Culture Shock!

The last 72 hours has been absolutely incredible. Let me see if i cant paint the picture for you in words although i know it wont do it justice. I leave IAH with a load of people and I am probably the only white skinned person on the plane. So immediately i am thrust into the Islamic culture. I sit down and a man named Abu sits next to me and tells me about his family and life in Kuwait. He is 30 years old but I guessed he was only 23. Haha bad start for me. But not really. He laughs and says ya i do look young in broken English. Then he shows me pictures of his two kids. I then tell him I am the oldest of four and he asks about my siblings. After a few minutes he says, I am the youngest of seventeen kids. I laugh again. Wrong move number two. He was serious. Haha. Then he crashes and since I am wide awake I stay up. Next thing I see is pure dedication but breaks my heart all the more. A man lays down a rug so he and his son can pray facing Mecca. I have no idea how they knew Mecca was that direction on a plane that is flying 30,000 feet off the ground but while they are praying, I am praying that little boy dreams about Jesus when he goes back to sleep.

When I finally land in Dubai I get checked like three different times on the way out of the airport. And each guard decides it would be hilarious to check every item in my bag in slow motion. So out everything comes. They flip through my book, THE IMITATION OF CHRIST...i laugh to my self. this is awesome. then through my BIBLE. and this is a slow motion check of my BIBLE. even more divine. so finally when i get through the airport i make it to the shuttle which takes me to my hotel.
i go to the restaurant in the hotel and i end up sitting with a family from south africa who is on my flight the next day. they tell me about their church in Durban and invite me to come whenever i have time off from the orphanage. then im off to bed.
i wake up at like 3am cause my circadian rhythm is completely out of wack. but go get breakfast when it finally opens at five and then pack up and head for the airport.

so it is here that i meet kev and his wife and daughter who are from england. so by now i have experienced four cultures in less than 24 hours. Our own, England, South Africa, and Dubai. i laugh to myself as i hear kev's accent. i love it. im pretty sure i have picked it up by the time i get off the plane in durban. When we arrive it is sunset and beautiful. then we hop in a car and head to the valley of a thousand hills and trust me please....they are not lying. there is a hundred hills in sight from every vantage point. it is absolutely breath taking. the sunrise and sunset are full or color and because my body is still adjusting i have seen both every day. i fall asleep at like ten and wake up at like 5. haha it is hilarious but i am almost set i hope.

So how is life like living with 12 englishman in South Africa you ask? well its incredible because everything is outside my comfort zone. i spent the last 48 hours doing manual labor at an orphanage but it is incredible. I am neither good at shoveling or digging holes but it doesnt matter as long as i work hard. haha and trust me i am awful at shoveling. every time i threw some rocks the first day the South Africans laughed at me...so funny. one told me today that everyone walking by said to him in Zulu that they didnt know white people dug holes and they should make a movie "White man cant Dig".

If you could only see the kids in the orphanage your heart would break. They smile so big and their teeth are so white. I took a video on my flip and they laughed for twenty minutes when i played it back for them to see themselves on camera. This one boy kept winking at the camera and it was hilarious. Russell and Precious are married and run the orphanage. Their son Olwedu is such a goober. He is three and today he sang amazing grace as he sat in the dirt with the same clothes he has had on yesterday and the day before that. He owns no shoes but yet has smiled every time I look at him. He skips around in the dirt all day long and seems perfectly content. He is my motivation when I get tired from shoveling. I just think...if this kid gets a roof over his head where he can sit and be taught about Jesus then it is all worth it.

Another boy who lives at the orphanage is named Beau. He is the hardest working seventeen year old kid that i know. he never stopped working all day. just kept swinging the ax and digging with the shovel. he takes care of the younger orphans and plans to go to a university somehow someway when the Lord provides him with money. I had the opportunity to give him a pair of futbol cleats and he nearly cried with joy. he hugged me so long and hard and i am pretty sure it was his first pair ever. it completely made my day and i think i could have hopped on a plane and came home after i shared the Gospel with him. He was so grateful.

so mostly the group i am with now are just preparing for the big group to all arrive on the 12th of june. we have laid the foundation for two homes and dug ditches for septic tanks for bathrooms. i cant wait to see what God is going to do. the atmosphere here is almost like everyone is holding their breath. waiting for the kickoff of the world cup. waiting for God to show up in the valley and stir hearts if he hasnt begun to already.

i know this is long but if you have read this far i appreciate it. i just want to follow christ wherever he leads. i dont want to try and fit him into my plans for myself or confine him to this spot or that. Jesus said come and follow me. take up your cross and follow. that is my goal. just follow. so simple yet so profound. i love each and every one of you and pray we each come to know the Lord more each day. take up the cross wherever you are today. in him we live and move and have our being. in no one else and certainly not ourselves. goodbye for now as i have a cup of tea..

one world watching,
T and (B: in spirit for now)