Day 7 - Monday, wrote 4 pages

"Do we have any spuds?" - Jeremy
"Spuds or studs?" - Cathy
"Neither!" - Kristy
"We have 3 studs right there *motions to Jon, Jeremy & Sean*, what are you talking about?" - Deb

Manure day in the garden at FP

• Once finally delivered, the garden team + some of the construction team moved it and everyone helped with the garden shack as they could (pictured above) all by wheelbarrows from the whole in the fence to all over the tilled garden lot. I'm sure their van smells nasty seeing as their clothes can stink up a whole front room. 
• "Puma/short stack/monkey child" was piggy backing on me for at least 45 minutes total today. In the last segment he had this big red-cinnamon blow pop that I was SO scared was gonna get stuck in my hair + would have to get cut out, but instead it just brushed the back of my neck a few times.

Phokeng: Street soccer, practical jokes then pretending to be casual, bubble pictures. Awesome, awesome place with funny kids!

I met the little neighbor boy nicknamed "Peter Pan" -- he is SOOO precious!

We were able to do some service projects here at Martha's in Phokeng through the week, but mostly just hang out with/get to know the kids:)

"Hey Jon It's 10:18p!! Where are you?!" - Sean

*Jon spazzes out on his chair*

We all cracked up, well those who noticed haha.

Earlier this evening Sean, Jon & I wrote out the steps Sean will have to undergo to bunce bak from his addition to South African Coke-a-Cola:

Coke Rehhab

1. Admitting you are at ground zero
2. Locking it off & hitting rock bottom from deprevation
3. intervention
4. Set goals

Johannes' favorite verses are:

1. Psalm 99:1 - The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
   let the earth shake.
2. Matthew 14:1 - At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus

So I read Psalm 99...100.....101......and 102 =)

(and Matthew 14:1 which he later explained that he likes because he is interested in the family lines...which is not in this passage?)

There is a super cool verse -- Psalm 102:7 -- which is written about "an afflicted man" in reference to feeling like "a bird alone on a rooftop". I like it because, first, I hadn't heard that comparison before & second, because it is the one i feel (out of all I read tonight) that I can most relate to.

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If God already knows everything we will do with every moment and has our lives planned according to that, why do we "have" free will?

Campfire #4
Nothing to Complain About
Night group devotion -- Hebrews 13: 1-3  ¹ Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. ² Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. ³ Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

     *Freedom Park = prison

• pain, abuse, suffering, not much food ever

     * How perfect God's timing is
     * Humility + Thankfulness + Love

• baby steps

     * Responsibility to use our resources to show God's love and ideas of value everywhere we are. God has us in a mission field every day and as American Christians we need to utilize that.

     * Not complaining even (especially) when you are "miserable"

     * God has a plan for every single minute and we don't have to be super stressed about planning our lives minute by minute

     * Take on a specific mission instead of trying to change the world

     * We are all forced to have faith down here

     * "I don't want money from you, I just wanna help you."

     * Admitting we need God's character

     * We love sinks. And green soap. :)

Anytime that man (Johannes) says more than "Hello, how are you?" "Fine, good" half of us lose it and just start crying. He is so humble and such a great man of God and, in turn, one incredible example of how we are supposed to live out life. I would love to meet more people like him and also, try to, be more like him because that is how more and more people will be blessed and definitely see the love of our Savior stored for them.