life in cape town and onward to zimbabwe!

"In Christ all will be made ALIVE." I cor. 15:22

It has been a while since I last blogged and I feel that so much has happened! The Lord has really been doing so much in my life. So much is going on all the time; everyday there is an abundance of things i am learning and experiencing here. so this week i began asking the Lord to show me what he is doing in all these things, specifically in my heart. the thing i felt him say is that in this season my heart is coming ALIVE! (which is really exciting :) I feel that in this season so much is being revealed in me and i am really stepping into the things i am created to be. learning to love the things the Father has given me. allowing Jesus to delight in who i am and not what i do. really running with him, fully trusting him to take me to the places he has for me! Hallelujah!

There is a group of us who spend our nights on the weekends praying and worshipping in the prayer shack in our backyard. It has been so sweet to really press into God’s presence and to experience more and more of the Living God! One night as we were praying I was looking at some pictures that are hanging on the wall of the prayer shack of kids in Masi who are apart of the Vulnerable Children program. All of a sudden my heart was flooded with emotion and I began crying. That night the Lord really poured out his heart over me for the children of Africa, specifically in Masi. I mourned the injustice of the things these kids face everyday. So many children are growing up without fathers and/or mothers. Disease, neglect, abuse, addiction, fear, abandonment and hopelessness plague the families of Masi. Children face everyday things I could never imagine the children I know from home facing even on one occasion. I mourned that night, but God also began stirring my heart. He gave me Ezekial 37 where God calls Ezekial to prophecy life over the pile of bones, and as he does the dry bones come to life, and come together in a “vast army.” I felt God calling me to prophesy over these children, prophesying life, hope, destiny over them. Calling out to each child by name because as each was born God saw them and dreamed extravagant dreams over them. He still longs for those dreams to come to pass, he longs for each child to live out their glorious destiny. Although they are over looked in this world and are oppressed by the injustices of society, the Father sees them and the great Rescuer comes to break their chains. So I feel that he is asking me to stand in the gap and to cry out for each child to come and step into their destinies…calling them to be the generation that seeks the face of God. (Psalm 24:6). Some of the things that I feel God has been stirring up in me since being here at CPx is a desire to see children raised up to know God, to love him and to hear his voice. And a longing to see families restored…Father’s returning to their children, mother’s healed and set free, and children being loved, treasured and raised up! This is so near to God’s heart!
Since that night in the prayer room a week ago, I have been praying over the children of Masi, specifically the children in the V.C. program. I have a list of all the households and each of the children’s names. I have been taking each household and praying for the children by name. As I have been praying the Lord has given me words and dreams that he has over each child, and I have been speaking those words over the kids. Here is a fun story about one of the children I prayed over:
Every Friday we have a kids club where we gather the Vulnerable Children program. i was praying over one of the households that i have never met...i prayed over a little 10 year old girl named Lucy. I felt the Lord speaking several things over her. That afternoon in masi we were going around to the households gathering the children for the kids club. one of the households i went to gather from was Lucy's! she was pretty quiet and was not opening up to me at first. but as we were walking she reached up and touched my clip (my friend brooke made me some hair clips that i could wear and then give away to little girls in masi) ...so i pulled the clip out of my hair and put it in hers. she was so excited! i told her that i wanted to give this to her but she had to promise to remember a few things everytime she wore it. i told her when she wears it she must tell herself 1.) I am beautiful! 2.) God loves me! 3.) and whitney loves me too! her face lit up...and her walls started to come down. i then told her that earlier that day i had been praying over some kids from the vulnerable children progam and she was one of them. i then told her that God had told me that he created her to be a light in this world. that where there was bad things and darkness, God had made her to bring light and love to those places. she got so excited and said "my name means light!" i got to share with her some more about God's heart for her. it really felt that she understood that God had spoken these things! it felt so significant. it was seriously one of the sweetest moments i have had in masi so far. Praise God! He loves his children!

In other news! As most of you know, the last 6 weeks of CPx are spent on short term outreach trip where we can apply all the things we are learning in the teaching phase. I just found out last week that I will be going to…

ZIMBABWE!

