In the U.S.A!

Hey everyone! Were in Maryland now , visiting Grandparents. We got here last tuesday and will be here till monday when we leave to head down south. It was really weird at first, major culture shock, but we are having a blast and enjoying every minute of our time with our family. YOu should have seen us in the mall and walmart!! You would have thought weve never been shopping in our lives. It was so fun though. We definately enjoy the simple things a lot more than before we moved. I love Swaziland, but America is the best! I've been talkin to my friends and cannot wait to see them in Louisiana. Its been cold the past few days, but now its like 5o degrees and getting warmer. We were sad because we wanted to experience snow before we go back , but oh well. Maybe it will snow in LA...HA YEA RIGHT!! lol. Its so beautiful here, i love it. My Grandma can cook sooooo nicely! So weve been lovin that! I miss everyone back home in Swaziland and I cant wait to see everyone in Louisiana!!

As you might know (if you know me), my dream is to go to college & play soccer. I really want to attend a soccer camp next summer (really interested in Wake Forest in North Carolina). It is quite expensive (you know to fly from africa and everything). So please help me pray about it and if you would like to support me to go that would be soooo great! The cost of the camp is $495 , plus about $1500 for air fare. I know its alot, but I really would like to go to a competitive camp and check out the university so I can see if it is somewhere I would like to go.
Thank you.

THIS GURL CAN PREACH!!

Hey! Ok so I have this friend, Lizette Dos Santos. She became a christian this year and is totally on fire for God. She is very out going, so when we have events like the Invasion this weekend, she makes the announcements in assembly and basically makes a fool out of herself..(which i respect her for, since I am too chicken to do something like that , lol). Anyways....on TUesdays and Thursdays we have a bible study at break for anyone from Form 1 to IB 2. This week was our week to do them. So I picked a topic- " Being Intolerant- out of LOVE", and since Lizette is sooo good at speaking, she read it. YOu see , Im quite boring, I just was going to read something out of a book, and I was studdering, so I asked her to do it. WOW, when she got started, it was like a firework went off or something. She sat the book down, and started pacing the classroom just like a pastor. lol. I have never seen/heard someone preach like that before , atleast not someone our age. I was crying. Every word she said touched my heart and even though most of us were about to fall out of our seats laughing at some of the things she said and did, im sure it touched everyone else as well. I believe God has such a huge plan for her life and she is willing to let Him take control too. I look up to her for that. I mean, I've been a christian all my life, and here comes Lizette, a new christian , preaching like...... I dont know what. lol. One day when she is on TV or doing youth camps preaching to people, I will be sooo proud to say I know her. OHHH and last night, she had a dream that she was preaching in front of a lot of people, and she was "just tearin it up" lol. That is exactly what she did today. Isn't it amazing how God works? I'm soo excited to see what God has planned and to see the gifts He has given all of my friends at Waterford, and Im also excited and anxious to know mine. It is people like Lizette who will change the world for Christ, and I cant wait to see it happen. It has already begun!!

Rainy Day

Today is cold and rainy in Swaziland. I think the weather goes along well with how most of the people at my school are feeling right now, though. Yesterday, a student, Hassan, died. He was hit by a car after the Form 5 prom after party while he was crossing the road. People keep asking, if there is a God, why does He allow things to happen like this? All I know is that God knows what He is doing and is in control of even the bad things in our lives. Though this is a tragic thing, I believe God will bring good out of it. The really sad part is that he wasn't a christian. My heart literally hurts when I think , what if one of my friends die before they come to Christ? That is my dream, my hearts desire, to be able to see all my friends at Waterford in heaven with me when I get there. I pray that through what has happened, God will open peoples hearts and make the soil fertile. I also pray that the christians at waterford will rise up and plant the seeds before the soil dries up again. PLease join in me in this prayer. Waterford needs a revolution and through Christ, it is about to begin.

