Myles Warren Jensen

Since I have a blog post dedicated to my niece Sofia, of course I had to be the proud aunt again and introduce my nephew!

Myles Warren Jensen.

Born at 7:31am on 30 October 2010.

Weight 7 lbs. 9 oz. Length 21 in.

I was so thankful this Thanksgiving for the opportunity to skype with my family!! I love technology... such a blessing to be able to speak and see my loved ones :)

I can't believe how much Sofie has grown and that she will be 11 months in December. Wow, has the time flown!

Only 6 more months till I meet Sofie and Myles in person... Oh the joy I will have to hold them, hug them and love on them!!

I believe fully that God brought me to South Africa to serve him in Soweto for two years. Even in the ups and downs, He has been faithful and I know He will continue to give me peace and the strength to thrive these last 6 months as the longing for home comes and goes.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

Psalm 62:6

serveSOWETO

This past Saturday in Soweto we had a day of serving and reaching out to the community. The ultimate purpose was to put the Gospel on display. God requires us to put our faith to action and not just be hearers of the word, but doers (James 1:22, 2:14-17). Jesus not only proclaimed the Kingdom of God but met people's needs... healed the sick, brought life to the dead, cast out demons and fed thousands of people. When Jesus returns, he will judge between those who served Him and those who did not... "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40). Are you serving the Lord by serving and loving others?

What was special about this day was the partnership that began between churches in Joburg and churches in Soweto. Pray for this relationship to not be just one day of service but to continue to grow deeper to reflect one body in Christ.

One church in Joburg partnered with Faith Baptist Church in Snake Park, Soweto. We had three main projects including one at a creche located in the same block of Thulani Secondary School, where the church meets for worship. Members from both churches worked together to scrap off old paint and repaint the classrooms in order to be a blessing to the principal of the creche.

A second project was working at Thulani Secondary School. We desired to be a blessing to the principal and the school to share the love of Christ. The team here worked on fixing the many broken windows of classrooms.

The third team went to a disabled home located across the street from where we meet for Bible Study on Tuesdays. The team worked on painting a room and starting a garden. The home relies on making crafts to sell within the community for income. But they do not have much and struggle with providing for all the needs of the people living there, therefore it was exciting to provide a way of guaranteeing they will have something to eat.

Afterwards, Zach, Given, Philani and I along with some of the soccer boys hung out watching the Chiefs/Pirates soccer match and enjoying watermelon together. It is such a blessing to me to be able to invest in the lives of these boys along with Zach and Philani. Soccer will end 27 Nov with a tournament... it will be hard to say goodbye to these boys who we've known for the past year and half. Pray for the seeds that were planted in these boy's hearts, that they would grow up to fear the Lord.

We then headed over to Brenda's graduation party. I am so proud of her for the accomplishment of graduating from nursing school. Pray that she will get a stable and well paying job that will provide for her and her children.

Picture from left to right: Brenda's boyfriend, Brenda, Sibongile, Lebo (Sibongile's husband) and Momo (Brenda's last born).

Nomsa, Sibongile and I enjoying the food, fellowship and music.

Kabelo's Birthday

Happy 5th Birthday Kabelo!

Kabelo is Sibongile's sweet boy. All he wanted for his birthday was a cake with imoto (cars) on it. I had a good time making and decorating the cake. It made my day to see his face light up when he saw it!

These are some kids that live in the neighborhood. They had such a good time singing, dancing, and eating borewors (sausage) and rolls, chips, sweets, and cookies. Africans also sing our traditional happy birthday song with an added... Hip Hip Hooray! which is what the kids are doing in this picture.

These are some girls that go to Faith Baptist Church and two of them are in my Girls Club. It's always nice to have an opportunity to spend time with them!

Brenda, myself, Sibongile and little Momo

This picture is for Mom and Dawn who purchased this outfit for Kabelo. He wore it to church the following day. What a cutie!

My Best Friend's Wedding

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

I have had the awesome privilege of walking through this journey with Sibongile...

Introduction

Sibongile and I went on a mission trip to Zululand which is where she met Lebo. Little did I know that something was going on behind the scenes :)

Invitations

Sibongile and I decided to make her wedding invitations in order to save money. It was fun designing the invitations and spending time together making them. Five hours, not too bad.

Bridal Shower

My mom, Dawn and I hosted a bridal shower for Sibongile! It was so fun to show Sibongile how much we love her by supporting her in this way.

Wedding Day

This was a traditional wedding meaning the attire was African. Mama Tshabalala (left) and Thembane (right) are dressed like Zulus while Patricia (middle) is representing the Xhosa tribe. Don't worry, Zakhele, who is sitting down is not in his wedding attire yet.

Welcome to Africa... I have learned to appreciate that things don't always go as planned. We arrived at the wedding 30 minutes early... what were we thinking? In traditional African style, the wedding started two hours after the 10am start time. But we had fun sitting around talking, eating biscuits (cookies), and drinking juice.

Who cares that the wedding was late... it allowed me to spend quality time with my friends! Why are we always in a rush to do the next thing and miss out on investing in people's lives? I love that Africans value relationships more than time constraints.

We had a good time taking pictures while we waited. Zach and Given are wearing traditional African shirts. I am wearing a dress that I had made out of shwe shwe which is traditional material worn by many South Africans. Everyone was excited to see us dressed in African attire!

