Thank You

The library that smells like camp and memories in Pearl River. I love this room.

Me and Mick (my boss/advisor/friend/contact/and supplier of really great jokes...)

I had to dance and sing with Christy and Paloma one more time (:

Playing Rugby...Stephen got smoked.

Talon and Ilario in their matching robes--the girls had lilac terry cloth ones....So cute!

Nicky took this one of Hayley at our daycamp at the Youth Center...what a beautiful little child.

Me and the girls before I left.

Some of the girls in our Youth Group at ESK church.

Me, Larissa, and Elreda during our girl's night (Stephen was the lucky photographer for our impromptu photo shoot)...They brought me more joy than I can say.

The men all dressed up for the Mother's Day service at church. Jerome (far right) is the Youth Director.

Well, I realize it's been about a month since I got home and just as long since my last post...for which I apologize. It was--as expected--crazy to arrive home and begin the fun journey of visiting friends, family, and favorite places. I was able to spend a week in Minneapolis apartment hunting and spending wonderful time with friends and then go up to Camp Vermilion for a week and a half to help out and spend time in the place that I probably missed the most while I was in Namibia. Both trips were great, and now I am preparing to move to the cities next week so that I'm ready to begin my job at Target on July 13. I will post more thorough accounts of my final weeks in Rehoboth once I'm moved but for now, I just wanted to say THANK YOU so so very much to all of you who have read my blog, prayed for me, supported me financially, supported me emotionally, asked me questions, looked at pictures, sent me notes, and loved me through it all! It was one of the most incredible, life-changing experiences of my 23 years, and I am humbled and grateful that God allowed me to go through it. As I said, I will write more and also plan to continue this blog with my new "adult" life and whatever adventures that brings my way--so keep visiting if you'd like to read my thoughts on life back in good old Minnesota (:

I posted some pictures from my final days in Namibia and will also put up bigger albums on Facebook if you want to see more! Let's be FB friends.
Thank you again! I love and appreciate you!

Brittany

Packing List

I've been packing these past few days and am so surprised at how easily everything is fitting and cleaning up...my room is bare, my hangers are empty, and the drawers are ready for the next guest. It's weird how smoothly the packing for home has gone and yet I feel like even though all my clothes and souvenirs are fitting, so many things are being left behind that aren't really packable. I've been trying to take pictures of everything that is sigificant to me in this town, but that's not really possible. And it's sad to think that if I don't take a picture of this small detail that I love, I will probably forget it within a few weeks and then that moment or memory will just disappear because certainly no one else is going to remember it and remind me of it. I sometimes wonder how many incredible things have passed through my mind at one time or another that I've forgotten--like, if I could watch a slideshow of every significant memory I've ever had--can you imagine the things I would see and be amazed that THAT has been in my mind at one point! Happy, sad, overwhelming, joyful, full of laugher, and so on...I wish I could categorize my memories and go into the files to watch the ones I want when I felt like it. So many things I've already forgotten about my time in Namibia...I'll re-read a journal entry or look at pictures from February and be amazed at what I was feeling or thinking so long ago and also be surprised I forgot it so easily.

Anyway--that's just a little of what's going on in my mind as I pack up and get ready to go. Do you think I could fit this town in my bag? I've packed my neccessities but have to leave behind the truly important stuff.

love,b

ocean waves

Chaco tan line (:

The sunset on our drive home

Sunset on the Atlantic

The sand dunes

I visited the Atlantic Ocean last weekend and was reaffirmed in my belief that if they existed and if I didn’t love my life so much, God would have made me a mermaid. We drove into Swakopmund, a little German town on the Namibian coast, and I poked my face through the tiny window in the back of Heidi’s bakkie, just breathing in the salt and waves in the air. And after the hot, 5-hour drive crammed next to bodies, luggage, and/or the stick shift bumping into my knee up every hill--the fresh air was much appreciated! We arrived at the Finnish Guest House (which used to be a school for Finnish missionary kids, I believe) and moved into our home away from home: a beautiful 3-bedroom flat with a fully furnished kitchen--complete with wind chimes hanging from the ceiling!--two rocking chairs covered in leopard print fabric, candles sitting on the piano, multi-colored woven rugs, and a giant dining table next to the grandfather clock. The house is just two streets over from the beach, so after we had unpacked, I ran across the road and down to the shore to watch the waves roar in from sea before dissipating on the sand and rocks. That day and early the next morning had the fiercest and most intense waves I have ever seen. Multiple times I ran shrieking up the sand to escape a surprise wave that would end up drenching me well above the knee…Poor Stephen wore his brand new tennis shoes and managed to keep them dry until the very end, when he stopped a few feet from the water to put them and his socks back on and almost made it--before a big wave passed its boundaries and completely soaked him up past his ankles. I laughed really hard and had no sympathy--who wears tennis shoes to the beach?