God is in control

Ok...so there are 46 days, until we get on a plane to come home to visit. I'm so ready for this term to be over.....EXAMSSS...are really stressing me and my head feels as if it is going to explode. I'm just overwhelmed i guess. I cant wait till they are over. Right now I am in midterm break , go back next Tuesday (not long, but its somethin). Exams start in 3 weeks i think. I'm so excited about visiting the U.S. , it's not that I dont like it here, because I LOVE IT, but you know...just a bit homesick. Swaziland is awesome and I am sooo glad we are here doing what we are doing, but there is no place like home. Especially LOOSYANA. lol.
Please pray for my mom and this little girl, Pepe. She is nine years old and has AIDS. When the medical clinic was here last week , the day she came, they said if she wouldnt't have come that day she would have only had about 72 hours to live. They put her on IV's, but now she's doing really bad agian. She stays with her father, who also has AIDS and does not take care of her. Basically he just lets her lay in bed all day and doesn't even ask if she needs anything like maybe WATER or FOOD. Anyways...my mom has been really sad the past few days , it breaks her heart to see this little girl go through all of this pain. She took her to a government hospital today and they said she also has T.B. When my mom left her there, she kept saying in Siswati "Home , Home". My mom told her it was going to be okay, and she just nodded as if she understood. When these kindof things happen to helpless kids, we often ask ourselves, "Why does God let this happen to them?" , but it breaks His heart, too. We can never understand all of God's ways, and that's what makes Him so great. Just to know that He is in control of everything, even the bad. I hope that one day soon , Pepe will be in heaven with no more pain, and just feel God's loving embrace. So...please pray for my mom to be able to make the right choices in what to do and to have peace through all of this, and also for Pepe, that God will take away all of her pain and if it's His will, heal her. With Christ , all things are possible.
Well...thats all for now. I miss everyone!!!

Pictures.

Well..do i ever have an interesting title?? lol

Hi everyone. I just got back from a track meet at my school, so im a bit sore. I ran the 3000m, 800m, 400m, and 100 by 4 relay. I got 2nd, 1st, and 2nd. But I didnt do so well. I almost fainted after the 3000m. I am just now getting back into running and soccer since my back has been hurt. So it was hard. I have a biology test and a spanish test tommorrow, which i SHOULD be studying for, but what the heck?!? I needed to write a blog. Its more important (to me. lol) Well actually anything would be more important than studying, but i like writting blogs. Even though I barely do. OKAY, so anyways........UM. Last week wednesday, my parents took us all to the Macholweni Carepoint in Manzini with them. We got to play with the children, help with their food and watch my mom be a nurse. They are building a clinic at this carepoint, whiere my mom will mostly be...to give checkups to all the kids from the Manzini carepoints so they dont have to come all the way to Mbabane. There was this one little boy, he's about 9 months...but looks like he's maybe 2 or 3 months. His mom ran off and his older sister ( about my age maybe) who is deaf and mute, is taking care of him. Well trying anyways. My mom said he hadnt been bathed since the mom left and he had scabies all over him. He is the cutest baby I've ever seen in my life. He was VERY malnurished and basically starving. My mom braught some baby formula and made some in a cup. Now most babies that age or size cant even drink out of a cup yet, but BOY when he saw that cup and the milk, we all thought he was going to jump off the table to get to it. My mom braught it close to him and he almost dove in it, he was inhaling that milk like he had never eaten in his life. Tears came to all of our eyes as we watched him drink that milk. Everywhere the cup went, his eyes went. He could have drunk all day if we would have let him. That really touched my heart. I was like "mom, can we please adopt him?" lol. Sadly , that goes on ALOT around here and that is why we're here, to bring hope to these hurting kids. I was so proud of my mom that she gets to be at those carepoints everyday and take care of the sick, hungry kids. SO....yea I just wanted to share that. I'll try to put a picture of him....my dad isnt here and I'm a bit dumb when it comes to computers. :) Charles, Kristen, and Patrick have been doing some friday youth nights. They have gone REALLY well and I'm so thankful they are doing this....alot of teens are coming to the Lord. Some of my friends who get saved, have fallen back into this world though. It makes me feel like a failure almost. My school is soooooooo i dont even know. Lets just say, it is really hard for people who are not grounded in God to push on as a christian or even try. Hopefully that will change soon though. SOme older students have started a bible study a few days a week and we are praying that God shows us what we need to do to reach out to the school. Also Charles and them are doing a Big youth thing in November, called INVASION!! Im really praying that it goes well and ALOT of people come and get touched by God. Please pray for it. Kristen and Charles and Pat are sooo cool, i love them to death. OH.....at the church we go to here, Checkers Community Church, I've been playing guitar/bass with the worship on Sundays. Its scarry, but fun. Its quite a small church, so not that nervous. Nothing like HPC. lol. NOW THAT WOULD BE SCARRY!! aww I miss HPC. So yea....I MISS EVERYONE AND I LOVE YOUUUU!! :) I guess i should go study now. ADIOS AMIGOS!

