Birthday

My birthday was a few weeks ago, and God really used it to remind me how blessed I am.  For a couple weeks in July I was really excited to go home, which was making it difficult to be present here. 

So, I had a joint birthday party with my teammate Rebekah (whose birthday was a week before mine) and our neighbor Ellen (whose birthday was a week before Rebekah's).  I was very frustrated for a while leading up to the party, as there are a lot of cultural expectations and assumptions that make it very difficult to throw an affordable party.  You are expected to provide a huge meal with lots of meat, and in the township anybody who wants to can show up--so it can be huge.  We couldn't afford this, so we decided to have a snack party--grilled chicken feet, gizzard kabobs, chips and cake.  So there was still some South African flavor!  

Rebekah, Ellen and I with our delicious party snacks...

I heard from a lot of people about what was wrong with our party plans, but we persisted, and I resigned myself to being criticized.  But on the day of the party I was just amazed at how much the community gathered around us, contributing to the party and then celebrating with us--even if they didn't get any meat from it!  A couple people donated money to buy chips and sodas, a whole group of kids and neighbors were cleaning the chicken feet for us while we were busy with ministry activities the day of the party, my brother Katlego pretty much singlehandedly baked and decorated all three cakes, friends offered to help with the music, Petunia and a host of friends kindly operated the grills for hours on end...It was amazing how helpful people were!  AND they all had fun, so we were able to just enjoy each other's company and dance the night away.  I am so blessed to have been embraced as one of the community here--a community in which everyone just participates in each other's lives and helps each other out when needed.

Cake!

After the party, I thought the birthday itself would be pretty anticlimactic, but again, my dear friends here made sure it was special.  Rebekah, Katlego, and my friend Rony made me breakfast in bed and woke me up singing happy birthday at my door!  Ellen took the day off so we could hang out and go out to eat.  I visited the girls at Jabulani, and they had made a cake the week before and sang and gave me a beautiful card.  Katlego and Rony and Rebekah had also made another cake so I could have one on my birthday.  I felt so loved!  I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have such amazing friends near and far.

My South African brothers Katlego (far left) and Wesley, who were both HUGELY helpful and made my birthday very special!

So yes, I am still excited to go home and see my friends and family there.  But I was reminded of the wonderful friends and family I have made here, that I am so blessed to have and very sad to leave.  But for now I will live in denial of the fact that my time is limited, enjoy the beautiful relationships I have been blessed with, and try not to take the wonderful people in my life for granted again.