Metallic

Yesterday someone said I had "Metallic" hair.....and then it even made it up on the Give Thanks wall:

What do YOU think?

Give Thanks

A great Thrive Thanksgiving tradition ..... the Give Thanks wall! Post-it's and pens in all colors! What would you add to the Give Thanks wall? ....to see some examples, just click on the picture...

Laura Kay, Steph, and all my Hawaiian friends - what was on your "Give Thanks post-it wall" this year? I love how you did this way back when. I am thankful for YOU!

I love it!

I got to teach today. I love seeing the look in people’s eyes when they grasp the concept, when they comprehend the message. Today, I met 13 new people, all desiring and checking out the possibility of joining us as future coaches for leadership summit, and I got to share with them a little about our curriculum for next year.

The day hadn’t gone according to plan, which has become quite the ‘norm’ here in Africa, but in the mix and heat of it all, when I wasn’t sure how to make it through the next task, Cassie said “they are ready to hear about the curriculum now.” I took a deep breath, smiled, and God took over. Somehow, when I get up there, teaching those amazing Basotho’s, I’m in my element. The woes of the world, the pressures of my job, my worries and stresses just fall by the wayside. During those teaching moments, I’m in a whole other world.

The coaches got it – they responded, we were laughing, they were learning, and it was truly a wonderful moment. I got to see the look in their eyes when they grasped the concept, ideas, and layout of the curriculum and they comprehended the message that God was going to use them next year if they let Him. I was rendered speechless by the end, awed by their beauty, awed by the realness that they will change this nation, and awed that God is allowing me to be a part of it. I love it!

Trust and Obey

A great reminder......

Reading Day and Night

Am I truly grateful for what I have? Do I read and meditate on God’s word day and night?

Nontshinga, one of the Leadership Summit students who received a Bible from us, helped remind me to be grateful for all that I have, and to constantly be reading God’s Word.

“I want to say thank you for giving me the Bible; God will bless you because you have good heart. This Bible will change my life cause I will read it day and night. I will tell people about God and spread the words of God. I will do the necessary things to make the Lord happy. Sometimes I like to say if you living with Lord you don't have a problem and know you will that Lord is our Shepherd. And Summit I wish Lord will bless you all. I know some Word about God. God knows what you want and what you do, if you want to be the son of God you will be. I read my Bible to other students in class, and give them advice about good things and bad things. I know that if you want to praise the Lord, you must be singing the Gospel, be in prayer, and follow the Lord's direction. I want to reach my goal to get what I want in my life and I know God will help me to get it.”
-Nontshinga Nontembiso

Making the Word come Alive

Joseph, one of my Leadership Summit coaches, continues to find new ways to make God’s Word come alive to his learners. He has taken to heart the foundation of who is and what he does; building a personal relationship with God. He wants all of his students to have a personal relationship with God. He talks with them one on one, prays for them, and relays who God is in his life through his actions. At one of his schools, he has started an after class Bible Study to help the students dive move into the Word of God. We were able to supply all of his students with a Bible and now the Word is coming alive to and in them.

“Here I want to thank all the people that are in Leadership Summit for gave me the Bible that will encourage me and to live my life in God's way. It will teach me to know God better than the way I know him. I don't have much to say but all I can say is to thanks all who help me to know God. I'm happy about the Bible cause it will encourage myself since I join this group. I've learned much more about how God want me to live my life. I joined this group because I realized that this group will help me to be out of many things what will shame me and my family. They help me to look out of myself and to open eyes because many things happen around me. They taught me how to encourage other people to realize that God want us to live a better way.”
-Ngubeni Itumeleng

Amazing Team Work

I am blessed, oh so blessed, to work with an amazing team here at Thrive Africa. In the last two weeks since I have been on “blog hiatus” I have been working with our amazing team to bind the 5,000 Break the Silence curriculums, collated the week before, which will be used with our Leadership Summit students next year.

The task was huge (punching holes with machines that could only do 5 sheets at a time in 5000 books 37 sheets long, and adding the comb binding), and with not much time left in the year, everyone agreed to go above and beyond and give some of their free time to bind books. A sign up sheet, asking for 6 interns and/or staff to sign up for 3 to 4 hour times blocks at nights and on the weekends quickly filled up within the first day, actually it was nearly full within the first hour. Tears weld up in my eyes as I was overcome by their willingness to give.

Throughout the various shifts (eating candy, watching movies, jammin’ out to songs, laughing and sharing stories) everyone had a great attitude and it quickly became a competition to see which group could get the most done. I got to write this e-mail to our entire team when we were only 5 shifts in:

“Above and beyond, working hard, enduring sore muscles, arm cramps, and much more, we, as a team, have FINISHED the collating, binding, stacking, organizing, putting together of all the Break the Silence books for Leadership Summit students to use next year! Days before the schedule deadline you have finished what seemed like an overwhelming and daunting task – nothing is too difficult when we come together, join forces, and work for God and His Kingdom!!”

Amazing, absolutely Amazing. I am so blessed to work with an amazing team!

Pumpkin Day Recap

Pumpkin Day has come and gone, however, I think you might enjoy a picture summary of our October 31st evening. You have to get creative when you live on a farm, far away from town, in the middle of South Africa. We definitely were creative, from a blue constuction paper rain drop, to a baby, a moth, a girl getting ready for a date, a Stepford Wife, a Nerd, an Afrikaans man wearing his shorts shorts, and Kelly and I were a clothesline. Real creative bunch we are! We had a blast.

On the Up and Up

Stay with me as I work myself back through my Internet absence…….

My latest newsletter went out at the end of October sharing how things are “on the up and up.” You’ll want to read all about it. If you didn’t receive one, I’d love to send it to you and give you a little bit more of a personal monthly update. Just drop me a note: jennlaughs@juno.com and inquire about what is “on the up and up.”

Spoiled

I think I have gotten a little spoiled with all this high flatulent South African internet. No, we are no where near as fast as the internet in America, but after all, I do live in South Africa. We have come quite far in our internet technology in the two years I have lived here. We went from a car battery on top of the mountain, (which someone other than me got to change each week), to sun solar panels (no internet when it rains for days on end), and I honestly don’t really know how it all works now. I do know however how reliant ….and spoiled….I seem to have become on such an amazing invention: Internet. It’s my connection to the “outside world” – to You, my family, news, sports, fashion, the list goes on and on.

We haven’t had internet for many days (more reason for a delay in an update) and I’m starting to feel somewhat of a disconnect, a loss – what’s happening in the rest of the world? Yes, I have plenty of things to keep me busy here (keep reading so I can catch you up on what’s been happening the past 2 weeks while I have been “blog absent”), but I miss hearing from you. I miss the e-mails, the pictures, the stories of what is going on in your life. So, thanks for sending them when you do. I am spoiled that so many people care and love me and are praying for me.

Hopefully the internet is up and running now, but be patient; this is Africa, and it might just be working out the kinks and spoiling me just for a moment or two and might not work again right away. It has been in and out, so be very very patient.

Thanks for your patience!