HEY! Today is our one year in Africa anniversary. YAY!! We just went to Mozambique last week and now school has started......11 more weeks...AHH. I have a lot to write , but there is a youth night going on across the street and im supposed to be there. Kristen and Charles are putting it together ad all my friends are there...yay. I hope they get a touch from God. PLease pray that God reveals himself to them. I need to write more often. Well....we'll arrive in Washington on December 5th and visit my family up north and then work our way down south to good ol' Loosyana!! Im sooo excited, but i still have 13 exams to get through. Wow. Im stressed. My club soccer team won the Trade Fair tournament this past weekend...that was exciting. They put my name in the paper as Gabriddle Rehmeyer. So thas ma new name!! lol. My back is better , so i can run jump and play now. OH BOY!! Thank God. Well.....Ill write more soon. BYEEEEE!!!! I MISS MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!! And my mimi's surgery went well.....please pray that her recovery goes well. Ok now its really Bye i promise!!

Lately....

Hello. Happy 4th of July to all!!! Yesterday we did fire works at the Rodgers house, it was fun because we were some oof the few americans here doing them. So we felt special. All my friends at school today were like, " You Americans , why were you making so much noise last night???" lol. It was funny. I felt so patriotic. I love USA! Anyways.....Im so happy Charles and Kristen are here. They are really cool and have been helping out with the youth group at school. All my friends love them. Also , a bunch of I.B students have started a youth group that meets tuesdays and thursdays. They were surprised at how many people showed up. Its really cool to see people finally starting to stand up. Were planning youth nights and fun things we can do to get people interested , so we can witness to them. Its kindof hard to witness to someone who doesnt believe in anything, and hasn't their whole life. So it will be cool to have some fun ways that we can.....like a youth night with worship, movies, games, pizza, and stuff like that.
Last week we were out for mid term break. We went to Blyde River Canyon in South Africa. (adventura resort) It was soooo BEAUTIFUL!!! We went hiking and (got lost) and played games.....it was just really cool to go somewhere and do something fun as a family. Swaziland can get pretty boring at times. lol. BUt I love it. There were monkeys everywhere, and huge UGLY babboons. We also went horse back riding and shopped in Nelspruit on the way back home. It was fun. NOw were bak in school ..........nooooo.
PORTUGAL VERSES FRANCE TONIGHT!!! I hope Portugal wins!! -guess we'll see. Italy is AWESOME!!! Poor Germans. Sorry. (not) lol.
Anyways.......I do nt have much else to say , except I MISS EVERYONE TERRIBLY!!! Well...hope to see yall soon. Luv ya always!! ~Gabby

Past few months!

The past few months have been okay. We have been in break until second term starts up NEXT WEEK!! How sad. We had a month off. It's getting pretty cold now. Its weird, because it feels like Christmas should be coming up, but obviously it's already passed. Even now when it is not even that cold yet, I feel like I'm about to freeze. So I think I will freeze when it really gets cold, there is no heater. Since my school is high up , it's even colder there and they don't have heaters either. I guess we'll all have to dress up like Eskimos. I didn't think Africa got cold before I came here. lol. Oh yea.....I had been taking guitar lessons at HPC from Kevin Woolsey, before we came here and I've continued to practice. I've always wanted to play guitar in church or lead worship one day or something. Today and a few Sundays ago, I got to play in the worship! I can't quite sing and play at the same time yet, so I just play for now. Roger, is the worship leader , he works for children's cup and is from here. He plays really well and continuously reminds me that we are playing only for God and should not concentrate as much on our playing and instead trust that God will move. He's an awesome man of God and I hope one day I can lead worship like him. I've been listening to a lot of Hillsong ,lately because it reminds me of HPC . I miss it a lot. It's horrible how we don't appreciate things until we don't have them anymore. There is so many things I'm going to appreciate so much more if I come back. Also lately, I've been stressing (hey..What's new? lol) about my future. My mom helped me to realize that I'm basically telling God that He isn't powerful enough to handle my life. I was like...Wow, that is soooo true. When we become Christians, part of our commitment to God is to give Him complete control of our lives and to surrender everything to Him. I have told Him I surrender so many times. I guess.....I'm really finding it hard to COMPLETELY surrender to Him. I know he can and will take care of me and He knows the desires of my heart, but it's hard for me . I think it's because I've basically planned my life out and it sounds good to me, but I haven't included God in it or in my thinking u know? and ofcourse a plan without God in it is totally HOPELESS and not going to work. So....I really want to play soccer in college and I am going top work and practice sooo hard so I can do that, but if that is not what God wants then I really hope I can learn to trust Him enough to know that. He knows what I want , but more than that He knows what I need and what is best for me. And I really want His plan for my life and not my own, I mean who knows....Maybe he'll let me play soccer in college afterall. I hope so. But I just need to trust and not worry. WOW! It's hard. Please pray that I learn to trust God COMPLETELY with everything. I want to be fully devoted to God and His will for my life. What better place is there to be than in His will- afterall?
2 Corinthians 10:13:13 -But we will not boast of authority we do not have. Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God's plan for us, and this plan includes our working there with you.
Romans 8:28- And we know that all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose.
Psalms 37:4-6 - Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD;trust in him and he will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Psalms 143:8 - Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go,for to you I lift up my soul.
Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. [a]

