Palapye!

Thanks so much for all your prayers! I received official word today that Kelly and I are going to be placed in a "village" called Palapye, Botswana located about 3 hours north of the capital Gaborone. Village is in quotes because it is really like a small town in America--about 22,000 people. Botswana's only power plant is located just 5km outside of the village and there is also a coal mine nearby. Most of the people that live in the village work at the coal mine or the power plant. There is a new church plant there that was started by Brazilian missionaries and we will be working with them in addition to doing True Love Waits in the schools. That's all I know for now. There's not much on the internet about the village, but I did stumble across this picture that may give you a better idea of what the village looks like. Missionary Tim Cearley will be visiting Palapye in the next few weeks to find Kelly and I housing and to give us a better picture of what the village is like and the ministry already taking place there. You can begin praying for this trip and continue praying for Kelly and I as we anxiously await any bit of info! Thanks!

A Lot to Be Thankful for...

Continue to pray as Kelly and I wait anxiously to hear about where we will be placed in Botswana!!!


Happy Thanksgiving a little late! On Thursday I was lucky enough to be able to get off the MLC campus for the day and spend Thanksgiving afternoon with the fam. The ridiculous amount of homecooked food was a wonderful change from cafeteria food. Fellow Journeymen "C", "E", and Kelly joined the Weaver/Skinner clan for the festivities. The other girls were very amused at how our dog Patches posed for every picture!

After our whirlwind trip to Springfield, we returned home only to return to DC the next for our "DC Trip". In DC we had several tasks like riding the metro, eating food from our area of the world, praywalking, etc. We were grouped witin our region, so Kelly and I paired up with the Carl and Kay Garvin, a Career couple going to do student ministry in Tanzania. We spent the majority of our morning traveling and walking around the Adams-Morgan area of DC (an international hub) looking for an open African restaurant. However, we ended up eating a tiny restaurant off of 7th street called Sumah's. We all ate chicken with varying sauces: jute leaf, peanut butter, cassava leaves, jolif rice. The food was really good and we had an opportunity to talk with several customers, workers, and the owner about our upcoming moves to Africa. Plus the owner told me if I bring him back a diamond or a lion cub from Botswana I can get free food from Sumah's for the rest of my life! Even though I go to DC regularly, this trip was a really neat time to focus specifically on my people group the Tswana and praying for them.

This is just another picture of Kelly and I in DC.

Saturday we had our infamous chicken killing class. Fellow missionary to Africa, Drew Blessing, taught us two ways to kill chickens and skin them. Hopefully, I won't have to do this in Botswana...but I figured it might be a good thing to know! Don't worry, I refrained from putting any of the really gory pictures up, so don't be afraid to scroll down...

This is Harrison Blessing--the cutest kid at the MLC. He enjoyed watching his daddy kill chickens!

This is my other apartment-mate Kristen and Kelly and I wearing our matching "Modest is Hottest" t-shirts! We saw a girl wearing a shirt with this slogan and just had to have some made for ourselves. Kristen is going to be an overseas correspondent writing for the IMB, so maybe you'll come across some of her articles in the Commission magazine over the next few years!

Look forward to a new post soon about an African feast and computer mania!!!

Shout out to the FBCS Youth Group!

Special shout out to the youth group at First Baptist Church who made this picture possible by supplying me with all kinds of crazy gifts from the Dollar Store! You guys rock! Thanks for all the prayers and encouraging notes!

Missionaries, Anthropologists, and Skunks

I'm sorry! I have been really busy and have gotten behind in my postings! So I apologize that this is a random sampling of some things that have happen in the last two weeks or so...some serious stuff first and then a few funny stories and then some prayer requests...

A few weeks ago we had a special "mapping ceremony" where we got to place our pictures on this giant map of the world in the Global Center. It was a really special time to look at the world and see all the places to which we are being sent out and marvel in anticipation of the awesome things that God is going to do through the 200ish people going through FPO (Field Personnel Orientation) right now. This is a picture of Kelly and me in Botswana.

