Apologies for our long absence...

Oh, look! I have a blog! And I am apparently a very irresponsible blogger because I haven’t posted anything in two weeks. BUT, not to be put off by my shortcomings, I shall now ramble extensively for those who find it enjoyable!
for those who don’t, please see the following wordle for a quick summary of key terms:


So, what have we been up to? A haphazard collage of things, in fact. Last week our base hosted a big YWAM conference, so with 500 extra people running around, it was pretty chaotic. We were not attending the conference, which meant we helped out in the form of driving to Cape Town International (about an hour and a half each way) about 6 times during the week. The conference also put DTS staff training on hold, so we were sleeping in and tackling a pile of books we’ve been hoping to get through. That was a particularly enjoyable task, as was the mountain of recipes I’ve been collecting in honor of having a kitchen again. Dear readers: if you live somewhere with a kitchen, please, for my sake, DON’T TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. Love that kitchen and care for it with enthusiasm! Cook! BAKE! And, if you are wise, give away the fruit of your labor to those without kitchens, or you may one day find yourself looking down at the bathroom scale with the dismay that only fresh cookies and buttered bread can bring.

But I digress…what USEFUL things have we been involved in? How are we working toward the vision that we shared while we were home? For me these weeks have been slow—not only in the too-much-sleeping-in sense, but also in the sense that so little useful work leads to a dimming of vision. A couple of weeks ago we were in Muizenberg for staff training with the International DTS Center in Cape Town, and I felt like my head would explode with imaginative epiphanies about where we could be and how we could be discipling people in the months and years to come. Since then, however, I’ve been doing nothing to GET there, and I must admit that I asked myself a time or two, “Why did I think this would be so exciting?” Praise God for his infinite faithfulness to speak truth into times like these. I have not, in fact, been doubting what he has called us to; I’ve simply been bored. Waiting around is not SUPPOSED to be the exciting part—DISCIPLING is! And as we now gear up for our first week with the students (registration is this Friday!), I’m feeling inspired again. Things are HAPPENING. We’re editing manuals and journals and brainstorming things to discuss with students and ways to show them how HUGE and EXCITING and BRILLANT God is and how he wants to speak directly to each one of them and use them for his glory. Whoohoo!

So this past week was not so much busy as it was simply refreshing. As the hospitality manager for the DTS, I happily helped make little welcome packages for the students and have made lovely calendars and schedules of when speakers are coming and such and OH it is a wonderful thing to know the students will BE HERE SOON!

So this week we say goodbye to our friend Jeremiah who is leaving staff and going home to Colorado, and we say goodbye to the current DTS students who leave for outreach…we pray for Jesse’s computer screen to magically (supernaturally?) be fixed, and Jesse begs God for my Christmasy mood to go away until Christmas is nearer…and we prepare for another week of airport runs, and we SMILE BIG and promise to update much more often once the students arrive and things start happening!