"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."-Zephaniah 3:17

This is a verse that I read last night that really stuck out to me. We sang the song "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong the other day during devotions, and this verse goes along perfectly and really came as a comfort to me.

I've been in South Africa for seventeen days now. They have been some of the hardest days of my life. It really is a different world here. It was really scary at first. Everything is gated and hid behind electric fences and barbed wire. Everyone has guard dogs and alarm systems. It's a lot for a tiny 21-year-old girl to take in. But things are getting "normal." I'm used to all of the security precautions....and I'm starting to be confident, so as long as I look it too, things should be okay. It's amazing the things God teaches you about trust when you're scared to death though. He is so good.

Besides the security issues, I think the thing that surprised me most was just how cold it gets. During the day it's not bad...pretty typical to a fall day in Indiana, but at night it gets bitterly cold. And there's no central heating anywhere. You definitely have to bundle up and burrow under the blankets at night!

There are good things too though. I like all of the other girls, and we've done a lot of fun things. My favorite thing so far was when we went to Pretoria. It's a city near Johannesburg. We just walked around and went to an art museum. It was cool to realize I was walking around Africa by myself (well with the other girls of course!). While we were driving towards home, we found the South African Air Force Memorial. It was a little star-shaped building on a hill overlooking everything. We just hung out there for a while enjoying the sunshine and taking pictures. We decided it would be the perfect place to watch the sunset. Since we are closer to the sun here, every evening the sunset looks like a painting! 

This weekend we are going camping at a game park and  camping and going on a safari! I absolutely cannot wait! There is so much I want to write, but I should get going! Feel free to send me an email and I'll try and get back to you when I can! I have limited internet access, but I would love to hear from you! 

Here's a picture of all of us girls minus Alyssa! She's great too--she just wasn't there that day!