I leave on April 23 for Victoria Falls, which is located in Northern Zimbabwe, right on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. From what I hear, Victoria Falls is beautiful and is like Niagra Falls but ten times bigger! We will be living in a community of about 150,000 people, called Chinotimba. As most of you know, the county of Zimbabwe was once known as the “breadbasket of Africa.” The country was prosperous and stable; however, due to the leadership of president Mugabe, the economy of Zim has been destroyed. The people of Zim were left to fend for themselves in a country where billions of Zim dollars could not even buy food for a family due to the extreme inflation. I have prayed for Zim many times for the issues the country is facing and it is a joy to be able to actually go and meet the people and serve them! The team I am going with consists of our team leader Munya, who is from Zim, two couples from Florida, David and Shannon and Ray and Stacy, and a black South African named Wonder. We will be living in the community we will be serving in which is very exciting to me!

And I hear that elephants live right outside where we are staying!

i am so excited and expectant for what God is going to do in our time there! i am praying that even now he would begin giving us each his heart, dreams and vision for his beloved country of Zimbabwe!

And in closing i wanted to include a picture of the new love of my life...Jasper Aslan. The All Nations family adopted Jasper and asked me and my roommates if we would take care of him. i don't even like cats but i LOVE jasper! i am really pretty obsessed with him!

THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for being with me on this adventure and loving, supporting and encouraging me! i thank God for all of you!

MUCH LOVE FROM AFRICA!
whit

the Divine Orchestrator!

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…

And God saw that it was good.”
Genesis 1:1 &10

God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. He formed the earth and everything in it. When I really look at nature it never ceases to amaze me how everything fits together so perfectly. I have been studying Genesis 1 with several groups of women in Masi this past week (pretty sweet when women who don’t really know Jesus are teaching you knew things about God. Yes!). I have been struck really deeply with some truths drawn from this story. God is an orchestrator. Every detail of creation screams this truth. I have been for the 100th time learning to trust God in a new way since I have been here. On Friday during our time in Masi, the Lord moved in such a powerful way that I truly feel changed by it. There wasn’t any crazy healing, no one got raised from the dead, and the multitudes didn’t give their lives to Jesus. However, I was left in awe of the greatness of God and feeling so secure in the Father’s faithfulness. Here is the story.

My group that I do outreach in Masi with (Julianna and our friend, Vuyani) began our day by going to find Nokuthula, a girl we met the week before. She is hungry to know more about Jesus, so we set up a time to meet with her and her friends to pray and read the Word together. On the way we were going to drop by one of the Vulnerable Children houses. As we are heading down the main street we passed a group of girls. I made eye contact with one of them for a bit and I felt the Lord telling me that I was suppose to talk with her because she was hungry to know Him. But for some reason I didn’t do it. So as we are looking for this house, we got a bit lost and were walking in circles. We passed that same group of girls again about 10 minutes later. As we passed by the group, the girl I knew I was suppose to talk to was passing directly in front of me and for some reason neither of us got out of each other’s way. We ended up standing face to face. Her name is Siwapiwe. She asked me what we were doing in Masi. After telling her about our heart for Masi, she said that she wanted to walk around with us sometime. I told her that we could come by her house later that day. We then headed to meet Nokuthula. When we got there she led us to her friend’s house that wanted to meet us. But her friend was not there. We went to the library to try and find a place to hang out. The library was in mass chaos with hundreds of kids…and somehow we ended up on a tour of the library. We went up the stairs to the computer section and as I walked up the stairs a beautiful little girl greeted me. We finally found a quiet spot and had a really sweet time with our friend. After hanging out with her we went to find the house of the girl we met earlier, Siwapiwe. As we walked up to her home, we realized that it was the exact shack we had come to with Nokuthula! The girl I felt the Lord calling me to speak with and the friend of Nokuthula was the same girl! We knocked, but Siwapiwe was not home. As we were waiting for her, I saw a woman across the street coming in and out of her shack. Her shack was my absolute favorite color (turquoise, of course) and she seemed really lovely. I really wanted to go talk to her, so I went over while we were waiting for Siwapiwe. She was SO friendly and invited us to sit with her and gave us some coke. She told us that she has two kids who were at the library for an afterschool program. I thought to myself, “I bet her daughter is the little girl who greeted me at the computer area.” Sure enough, a minute later her kids came home and it was the same little girl! A few minutes later, Siwapiwe got home. We called her over and come to find out, she is really close with the woman we were sitting with. Earlier that day the Lord had given me a word for someone we would meet later that day about the parable in Matthew 13:44 of the treasure hidden in a field. I feel the Lord spoke so clearly who his treasures were that day. Every person we came in contact with were connected. The crazy thing is that these people were not all from the same area. We had been all over the community. Masi is big but God is bigger. Our steps were ordered so perfectly. The Lord sees and has plans for these women.

