animals!

Greetings Neighbors! This has been a week of "hellos" and "goodbyes". The basketball team DID make it here! They got in about a day late because of some flight issues, but they are excited to be here and we are excited to have them! My housemate, Cassi, also left yesterday which is kind of a bummer.

On Saturday we all went to Tempelhof, which is an animal park in South Africa. We made it through the border without too many problems and only had to bribe 1 police officer to let Mr. Verkaik by without his drivers license. :) Tempelhof was SUPER COOL. They had Emus, peacocks, monkeys, zebras, lions, wild dogs, and best of all.....bunnies (they were actually not that exciting). I am sure they had more animals to, but I just can't remember their names. :) Most people  got to pet a full grown female lion they had too! It was just crazy to see the African animals IN AFRICA instead of just at a zoo. We had a bry there for lunch and then took the scenic route back home. One thing I love about being here is that I am learning to be in awe of God and what he has created again. Every time I walk outside here I can't help but give the credit to God for every beautiful thing I see.

chasing the emu's

LION

wild dogs

awwww

safari!

Sunday we went to Victory Church which was the church the Guerinks and I went to the first weekend I was here. I am starting to get more used to the services here and so I am finding it much easier to worship. After church, we came back to BGate and the team sorted through all the gifts they had brought for the staff and for the Guerinks.

Having the team here and been a lot of fun but I have also found it very interesting. I love having more people around to just talk to and share experiences with. It is also great to have people here with such a range of amazing talents. I am not the most athletic person on the block, so it is great to have a sports team here to run around with the older boys who have lots of energy. Having the team here also reminds me that I didn't completely fall off the face of the earth coming to Africa. That's always a good reminder. :)

Yesterday I found out that one of the little boys I have been working with a bit is 6 years and 2 months old. What you don't know is that this boy acts and is the size of a 2 maybe 3 year old. He was so malnourished, unloved, and small when he got to Beautiful Gate. My heart always breaks a little when I see this boy because he is always so happy and so sweet. I love it when he grabs for my hands, wanting me to walk with him since he cannot yet walk by himself. I love that when he laughs his whole mouth is wide open and his face it lit up as if he just cannot contain his excitement. I am already starting to think of ways to smuggle him home with me. :)

My housemate, Cassi, also went home yesterday. I have enjoyed getting to know her so much, and it was great to have someone at the end of the day to compare experiences with. I already miss having her around and when the teams leave I think I will miss her even more. Thanks Cassi for being so sweet to me and helping me settle in!

(this is us trying polony....yum?)

Today. I am sick. And I hate it. I want to be outside playing and laughing with the kids so bad. Ahhhh....yea. Today is a hard one. I just feel emotionally, spiritually, and physically drained and I don't know what to do about it.

Thanks to all of you who send me lovely e-mails and messages. It helps me get through those tough days like today. Also, thanks to all of you who have remembered me in your prayers. You are awesome I and really appreciate it.

(YAY for macaroni) 

peace and love

happenings.

Lumela Friends!! (See that....working on my Sesotho :) This week has been so eventful, I just wanted to tell you all about it while it is still fresh in my brain.

Well, first we have had 3 new kids come this week. We had 2 come yesterday and 1 came today. Its kind of funny because the way you know the kid is new is if they have long hair. One of the new ones is a little precious baby that is a only a couple weeks old. I am not sure what his story is but he is pretty darn cute. The older boy that came yesterday has settled in pretty well. He gets along with the other kids and seems pretty content. I think this was the child that his aunt dropped him off because the mom had somehow disappeared if I remember correctly. The child that arrived today has been crying all day. He has hardly been eating and I just feel so bad for him. He is not in my house so I don't see him much. This one also had his mom just disappear but I don't really remember the whole story. It is an odd feeling to get new kids. It is sad that their own family couldn't care for them, but it also makes me happy that they ended up here instead somewhere else.

Yesterday we also had a little goodbye service for Andrew and Cassi and a couple other staff that were leaving. Andrew and Cassi are other volunteers that I have gotten to know pretty well over the past couple weeks. It was quite an emotional service and I am going to miss having them around! It was a meeting both of them and we had lots of fun comparing foods and cultures. Andrew left today and Cassi will be leaving Monday. Keep them in your prayers as they travel!

We also celebrated some birthdays yesterday. There was 3 kids from each house that had a birthday in June or July so we celebrated them all at once with some delicious cake that Anita made. I cringe a little bit every snack time because there is always kids eating cake crumbs off the person next to them and kids eating their cake off the ground after they have dropped it...yea. But, they all enjoyed it!

The basketball team is on their way! I am really overly excited to have them here. Sadly, they had some flight troubles so they will be getting here a little later than planned, but they will get here!