The ceremony was beautiful! In true African style, there was much singing and dancing! Alan did a great job with the preaching and exchanging of the rings.

After the wedding ceremony, we headed to a park to take some pictures. They had a man taking pictures but I decided to take a few of my own. Aren't they such a lovely couple?!

My best friend and I.

After pictures, we headed back to Sibongile's parent's house to enjoy the reception. The reception included more singing and dancing as well as speeches from family and friends. And yes, I had to give a speech which is not my favorite thing to do but Sibongile is worth it! We had a nice lunch of chicken, beef, many salads (sides), rice and bread.

The wedding was held two and half hours outside of Joburg so it was quite a drive. We packed 9 of us from Faith Baptist Church, Snake Park, into a car which seats 7. I had the pleasure of sitting on the floor in between seats. Let's just say it was not the most comfortable but the important part was that we all made it there to support Sibongile!

I couldn't resist... there is nothing like an African sunset.

Ubaba & Omama: Pt 4

Can I just say that my mom, Diane, and second mom, Dawn, are the most amazing women ever?! They worked so hard to help me host a bridal shower (also known as a kitchen & tea in SA) for Sibongile. Those of you who know my mom know how awesome her Christmas cookies are. Well, she took the time to make batches of cookies and they both carefully carried the cookies in their bookbags all the way here from America. How sweet!

Here is Sibongile and I with her son Kabelo before the party began.

We had a time of prayer, worship, singing and dancing, eating, and sharing words of advice with Sibongile. We had about 15-20 women come and support her during this special time in her life. It was a wonderful time of fellowship!

We also made spinach dip and a bean dip (thanks to my sis, Vanessa, for the recipe) which disappeared along with all the cookies. The food was a major hit to say the least. What I loved the most was when people asked how they were to eat it... definitely not food they were used to. It was fun teaching them how to eat American style as many times I have to ask how to eat the African way.

Speaking of the African way... Dawn had her birthday earlier in October... I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she requested a cultural meal. So, Given cooked her pap and chicken which both she and my mom loved!

Omama had the opportunity to participate in Bible Study and enjoyed learning through the oral telling of the story of Jesus' resurrection. This year we have started storying through the whole Bible to show how God's plan from the beginning was Christ. We share the Bible story orally and then we have them answer a set of questions... What do you like about the story? What is confusing or hard to understand? What do you learn about God? What do you learn about man? What do you need to obey? After the questions, we have the participants learn to share the story by repeating it and having them practice in partners. They are then challenged to share the story with someone that week.

I have really enjoyed this way of studying the Bible and it has challenged me to learn the stories more accurately. Also, I have learned much from my African friends as they share their perspective on the stories.

Omama came to Girls Club... It was such a joy to have them there and to see what it is I do each week. The girls loved meeting my "moms." We had a good time practicing a Bible verse (Romans 6:23). I was impressed to see one of my girls was able to recite it after we just learned it for the first time the previous week. These girls are hungry for the Word! What a blessing to be a part of what God is doing in their lives! We also studied the story of Jesus' baptism.

We have begun a tradition in Girls Club of having guests dance for the girls... so my mamas were such good sports and played along...

For your viewing pleasure (with permission):

Omama Dance from Rachel Jensen on Vimeo.

We also had some free time... My mom loves flowers and gardening so I thought it would be appropriate to take her to the botanical gardens. We had a lovely picnic and enjoyed catching up on life!

Sad to see them go but such a blessing to have them here and experience my life here in South Africa! At this point I have 7 months till I return to the States... bitter sweet.

Ubaba & Omama: Pt 3

We took a nice holiday to Kruger National Park for a few days. We ended up leaving at 430am and arrived 12 hours later at our chalet. But we enjoyed the ride and stopped for a pancake breakfast in a small town along the way.

The first morning we woke up for a 5am walk in the bush. We had two guides with guns who took us through the bush. One guide, John, found rhino prints and began tracking them. We kept walking and finally ran into a mama and baby rhino. They were surprised to see us and once they finally smelt us they began running around and acting like they were going to charge us. John told us that if he motioned for us to move that he wanted us to hide behind the bushes! Thankfully, we started walking in the other direction and after the rhinos circled around they decided to run in the other direction. Amazing experience!

Dad and I enjoyed the African outdoors! We saw jackals, hippos, zebra, giraffe, wilderbeast, impala and vervet monkeys. I enjoyed learning all about the different animals. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to walk in the bush alongside all these amazing animals.

Of course I had to take a TOMS shot in the safari jeep...

During the day we would drive around and try to find as many animals as possible... We found a water hole where we were able to sit and observe. My favorite was watching the elephants play in the water and then climb up a hill and cross the road. At one point, we were actually scared for our lives as some elephants appeared in the back and front of our car to cross the road and we were in the way... We even heard an elephant make their trumpet sound at another car for blocking their path. What an awesome show they put on for us!

We also went on a night ride and a sunset ride in hopes to see some cats by spot light. Thankfully, we were finally able to see a leopard walking around our last night there.

I heart African sunsets!

On the way home we decided to take a detour to see God's Window... It was beautiful to stand at the top of a mountain and look out over the valley below.