We spent our long weekend browsing the souvenir shops, quad-biking in the sand dunes, drinking tea, walking in the waves, reading good books, and baking. I unfortunately got a cold the morning we left for Swakop, but I still had a wonderful time exploring and relaxing. On the way home, we strapped some bags to the roof of the bakkie, so it was a much more pleasant drive.

Water relay

Me and Sheryl-Lee--one of the regulars at the Youth Center

Two days after we got back, we hosted our first day of two of a mini-daycamp for the community. Only 11 kids showed up (we had a hard time with advertising since school let out at the end of April) and then 30 the second day…It was a small group, but those children are some of the most well-behaved, respectful, happy, excited, fun, and adorable kids I’ve ever worked with! The two days of the camp have been two of the best days I’ve had in Rehoboth, and I am so happy I got to see the Youth Center finally come alive with children inside laughing, singing, painting, praying, and playing. We did skits, played relay games, learned Origami, had Bible Study, ate popcorn and ice, face-painted, and danced our socks off. I really can’t put into words how incredible the kids were--they listened instantly and were excited about every single thing we did with them. We also had Jerome, Ralph, Larissa, Elreda, and Koosi volunteering from our Youth Group, so they helped out a ton by translating all day long to make sure the kids understood what was going on. What a wonderful way to end my time with the Youth Center. Adults are great. I do like them. I hope to marry one someday. But kids…Kids make my heart happy and my soul laugh. Every time I do something like this daycamp, I am amazed all over again at how much joy I get from being around them.

Well, apparently I’m in the final countdown to come home. I have a few days left in Rehoboth before I head down south for the Farm Camp with our YG. That’ll last for 5 days and as soon as I drive back into Reho, I’ll leave for Windhoek and then fly out May 19. About a week-and-a-half total left. AH! I don’t know how to explain what I’m feeling…I had my final Bible Study today and almost cried to say goodbye to these beautiful young girls who have such an honest interest in learning more about the Lord and His love for them. Every week I met with them, they amazed me more and more with their questions, their eagerness to share, their willingness to pray and read aloud, and simply how much FUN they are to be around! It was an interesting mix of girls but the group dynamic was so great, and I loved getting to know them. I don’t know how I’ll handle my final goodbye to Rehoboth…it seems so unreal that it’s almost here. Five months, at the beginning, seemed a bit long. But five months, at the end of it, has not been near enough time to do all I want to do now. Unfinished roads to walk, unfinished friendships to build…I am starting to see a bigger picture on the horizon, but I have to leave before I can really grasp it. It takes a lot of building to get to this place, and it’s frustrating to know that anywhere I go now, I have to start that building again. All the work, time, tears, hugs, and love I’ve poured out here…
I’m starting to understand that this will be a lot harder than I first thought.

Prayer Requests:
*The Farm Camp May 13-17 for safe traveling, lots of kids, and good ministry

*My heart, as I say goodbyes and pack

*Health in general…I’ve had a cold for a week now and then I’ve been hearing about the Swine Flu stuff a lot and I’ll be traveling soon, so just that I can get and then stay healthy!

Goodnight dear friends.
Britt

Clownin' Around, All Around Town

The amazing black jellybeans Stephen's mom sent us for Easter. There was no sneaking around to eat them...

Our Thursday Bible Study (minus Larissa, from L to R): Janie, Gada, Steve, Benita, Valencia, Verooshka, and me.

Wow! What a week! Monday, our YC team met with Pastor Anthony and Pam Brown (a woman serving in Windhoek for a few years) to talk about the goals and vision for the Youth Center in the next few months. I have accepted that I won’t get to see it reach it’s full potential while I’m here--which is a little disappointing--but I do not feel that I wasted my time working there, and I know that God will bring good things from both mine and my team’s labor, as well as from the building. I WILL get to help plan and run the mini-daycamp there coming up in a week and a half, though, which should give me a small taste of what the Youth Center will be like once it’s completely finished and furnished. There is a lot of work left, but we’ve painted various parts of 6 rooms, bought 4 chairs and a table, fixed the leaking ceiling (some, at least), got electricity going in some rooms, and cleaned, scraped, chipped, puttied, and washed with the best of them…So it’s had a definite facelift, which has been fun to be a part of! I also found out Monday that my cousin Julie and her husband Greg are the proud and recovering parents of their fourth little girl, Makenzi Lynn! It was a difficult pregnancy/delivery, so I’m thankful both mom and daughter are doing well and home healing. I am going crazy not being able to see the baby and hold her! I feel like she will be all grown up by the time I get home but…she will actually only be 1 or 2 months old, so I guess she’ll still be pretty little (: Praise God for His beautiful little miracles of life. The flat, flat, very flat tire on the way to Kwa-Kwas.

