I have finally arrived!

Mambo! (an informal Swahili greeting). I have now successfully moved into my new home in South Africa. The last three weeks have been difficult, wonderful, amazing and trying all at the same time. The first two weeks I was in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. We had rice at every meal and tea and coffee twice a day. The roads there are quite small with no traffic lights. The speed limits are not enforced because the police are on foot. People ride their bikes along the road and push carts filled with various fruits and other goods. The people are extremely friendly and love for you to come and sit with them and share a coke. Satan has a strong hold on much of the culture where there are many Muslims and almost every single person has been touched in someway by witchcraft. In fact we met a young girl who several years ago was possessed by demons. Please pray for the team that is ministering there in Dar. God has truly sent some amazing people to minister to Tanzania. While there I learned to sleep under a mosquito net in very hot temperatures and how to filter my water several times to ensure that absolutely everything in it was killed. I also learned how to rely more on God. When you are taken away from everyone and everything you know, you begin to realize that He is all you truly need, and He is willing and able to provide for all your needs. As I write this, our house has been infiltrated by a few of the kids from the neighborhood who want to see the dog we are watching!
A few interesting side notes:
A white person in Tanzania is a wazungu which means person who runs around in circles.
Cheesey means crazy in Swahili.
I got stung by a jelly fish in the Indian Ocean and then got to touch one as it was swept onto the beach by the tide.
There is no such thing as a refill in Africa.
Mangos give you a rash if you eat too many.
A female nopheles mosquito can bite over 100 times in one night….and she carries malaria!
It was hard to leave all the friends in Tanzania, but after two weeks, I was ready to see my new home for the next four months. Our apartment here is very nice – maybe even nicer than my apartment at home! We have a wall with electric wire surrounding our complex with a guard at the gate. Most homes here have a wall with some type of wire at the top along with gates, bars, and several doors. The culture is extremely diverse with Black, Afrikaaner, British, Coloured, and Indian along with many others who have moved here from other parts of Africa but all speak English. Our ministry here is focused on the youth at Lyndhurst Baptist Church along with the people in our apartment complex. We have already begun a relationship with our neighbor who has invited us over for a Braai (bar b q) tonight. Plus thanks to Teddy the dog we are watching we have met most of the children. Please pray that God would continue to send the children and that we will be able to begin storying through the Bible with them on a regular basis. Also, please pray that He would continue to bless our relationship with our neighbor Heather and her daughter Samantha. In addition, please pray for the youth at Lyndhurst. We met many of them last night and they are searching, but their culture does not understand what it means to have a Father who will love unconditionally nor do they have security in their faith, and though you ask them if they believe, and they say yes, they still do not believe they are promised eternity with the Father. Please pray that God will help us to see the world through their eyes and love them as He loves them. Now it is getting a little too hectic in our house as the boys have broken into a dance party! In fact, four year old Pappillou is attempting to do the Superman! Please pray that he, JoJo, and Sami would see something in us that will lead them to question as much as is possible what they are being taught by their culture.