God is a divine orchestrator. He orders our steps. He won’t let us miss the good things he has for us. There is such assurance when we walk with the Father. This encounter that I had in Masi sealed something in my heart… I can trust the Father. He is so big and he knows exactly what we need. We can throw ourselves on his promises. We can put every hope in him and we will never be disappointed. He brings all things together for our good. I am so thankful that I have such good news to share with a hurting, weary and oppressed people! My heart is welling up with joy and praise for God our Creator. My heart’s desire is more and more to walk in adoration and worship as I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, the lover of my soul. Thank you again to all who have made it possible to be here…I am so thankful for this time in my life and what the Lord is doing in me! MUCH LOVE! whit

first full week in CPx!

Molo from South Africa (Molo means hello! Xhosa lessons are going great…I am almost fluent…hmm almost :) Here is an update on my life since my last post…

Last week on Monday and Tuesday we had a guest teacher who is the leader of a church planting movement in South Africa. He taught on their method on rapid multiplying simple house churches (simple church is simply a gathering of people who seek to worship God, love each other and seek the lost). As Floyd was introducing him to us, he told us to prepare ourselves for brain surgery…and that is exactly what we got. I have not been that challenged by teachings in a long time. So many of my paradigms of what church actually is and what it can look like were completely shaken up. He taught straight out of Matthew 28:16-20 and Luke 10:1-12 challenging us to look at the commands that Jesus set before us to “go and make disciples of all nations.” He helped us break down paradigms that are biblical about church and making disciples and what is simply things that we have learned through the church culture we have grown up in. (If you would like to hear more in detail about the teachings or the discipleship method we learned please email me!) After the two days of teaching, we all were so stretched and our brains felt so tired that we could barely hold coherent conversations! It was a really intense, but good way to start the teaching phase! It has been really challenging learning to bring the teachings I am receiving before the Lord and to ask the Father how this applies to my life and the things he has for me in my future!

This past week we also began meeting with our discovery groups (d-groups). My d-group is led by Munya, an All Nations staff member from Zimbabwe. My group consists of: Brandon and Julianna, (who I came with from Norman Community Church), Nicole (my roommate), Lifa (a black South African) and Lucas (who is from Masi). The vision for the d-groups is for them to function as our simple church during our teaching phase. We also go with these groups into the township communities for outreach during the teaching phase of CPx. Like I said before my d-group is working in Masiphumelele (Masi). We had our first day in Masi on Friday and we really hit the ground running! One of the programs All Nations runs is called Vulnerable Children (V.C). The mission of Vulnerable Children is to find child headed households in Masi and to network to find supporters who will sponsor one of these households in order that they can meet their basic needs. (If you are interested in sponsoring a child headed household please let me know!) Child headed households are homes where the parents or guardians have either passed away or are no longer present in the home (many times due to sickness such as HIV/AIDS) leaving the oldest child to take care of and provide for the other children in the home. A few people in our d-group have joined up with the Vulnerable Children program and have committed to connecting with these households, building relationship, and hopefully planting simple churches with any who are hungry and thirsty for Jesus and His Kingdom! Most of the V.C households are located in an area of Masi called the Wetlands, which is the poorest part of the township community. There are no paved roads in the Wetlands, and the shacks are packed in with just enough room between each one to walk. We had a list of shack numbers and we spent the afternoon searching for the homes. As we squeezed between shacks, ducking under clothes lines I was filled with emotion. We were truly on a treasure hunt, seeking out the lost and the broken, true treasures in the Father’s heart. Before we left for Masi that day the Lord gave me this verse: James 2:5: “Listen my brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him?” This is who he has chosen, his treasures, the poor in spirit, the broken hearted, the weary and downtrodden, the overlooked and unloved, the oppressed and the captives. This is what I long to give my life to. To seeing the broken raised up from the ashes and restored to beauty. This is exactly what the Father has done for me. He has reached down and pulled me out of the pit of despair, he has rescued me because he delights in me. And this is His heart for all His children of all nations. This is what he commands of us: to GO and bear his good news to the nations and to those in our lives, to declare to those who do not yet know that we have a Father who has saved us from death and has done great things for us! Amen!

