Spring Lee visit!

For the past couple months Tiff and her daughter Emma have been staying with us while Jason is on deployment. It has been a joy to have them here. I look forward to coming home to even more family each day. Emma is by far one of the cutest kids I know, and I'm not the only one who says that! She has picked up on so many things and of course, is a genius :) She and Shelby have been playing each day and she copies her in everything, even down to lapping out of Shelby's water bowl like a dog, which of course we don't encourage. She has learned so many new words and I will miss her laugh and the happiness she brings to the home. I have enjoyed having my sister here, she is very adventurous, probably even more so than I am. I will miss being able to go on hikes with her, going for camaro rides, shopping, and just being able to enjoy her company. I'm so thankful to God for the time that we've had with Tiff and Emma. It has helped me to pray for them better and I have grown to love them both even more than before. Here are some favorite pics from their stay :)

 

South Africa missions trip 2011'

This was the first missions trip that I've been on. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity through our church to go with an amazing group of 6 people. I am very overwhelmed by all that I saw and experienced there, it is hard to take it all in and I am still processing it all. It was so refreshing to have nothing but christian fellowship for 2 straight weeks, to be away from the phone, internet, tv, and all technology. It was great to focus on God and spend time praying and serving God. It was incredible to go "behind the scenes" and see the missionary lives on the mission field as opposed to just seeing them presenting their ministry in a church service. I enjoyed the company of Kevin and Corli Hall, who have started two churches and are planning their third church. They have an amazing family and organized our trip very well. There are three people groups in South Africa, their terminology for each is the Blacks, the Coloreds, and the South Africans. The blacks are the poorest and they live in communities called townships where their houses are shacks with no running water or electricity. They have outhouses with buckets and most of the people spend their time out on the dirt roads socializing. The crime is very high in those areas but these townships is where the Halls are starting churches. They have started a church in 2 townships, both in which we attending the services and held revival services during the week. We were able to fellowship with the people and sing and play with the children. The blacks speak Xhosa, which includes clicks and it is amazing how friendly they are once you wave and smile. The Colored are a mixture of malaysian or indian and the south africans are white british people who speak south african language separate from Xhosa. Most all the people understand and can speak English. It was amazing that we could be in a township among the poorest people and drive 20 minutes into town and be in a neighborhood that contained 1 million dollar mansions. During our stay there the men had the opportunity to preach in 4 of the public high schools. The schools there are so open to God and the principles encourage the students to listen to the gospel message, so different than what an American school would allow. The students were so respectful and attentive. The last highschool were at there were over 1,000 students in the assembly that heard about what Jesus did for them. We labeled and enveloped 4,000 cds that had two messages on them and we took those cds and passed them out to the masses of people in the downtown area of Port Elizabeth. It was awesome how the people would get the cd and put it in and play it in their taxi van for their passengers to hear. Through all the busy days we had helping in the church ministries we were able to have a couple fun days and see some amazing sights in South Africa. The safari was awesome and I will never view just a common zoo the same when I was able to be just feet away from giraffes, and lions, elephants, and zebras. We were able to pay to go into a lion enclosure with 11mo old lions which were not so little at all! They were very playful and loved getting their belly's rubbed. We were able to visit the World's highest bungee jumping bridge, 6 of the men in our group jumped! We also visited a national park there which had AMAZING ocean views with a suspension bridge and a hike through jungle terrain. I could not get enough of the Ocean and could not stand not wading through the waves and playing on the beaches. Our last night one of the missionaries held an open air service on a hill overlooking the whole city. It was a beautiful night with the lights of the whole city of Port Elizabeth, but only 3-4 of those lights were Baptist churches that preached the true Word of God that Jesus died for all sins as a result of God's love for us. And he offers a gift of eternal life in heaven and a relationship with him. Otherwise we are just sinners that will die and spend an eternity paying for our sin in Hell. All we have to do is accept that gift and believe in Jesus and confess our sins. Rom 10: 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Those Xhosa people who have no hope and may never hear about that now have a chance with the churches that the Halls have started. I developed such a burden for those people but it also motivated me to be more involved in ministries in my own church and that people in America are just as helpless if not more because they are not as open to hearing that message as the Xhosa people are. I got a different perspective on how I viewed my life. I desire to spend my days serving God and making them count for eternity.

I have all my pictures up from the trip on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/liz.anderson3