Sanibona!

As you're reading this, I should have been in South Africa for a few days now.  If not, then, I hope I'm at least somewhere interesting.There's a number of purposes for my trip here.

1.  To see family.  Mom, Dad and Alfie usually spend about half the year here, and I miss them.  So, I enjoy coming to visit them and hange out and everything.

2.  Servant Life.  Most of you know that in addition to my job at Student Life I get the chance to serve on the board for a little non-profit we started and support called Servant Life.  Right now we partner with four ministries in three countries to send American students to work with them for short periods of time.  Mission Sebenzela, my parents' ministry here in South Africa, is one of those partners.  So, I'm here with Maggie from Virginia and Brittany from Texas.  I'm sure they're having a great time.

3.  Camp.  What we're doing specifically for most of the week is hosting a day camp for kids.  We'll see a few hundred and it will be a blast.  This particular one is hosted at the school Alfie attends when he's here in ZA.

4.  Orphanages.  Liza aand I have known we want to adopt for years  Before Story came along we were really wrestling with whether or not it was time to go that route.  Now that Story is here we're not as in as much of a hurry, but it's something that we still want to do.  I've wanted to adopt from Africa since I was in high school.  When Alfie entered our family, that kinda focused things for me.  There's a number of challenges to American's adopting from South Africa (not all of which I understand), but I'm hoping to have the chance to talk to some people while I"m here just to begin to get a good grasp on what the process is going to look like when we finally get there.

5.  Renewal.  This trip isn't really a vacation by any means.  Rest and relaxation are definitely not the goals.  However, these types of trips always help to focus me and kind of renew my spirit, if you will.  Maybe that doesn't make sense to you.  Some people want to go lay on a beach.  Others want to lose themselves amongst the mountains.  Some want to explore a new city or immerse themselves in fine culture.  I like all that, too.  But for me, I'd much rather be hanging out with some kids in a country half-way around the world.  But that's just me.

Anyway, thanks for keeping up with me while I'm gone.  Hopefully, I'll be posting some more pertinent info about the actual trip.

Until then... Sizobonana!