I have found it to be a joy to have this chance to live with friends from all over the world. I love getting to share life with so many beautiful people who bring such different experiences and perspectives to the table. There are so many moments where I will find myself sharing conversation with someone who was born halfway around the world from me, listening to their stories, hearing what life is like for them. Getting to share our hearts with one another, who God is to us, and what we dream for in life. It is so unbelievable that I get to share life with people from so many different walks of life. It is amazing to get to play games, laugh, share meals, and worship together; to pray for one another, to share the deep places of our heart with each other, to go after the Kingdom and run to the broken hearted together. It is a true joy and I am daily learning how to lay down my life, my preferences, my way of doing things for others around me.

For my birthday I got to go to Boulder Beach, my favorite place in the world, and swim with the penguins! It was the perfect birthday adventure!

Here is a pic of Rachel, Amanda and me on Norman Road! We miss norman sooooo much! We daily talk about our friends who we love so dearly. We also daily talk about how much we would die for some Café Plaid, chik-fil-a, taco bueno, orange tree, etc. mmmm. We are missing the comfort foods from home :)

To end things, here are few things the Father is currently teaching me…
…to trust him; he will ALWAYS go before me and make a way for me (wow, I think I have learned this like one million times.)
…to live a lifestyle of worship. to keep my gaze on his face and not look at my circumstances but instead worship him in every moment of my life. Life is better when we walk in constant praise!
…to live from a place of fearing and honoring God above all else in my life (I have noticed that my African friends are so good at this. I am constantly inspired by this in their lives.)
…to daily lay down my life for God and others because it is not my life to cling to…this is actually so freeing. I am being SO humbled every day.

Thank you so much for continuing with me on this journey! I am so thankful for each and every one of my family and friends! MUCH LOVE from south africa!

whitney

molo from south africa!

Molo from south Africa!

FINALLY, here is my first blog update from cape town! My time here has been great so far! I do have to say that I am sorry that it has taken me so long to update but I feel that as we get settled into more of a schedule I will be able to figure out more times to spend communicating with everyone! I just wanted to do a brief overview of my time here so far:

Travelling was amazing! We truly had the Father’s travelling mercies! Our flights and layovers went so smoothly and the Lord surrounded us with the kindest, most open people on each flight! On my first flight from OKC I sat next to the most incredible woman of God, who was just overflowing with the light, love and joy of Jesus! It was really orchestrated that we were sitting next to each other because I LOVE flying and she is scared of flying! We soon learned that we both loved Jesus and I got to pray for her and contend for her during the flight and she spent time praying over me and encouraging me. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to sit next to! A quick story about the goodness and power of God: the pilot came over the speaker and told us that when they were flying to Tulsa the flight before there was pretty bad turbulence most of the way because of a storm. We soon hit some crazy turbulence, the worst I have felt in a while. Of course my dear friend was NOT enjoying the bumpy ride, so I just began praying peace over her and praying the turbulence to calm down. I got a picture of huge angels on either side of our plane surrounding us and also going before the plane and smoothing out the clouds. As soon as I shared this with her and declared this as truth, the turbulence STOPPED! And there was no more turbulence the rest of the plane ride! Praise God! Nothing is too big for him!

I LOVE where I get to live! I live at All Nations main team house and meeting place, called Africa House. The majority of the students in CPx live there as well, and the rest live in a house right across the street. I live in a room with the two norman girls and a girl from Florida named Nicole. There are 42 students in CPx and we represent 12 different nations: USA, UK, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Colombia and Canada. I LOVE living in community and with people from all over the world! I was definitely made for community housing and it is so fun and energizing to get to be with people all day long.

Two of the students in our class are from Masiphumelele (Masi), the township community that I have worked in each time I have come here! One is a woman named Vovo who is around my age who has fully given her life to Jesus and the other is Lucas, a former Rastafarian who has encountered the living God and been consumed by his grace and love. It is so sweet to get to go hand in hand with the sweet fruit from seeds sown into the community! God is doing so much in Masi. SO much has changed since I first went in 2007. The locals will tell you, Masi is NOT the same place! The atmosphere is changing and God is turning hearts to himself. Most of you will remember that when I was there in 2008 our team spent a lot of time praying that a curse that was over the land would be broken off. For many years on the 16th of December there would be a massive fire that would destroy dozens of homes. That year there was no fire! And Vovo shared with me that since then there have been no more big fires like that! The people of Masi are beginning to know that have a Father who loves them and is protecting them!