This past week has been devoted to the idea of "who they are." We have been studying about anthropology and worldview. Being an anthropology major in college, I was really excited to again be taking classes on culture, but these classes forced me to look at culture in a different way. For example, I took a class on tribal religions and we were given scenarios to read and decide what we should do. My scenario was about a young national pastor who was getting married and before you were to perform the ceremony a bull was sacrificed to the ancestors. We were to talk about what would be an appropriate Christian way to respond to these rituals. I had to think a long time about what I would do because the anthropologist in me would be all about some participant observation: to have a notebook out and be writing a detailed description of the ritual to later analyze, along with my other fieldnotes and transcriptions from interviews with other participants. I always thought I had a good handle on integrating my faith and my studies, but I am learning that there are many issues dealing with ministering to another culture that I hadn't thought about.

Now something completely unrelated. Have you ever seen a "gourmet Arby's"? It's like normal Arby's but also has a salad bar, a burrito bar, all kinds of roasted chicken dishes, and vegetables. Plus you sit at a table and they bring your food to you! We have been to the Arby's a few times and this is me eating a fajita there. (Check out my nose piercing. I don't really think you can see it, but it's awesome!)

Being a Journeyman at the MLC is way fun because there is always something to do...it's almost like being in college again, but out in the middle of a cow pasture. We have taken to playing charades. You try acting out Jumanji, The Origin of Species, or The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (my favorite guess for this one was "the relationship between him and her pants"?!) This is me taking my turn acting something out. Anyways, we had finished up playing last weekend and I was leaving to go back to my quad around 12:30. I wasn't paying attention and all of a sudden I come upon a real live skunk sitting right in the middle of the path!! He lifts his tail up and I scream, thinking "surely I am going to be sprayed!" That stinkin' skunk chased me all the way down that path. I looked ridiculous running from this striped critter. Finally he turned around and let me go on home but my heart was beating so fast and I couldn't stop laughing to myself. I wish someone had been with me.

Here are some specific ways that you can pray for me right now:

-Pray that God would continue to prepare a place for Kelly and I to serve in Botswana and that God would continue to give us patience as we wait to hear where we are going

-Pray for safe travels and happy holidays as Kelly, "C", and I go to Northern Virginia for Thanksgiving with my family

-Continue to pray that I would be able to absorb as much information as possible from our classes at MLC

-Pray for energy for me. Last week we had shots and I got sick from the yellow fever immunization. Since then I haven't had that much energy and last night I had a fever again.

Thanks to all you who have have written! It means a lot to me! Keep the mail coming!

And Here's Some Substance

First, I'd like to start off with a disclaimer: Kelly did not actually kill the snake in the last post. (Mom, it was a joke. There's this scene in The Gods Must Be Crazy where's there is a snake killing and Kelly's brother told her that she had to learn how to do that...) Sorry for the misunderstanding. I promise I will no longer confuse people with my unusual sense of humor...(ok, now that is a lie...) But moving on...

Yesterday morning I was drinking my daily chocolate milk for breakfast. I opened up the carton and took a sizeable gulp and immediately began to choke! THE MILK WAS SOUR!! I managed to run to the trashcan and spit it out (setting a good example for the kids around the table). I looked at the sell by date and the milk was supposed to be good until Nov. 19! (I felt like that scene out of Napoleon Dynamite where Napoleon tastes all the milk at the FFA competition and he's like "this one taste like the cow got into an onion patch") This morning I was opening up my chocolate milk to give it another go and this guy at my table was like "You better smell that, yesterday some girl threw up from the sour milk!" and I was like "That was me!" Then he said that he also heard the girl who had the bad milk was "extremely poised" throughout the whole situation...so at least that was nice.

Also yesterday was our first immunization clinic! I got shots for Rabies, Polio, and Hepatitus A. Here, Kelly and I are posing with our awesome bandaids from our awesome shots that are going to keep us safe from disease in Botswana. Each day I am more and more amazed at the generosity of the IMB. They spend about $1200 per person on our innoculations. Most sending agencies require their personnel to pay out of pocket for their shots, but because of the money people like you give to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas offering the IMB can afford to pay for our shots. So thank you for your giving! I am an example of how your money is being used! (Scary to think, huh?)