At Catherine's school...the Sin Clown just popped his sin balloon! Hurrah!

Kristen and Nicky

Tuesday was the big theatrical debut day of Clown Worship at the Farm schools. Josh, Nicky, Step-hen, Mackenzie, Kristen, and I crammed ourselves and all costumes and props into Heidi’s bakkie and headed off for Kristen’s school, Kwa-Kwas Primary, first. We had driven about 15 minutes when it began to sound like someone was shooting as us from the bush. Don’t worry--no guns in sight when we climbed out, but there WAS the most horribly shredded and destroyed flat tire I’ve ever seen in my life. Luckily, there was a spare and two men (Steve and Josh) who knew how to fix a flat. Kristen and I also helped by finding a big rock to put behind the front tire. That part was crucial. Good thing we were with. So, the flat got fixed, we got back on the bumpy, rocky, deserted road in the middle of nowhere and traveled very slowly the rest of the way. Once we got closer to the school, the “roads” became more like huge rock piles at steep angles with huge ruts that we were supposed to drive over. Josh also had to honk multiple times to clear the goats/sheep off the road. I laughed a lot…especially because I was in the back of the bakkie, which meant every bump we hit, I went flying. The BEST driving, though, occurred at Catherine’s school when we had to cross the dried up river (probably would have been even sweeter if there was water in it--which they DO have to do during rainy season…or else get out and cross by foot and get soaked). We were following Catherine so we could find her school, and she stopped to tell us before crossing, “This part is really bad, but you just have to keep going, ok? Don’t stop--just go as fast as you can to get across.” The river was super sandy and impossible to get any traction in, so Josh gunned the engine from the bank and then fishtailed, bumped, and literally at times, flew through the air across the riverbed. Ah! Haha I was laughing so hard and screaming and bouncing around in the back of the bakkie like out-of-control popcorn. I felt like we were in a car chase in some action-packed movie, and it was great. As for the Clown Worship--it was amazing. We had an outdoor stage at Kwa-Kwas, and the kids thanked us by singing us some songs in English and then Nama, which was so cool. Catherine’s school was next, and she said that the kids kept talking the rest of the week about how their favorite part was that the Cross burst the clowns’ sin (the balloon). She also asked them to share what they’d learned from it, and it was encouraging to hear their responses since we didn’t have to speak a word during the performance, which meant--they understood everything! We mustered our energy for the final play of the day at Heidi’s school, and then packed our tambourines, bubbles, puppets, and tired selves back into the bakkie for the drive home. I went to Kristen and Mackenzie’s Bible study that afternoon at Rehoboth High, and we did Soularium with the girls. They shared some really good thoughts about their lives and views of God. Finding ways to talk about God without actually talking too much (since the language barrier makes it hard sometimes) has been such a challenge but so rewarding when it works. And funny how communication can work almost as well with pictures and action instead of just words.

Making the dye-baths with the boiling water!

Line drying...

Thursday was another big day…drum roll please…TYE-DYE!!! We packed 30 tiny, bright white T-shirts that Steven’s mom sent, as well as the classic red, yellow, and blue RIT dyes, out to the preschool. We brought buckets, salt, vinegar, forks, rubber gloves, and rubber bands. The school doesn’t have electricity to boil water though, so I had decided we’d just use cold water to mix with the dye and hope that the colors still turned out okay. When I mentioned this to Selvia (the principal) she said, “Oh, I’ll just bring some wood and a pot and boil the water in the yard.” What?! I was SO excited! When we arrived to school, she already had the little fire going with her black, cast-iron cauldron bubbling away with toasty water. We spent the morning bringing groups of 6-8 kids inside at a time to choose between the spiral, polka-dot, accordion, or bullseye tye-dye patterns. I used a small tin cup to spoon the boiling water from the pot into the buckets of dye, and then we gathered the kids around and got started! It’s been really windy lately in Reho, so we clothespinned the shirts to the wire fence running around the school yard and let them flap dry in the wind. At the end of the day, Selvia brought the shirts in for the kids to wear, and some were so excited that they started pulling off their other shirts as they waited to be handed their new shirt to put on.

