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.