So basically.....I really need to trust Him right now and stop planning 3 years ahead...ESPECIALLY by myself. I need to focus on NOW .....I don't even know what is happening tomorrow...Much less 3 years from now. If I focus on the present and seek God in all I do, He will direct me now and forever. HE is so amazing and loving ....And if what I want doesn't harm or push away what God wants me to do, then maybe he'll let me play soccer then, I just need to trust Him.

Anyways, yesterday my team had a game in Manzini against Lady Mcha Chas (or so mething like that) They are the best team in Swaziland (ladies) The field was the nicest field I've ever seen. I was sooo surprised...It actually had GRASS!!! Incredible. We lost 2- 0 . I was very disappointed because I know we could have the potential to be better. You could tell the other team has been practicing together like as a team because they were passing and always knew where the other person was. Us......Well....Only 5 people show up at practice regularly so we don't know how everyone plays or how to work off of each other. The Midfield don't go up to help attack and they don't come back to help defend. I hope I am not the only one who notices this , but of course I don't really know what the coach said at the end of the game anyways. I wish he would tell us what we should be doing and then if we don't do it , he could run us to death so we learn it. Actually I wish everyone would come to practice. But anyways...We did good and tried hard. Thank You Jesus for letting me have a good day and enjoy myself playing. I really miss my team in BR!!!

Oh yea!! An IB student from my school, Waterford, has been staying with us this break. Her name is Candice, she's 19 and from the Bahamas. She is sooo cool. The best thing is , she's a Christian. So it's been really fun to talk to her and she has encouraged me a lot. We've all enjoyed having her with us. (especially Joelle - I think she was about to drive her crazy though lol. ) Thank you Jesus for bringing CAndice into our lives.

We are hopefully coming to visit in December. Please pray that God provides money for plane tickets. We will be itinerating and visiting people. I hope I can see everyone in that month. I really want to . Also please pray for me as I start school next week, so that God can shine through me and others can see Him. Please pray that I continue to trust Him to direct my life. I miss and love everyone sooooo much!!!!
Gabby

Everything!

(this is a picture of a field we had a soccer game on- nice field huh?? lol even had an added bonus-glass, cows, and , big holes)
OK, so now its been what?? Two months since ive written. wow. I think i need to write more. School has been very hard though, so i barely ever have time. Thats the problem. lol. Well.....what is there to say?? Our trip to Zimbabwe after Christmas was AWESOME!! It was the best vacation in my life. Christmas was ok , but we were all homesick....so yea. School started about two months ago...and its very intense. (for me anyway) I like it though. I have great friends there, and they cheer me up when im stressed or REALLY homesick, which is like often. lol. My dad found out about girls club soccer here, so now im on a team. Its a womens team called Imbabatana. (however u say it??) The ages are from 14 (me) to 27. We practice tuesdays through thursdays. The coach, coach Aaron, speaks siswati mostly , so alot of the time I have to ask one of the girls what we're doing. But it's fun, im happy i get to play alot now. I really miss my team in Baton Rouge though....Thats one of the main things i've been so homesick for. I love those girls sooo much, theyre the bestest friends i could ever have. I always wish i could still be playing with them. I loved it sooooo much. Anyways....Im glad they have been still keeping in touch with me, as well as all my other friends. It really helps when im homesick . God is helping me though, and teaching me things along the way. LIke to depend on Him for everything, He knows what I need , want. I know Im here for a purpose, so i need to make the best out of it. I know Im homesick now, but the truth is......Id miss Swaziland if I went back. I dont have a home here on earth anyways. My home and destination is heaven. PLease pray for me to trust God and to be able to lead people to Christ at school in whatever way He wants. Mostly for courage, strength, and endurance. I miss everyone and love you soo much!!!!!
(mimi - hope you feel better fast)