Friday night was “American” night at youth group (: Me and Steve planned songs to teach them (Radical God, Shake Another Hand, Romans 16:19, and To You Oh Lord), games (Shidoh…SO much fun!), and a skit that the kids acted out themselves. Nicky and Josh shared with the group about their courtship and marriage and more on the idea of purity. It was a fun night--and really cold when I was waiting for a ride home after! The days are still hot, but the nights are freezing.

Saturday, our team went to Windhoek to visit the Craft Shops there and then to Joe’s for a goodbye dinner for Mackenzie and Kristen. For dessert, I ordered a “Treasure Bag”…doesn’t the name alone make you want to try one? It was delicious, and I had the first strawberry I’ve had since getting to Africa! And cherries. Mmmm! I miss the girls...our team is shrinking! They were such a joy to serve with and laugh with (:

more to come...the internet is slow today.

love,b

…I’m a Little Teapot…

This past week has been so good for a multitude of reasons. Sunday night we had a team Easter dinner and ate homemade pizza, oatmeal raisin cookies, and Lifesaver jelly beans from the US. Monday was a day off for the holiday weekend, Tuesday to the preschool, and Wednesday me, Stephen, Josh, and Nicky jumped in a combi for a day-trip to Windhoek to get supplies for the center and other random things. We met a lady for lunch who is responsible for a lot of the positive social justice programs implemented throughout the local area. Nicky wanted to talk to her to get some insight into the culture since she’ll be doing counseling for part of her job. We went to lunch at one of the best restaurants I’ve ever seen, called “The Teapot.” Listen to this--to get to the restaurant, you first have to walk through a huge greenhouse full of plants, trees, flowers, and sculptures spouting water into their attached basins. There’s a great little bead store situated like a tree-house in the middle of the greenhouse. Once you leave there, you can see the glass windows announcing “The Teapot” up ahead, and the decorations are exactly like what you must be imagining right now…Picture round tables topped with lilac fabric with a smaller polka-dotted tablecloth in the center. The chairs have a sense of whimsy, streaked in white paint to look like an antique chair left in an attic next to a window, where it got too much sun and too much dust. A small glass, oval-shaped vase holds a real (but tiny) bouquet of fresh flowers, and all the sugar and cream pots on the tables are delicate shades of celery green, rosy pink, and cornflower blue. Not too pastel, but definitely Tea Pot Pastel. Through the glass windows you can see geese playing in an enclosed pond and another huge water statue adds the refreshing sound of running water to the atmosphere. A colorful variety of teapots decorate the shop but the BEST part, the absolute cherry on top was this: the restaurant is home to the cutest (and therefore possibly ugliest) pug dog I’ve ever seen. Fat and with huge, wide-set bulging eyes, he walked around the tables, stopping to wait for food and then wiggling on his way to the next customer. It was a great lunch.

Thursday at the preschool, we made ribbon twirlers and went on a parade around Block E. It was incredible…Each kid had a shower curtain ring (compliments of Steve’s mom/aunt) with various colors of ribbon tied on and then a few random musical instruments to bang/shake/rattle, etc. The kids wore the ribbon-rings as bracelets, earrings, or else just held them and waved them as they went. We walked down the middle of the streets (28 kids and three adults) all singing songs about Jesus, playing instruments, performing some great ribbon dancing, and having a blast. I had to carry one of the youngest kids because he couldn’t keep up, and I felt more strongly than I have before that I was IN Africa…holding this baby as I walked down the street, surrounded by singing, yelling, running, dancing, clapping children praising the Lord in odds and ends of English and lots of clicking and laughing. It was so much fun and so beautiful to see the fun they had in getting out of the confines of the one-room schoolhouse. It also made me laugh to think how you would never take an entire classroom of preschoolers out for a sporadic walk in the middle of the day if you were teaching in the US. We didn’t use the “buddy system,” the teacher was in the very back, walking with another of the babies, the kids were running way ahead in the center of the road and it was pretty much mass chaos (but fun, mass chaos (: ). And everyone was fine and got back safe, but I’m pretty sure to do that in the US you’d need at least a signed permission slip and possibly an armed guard to accompany the walk…

Thursday night I stayed at Kristen’s again since it was her last Thursday left in Rehoboth…Both her and Mackenzie fly out this coming Sunday! They’ve been here 8 months, and now it’s time for home. Pretty crazy. Her host family has satellite TV, so I got to watch about 10 minutes of American Idol, which was wild. It made me realize I’m glad I don’t have to worry about “following” shows…TV is so addicting and so mindless a lot of the time. It’s been nice to just NOT have it for these past few months. I also met with Kristen and Mackenzie’s host sister because she wants me to design her dress for the Metric Farewell that is coming up in August, I think (like senior prom). I’m working on dresses--just designing, not making!--for two girls and it’s fun that I can still use that part of my life while I’m here.

