the first email

(Since I didn't have a blog yet, I was mass emailing. This email went out August 30th. If you would like to receive email updates when a new post is published or when there is something I don't want to post on the website, please let me know!)

Hey, everybody!

I'm here in South Africa safe and sound. I slept through my entire flight to Atlanta, and then through the entire flight here-- all 18 hours of it!!! Well, I managed to wake up for most meal services, but other than that-- I was dead to the world. Then we got here, got to the missions base, had dinner, met a ton of people, and were off to bed, where Dawn and I both slept for another 12 hours!

Dawn and I share a small house on the back of the property. It has a main room with three beds in it, a bathroom with shower, and a kitchen area that consists of basically cabinets and a sink. We share the onebedroom with two beds and a closet. It's cute and cozy :) I'm starting to understand a bit better what our life will look like here. We met with Dini (pronounced "Deenie"), who owns the base, and Steve and Theresa, Americans who live and work here. They made it clear that they feel God has called us to be here at this specific time. They were also very clear with us that this project will be full of great frustration. The mindset here is very different than our Western mindset, which I knew would be true-- I just didn't know in what way. I'll have to give you more details on that when I understand it myslef a bit better, but suffice it to say that the running of a business works differently here and if we approach it as we would at home-- we'd be in a bit of trouble. Actually, all the work that Josh did this summer on trying to get me to loosen up and not plan every little detail prepared me quite well. (Thanks, Josh!) I can't plan here, and I can't be detail oriented. I mean, I could, but my plans would never work and my life would be full of frustration.

Dini said this morning, "Coming to Africa, you must be insane or youheard from God." Steve chimed in with, "Or a bit of both!" I think it's a bit of both, and I'm incredibly excited :)

Dawn and I should acquire a car on Saturday, and prayers are in order as she and I must both learn how to drive a stick AND how to drive on the other side of the car and road-- yikes!!! Our first task is to acquire stock for the store, and everything is up in the air on that and truly needs God's leading. We have dedicated the rest of today for prayer and reading and hope to have more of a vision for what will come next.

I think that's it for now, and I'll be sure to keep you all updated. Love you, all!!!

lindsey