HER story

This last week I got to spend hours and hours with one of my coaches. I love my one on one time with them; getting to know each one of them a bit better, discovering more of who they are and relishing in the fact that they want to serve God in such a special, important, and meaningful way. I love that I get to be apart of their lives watching them grow as they learn more about who God has created them to be.

Spending hours one on one with a coach is not a luxury I usually get to have, but this was definitely a special occasion which will turn into many more. This coach is helping us to develop a future curriculum dealing with teen pregnancy; she is sharing HER story. She was a pregnant teen, a girl who had grown up in the church and made some poor decisions. She doesn’t want to be ashamed anymore. She is rising up out of the heap, out of the shame, and is declaring freedom and forgiveness. She wants other girls to know, to be led and changed by her story and God’s ever presence in her life. She wants others to know our Lord and Savior. She wants to help girls know the consequences of their actions and how they impact your life forever. She wants to be the voice that she never heard. She wants others to learn from her mistakes. She wants God to be glorified through her past, present, and future.

She is remembering, re-living, writing, and talking about her past so that others don’t have to travel down the same road. She was quiet for nine months. She didn’t tell anyone she was pregnant and didn’t want to believe it herself. Now, with her love for God and her passion for the youth, her voice will be heard as never before. She is speaking up and speaking out.

5 years ago....

5 years ago I got to move back home to Tacoma, Washington from San Diego, California to celebrate and join my sister Abby in planning her wedding.

My sister was getting married! An exciting time around the Marion house to say the least. I was overjoyed to be there for all the day to day happenings and not just a weekend of wedding bliss. I got to go shopping with Abby for her perfect wedding dress (sleeves, but not too much sleeves, sparkles, it must have sparkles, full, but not too full). I got to participate in all the “behind the scenes” action (i.e. wedding cake, flowers, reception booking, favors making, dress, shoes, honeymoon, and apartment shopping just to name a few) as well as throw and attend some of the parties (good thing some of those pictures aren’t digitized). I loved it! I loved being so involved, but better yet, I got to spend quality time with my sister. Abby was gracious, specific, happy, excited, calm, and so in love. I loved being such a “right there” piece of my sister’s life for those 3 months. I cherished all of our sister moments knowing that our relationship would change as she became a bride. It was a privilege to stand right beside her as she joined her life with Dustin’s. It was the most gorgeous wedding and the most happenin’ party with memories to last a lifetime.

Dustin and Abby are now celebrating their 5 year wedding anniversary. It’s been five years since they said their “I do’s” and they are more in love than ever (I remember it like it was yesterday). And of course my sister still looks amazing in her wedding dress…..that is what spurred on this post, so please go take a look (more and more beautiful); she puts the dress on every year on her anniversary. She is gorgeous!

My relationship with my sister has changed over the past five years, it’s gotten even better. She is a wonderful person, modeling and teaching me what it is to be a woman of God, an incredible wife, and a best friend. Abby, you are an amazing sister! I love you so much!

Like mother like daughter?

This week in Qwa Qwa, as I was dropping off one of my coaches at one of the clinics, I heard someone yelling my name. They were running and jumping with arms open wide, yelling my name over and over again. I had no idea who she was. Amanda and I were struggling to figure it out. As I climbed out of the bakkie to greet this woman who was all smiles, she screamed, “I’m Lettia’s mom!” and we embraced and hugged for quite a while. “Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer” she kept saying.

Lettia is one of my coaches, one of the most quiet and shy ones. She has been calm and reserved ever since I met her nearly two years ago. She is coming out of her shell more and more as we continue to get to know each other. She has a real heart for God and such a passion for her students. She loves being a coach and wants to do more for God. This year she has stepped out of her comfort zone and into a leadership role, working with the Headmasters and teachers helping to orchestrate the schedule and daily Leadership Summit classes. She has flourished in her quiet nature, building relationships with each one of our schools. I am so proud of her and the work she is doing and accomplishing for God’s Kingdom. Her mother is too. She told me that Lettia loves working for Leadership Summit and Thrive Africa and is learning so much. She continued to talk and share in her broken English getting more and more excited as she talked. She was animated and energetic in her conversation. We hugged more, seeming that we were lifelong friends. Lettia and her mother are very different people, opposite in nature, looks, and styles. They do share the same love for Christ and a joy for Jesus which you can see as you converse with them.