Lately, the days have been getting better and better. They are less emotional, less homesick, and more comfortable. I thought this was all good since it is what I have been praying for, but today I noticed I have also been getting into the word less and less. I really had to stop and evaluate what happened. Do I really just go to the word as a last resort when I am feeling down? That is not how I want it to be. So I am going to be really working on that this coming week.

This is one passage that has been especially close to me lately:
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present you request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard you hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:4-7

This is one of those that I have always been familiar with, but it wasn't until I got here that it really came alive for me. Some days it is hard to rejoice...when a child is sick, when I am physically worn out, or when I am missing home. Other times it is easy to rejoice...when a child learns to walk, when I see the children singing and praying to God, or seeing how much the staff loves the kids. Rejoice!

"THE LORD IS NEAR." I think that is my favorite part because I smile every time I read it. I smile because I have seen Him and heard Him and felt Him near through the whole process of coming here and now being here. The Lord is near folks, yes he is.

"Do not be anxious about anything."
I was anxious about flying into a different country.....I got here with very little problems and was warmly welcomed.
I was anxious about what kind of food I would be eating.....THEY HAVE THE BEST COOKIES IN THE WORLD HERE. (and good chocolate)
I was anxious about being accepted among the staff here.....Every morning my house mothers greet me and joke around with me as we work.
I was anxious about meeting the other volunteers.....Andrew and Cassi are AWESOME and we have had SOOO much fun together!
I was anxious about keeping in touch with people from home.....YAY FOR WIFI AT BGATE :)

I could go on if I wanted....but as you can see the Lord has given me countless reasons why it is not worth being anxious when he has obviously got his hand over me and the work I am doing.

yup those are just a few thoughts from the week.

peace and love

processing.

Hello my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ! I feel like I have a lot to share in this post so I apologize ahead of time if this gets lengthy and random. :)

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind. To start, this was my first week doing special feedings to a few of the kids here who are a little behind developmentally. I absolutely LOVE doing it. I feed 4 kids at 9AM and at 3PM. When I feed them is usually when all of the other kids are at play group so it is so nice to get some one on one time with these kids and be able to give them your full attention for a little while. The two nurses here are an absolute JOY to work with. They are just two very sweet ladies who are passionate about making sure these kids are as healthy as possible. It's kind of fun because one of the nurses is Australian and the other is from another country in Africa that starts with an "S" but I can't think of the name it right now. haha. It's fun to just fun to see (and hear) people from all over come and be passionate about helping these kids at Beautiful Gate.

As much as I have been loving the work I have been doing, I feel like everyday I am on this crazy roller coaster of emotions I have never felt before. I have been trying to balance these two extreme feelings of LOVING everything about being here and not wanting to leave, and yet wishing I could be home where my family and everything I have ever known is. It is so hard to put this into words. I have been trying to figure out what is a healthy balance and trying to just lean on God no matter what I am feeling at the time. This is something I think will take some time to figure out, and I hope to grow from it in the end. Prayers are appreciated.

I never used to be much of a crier at home. I would cry sometimes but only if something was like really sad. Here, I am all the sudden a crier. I cry when I am missing home. I cry when I see a sad child. I cry when I am happy. I cry when I see the Lord's hand move in my day. I cry when I think about other orphans in the world who don't get the great care that the kids here at Beautiful Gate get. I cry when I pray for a specific child and their future family. I am still a bit confused and embarrassed that I am becoming such a sap, but I think everything I am experiencing here is just so new and a bit extreme that all my emotions are put the extreme as well.

Another thing I do a lot more here is read my Bible. At home I would read my Bible every night for devotions and that was about it, but here whenever I get any sort of break I want to go back to my room and read a Psalm or something. There is something about having the word in my head as I go throughout my day that helps me sense the Lord's presence and I just love it. I think it also makes me a lot happier.

This past Saturday morning we went for a little pony trekking adventure at Malealea lodge. I wasn't quite what to expect because all my past horse riding experience in the states was usually done on a half dead horse on a little flat trail for like 20 minutes going in a petty circle. Well, this ended up being nothing like that. Our horses were very much alive and had quite the personalities. The ride was quite hilly at times and there were points where I planned in my head a strategy to jump off the horse to safety if needed. :) This was also a good 2-3 hour ride which made it so much more worth it. Half way in we took a little hike down to see some cave paintings which was also pretty cool. I am excited to go back there in a couple weeks! Also, the view we had the whole ride was BREATHTAKING.

haha... TIA (This Is Africa :)

our tour guide

cave paintings...

BEAUTIFUL

On Sunday we went to the Guerink's home church in Maseru. I liked this service a bit more than last week because it felt more like my church at home. First, it was in an actual church building, unlike last week, and the singing was very similar to what I am used to. I look forward to going back there more!

