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

Lunar eclipse

The lunar eclipse began on the evening of my birthday. I had a perfect view of the lunar eclipse last night, our cloudless, starlit sky made for a great background to the shadowed moon. 

As the earth slips between the moon and the sun, changing the color of the moon from white to orange, it is showing the effect the Earth's atmosphere is having on the color of sunlight passing through it.

 

Courir: to run

I run as often as I can and enjoy it thoroughly. In turn, anything you do daily is going to have an effect on you in some way. Therefore I decided to figure what exactly all that running is doing to me.


Five of the many benefits of running:
1. Lowers blood pressure.. As you run your arteries are being expanded and contracted more than usual, maintaining the elasticity of your arteries.
2. Strengthens your lungs..Deep breaths force your lungs to use more tissue and it keeps them powerful and strong.
3. Strengthens your heart..Prevents heart attacks and keeps the cardiovascular system efficient and strong
4. Running high..The feeling of exhilaration and completion after a run. This euphoria comes from a betaendorphin release triggered by the neurons in the nervous system.
5. Weight loss..the average individual burns 100 calories per mile

Negative Effects
Besides common injuries that may occur the only negative effects I've run into are shin splints, that have since diminished due to new running shoes. Running will effect each person differently, and may bring out problems like osteoarthritis to those who are already predisposed to it.

Why I run:
It first started to lose weight and stay in shape. But like one article said..."There truly is a time when running transforms from a painful and dreaded torture into a wonderful and rewarding experience." Now running is more of an outlet. To get out and accomplish something each day and feel rejuvenated.

Combining...

This is actually blog #2, blog #1 seemed to have gotten tossed by the way side. So the next few posts are going to be transferring my old posts over here, because they are still worth reading :)

Tis the season...

I spent about an hour wrapping some of my presents and I haven't even finished shopping yet!

Unfortunately,  I have over done it in years prior with the Christmas music, resulting in limited excitement to listen to it again. But I did make an exception while wrapping presents, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

One of my favorite things about  Christmas is turning off all the lights in the house and sitting by the tree. I've captured a bit of that moment here...

Exams and Thriftiness

There are two exams required to pass before I can be licensed as a veterinary technician.The first which I completed today is the easier of the two and the second which will be Dec 6th is 200 questions of sheer logical guessing because even doctors have trouble with some of the questions. But Marcela and I drove on over to phoenix and got the first exam down, feeling good about it. I got to enjoy the Rainforest cafe which was awesome! Despite the life like looking monkeys doing, well whatever it is monkey's do, behind us :) Enjoyed my time with marcela and will be studying for test #2 in the mean time

Rainforest cafe

.

They had large aquariums (which were very clean I noticed) and this is Dori of course

Add caption

 The majority of my organized, color coded closet contains clothes from thrift stores.

It's amazing what you can find for under $5 each.

I've purchased so many name brand clothes and saved hundreds of dollars at thrift stores.

Having said that, there are very few things I'll buy at full price anymore.On rare occasion there are exceptions, and I just could not pass up these boots at t he Arizona Mills Mall (Which were still under $40 dollars hehe )

Meet Spook

Newest addition to our household, he's fitting in quite well.

One of the doctor's I work with found him at her house Halloween night.

He's constantly trying to lay next to Shelby or play with her.

He's catching on to our Anderson lifestyle quite well.