Let's Get Ready to Rumble

In less than three weeks I will be stuffed in the back of an African minivan weaving my way up through South Africa on a three-month mission trip. It's crazy, it's come around quickly but then again it does seem like several years ago I was saying goodbye to friends and family at Gatwick airport. We are still fairly clueless as to what the three months will involve but I know we will be visiting various schools and churches along the way. I've got the feeling there'll be loads more dances and dramas to learn in the coming days so there's always that to look forward to.

Things have gotten way better since I wrote about scales and dinosaurs. Being a Christian's awesome - nothing in the world is better in fact. Ha, I knew this already but sometimes it doesn't quite seem as true as it is.

So I was sitting on the beach a couple of mornings ago doing my quiet time (as you do. I could get used to this...) when I looked up and saw something black poking out of the water. 'SHARKK...' was my immediate thought but then I looked again and saw lots of little fins coming out of the water, really close to the shore as well. Dolphins! Was so lovely - there must have been about ten of them chill-caking in the water, just a matter of metres away from the beach. They were so close, I really wanted to swim with them but I didn't have any of my stuff. It wasn't going to stop me though - I stripped down to my boxers and waded into the water. However, I had a traumatic experience a couple of weeks back where i got completely white-washed by this wave - I tried to swim underneath a break and the wave just took hold of me and pressed me against the sea floor. Was only for a couple of seconds but seemed like forever as I just couldn't move at all! And so yesterday I desperately wanted to go and swim with the dolphins but unfortunately for me they were just the other side of the flebbing swell breaking and I couldn't pluck up the courage to swim through it again. Bad times. Overall though it was a success story - the dolphins were so cool and my wallet, phone and camera were still in a pile on the sand when I got out. Bonzer.

So we've had our long-weekend just now - had Saturday through Wednesday off and its been really nice to just relax a little before the intensity that outreach will no doubt bring. I was going to go on a road-trip with Sandrine and Jess but I just felt I shouldn't be going and when I told our leader Sam his face lit up with excitement! Apparently he'd been praying and got the feeling I shouldn't be going but then he felt God say that He would speak to me Himself and that he should leave it. And God did speak - I got a really strong sense that I shouldn't be going, so I guess that was pretty cool, even if I did miss out on a fun-filled weekend. My batteries are now some-what recharged and ready to go though.

It's really rather interesting sharing a dorm, never actually had the pleasure of it before on a regular basis and it's proved an altogether enlightening experience. Every so often I wake in the morning to the sound of laughter as five lads eagerly wait to tell me what I was saying in the early hours of the morning! Turns out I sleep-talk more than I realised. The guys' favourite is something I said a couple of weeks ago - "Before you go, tell Chelsey she's worthy". Chelsey's a girl here so naturally they found that one quite amusing. What I can't work out is how they all hear it though - do they just not sleep? Thankfully I seem to have shaken off the other noise I used to make in my sleep (you may or may not know, it usually sounds like I'm constantly trying to eat something throughout the night) so at least that's one thing that's gone well.

Okay, supper calls. I may well think of something I've missed out in which I'll be back. Next week's talks are on relationships - could be interesting! Love...

P.S - Can't believe I'm missing BGT (Britain's Got Talent for the older generation)! Seriously bad times.