There is an Australian couple that works here at Beautiful Gate who took us three volunteers out for the afternoon on Sunday. First, they took us to another orphanage in Maseru where they volunteer a bit. We were warned a little bit about what this place was like and how it was nothing like Beautiful Gate, but nothing anyone said could have prepared us for what we experienced. When we got there our truck was swarmed by kids in dirty, holey clothes. The place was pretty much a dump. There is trash everywhere and lots of little hills and dirt piles and it smelled NASTY. As we went on our tour, I could not even put together in my mind that this place was an orphanage just like Beautiful Gate is, because this place was the polar opposite of Beautiful Gate. There are kids of all ages there and going through and looking where they sleep just made me sick to my stomach. All the younger kids just sleep together on the ground on some mats with some blankets on them. The bathroom stalls did not have toilet paper, only a few had newspaper. There was a child who could not yet walk sitting on a mat outside by himself and when you tried to get near him he would just start crying. One of the kids said that the person who usually feeds them said they were not going to feed the kids again until they went back to school which was in a week. It sounded like they were very lucky to get 2 meals a day. I am still mentally processing a lot of what I saw even now. Leaving there, I had so much respect for this couple to uses their time and money to try and help these kids. The corrupt leadership there is sad and makes me so angry. Ahhh...yea, it was a tough afternoon. After that they took us up a mountain to watch the sunset over the city which was BEAUTIFUL, as always.

these stalls are the bathrooms

the boys' sleeping room

handing out oranges

getting a ride in the truck

sunset over the city of Maseru

What I love about being here:
I love waking up in the morning excited about the day ahead of me. I love listening to the kids talk in Sesotho. I love it when the kids pray. I love singing with the kids. I love having hot chocolate for breakfast. I love it when the sun comes out and heats up the day. I love skyping my family. I love getting e-mails of encouragement from people back home. I love talking and sharing stories with the other volunteers at the end of the day. I love that where ever you go in Lesotho there is always a beautiful view of the mountains. I love feeling the Lord's presence as I go throughout my day.

peace and love.


PS. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE BASKETBALL TEAM TO GET HERE. I think it will be nice to see some familiar faces. :)

adjusting

Hello Friends and Happy Birthday to the King of Lesotho! (I already forgot his name) I hope you are all having as lovely of a week as I am. I am now starting to get into the everyday routine of life here at Beautiful Gate which is nice.  I am also pretty much adjusted to Lesotho time. Lesotho is 6 hours ahead of Michigan time so the first few nights I was up until 3AM and then my day would start around 7....so I did not get a whole lot of sleep.

Saturday, we took a little drive up the mountains where it was SNOWING. Yep, it was. It was so crazy to be driving and then all the sudden be surrounded by snow and slushy roads. I'll tell ya what....I was not looking forward to having to go home to THAT in November when it is going to be warm here.

See! Just like Michigan!

wearing somewhere between 3-17 layers :)

On Sunday we went to a church that was actually held in the movie theater at the local mall. The service was very contemporary and I even knew some of the songs. During the service I kept thinking about how even though I am on the other side of the world, people still worship the same God here with even some of the same songs we use. It was kind of surreal and it made God seem a thousand times bigger. After church we grabbed some groceries and headed to the food court for some good, Sunday dinner KFC. We then decided to so hike up a mountain in the afternoon....no big deal. That was probably one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on. Other then the fact I thought I was going to puke up a lung on the way up, it was also a rather enjoyable hike. From the top you could see most of Maseru and even the border into South Africa. We were even kept company by a couple shepherds and their cows on our way up.

view of part of the city of Maseru from the mountain

that river you see going through the middle is the border so the far side of that river is South Africa

 I have been learning a LOT about the culture in Lesotho. That is something I didn't really expect coming here since the country is so small, but Lesotho has a very rich culture...maybe I will share more about that in another post. The language here is something I have been trying to pick up on a little too. Most people speak English as well which is very nice, but on campus people use Sesotho a lot in greeting each other and for titles before names.

I have found here that it is so important for me to invite Christ into my day every morning. There is a noticeable difference when I have him leading my day rather then me trying to do it on my own strength. This is something I tried to do at home when I knew I had a busy day ahead of me, but it wasn't until the first day here that I really realized that there is no way I was going to be able to last 4 months on my own. Another thing I have been praying about a lot is pride. So many people have praised and encouraged me in my decision to come here and I am starting to notice how easy it is to let all of that go straight to my head. I would appreciate your prayers in staying humble through this process.

Another thing I would appreciate prayers for is for me not to get to homesick. So far I have not gotten that homesick but I have a feeling as time goes on this will be something I struggle with more. Please pray for strength for me and pray that when I do have moments that I am homesick that I would know to call on Christ and not try to fight it on my own.