But seriously these past few days truly have been amazing. It seems like everyday God is constantly affirming His call on my life to serve overseas. I remember being a little GA and thinking that missionaries were so cool, and now I'm employed by the IMB and write on the occupation line of forms: missionary. It still seems so strange. I am so excited to get on the field, but at other times I seem so not ready as daily God reveals my own inadequacies apart from Him.

The strategy of orientation is first to focus on who we should be, then who "they" are (focusing on our people groups), and then seeing how to bridge the gap between us and them. Right now we are in the middle of examining our own lives...God is teaching me a lot about resting in Him more and finding out the greatness of His loving heart. Jean Pigott summed up my exact musings circa 1876 in his hymn "Jesus, I am resting, resting."

Literally though I have been "resting, resting" during a lot of the sessions (which may seem funny, but is really not at all.) I appreciate the prayers of those of you that have already talked to me about this unfortunate problem, and the rest of you that have been asking for specific ways you can pray for me this is one: Pray that I stay awake so I can glean all the information I can from training and that I would be more focused on God. (Mom, why did we never get me checked out for a sleeping disorder?) Also, you can pray for the Tswana people group in Southern Botswana. Kelly and I still don't know where we are going to be placed specifically, but we know that it will be with this people group.

Finally, I'd like to assure many of you who have commented to me that I only talk about Kelly that I do have other friends here. We are all assigned different security levels and so some people can't have their picture taken based on their security level. Therefore, you get to see a lot of security 1 Kelly and me. So we devised this way to show you our other friend who is awesome, "C."

Let me know how this post goes for you. It is an answer to many people's concern that I should add some actual substance to my postings rather than just talk about what we've done and tell crazy stories.

This week in training...

Here's some pictures of my new home for the next few weeks! Yeah MLC!

Isn't this sunset beautiful? Kelly took this the other day. MLC is gorgeous right now with all the leaves changing. Today we had ESL certification training and it was so nice outside the instructor let us out early to enjoy fall!

So the first week of training is over! We've scavenger hunted, made learning goals and personally assessed ourselves, prepared personalization reports, researched our countries, opened missionary bank accounts, met with our regional reps, had fitness testing, went on a personal retreat, attended sessions on grief, excercised every morning at 6 a.m., and completed other missionary-type activities. We've enjoyed late nights of talking, early mornings of walking, excursions off campus, and general all around silliness. Next week I think we are starting a hip-hop dance club. (Maybe a little Diverse City tribute...)

I also found out this week that I'm going to have to learn how to drive stick shift...on the left! And we're going to learn how to kill chickens! Training is quite an adventure! Like today, when we went on a walk and Kelly picked up this snake (by her foot) and killed it with her bare hands similar to in "The Gods Must Be Crazy" (filmed in Botswana...so if you want to watch a hilarious movie about my soon to be new home, check that out!)

Training has officially begun!

Today was a day of firsts. It is the 1st of Novemeber and the first official (half)day of training. This afternoon we had our first sessions and got bombarded with all kinds of confusing information about banking and we met with our small groups for the first time. It has been cool to get to talk with people that are going all over the world and meet not only other Journeymen but also Masters (the 2 year program for retired folks) and other career missionaries all training at the same time.

This is one of my dear apartment-mates Kelly Woody. (Yes I do have a room of my own!) She is also going to Botswana to serve on the HIV teams. We are still uncertain where they are going to place us, but we heard from the field that they're talking more about putting us in the village. We will just have to trust and wait to find out more.

I would like to say that today was my first piece or mail...but alas, I fear that will be my new "missionary shoes" I had to order. (A pair of Chacos...all the cool missionaries are doing it...)

But in the meantime we also had another crazy first...the first time to check out the "squatty potty"!

So we're still working up to actually using it...but sometime during training...