Blog 9

Time is actually beginning to blow my mind. I was reminded today that its been 6 months since I graduated from high school. I couldn’t believe it. I actually had to count out the months with my fingers. The days here just keep getting shorter as well so everything continues to fly by all too fast.

This week has consisted of a whole spectrum of emotions for me. In fact I don’t believe there was one day where I was feeling the same. Last Monday Matthias, Micah and I rode home from Serge’s house. When we arrived home we were all completely exhausted because we stayed up until 4:30 am the previous night. We were also a bit hungry so we decided to walk to Special, a burger place here that is quite special. Well 3 of the girls were in a little bit of a rush and I was waiting on Matthias and Micah. They ended up walking off alone, which isn’t very safe at all. So we are left running down the street in attempt to catch up with them. Let’s just say no one really walked away from that in a good mood. Shortly after this the girls apologized profusely and even wrote letter apologizing. It was an incredibly sweet gesture and it definitely did not go unnoticed.

So, us 3 guys wake up the next morning to quite the surprise. To preface this, Tuesday-Thurday we have to arrive on Dereks porch at 7:50. Well I wake up first and open my laptop to check the time… it was 8:04 am. I was almost in shock. I ran up to Matthias, showed him the time on his phone and all he could do was stare at it. The chain reaction continued as Matthias quickly went to wake Micah. We were all pretty much freaking out. When we finally arrived to Dereks we noticed the Hiace that takes us to Pepe was gone. Then, we were welcomed with a phone call that politely told us it would be best if we stayed put on his porch and waited. After about 5 minutes Derek arrives, walks up to the porch and tells us we are gonna be cleaning dirty lots. Now, you can pretty much see a dirty lot anywhere you look so we knew we were in for some work. So, as expected we were disciplined. We went in to eat lunch about 2 pm. As we were eating Derek walks out to join us on the front porch. I believe we had a good and fruitful conversation with him. Overall, Tuesday didn’t turn out to be so bad.

On to the next one. Derek had originally instructed us to be on the front porch at 5:30 am Wednesday morning. After a really good Tuesday he gave us some grace and changed it to 7:15 am. We were all obviously quite grateful. We get there at 7:15 am just as we were told and waited to get picked up for about 30 minutes. We would be helping Phillip, a missionary here in Cape Verde, paint some things for a seminary he runs in Pedra Badejo. We had so much fun hanging out with Phillip. It made painting in the hot sun not seem so bad. We were pretty much laughing the whole time. It was also really nice because we got to know Phillip a lot more. Overall the almost 6 hours of work were pretty fun. Later that night I met with Joseph at Pão Quente where we will begin going through a devotion.

Our labor was finally over and we got to go back to Pepe. I was overcome with joy to see all my sweet little kids knowing I only have 2 more days with them. Later in the day we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving. We all gathered together at 4:30 and began to feast. It was so dang amazing. We were able to prepare all the Thanksgiving classics: turkey, stuffing, sweet potato soufflé, Mac & cheese, and even green bean casserole, a personal favorite. There were more, but the majority of my plate was devoted to those items. After  everyone had finished eating and kind of settled down we began our worship/giving thanks time. This is a time I really cherished because this is something I always did with my family. After that I had a few moments to call home. I called my parents and it was really precious to see their faces as well as Hannah, Casey and Mini Cooper. It always lights up my week whenever I have that opportunity. After I talked to them for awhile, I called my Nana and Papa. We typically have Thanksgiving at their house every year so they were on my mind all day. Talking to them was very very special to me. They have a way of bringing out the best in me.

Friday was really nice. We had Pepe in the morning, but the rest of the day was very relaxing. We had left overs for lunch and I was quite happy about that. Then, I took a nap. It was so good and refreshing. At 5 pm we began preparing for the beach. We were headed to San Francisco beach, a beach about 20 minutes from our house. When we arrived it was completely dark on a black sand beach. You seriously can’t see anything so we all pulled out our flashlights and phones so we could see. We set everything up, played some tunes and Micah began working on the bon fire. After about an hour, we finally got all the ammunition we needed to start a fire. We pulled out the chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows and began roasting. We had such an amazing time as a group just goofing off, having fun and talking. It was a 10/10 day.

Saturday was pretty much the same as last week except this week we went back to Africafè. They had cinnamon rolls again :’) I was so happy. Oh, also Derek began discipling me, Matthias and Micah. We are going over a study about masculinity, so needless to say, I’m pumped. After that we headed over to our Christmas concert rehearsal at the Church. That usually last about 2 hours. It was a good time. Thats pretty much all of saturday.

Sunday was a very very special day. We went to church at 10:00 am and the service ended about 11:00 am. As soon as it ended we all headed over to Prainha beach to begin BAPTISMS. I really appreciate the way baptisms are done here. We all went to the ocean and one by one our church members were getting baptized and the crowd erupted after each one. I kept looking around at a few of my team mates who had some people they were discipling getting baptized and I was reminded of 3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” My team mates were seeing their spiritual children taking the next step in their faith and they were literally jumping with joy and a few of them shedding tears. It was a sweet time. After everyone got baptized everyone piled in a bus and we headed back to the church. It was a huge party with food, drinks and fellowship. It was a blast.

Prayer Requests: Everything works out with discipleship this week, unity, energy, strength, patience, the people who got baptized, and continued health for the team.