Today, I have also started to do a little assisting of the nurses here. Following in my mom's footsteps :) Right now this just means feeding certain kids who are a little behind developmentally at certain times throughout the day. I will also help take the kids' heights and weights every 3 weeks with the other nurses and they also said they might take me along on some of their hospital runs. I am very excited about this opportunity and I think it might be a nice little break in my regular daily routine.

Thanks for all of your prayers!! I couldn't do this without all of your support!
(also, just so you know, I will not be posting any pictures of the kids on this blog to protect the kids' future adoptive family. thanks for understanding and I will show you my pictures when I get back :)

arrival

Hello Friends! I have arrived safely to Beautiful Gate! Thanks you all for your prayers, it means a lot to me.
 I will start by telling you a bit about my travels:
I left Tuesday from Grand Rapids and flew to Chicago and from there flew to New York. Just because of how my itinerary worked out, I had to stay overnight in NYC. My Aunt's sister-in-law lives right in NYC and graciously let me stay with her for the night. We had so much fun! She brought be to where she works in  Rockafeller Center and she snuck me around to show me the set of SNL (which is all used for offices for the Olympics right now), Jimmy Fallon, and Dr. OZ. We then headed over to Times Square to get some ice cream. I felt so spoiled! The next morning I had a car pick me up to bring me to the airport. You will never guess what kind of car it was.........THATS RIGHT, IT WAS A LINCOLN! Hahaha I felt right at home. When I got to JFK and was waiting to get on my flight I met a group of older adults who were also headed to Africa to work at an orphanage for a couple weeks. WAY COOL. When I got on the plane I ended up having a window seat next to a guy who literally slept the.whole.trip.....like 14.75 of of the 15 hours, he was sleeping. If you asked me if he had eyeballs, I would not know the answer to that question. ANYWAY, we ended up getting to Johannesburg an hour late so right off the bat I knew I had missed my next flight. Thankfully, I  knew there was another flight leaving just a few hours later for Maseru and so I easily got my ticket for that flight. I now had a few hours to kill until my flight. I spent most of the time people watching and trying to pick out the Americans. It usually wasn't hard because they were usually the ones who went over to take a picture with the 25ft high plastic giraffe near the gates. Seriously, it was hilarious. A bit later, a lady came over to sit by me and we started talking. She was headed to Swaziland to help at an orphanage she funds there. I was so thankful that the Lord just gave me someone to talk to to pass the time. As we got talking, I found out she was also from Michigan! I was so thrilled to have someone I felt like I could relate to. I then got on my flight and landed to Maseru where the Guerink family was there to greet me. We loaded up the van or "the beast" as they call it and headed to Beautiful Gate. Lesotho is beautiful and cold! As we rode, there was a flock of sheep crossing the road in front us and then a truck full of men singing and and clapping on their way home from work. I felt so welcomed and I knew I was going to like this place. When we got to Beautiful Gate I unpacked and moved into my room. I had some dinner with the Geurinks, then we then ran to the grocery store to get some things. A funny thing I learned about Lesotho is that the driving rules are more just like suggestions. So we had 7 people in a 5 passenger car and people were always running red lights when it was clear. Kinda crazy. That night, I don't even remember getting into bed, that is how tired I was!
First Day Reactions:
WOW. I love it here. I don't even know how to explain how beautiful the kids are. I spent some of my morning just dancing and singing around the baby room making them laugh. I love their laughs. I can only remember 3 of the kids names. :) It's a start. I love the toddlers. I love having 5 kids climbing all over me. One of them is trying on my hat, another is sticking his finger up my nose, another is trying on my rings, another is resting their head on my shoulder. I love it. I love it when they all are suddenly quiet and stare at me as I simply put my hair in a ponytail. I love how one of the babies rolls when you lay him down like my cousin sethie :) I love the Guerink family and how welcome they make me feel. I love watching the house mothers dance and watching the kids follow. I love the smiling faces that are present where ever you go on this campus. I love the 4 cats that wander...Gatsby, ScardyCat, Tiara, and I forget the other one's name. I love the Lord and how present he is here. I love that the people here love the Lord.

Sorry this isn't really a complete thought....I am SUPER tired and still trying to get on Lesotho time so I will post more later :)

peace and love.

ready.

Today, for the first time, I felt a feeling of readiness that I had not yet experienced. That feeling was an answer to many of my prayers over the last 6 months....God, help me to be READY. Whatever that meant. Now, I know what it means. It means giddy excitement to meet 60 beautiful children. It means 2 fully packed bags that are just 47 pounds (SCORE). It means "see you laters" and not "goodbyes." It means hundreds of people letting you know they will be praying for you. It means an awesome and supportive family getting all set to track my flights. It means wonderful friends already planning skype dates.  It means feeling the Lord's presence in every inch of the days leading up to this point. I am ready because the Lord is in this. He is going before me, with me, and behind me. And now I am just pretty much stoked for what lies ahead me. :)

-paige