Now Saturday--this was a great day. I spent all morning baking brownies because that night, we had a “Women’s Night” for the girls on the worship team at my church and for the girls from Kristen and Mac’s Bible study at Rehoboth High (26 in all showed up, plus 8 adults). We began the night by playing Human Tic Tac Toe and then did some introductions and said where we would go if we could go on holiday ANYwhere RIGHT now (where would you go?). Then I shared about my purity journey, my struggles, my past, and some scripture that talks about God’s view of how unmarried women should live and about how He can and will redeem you from ALL unrighteousness and purify you, them, me. We explained that “purity” is not just referring to the physical but also means what you think about, how you act, the words you speak, the music you listen to, the movies you watch, and so on. Then we passed around paper and pens and had them write down any and all questions they had regarding purity, relationships, sex, boys, God, and being a woman. They had incredible, honest, serious questions and we spent about an hour trying to answer them (there was a panel of four of us) and at the end, one of the married women who had came shared (in Afrikaans) her personal testimony. She also translated at various points in the night if we said something that she felt was really important for the girls to understand completely. It was such a blessing, and so encouraging to see her open up and be vulnerable with these young women. We prayed to wrap up and then projected High School Musical 3 on the wall for them to watch while we served them popcorn, peanut-butter-chocolate balls, brownies and ice cream, and cool drinks. Ah! It was so fun…And as I dished the brownies, I was rejoicing to finally be at that point because I was inspired to do the whole night by the idea of brownies. About three weeks ago, I didn’t have a translator in church, so I spent the whole service dreaming up this idea for a women’s night where we would talk about all the deep stuff of women’s hearts and then top the evening off with--what’s the best thing to serve a roomful of females?--a mega chocolatey dessert. After talking and planning with the rest of the Reho team, we finally arrived at the night, and I was so happy to dish the dessert and see how God had been so faithful with this idea and how He blessed the evening in HUGE ways…It was so good--and also for me to remember how important it is to pursue the things of Christ and live in purity in all areas of my life…I easily forget when I’m surrounded by all the temptations this world offers.

After the girls piled into Wenda’s combi to get dropped off at the hostel and home, I went with Nicky to Kristen and Mac’s house for my second sleep-over of the week (: Oh, I do love them. This was even better though because Nicky and Josh brought two sleeping bags with from the US, so we got to use them to sleep on the floor and ended up staying up until 2:30am talking…I felt like I was right back at home, getting only 4 ½ hours of sleep and laughing over some seriously good girl-talk. I was surprisingly awake for church but got to take a nice nap before our team meeting.

Now I’m gearing up for another week. We’re officially taking the Clown Worship on the road and going to three farm schools (Kristen, Catherine, and Heidi’s) this Tuesday to “perform” (: I’m so excited…I’ll keep you posted how it goes and hopefully will have some pictures!

Prayer Requests:
*the clown worships on Tuesday (safe traveling, energy, technology works, the kids understand the Gospel message…)

*Me, Steve, Josh and Nicky are planning a two-day mini day camp for May 6&7...We are hoping to get some community/church involvement and donations and also that kids would be excited to come!

*For Kristen and Mackenzie as they spend their final week in Namibia and then fly home and adjust/find jobs/see loved ones

Praise: the women’s night…Praise praise PRAISE the Lord!

I love you…Goodnight!
Britt

Good Friday

Handing out the sandwiches (we happened to run into Ricardo and Rizaldo).

Making the PB&J!

some of our team at the dam before Lu left.

Tumee with her blanket!

Cedrizia's handprint...they all traced their hands, colored them, cut them out and taped them to the cross painted on the wall.

Josephina and Patrick again, with their artwork.

Martha and Willemina with their handprints.

Patrick and Andreas.

The kids with their new blankets.

Larissa, Verooshka, and Zoe washing a combi.


My church’s (Evangelical Mission Church) youth group had a car wash last weekend. We started at 7am and finished around 4:30pm…Whew! It was a long day in the hot sun, and we washed TONS of cars, combis, and bakkies! It was a good time and we raised some money, so mission accomplished. The youth are working to raise money for the Farm Retreat we have coming up May 13—17 (the week before I leave—perfect timing!). We’ll be going to stay at a farm down south—where it is apparently much hotter than Rehoboth…is that possible?—and going to neighboring farms in the area to lead day camps for the kids there. It’s a ways off still, but I’m really excited. It’ll be a good way to end my time here.

