my birthday!

first let me just say that i had a very lovely day here in zim. my birthday is a big deal to me and i have almost always been surrounded by really good friends to celebrate. this year my only really good friend here so far is dan. but he, of course, is an amazing gift from God, who loves me very well and did an excellent job of celebrating me. i had many suprise birthday presents, a small party, a few cards that came on time, many facebook wishes, and "happy birthday" sung in suprising new ways.

someone asked me how birthdays are celebrated here. to be honest i still don't know fully but i do know this- everytime i have heard "happy birthday" sung it has at least 3 verses, and two of mine had 5! i will give you a little taste.

"happy birthday to you"...

"how old are you now"...

"we wish you many more"...

"God bless you today"...

and my favorite "who is your boyfriend"... only altered for me to say "who is your husband"...

a little over the top.

today, dan took me to a safari park, that is actually a conservation park with an excellent black rhino breeding program. so we saw many great africa animals and got to touch and feed both black rhinos and elephants!!!! it was so fun. here are a few pictures.

-m

work permits

we got them! officially stamped in our passports this morning! :)

friendship

i have been recently challenged to think about friendship in new ways. i have spent the last two months realizing that i am a bit lonely because i do not have friendships here in zim like i have had in the past. and if you know me well you know that friendships are very important to me- so when i say i was challenged i mean CHALLENGED! my lovely friend kylee told me that she thinks i might have to let my ways of making friends and even thinking about friendships die in order to make friends and have friends in zim. i thought about this for a day and a half and then found myself in church listening to a man tell us that we may have to be willing to give up a gifting that God has given us for His glory. we may have to be ready to lay down what we know is “easy” to depend on Him and bring Him the glory for what we actually do. all i could think about was my way of friendship. i have seen it as a gift from God for awhile so it fit this man’s point very well.

i don’t really know what it means to let my ways die. and i don’t know what these new ways will look like. but i do know that i want God to be glorified in my life. i know that i want to love Him more than i love my friends and more than i love myself.

-m