Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Its been a while

Hi everyone!! Yes I'm still alive n' kickin! Just been extremely busy with school and sports. I'm leaving tomorrow for Johannesburg, SA. I made the senior bball team and we are playing in a tournament at the American International School in Joberg this weekend. I'm excited, but really scared. I just started playing basketball last year and I still have a lot to learn. Tips are needed ;) We dont have much competition here in SD, our usual score against the local schools is soething like 75-2. Our aim is to usually not let them score at all and for us to try and get 100. SO Ive gotten used to easy games, and I've heard that the competition at AISJ is rough. Its okay though, I'm kindof a bench warmer. hehe.

Hmmm....lately....I've been doing nothing but homework, soccer, and basketball. Literally. I've totally been pushing God aside, and not making time or room in my life for the most important part, He is my life. My family and Jacci have been trying to keep me on track though, I love them so much. It's just so easy to get caught up in life. And its been showing too.....last week was the worst...I fell asleep in Physics, English, and oddly enough during lunch. I would be in the middle of writing a sentence and then the pen would fall to the floor and I was OUT. Thank God I have wonderful friends though, they kept an eye on me and tried their best to keep me awake. I only got kicked out of one class. ;) oops.

Jacci just moved to Mbabane, right down the street from our neighborhood and in the middle of all the 'cup people who live in Mbabane. It's awesome! Me and danielle have been taking turns staying with her...until she gets settled and feels comfortable staying alone. SO I guess I'm kindof like a body guard. Eish. Her house is soooo cute!! ANd she has the biggest yard out of all of ours put together. It's a really amazing testimony, how she got the house. A major test of faith and display of God's faithfullness to His children. I gave up hope when the owner said it was already taken, but Jacci stayed strong and felt like it was going to be her house even though the situation seemed impossible. I learned a lot through the whole process and screamed in the middle of bball practice when I found out she got the house. You don't understand.....she had seriously been looking all over swaziland for MONTHS!!! Totally God. SO last Friday night all the 'Cup people and our other american missionary family people got together at her house and prayed. We walked the property and invited the presence of God and demanded anyone/thing else that was not God to LEAVE or HAMBA!! :)

I have a really long story to tell about something that took place next door to our house a few weekends ago...but I'm not sure if I have enough time to fully describe it. Short version:
In the middle of the night (jacci was sleeping over) we heard this loud wailing and really loud drums coming from next door. At first I thought maybe it was a church service ( they had a big tent up) and maybe someone was getting a demon cast out of them or something. But something didn't feel right. I was overwhelmed with a sense of fear. Jacci and I prayed for a while before finally falling asleep. The drums played the WHOLE night. COme to find out, my dad and mom had a rough time sleeping, they both wrestled in their sleep, and our other neighbor who is also a Christian couldn't sleep. And he didnt even hear anything that was going on. Also, Roger, our swazi brother who lives in our house could not sleep so he stayed up and prayed the whole night. He knew what was going on next door, so the next morning (sunday) we didn't go to church so we could have a family meeting. Roger explained to us what was happening because by this time we were all scared. We went outside to see the people next door sacrificing goats right next to our fence. Our dogs were going crazy and the guy with the knife ( he looked completely possessed or something) was swinging the knife at our dogs.
SO here is what was happening: They were having a graduation ceremony for a lady who had just become a witch doctor, and during the night she was basically giving her soul to the devil. It was her wailing the whole night. All day sunday people would come to test her and see if she really had 'powers'. There was some scarry stuff going on over there, I wont go into detail. What made it even more scarry was that all day it was dark and cloudy. Me and my siblings went outside and startd singing worship songs really loud. Then these 3 guys who were chanting something over the goats body all of the sudden turned at the same time and stared at us. We ran inside. :) It was scarry, but it just opened to our eyes to what the devil is up to. It was hard for us to understand because we're not really used to this having grown up in the US. God really comforted us through the body. We had a prayer evening that night and everyone came over to pray with us and around the house. Everyone was crying. I love them soo much.

Well....I have to go...this is kinod random because its rushed. I'll write more soon. Wish me luck this weekend!!!
God bless!!!