Sunday evening, we made about 320 PB&J sandwiches, packed a bunch of apples and headed off in Heidi’s little bakkie (truck type vehicle—we crammed 13 bodies in it at one point, which is a new record!) for Block E. We met lots of kids and after had juice and banana bread at a friend’s house there. Monday I went to the preschool by myself which was pretty challenging for the second half of the day. One of the two teachers quit, so I’m going 3 days a week to try and help Selvia out since she’s alone with 30 kids. It was a rough day. I’m realizing that language barriers are one of my least favourite things in the world…I am so frustrated that I can’t understand the excited chatter of these beautiful children and that I can’t implement a consistent type of discipline that will help them all to enjoy school more. As it is, a large part of the day is spent with them running around wild, which makes playing games, doing arts, or learning very difficult. I have so many things I want to do but CAN’T because I can’t do something as simple as tell them the directions. It is wearing me down…I long to know the small things they say each day that show their personality and character—what they think about, what their big questions are, what makes them happy and what makes them sad, what they love about their family, school, and God. I have their smiles memorized, and I love their laughter—but I know I am missing so much. Thursday was a much better day with them. We had an Easter party and brought my teammate’s laptop with to watch “Ice Age 2.” The kids were so excited; we hung blankets over the windows to make it darker and after, we hid little bags of candy for them to find. The room smelled like sugar for a while, and their mouths were filled with blue, pink, and gooey chocolate as they smiled for the camera (: At the end of the day, we handed out a blanket to each child to take home. When Lulu left, she designated money for that as her parting gift to the kids. Their faces lit up as we handed a brand new blanket into their tiny hands—it was great. Thanks Lu!

On Good Friday night, we had youth group at church with a smaller group of kids than usual because of the holiday weekend. Jerome (the youth leader) is talking about relationships for the month of April, and last night, he focused on our relationship with Jesus. I had asked if we could do a confession activity we do at Camp where each person writes a sin on a piece of paper and then sticks it on a nail on the cross. Then someone lights the paper on fire and as it burns it forms into a rose, symbolizing how God forgives our sin, making something beautiful out of something that was so ugly.

Jerome began by talking about “The Passion of the Christ” and the scene where Jesus is carrying His cross to Golgotha to be crucified. He had the youth close their eyes and visualize walking down a long, empty road. Paved, dirt, smooth, rocky…Up ahead, you see a great crowd and in the middle of that crowd is a man carrying a huge, splintered cross. You run as fast as you can to reach the group, so excited to be near this man and to help him. When you get close, you step into the center of the crowd and stand beside the man. You can smell his sweat, see the blood on his back, and then he turns and looks right into your eyes…
We opened our eyes then, and Jerome said—what is the one thing you hope He couldn’t see when He looked right at you? What is the sin that you want to hide, that you are ashamed of, that you are haunted by? That. Confess that on this piece of paper. Why did you look away when Jesus turned his face to you? What are you hiding from Him—what do you wish you could cover up in His mighty presence? Jerome played some songs, and we wrote, and then moved outside into the dark courtyard where we pressed our sins onto the nail at the center of the cross. The moon was almost full, so it cast enough light for us to watch the paper burn and curl into a ragged rose. You’ve confessed it, you’ve placed it on the cross and it is finished. It is forgiven. You don’t have to think about it anymore, you don’t have to dwell on it or feel trapped by it anymore. When Jesus died years ago on this day, He did it to forgive ALL your sins—past, present, and future.
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain…Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering…He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:2-5).

Jesus did not set himself above us. He was not a handsome, charismatic super-preacher. He wasn’t wealthy; he wasn’t popular; he wasn’t adored. He lived simply, he suffered greatly, and he sacrificed everything, that we may have LIFE. Sin, no matter how awful or shameful, can never be too big for God. You can never do something that is just too much for God to forgive. He loves you and longs for your heart—for you to turn from the sin that we all struggle with and allow Him to heal and restore you. He doesn’t expect you to be perfect. His love is so much greater than any sin, problem, or fear you have.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:38-39).

