My First Month In Muizenberg

Oh my goodness, has it really been a month already?  Wow!  Time really does fly by fast!  5 weeks and 6 books later and I feel like I've only begun to scratch on the surface of all God wants to show me!  From Philemon to Titus, Philippians, Mark, Acts, and Galatians, I've been so challenged by God's humility, suffering, and love for us.  Mark especially hit me as we got to dig deeper into who Jesus is and what He actually did for us.  You hear it again and again that Jesus came to die on the cross for our sins but to actually study the book of Mark and walk through all that Jesus did while He was here really gave me a deeper understanding of this truth:  God humbled Himself by becoming fully man, living a life on earth like any other, experiencing joy, love and fellowship along with pain, suffering, and rejection.  He showed us the way to live and then died... for us... in order to reestablish perfect relationship with Him.  He loved/s us so much that He was willing to die for us.  He surrendered all rights as God and experienced the most painful and humiliating death that anyone could ever experience so that we could have eternal life with Him.  It's difficult to comprehend such a love... but that's what makes Him God... that's why I love Him and that's why I will be forever grateful. 

I guess there's a lot that I have to catch you guys up on!  Here's a few pictures to help =) This first picture is of our entire SBS class!  All 40 of us, 27 students and 13 staff.  I know I already said it before but I can't tell you how thankful I am for such an amazing group of people to share this season of my life with.  

In the inductive method of studying the bible we go through each book at *least* four times, starting with an out loud reading, color coding, making paragraph titles and then adding paragraph points.  There's a whole lot more to the method with historical background checks and chartings and applications but it'll probably all go right over your head so I'll spare you the details =P  Here's a picture of one of the books that I color coded though!  It's really cool!  At first it was so hard for me to mark up the pages of the bible but now I can't imagine ever reading it again without all of the symbols!  Basically we take each book and break it down to pieces, color coding things from people, places, and time elements to commands, figures of speech, atmosphere and so on.  It's really changed the way that we see and even talk about everything!  It's so funny because we'll just be talking during lunch or something and start randomly color-coding each other's sentences, ha, it sounds really dorky but it's been something fun that we've all been able to share and be dorky doing together =P

Once again I am so blessed to be doing SBS here in South Africa where the mountain and beach are right in my backyard.  With such a busy schedule it's nice to have this oasis just 2 blocks away!   My roommate and I enjoy taking morning walks along the beach each day before class starts which has been really nice =) 

On Friday nights there's a market that they have nearby that a bunch of us like to visit to take a quick break from our studies.  Here they have lots of fun goodies from clothing and home made goods to various ethnic foods and desserts!  The base food here is pretty good but trying to stay healthy has been a challenge so I usually like to get fresh fruits from the market on Fridays.  In terms of taste it's kind of hard to compare to the awesome flavors from Hawai'i but when it comes to cost, this market has Hawai'i beat hands down!  Believe it or not you can actually get 10 apples and 10 oranges for under $2 here!  Crazy right? 

It had been a while since my roommate and I had ventured out of Muizenberg so we took the opportunity to do so today and what a beautiful day it was!  Here are a few of the pictures that we took at the waterfront in Capetown =) 

It's been a great first month and many more to come.  I miss you all and hope you're doing well! <3 Leslie

Philemon + Chicken Feet + Justin Bieber = An awesome first week in Capetown!

Wow, I can't believe it's only been one week since I started SBS here in Muizenberg!  We did so much this week I don't even know where to start!  Well, I guess I can start by saying that I absolutely LOVE my new home here and couldn't have asked for a better group of people to share these next 9 months with.  It's amazing how God can take a group of people from completely different nations and backgrounds and build close relationships in such a short amount of time, I am very thankful for my new family =)  Not to mention God's Word!!!  My goodness!  If you had asked me a week ago what I thought about the book of Philemon, I would've said that it's boring and has no application for my life whatsoever.  But the last week of diving into the bible using the inductive method has truly brought the Word to life!  I actually found myself having so much fun digging deeper into Philemon and looking for more hidden treasures that God had for me.  One book down, 65 to go!  A little nerve wrecking but very exciting at the same time =) 

Still at the tail end of winter here in Capetown so it was a bit chilly this week =P  Oh, this is my awesome roommate Debbie!  She's from Germany =) 

I was blessed to be able to get out and see a little bit of Capetown this past week too!  On Wednesday, a few of us went for a beautiful walk to Saint James, it was my first time venturing off the base since the weather's been so cold so I was excited to finally be able to see the beach which is only two blocks away!  We even stumbled upon a pod of whales which was really cool to see!

Muizenberg Beach, Walk to Saint James

Whale Watching =)

Then on Friday our class went on a field trip to a nearby township that we'll be working in.  While there we greeted the people in the community and I got to try chicken feet for the first time!  It was actually pretty good!  Then on Saturday we took a train into Capetown to visit the 'Castle of Good Hope,' the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa.  I wish I could tell you what I learned from the tour but the truth is that our class was playing an ongoing game that kind of kept me from paying close attention =P  It was a really funny game though!  We split up into four teams and competed against one another to complete a list of random tasks throughout the day.  For example, one of them was to pretend as though someone on your team was famous and convince the rest of the people around that they were who you said they were.  We had a blond guy on our team who we actually got a bunch of people to believe was Justin Bieber!  Ha, it was hilarious, there were a few kids and even soldiers who came by with their cameras to take a picture of him!  Overall it was a great day of having fun and getting to know each other =) 

Funny team picture =)

Then this morning a few of my classmates and I came together to have our own simple church on the base where we had an awesome time of worship and encouragement in the Word.  Afterward we took a stroll to the beach where they were having a massive event to set a new Guiness Record of having the most people surfing on one wave.  It was the first time I had ever seen such a thing!  In all there were over 300 surfers lined up in the water waiting to catch the perfect wave  and after multiple attempts I think they managed to finally get around 100 surfers riding the same wave!  It was a pretty cool sight to see =) 

Well, that pretty much sums up this week =)  I am so thankful for all that God has already shown me and I can't wait to see what He has in store for me next week!  I miss you all and hope you're doing well!

Let the journey begin!

So I've never really done a blog before and I'm not much of a writer but I wanted to be able to keep everyone posted in some fashion so here it goes!

After 2 days of flying I finally arrived in Capetown last night!  God totally blessed me with half full flights allowing me to lie down most of the time to get some rest so despite the 12 hour difference my jet lag hasn't been so bad =)  I also got to spend a few hours with my Aunty Cindy during a layover in D.C. which was soooo nice! 
I arrived to the YWAM base in Muizenberg around 1 AM this morning where my gracious new roommate woke up to greet me.  She's from Germany and is very kind =)  My luggage unfortunately didn't make it but I'm hoping it'll arrive soon as it would be nice to change out of these clothes that I've been wearing for the last 3 days =P
The area that we live in is absolutely beautiful!  With the beach just a few blocks away and the beautiful surrounding mountain ranges I'm thankful that God has brought me to such a beautiful place to study His Word =)  Here are a few pictures of the view from the sunroof!

In just a few hours I'll be attending a 'Braii', which is a South African BBQ, apparently it's a really big deal here!  Looking forward to meeting more people and eating some delicious South African food =) 

Well, that's all for now!  From what it sounds like my schedule will be pretty full from now on but I do hope to be able to update everyone at least once a week =) 

I miss all of you very much and hope to talk to you all soon!

Leslie