Unlike Lettia and her mom, me and mom are very similar. I love it when people get to meet my mom. They tend to understand me a bit more. They understand my laugh and where it comes from, and perhaps even why I might laugh so much! Our voices are the same and apparently, without even knowing my mom, you can pick her out of a room once you have met me. I love that. I am so proud of my mom and proud to be her daughter. She is an awesome example of what a mother is, an amazing wife, and a lover of God. She exuberates God in her words and actions. She loves and cares for her husband and family just as God loves the church. I want to be like her. Not only in the way I sound but how I act. I want people to see the love of Christ through me as I see God through my mom. She is an incredible woman. I am blessed to be her daughter.

"I'm a Leader!"

Today was a full day calling and talking to the Headmasters and Teachers to arrange classes and the Leadership Summit school schedule for term 2, setting up coaches and groups, planning future events, writing e-mails, editing curriculum, and working with a coach to write another curriculum. All of this happened in the portable office (aka ‘the Condor’ – what I happen to be driving today) in Qwa Qwa. I loved it. It was a good day; things were getting done and things were coming together. God was working it all out for His glory. I was packing up, closing up shop, moving from one vehicle to another and one of the girls that had just been participating in children’s ministry, ran up to me, got right in my face and said in her lively voice, “Hi, my name’s Patricia. I go to your leadership classes for Leadership Day at AFM Phuthaditjhaba. I am a leader!” She said it with such confidence, with such vigor. She knew that she was a leader. She wanted the whole world to know that she was a leader. What a way to end a fabulous day. Yes, we are helping to grow the leaders of tomorrow. Yes, learners are growing in knowledge, faith, and spirit. Yes, learners are stepping up, realizing and becoming leaders!

Coaches Choir

The coaches of Leadership Summit have started their own choir.

Take a listen.....

Nearly kissed a lion

You never know what you might do in Africa! I nearly kissed a lion! Getting into the Lion’s Den with 3 teenage sized cubs is an adventure all in of itself. At least someone was trying to give me a kiss……….

33 days of 33

Someone asked me the other day how old I was. Hum….. I couldn’t remember; seriously, no joke. I ended up counting and doing the math from the year I was born. Took me a minute, but I got there. So that this doesn’t happen again, helping me not to look “so old” as to not remembering my own age, I thought I should dwell on the fact, for a moment, that I really am 33 years old (a happy 33 year old I might add). As I’ve thought, I’ve come up with 13 different things (I knew you wouldn’t really want to read 33 of them and 13 had the number 3 in it to keep with the theme) that I’ve done since turning 33. Who says life has to get boring? Who says you can’t try something new? 33 is a good year. It’s been a great 33 days so far…….

1. Ate sugar free key lime pie for my birthday dessert…and a few days afterwards – yummy, yummy, yummy
2. Made homemade pasta with my very own 2 hands!, not to mention the sauce. I think I might be a good cook. ... ???
3. Nearly kissed a lion
4. Spent over 2 hours in the bathtub talking to my mommy on the phone
5. Started a choir
6. Slept sideways on only the top half of my bed where all the pillows are
7. Watched smoke billow out of a DVD player after not one, but 2 very loud popping sounds
8. Worked in the “portable CAR office” for days on end
9. Fit into my little sisters khaki’s
10. Stood in the middle of a large herd of cows and moo’d real loud
11. Listened to Christmas holiday music at the beginning of July
12. Put salt on my pizza
13. Bought 14 fully loaded KFC scrumptious meals in box

How do you celebrate the 4th of July while living in South Africa?

The answer is simple:
1. Wear red, white, and blue
2. Go to the local Harrismith restaurant with 74 other Americans
3. Eat good ol’ American cheeseburgers and fries
4. Wait for the lights to go down
5. Light your sparker
6. Join the singing as “Born in the USA” is blared throughout the entire restaurant.
7. Take a few pictures and say “Happy Independence Day!”