Jerome told the kids to imagine that they only had one hour left to live. He asked them, “What would you do, if you KNEW that in exactly one hour you will die?” Many of them responded that they would accept Christ so that they could go to Heaven. Then Jerome asked, “Why would you wait until you die to finally accept life?” God offers forgiveness and life NOW, He offers the amazing love described in Romans, chapter 8—love that can never be separated from us, love that is stronger than death, stronger than life, stronger than angels and demons, stronger than time, space, and creation. Nothing can separate you from God’s love if you believe that His Son died on the cross for your sins and then rose again, conquering death AND sin. Through that victory, you can be sure of eternal life spent with Christ. If you died right now, where would you go?

Tomorrow, on Easter Sunday, I’ll celebrate a risen Savior. God’s beauty, forgiveness, grace, and love have transformed my life. I am in AWE of Him. How could Someone so great treasure me—someone with faults, flaws, and sin? How can He forgive me time and time again? How can He look at me as I sit surrounded by my failures and still say, “I have a purpose for your life and a plan for your future—I will use you to have an impact for my Kingdom!” My pastor here talked the last few weeks on “What’s so amazing about grace?” Everything I just wrote.

Thank you God that you are the ultimate example of forgiveness and love. Thank you that you offer life to the fullest if we just believe in your Son’s death and resurrection and turn from the sin in our lives. Thank you for being greater than I can understand or express. You offer amazing grace in abundance.

Have a blessed Easter celebration, and I pray you will feel God’s presence and love wherever you’re at.

A Bit of This and That

This is Ricardo. Every single time I look at him, he either squinches his eyes shut or else covers his cute little face with his hands. I love it.

This is usually what he does next...ducks behind a door or chair or when nothing is around...He just sits down or holds really, really still, hoping I can't see him anymore.

Andreas, Carlos, Chrisley, and Michael outside in the sun at the preschool.

Kevanni, Ilario, and Talon cleaning the yard...

some of the kids with Camilla the elephant and all her pinned on tails (:

Right before Lu got on the combi to go home. This is the sweet dentist chair left in the YC. Who knows what it's purpose is. I love it though.

Hayley and Kevanni with the cake they decorated with food coloring for the birthday party.

We made balloon animals, hats, and flowers (or tried at least!).

Happy April! Lots going on this month and lots that has been happening these past few weeks.

Stephen’s aunt Edith came to visit for the last week because she was traveling around Africa for mission work and a wedding, so she stopped in (along with a suitcase full of supplies, Easter candy, and GRANOLA BARS!) to spend some time walking and working with us. It was great to have a guest, but I unfortunately got food poisoning her second night in Rehoboth, so I ended up knocked out for most of the remainder of the week. I was finally feeling well enough Thursday to go to the preschool with a small crew of friends: Stephen and Edith, Kristen, and Josh and Nicky. We did a miniature version of a Clown Worship for the kids, and it was so much fun! We all dressed in our crazy clothes (when I got to school first, Selvia, the principal, saw my bright colors and variety of patterns and stripes and said, “Ohhh! You look like a Nama girl today!” I think it is one of my favorite compliments, and I kind of wish I could wear crazy patterns and colors and jewelry every day…who needs to match?). We also painted our faces and brought bubbles for the kids, new musical instruments, Yo-Yos, and my iPod to provide the soundtrack for the worship. Since I obviously didn’t have the actual clown worship music, I had to improvise and make the soundtrack using a bit of music from Wicked, country, Jock Jams, the Beatles, and worship music. The kids LOVE music and love to dance as much as possible though, so it worked great and they were bouncing around to “Cotton Eye Joe” with great passion. Selvia was also a huge help by translating the worship service (even though we don’t speak at all for it) into the children’s language so that they understood what we were doing when the Sin clown froze all the happy clowns with sin balloons, and then the Christ clown freed them from their sin by popping the balloon on the nail on the cross. We also acted out the Good Samaritan skit to finish it off and then painted all the kids faces. It was a high-energy day, but so much fun. We’re thinking of taking our act on the road and visiting Kristen’s farm school to show it to the kids there.

Me and Stephen have started helping out with a Bible study on Thursdays, and it has been wonderful. It’s always a new mix of kids each week, ranging in ages from 11 to 18, but it always manages to work. We’re going through a Campus Crusade 4-part study about the foundations of being a Christian, and it has been so amazing to me to see Christianity through the eyes of a new believer again. How many things I forget about or skim over but that are SO incredible and beautiful. The kids have a lot of questions, and it’s really encouraging for me to hear their hearts and how they see God. Tonight on the way home from youth group, a young girl Nolene told me that she’d had a great week. When I asked why, she said that she is so thankful that God has opened her eyes to realize what a gift each day is. She was so excited at the thought of living one more day, each day being such a blessing. I was a little bit stunned that a 13-year-old would think about something like that. The kids in the youth group, worship team, and Bible study are so dear to me. Saying goodbye to them, and the children at the preschool, will be the hardest part in leaving. I’ve hit that point where I’m thinking that having a month and a half left seems so long still until I can see my friends and family but much too short of a time left to invest in the people here and spend good time with them. So I’m stuck at an impasse of wanting to go home but not wanting to leave the relationships growing here…Why does the world have to be so big?

