Six years of waiting, eight months of planning and preparing, two days of travelling and twenty-three hours of flying, and with great thanksgiving I can finally say this leg of the journey has begun. As I watched the sun rise over South Africa, I was in great awe of the Lord's faithfulness. I have a feeling the words, “Well Heather, welcome to Africa,” will radiate in me for years to come. It is a great privilege to be here, yet I feel so unworthy. Who am I that I am so blessed to serve the Lord in Africa? I'm reminded of 1 John 4:4 “... greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world,” meaning that God's Spirit within me is greater than I, and it is through Him and for Him that this journey is possible. As I have told many of you before, I firmly believe the Lord has great works to accomplish here, and I look so forward to sharing stories with you throughout my time here.
When we arrived at the airport in Windhoek (Namibia's capitol city), Rob, Alisa, and their daughter Erin, picked us up and brought Candace and I to our homestead for the next three months. (Rob and Alisa are missionaries with AIM, serving in the community of Rundu here in Namibia. Candace is another Canadian girl who is here on the same assignment as me). It was very welcoming to see warm, smiling faces after such a long and exhausting trip. Over the next few days we had a series of orientation sessions, meeting some of the other missionaries along with some Namibians and other Africans living in the region. I have learned so much in the week that I have been here, and have no doubts that I will continue learning about this fascinating culture and its people every day.
As with any journey, there are always bumps along the road and I seem to have encountered one early on. I have been quite sick for the past two days and am struggling still to find some much needed energy. I'm very thankful to have fallen ill before the start of classes, but please pray that God will restore my strength before the arrival of students.
A big thank you to everyone for your prayers. Prayer is a powerful gift the Lord has given us. A big thank you to everyone for your emails. It is so encouraging to hear words from back home. Both prayer and emails are huge gifts to me, they are truly appreciated more than can be expressed. I have had numerous troubles with email accounts over here, so to contact me please use my hotmail address: heatherkeefe@hotmail.com
I will be sure to update you all more on life on the field once I am back to health.
Wishing you all a wonderful day!
~Heather
Some cultural tidbits:
-traffic lights = robots
-trunk = boot
-peace = ombili
-coffee is not coffee without 4-5 spoons of sugar
-One interesting fact which I became aware of is the notion of “Africa Time”... perhaps “Heather Time” has simply been God's way of preparing me for “Africa Time”. (For those of you who don't know, I am sometimes known for being late...)
Heather the cultural tidbits are great haha. The problem with Africa Time is now you'll always be late for the rest of your life when you come back. It's going to be ingrained into you. You always have e-mail problems. If you ever need help e-mail me from a working account and we'll chat tech support. Get better. I'd say rest but that's futile
ReplyDeleteGreat to be able to nosey in on you African adventure, Heather! Your first few days of soaking up the culture sound fun, and probably quite overwhelming too I imagine. But I'm sure you'll be right at home there in no time. Praying for you in everything, and especially that you'll get well very soon. Keep making the most of it all!
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy that you're finally, actually there, Heather! I'm so sorry your trip had to start out with illness, though. I'm praying for health to return, and quickly!
ReplyDeleteOh, and keep adding those bits of language for the linguistic type people like me, okay? :)
-Jo
Um...SOMETIMES known for being late????
ReplyDelete