We are now done with our first official week of mission work.  We spent the first four and a half days in the village of Qwa Qwa visiting families and then spent Friday afternoon in a hospital praying for the patients there.  This week was a frustrating one, for the most part.  After three days of being in Qwa Qwa, I realized that relational evangelism is definitely not my calling.  It's not that I minded going into town, but I felt like I was just trying to get through each day instead of really enjoying it and connecting with the families.  It helped me see that although some people thrive from building one on one relationships and hearing stories from peoples' lives, I need to actually be moving around and doing work to feel "productive".  Our whole group was a little discouraged, because some of the other groups were coming back with amazing stories of how they were able to teach people so much about Jesus, while we couldn't get past surface level conversations.  We did, however, get to teach children's ministry on Wednesday afternoon, which was great!  It was amazing to see how much excitement and energy the kids had. 

 Thursday morning, things started to look up.  After sitting  around for 3 straight days, we finally had work to do!!  We were able to help someone plant a garden in the morning and collected firewood for a family in the afternoon.  We had visited this family on Tuesday and were amazed to see how excited they were to see us again.  Even if we hadn't talked about much, it seemed to have a big impact on them.  We spent the rest of the afternoon praying with them and taking pictures with their family.  

On Friday, we met a woman who had been a born again Christian since the '70's.  She eagerly read the bible with us and gave us pictures of her family so we could pray for them.  It was interesting to see how she lived, because she had a pretty nice house, while everyone else we talked to lived in shacks or very poorly built rooms.  Later that day, we went to the hospital to pray for the patients there.  It helped open my eyes to the power of prayer, but I'm still struggling with the idea of healing.  There were a lot of people who told the patients that once we prayed they were healed and that they didn't have to worry about getting sick again, but I know multiple examples of Christians who go against this statement.  I feel like God can heal, but He has that power and it is His will and timing of when people are healed.  I'm struggling to believe with certainty that God will heal every person I pray for every time.  

Next week we get to start demolition and rebuilding a center for disabled children.  I can't wait!  Finally something I'm familiar with!!  We are also going to start our classes and creating lesson plans for when we teach at the center.  

Please pray that God continues to stretch us and give us strength for all the work we will be doing next week.  Also pray that the weather starts to get better here (we have been having constant 40 mph winds and really really cold weather) so we are more productive each day.

Love you guys!!

Alison

Qwa Qwa

Today was our second day doing ministry.  The last two days we  have gone into the village of Qwa Qwa, which has about two million people.  We are doing relationship evangelism.  We split into groups of four or five and, with a translator, walked around the village.  We pretty much stopped at houses and invited ourselves in.  Although this is a completely foreign concept in the U.S., it is perfectly acceptable here.  My group talked with several people/families to get to know them and their culture.  The goal is that after we get to know them, we can talk to them about Jesus and the gospel.  We also offer to help them with their garden or some of their chores.  It was great getting to know some of these people and their culture.

I think we can learn a lot from the people of Qwa Qwa.  Life in the U.S. is very fast paced and people feel like they always have to be doing something.  It is much different here.  People are not that focused on the time.  People take the time to spend time with others and get to know each other.  As a result, families and communities are very close and important.  People here are also very friendly and are willing to do anything to help others, even strangers.  This is the way we were meant to live.

Yesterday was definitely a growing experience.  It pushed me outside of my comfort zone and I got to learn a lot about the culture here.  I had high hopes for today, but was a bit discouraged after our ministry time this morning.  All of the groups came back at lunch with stories about how they were able to really connect with their families and how they were able to spread God’s word.  I felt like our group was making no progress in our conversations.  I was reminded that God doesn’t always work on our time and that He is working and we are making a difference, even if it seems small to us.  We did all we could do and now we have to trust God to do the rest.  Tomorrow we are going back to Qwa Qwa and will visit the families we have met.  We plan to help them plant a garden and hopefully we will able to have quality conversations.

For those wondering, it hasn’t snowed here yet, but we could see it snowing in the mountains which are all around us.  Although we don’t have snow, it is very cold and windy here.  Unfortunately, I just got news that it will be even colder tomorrow.  My fingers are frozen right now so I am going to end this post, but we will try to update it in the next couple of days.

Christine

This place is beautiful!

After a full day of flying, meeting the other 22 interns, and driving about 2 hours to the mission base, we finally made it to the place we are going to call home for the next two months.  We got here around 10 at night and we were all exhausted, so we all quickly unpacked and went to bed.  We woke up the next morning to the most amazing sunrise I have ever seen. This place truly is beautiful.  It's amazing.  We spent the first few days getting to know each other, learning our way around the base, training for the tasks we will be doing this summer, and looking at our lives and why God brought us here.  Last night, we spent about two hours in the freezing cold laying under the stars.  It was incredible!  I have never been able to see so many stars in one area.  We can even see part of the milkyway and a ton of shooting stars.  It is so easy to see God's beauty in a place like this.

I'm pretty sure they thought it would be fun to confuse us, so they put us each in four different groups.  We have our mission team groups, our work groups, our cabin groups, and our children's ministry groups.  Christine and I will be in the same children's ministry group, but are in different groups for everything else.  On the base, my main jobs are doing dishes and working in the coffee shop.  Christine is in charge of loading and unloading the vans and working the cash register at the coffee/curio shop.  

Tomorrow will be our first real day out in the mission field.  We are in groups of 4-5 and will be focusing on relational ministry.  We are going to be talking to different families in the town.  It will definitely push me out of my comfort zone, because we could potentially spend 2 or 3 full days talking to one family.  That's a long time to talk to one family that I have never met before, not to mention coming from a completely different culture.  I'm really excited to see what God does in each of our groups.  

On Wednesday, my children's ministry group will be leading in the afternoon.  We are still in the process of planning what we will be doing, but its going to be good.  And before you ask, because I know its the first question you were asking yourself, YES we will be playing cow cow lasso.  I have faith that the Basotho children will love it just as much as everyone back at Grace.  There is an intense game of Uno going on right now that I can't resist joining, but we will try to update as much as possible.  Please continue to pray for us and remember that you can always e-mail us if you want. :)

Love you guys!!

Alison

So...I wanted to have a really deep and meaningful post before we left, but its 2:28 am and I'm still packing so it looks like that isn't going to happen.  I just wanted to thank everyone that is supporting and praying for us.  It has been such a humbling experience and this trip would have not been possible without all of you.  

It still hasn't really hit me that in about 7 hours I will be on a plane to South Africa.  It is something I have been talking about for so long, and now I actually have the chance to do it.  I really hope I'm ready.  I saw a sign the other day that said "God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called".  It reminded me that even though I am inadequate, God has called me to Thrive Africa for a reason and will still use me in some way.   Even though I'm clearly not capable of changing the world, God is and that's all that matters.  I am just trying to surrender to God and focus on His will for me so He can actually use me.  

We leave RDU at 10:08 Monday morning and fly into D.C.  We will then meet the other 22 interns in D.C. and fly to Johannesburg around 5:00 that evening.  I don't remember the exact time we get into South Africa, but the flight is about 17 hours long.  It is going to be a very very long day, but I can't wait to meet the other interns.  I won't have access to a computer for a week after I get to South Africa, but should have fairly regular access from that point on.  

If you want to e-mail us our address is kacgamble@yahoo.com.  You can also write us at 

Alison(or Christine) Gamble
c/o Thrive Africa
PO Box 965
Harrismith 9880

South Africa

Alright, now back to packing.

Alison