Tonight Larissa (a friend from the worship team) gave me a “Musk Mint” to try…First of all, anything titled “Musk” that is supposed to be edible is bound to be gross. Second, it was. It tasted exactly like what is sounds--a weird minty, chalky thing that tasted like a can of musk that you would buy off the bottom shelf of a dollar store. It was so bizarre! I said, “You like these things? Gross!” haha She just laughed. Then she gave me an actual mint mint. That was better.

Two weeks ago, a group of high-schoolers from Canada came to do ministry in Rehoboth over their Spring Break. It was a lot of fun to have them at youth group leading familiar songs and acting out dramas. They had HIGH energy, let me tell you, and it definitely helped to revitalize my energy and passion for being here. The week after that was Lulu’s final week (she’s home now), so we had a “Everybody’s Birthday Party” party at the preschool. We baked cakes, brought candles, played pin-the-tail-on-the-elephant (named Camilla by my host cousin Talon), did a cake-walk with candy bars, blew up balloons, and sang Happy Birthday many, many times. Desserts and baked goods are really rare from what I’ve seen (they eat much more meat and bread…), so it was a lot of fun to dish out giant pieces of vanilla cake dripping with way too much pink frosting (: The kids were probably on a sugar high the rest of the day, but that’s why we send them home at noon! To say goodbye to Lulu that weekend, we went to Windhoek for lunch at Mugg and Bean, which is a fabulous little restaurant. Think Caribou and Panera combined in Africa. Mmm! And the people who started it really had the last names “Mugg” and “Bean.” Soo…I’m thinking I just need to find a good buddy with a cool last name like that, and I’ve got myself half of a successful coffee shop! It was no fun to send Lu home early, and the past two weeks have been weird to not have her always with me and Steve. We were three peas in a pod, and now we are two. I miss her a lot (especially when I was hugging the toilet all night this weekend and relieving my stomach of its entire contents plus a few small organs. She is the kind of friend who would have sat there all night and held my hair and made me feel a little better in the midst of awfullness) but I know she has a purpose being home. So keep praying for her and checking her blog to see what God’s doing in her life!

The Wilkes arrived (Josh and Nicky), and it has been a blessing to get to know them and hear their thoughts on the Youth Center. Our whole team went to the dam this week to spend time with Steve’s aunt, and I was struck by how blessed I’ve been to have them all here to support and encourage me, to laugh with, to pray with, to ask questions, to learn from, and to just simply be friends. I really enjoy the time I get to spend with them. Last night I had a sleepover with Kristen, and it was such a needed reprieve from day-to-day life. We watched “The Jane Austen Book Club,” ate homemade banana muffins, talked, laughed, I cried (at the movie), and then I went to sleep, living out of my little backpack, just like I would at home. I will never get too old for sleepovers. Oh the power of good friends, good food, and a good chick flick.

I forgot--before Lu left, me, her, and Steve made a bunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and went to hand them out to the kids in Block E. I’d never done a PB outreach before, but I think it would work just as great in the US! The kids were so happy to get the food and to talk to us (kids are generally just so cheerful here!) and we were humbled by how grateful they were for one little sandwich. How much I take for granted. We’re going again this Sunday with the team, so maybe I’ll have some pictures after.

I really have so many thoughts and I’ve waited too long to write this but life has seemed to suddenly accumulate a ton and now I can’t write it all out. Or keep it straight, as I’m sure you’ve noticed from the random stories bobbing around in this letter. On a very very happy note--my good friend Shelley got engaged on St. Patrick’s day, which made me so excited and then to make it even better, she put a video on her wedding blog to tell me about it and then ask me to be a bridesmaid! It was so great! It was like actually talking to her in person and getting to see her ring and hear her excitement…Woo! So keep her and her fiancé Josh in your prayers as they began that craziness called wedding planning!

Other prayer requests:
*Continued prayer for the purpose and direction of the Youth Center
*My relationships with the youth at my church and the opportunities to talk about God and their lives and their futures!
*That I would enjoy my last month and a half here and really focus on NOW and what God can use me for in this little bit of time left

Thank you for your patience and for your continued support, love, prayers, and encouragement. I love and miss you!
God Bless,
Britt