to Him be the Glory

Go read this.  I was not in a mood to post a blog at all tonight, but this…this brings tears to my eyes and brings me to my knees.

Ke a o Rata (I love you)

A few weeks ago we went on our first tour of Qwa Qwa. One of the stops was to meet the Leadership Summit coaches (check out this website to read more about them: http://www.thriveafrica.org/about/leadership-summit/) . Everyone was really sweet, friendly and excited to have us there! One of the ladies even game me my Sesotho name: Lerato. The name means “love.” Fitting, don’t you think? I thought so considering my blog name means “with love” and I even have flip flops with the word “love” on them. ☺

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

As of 8:32 a.m., I officially signed and faxed my commitment letters. Well, to be more accurate, I signed them last night, but you get the picture.  Commitment letters for what, you say?  Well, the big news that I have been blogging about and Twittering about is finally official, finally happening.  I’m going to South Africa for a year from January 19th to December 6th.  I will be participating in the 1-Year Internship program through Thrive Africa.  I praise God for all of the ways that He has been at work already in allowing this opportunity to come about and how He will continue to be with me through the preparation and the following year.  I have a lot to prepare!  But, I am pumped!  More than anything, I am excited to see God through this process.  My head swirls with all sorts of details and thoughts, but ever since this morning I wanted to blog about this!  There you have it.  The big news.  More to come as I continue to prepare and process and get there.  For now, please pray for my family as they adjust to this drastic change, pray for me as I prepare and as I raise money and get all the details together.  

Snapshot of some of the things I’ll get to do this next year: 

Teach discipleship classes in rural villages
Facilitate pastors’ conferences and other training events
Attend weekly classes taught by full-time missionaries
Host mission teams and engage in relationship evangelism
Serve in the day-to-day operation of Thrive Africa

 

Arabic

Fyonkat

I wish I could read Arabic.

What It’s All About

Loving these quotes from this post:

“I think we focus too much energy on church growth. I think it’s all about personal growth. It’s not about growing a big church. It’s about growing big people–people who serve sacrificially, give generously, dream ridiculously, and love gracefully.”

“The way to grow larger is to grow smaller via small groups. I honestly don’t think God will grow us beyond our ability to disciple people. And if small groups are our primary context for discipleship, then the number of small groups we have will determine our growth potential as a church.”

—-

One of the things we have been talking a lot about at Community Group and Core Team Training has been how to multiply and keep our core values.  How do you emphasize evangelism, discipleship and community while expanding?  In part, the community groups serve as a way to relationally provide accountability, encouragement, and discipleship.  They can be one venue that spurs on personal growth.  Mentorship serves as another way to enable people to grow. Being involved in a community group and in Core Team Training, I have really started to realize the importance of these values and relationships even more than before.  Being able to share prayer request, praises, struggles, and fun with a group of people heading toward the same goal definitely has begun to create relationships and unity.

p.s. Lately, I’ve been reading through the New Testament and am struck again and again by how many times “unity” of the body is emphasized.  I’m on the verge of a blog delving into unity–so watch out!  

 

The End

No…not of this blog!  But of my ceramics class.  Today/this week was/is the last time to throw wet clay.  Sad.  I’ll be kind of glad to have my Monday nights back, but I’ll miss being able to make bowls and other fun things.  I’m also sad because I always seem to open up and engage with the people in my class right before it ends.  I had a delightful conversation with a girl in my class about law school, unitarianism, Bethel University, sports and ceramics tonight.  I wish I could have had this 5 weeks ago so that we could have developed more of a relationship.  Yet, the class ends.  The same thing happened last summer with my pre-law type class at William Mitchell.  I met these women and began to get to know them sort of well right at the end.  I’ll just have to take longer classes or learn to open up sooner! 

100

Blogged it. Tried it. Loved it.

YUM!

So I tried the Peanut Butter and Banana sandwich recipe that I blogged about here and it turned out great!  The pictures aren’t too bad either.  I even took the “long” way and didn’t cheat by using a toaster instead of a pan!  The sandwich was delicious and I can’t wait to eat another one.  I love that this recipe is quick, easy and doesn’t require an extra trip to the grocery store for random ingredients.  Go try it!

Would You Be Missed??

Seth Godin wrote a great blog asking the question whether or not companies or people would be missed.  If Target went out of business, would it be missed or would you just go to a similar store? What about Pizza Hut? With so many options and easy replacements, are there that many stores that would truly be missed for a long time?  The same goes for people in companies and jobs.  I want to be someone who will be missed, someone who made the place I was better to the extent that I’m not easily replaceable.  I want to be that specialty lightbulb rather than the regular.  What are you doing today that will make you missed?

Who are you sleeping with??

    I’ve only had my macbook in my hands since Friday night and I’m already sleeping with it! Haha, not exactly. After church, I checked my e-mail and such while I was curled up in my warm bed…I proceeded to get sleepy and then shut the computer and put it on the other side of the bed

So far, I totally love my mac! I’m getting used to all of the little tricks and playing with the programs. Speaking of which, if there are any mac lovers out there do comment with tips, tricks, programs you use and recommend.

I’m off to community group now, but if you check back later tonight or tomorrow I bet you might find another blog!

p.s. I loved church today!! The pastor spoke on one of my favorite passages: Romans 12:1-2