax there for a couple of hours.


And these are some of the people that I met while I was in Durban. This is Leah and she works with WEC and the guy is Keith and he is a new worker with WEC. They are both really nice people and I enjoyed meeting them, (but I don't miss the weather in Durban).

Pictures

Here are some more pictures of some places in South Africa. The one place that is really run down is called a squatter camp and the other one is a picture of some children at a creche it's like a daycare and a school.

Fun in South Africa

I finally figured out that I can put pictures on here, you see I couldn't do it before because the internet system that we had was too slow but now that we have the new one it works it just takes awhile. Today we went to the opening of the new addition at a boys home and it was a great time. They had special speakers, one was the mayor and she even had a body guard standing there right behind her. Then they had some of the children come in and sing and some of the adults as well. After the ribbon cutting then that's when the fun started. There was a man there and he had an incredible voice, and so he basically serenaded us as we ate and had refreshments. I had a coke! but ended up giving it to one of the children that I new from the poor township. You see the children were not allowed to come into the tent and eat they went somewhere else and so i felt so bad that we had all that food and they didn't have any and so that is why the precious coke was given up.( hey it made him smile so it was worth it) Here are some pictures of it. See ya D

My House

These are pictures of my place in South Africa. I am currently living there on my own but after Christmas then one of the other girls is going to move into the other room. (In my bedroom I have a small canadian flag on the wall beside my bed)So at the moment it is nice but there are times when it's a little scary being alone, but God has been so good to me. So as you can see it is an ok place, it's actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Ok see ya.

Christmas

Good Morning!
The other day some of the ladies and I went to this ladies tea and it was a christmas tea already on Nov. But hey we went and when we got there we all got assigned to different tables, but it worked out ok. There was a time during the program that they started to sing some christmas songs and they sang I'm dreaming of a white christmas and I thought that was so funny because had they ever seen a white christmas? So for the rest of the song I thought about home and how I would miss the white christmas. I know it's cold but enjoy your white Christmas. Other than that not much else is new. So until next time I hope that you are all safe as you drive on those roads that I don't miss. So please be really careful. Bye

South Africa

Hello again,
It's been awhile, at first I wasn't sure what I could write and then we think that our building got struck by lightning and so we had no internet for a while but now it's back. It is very interesting with the lightning here it seems to hit the mission a lot. It hit a big tree just the other week and left a big grove in it and then it struck again last week. One of the ladies who works here was outside and she felt a spark touch her arm from the lightning hitting the mission. So please pray that we will be protected from any more strikes or lightning. It was so sad when we didn't have any internet I felt so disconnected from the world outside, but now it's all good again.
The other night we watched this dvd on some of the history of South Africa and it was so incredible to watch the injustice done to the black people and how no one was allowed to mix colours but some still did. There were these two that were friends with this black pastor and came out to help him with the children. Then along came this black man who fell in love with the girl who was the friend of the black pastor. This didn't work because the man hated black people and was taught to hate them and was told the bible said that they had no souls. So he started to search it out for himself and didn't find it. During this time he was part of this group that hated the blacks and he was told to shoot this black pastor because he was a nuisance to them and so he went to shoot him but couldn't do it, instead he walked in the prayer meeting and went to him and wept and told him he almost shot him. WOw, so in the end he was forgiven and he had once beat up a black man and this man was in the church when he was there and so he went to ask his forgiveness, it was so moving. It just showed the power of God and forgiveness.
The other day we received a donation of yogurt and juice and some other stuff and it was so incredibly much that we were able to take it and give it out to the poor it was so nice. Praise the Lord for His provision.
Well must go to bed. Still miss home but am liking it here as well. Good Night my friends and I hope that you are all well and loving the Lord. Dione

Visiting the hospital

Good Evening everyone,
Well today it was raining and it still is. I am again wearing warm clothes which I almost didn't bring. Today we went to do hospital visitation with the ywam team that is here and I got to take some of them to the children's ward. Wow the children are so small and some of them are so sick. But we had the privilege of holding them and playing with them with a ball, it was wonderful. It took awhile but soon they had smiles on their faces and it was so hard to leave them because when we stopped playing with them and praying for them and holding them they would cry. There was this one child who was in a room all alone, you have to understand that there are about 6 beds in each room and there was only this one by himself. So this one we spent a little more time with, I loved it. Now we are back and it's evening and there is not really much to do, so I thought that I would write to you and let you know how my day was. Well talk to you again soon. Bye Dione

Friends from Home!

I phoned home to Canada to the church the other day and it was so incredibly(sorry for the spelling) wonderful to hear Ruth and Rob's voices, just people from home wow! And then today when I went on msn I got to talk to Jo, Amanda S., and Robin, that was so great just to chat about life back at home. Thank you so much for the contact and for the comments on this blog, I feel happy when I read them and feel encouraged. I hope that you are all doing ok in the snow hehehe I have to say that I am loving the fact that I can wear my flip flops everyday! Well some days I would like to have to wear warmer clothes, but there's nothing we can do about the beautiful sun in the sky. Well the last two days have been crazy busy because there is this group from YWAM that came today and we had to get there places ready for them to stay. The one house that they would be staying in the men were still working on the floor sanding it and so we were madly cleaning it before they came today, but I'm glad to say that we got everything done. So now I want to sleep, last night I went to bed at 8pm and got up at 5:45 am that is just not right. Oh well it's now almost 9:30 pm and so i'm still ok. But I should go to bed and sleep but at least tomorrow is Sat. and I can sleep in. So good night, I guess for you it is only lunch time when I write this but when you do go to bed sleep well and maybe I'll chat with you on msn sometime. God Bless and I miss you my friends in Canada! Bye D

Across the World

Things are so different, and it will take a while to get used to. The one thing that I never thought that I would do is get up so early, each morning I get up at 6am and that is so crazy. Also the majority of the population are black people and so there are only a few white people walking around and so I am still getting used to that. Also, their programs on tv are a lot of time with black people and their commercials are with black people too. I've also watched programs that are in different languages, so my world is being broadened, and that is good. I am to start learning Zulu so we'll see how that goes, I now know 3 words and 3 words in Afrikaans so that is cool. There are some things that are the same like tonight I am going to a ball class, you know the exercise balls, so that will be good for me. Tomorrow I am going to cell group which is like Bible study and we are going to these people's farm, which will be nice, they are very kind people.
On another topic, I got my first cell phone today! It is a Motorola and it is blue and silver, it's very nice now i just have to figure out how to use it and what my number is.
Well, I must go have something to eat before I go and exercise.
See ya later D

Back at Dundee

Well, I'm back in Dundee now and I already miss Durban, let me rephrase that I already miss the people in Durban. I really enjoyed my time there and am thankful for the people that I met there. When I arrived here I came to a house with no power, and they said that there should be power by 4 pm, and it is now almost 6pm and there still is no power, hhhmmm. Oh well I guess it's early to bed and candles. I must say it is nice to be back in the Dundee weather though, in Durban it was so hot and humid, even when it wasn't hot it was humid, but here in Dundee, it is hot and dry. One thing that is still hard for me to get a hold of is the driving here, everything in the car is on the other side and you shift with your left hand, that's just so weird. I haven't tried it yet so we'll see how that turns out. Ok gotta go home now, miss you all. Bye