Here is a little bit of an idea of my weekly schedule:
Tuesday and Wednesday: Teaching days (from 8 to 5)
Thursday, Friday and Sunday: In the township communities
Saturday: Work day
Monday: Rest day

Our first week of class began last Monday and I really enjoyed it so much. We did a lot of orientation and getting to know another. We even spent one day at an adventure camp doing team building activities. It has been so stirring and exciting to get to have a few class sessions with Papa Floyd (the founder of All Nations and our primary teacher). We also spent a small amount of time going into each of the townships and prayer walking to begin receiving the Lord’s heart for his people there. I found out that I am on the Masi team. I will explain more about that later, but I know that the Lord has so much for my time in Masi these next few months. He has been giving me so much vision and excitement for what he has for our team in Masi! As most of you know it is my heart’s desire to learn a language. One of the African guys in CPx has offered to give Xhosa (the main language spoken in the black townships) lessons! We had our first lesson and my heart was so alive and excited thinking about getting to spend three months learning a language! English is spoken a little bit by most people in Masi; however, language truly is an instant bridge when you are able to connect with someone in their heart language! I can’t wait!

I really am so expectant of my time here in Cape Town. I feel that the Lord has been saying that this is a time of JOY and a time of drawing to the deep places of His heart. I know the Lord is going to pour out much of his heart and vision for my life, but more than anything my heart cries out to see God face to face and to be consumed by His love! I am praying that this is a season of being overwhelmed with God’s heart. I want to be one with Jesus, loving the things he loves, mourning for the things he mourns for and longing for what he longs for. I pray that each of you is doing well and that you are filled with the love, truth and joy of being children of God!
MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL!
Whitney

PS I can not check facebook at the team house, so the best way to contact me is my email: WhitneyElise211@hotmail.com I would LOVE to hear from you!!!

OH here is a pic of me on my birthday! i celebrated my 23rd birthday last thursday...and i received my first birthday sunburn!! i LOVED having my first summer birthday :) thanks to all my friends and family who loved me so well from across the world!

getting ready!

in one week i will be in cape town, south africa (ah!) and i am getting so excited for the adventures up ahead! (i leave on february 4th at 10:30 am.) i am currently spending my last week in tulsa with my amazing mama and family! i spent the last two weeks in norman hanging out with my friends whom i love so dearly. i truly have found spiritual family in norman and i am so thankful for that! my time in norman was filled with lots of hang outs with dear friends, lots of time to process through my big move to africa, and lots of joy and laughter.

during my time in norman, my housechurch threw me my first surprise party ever! i was SO surprised! (see pic above) i was thrilled! they got me my favorite food (cookie cake!) and they spent time praying over me. the Lord gave me some AMAZING words through them.
here are a just a few:

--he spoke to me that he has perfectly positioned me for this move. i am perfectly positioned to bear much fruit! the time is just right!
--that he is sending me with angels on either side of me, protecting me. no fear! 100% protected by my heavenly Father!
--that he is preparing the hearts of people i will meet and that they are holding their breath, waiting in eagerness for the Good News to be shared with them!
--that the Lord will send me with his power, bringing salvations, joy and the power of his presence to the people in South Africa.

my time in norman was marked by refreshment, encouragement and lots of breakthrough both spiritually and financially! the Lord has provided for me in abundant ways and i am so unbelievably grateful for all who have supported me in any way, shape or form! i am so close to having all the money i need for tuition, but i still need just a bit more. if you have been stirred to give and have not been able to yet, it is not too late! (*see below for info on how to donate!)


below are some pics to help you get a better grasp of where i will be going! enjoy!

the beauty of cape town is breathtaking...i think it is the most beautiful place in the world!

this is a picture was taken from the top of table mountain. there are oceans and mountains everywhere in cape town!

my most favorite place in the world...boulder beach! penguins live here! isn't that funny?

here is a pic of a township in cape town. people use whatever materials they can to build homes. this is where i will be spending a lot of my time; meeting people, making friends and serving them, and sharing the love and hope of Jesus!

this is a pic of me and amanda sperle (who is attending CPx with me) saying goodbye to some friends inside their home in Masiphumelele, one of the townships All Nations is committed to.

the future of south africa. beautiful children at a primary school in masiphumelele.

the boy on my right's name is musa. musa has been my friend since the first time i visited south africa in 2007. i am not sure where his father is and since his mother died he has been passed around amongst family members. i have been committed to praying for musa; that he would be protected and love, and that he would grow up knowing that he is a son of God. he is very smart and i believe in him so much.

beautiful girls from masiphumelele. my heart cries out for the women and children of south africa; for them to know the love and freedom of Jesus.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has annointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners...

Instead of their shame my people will recieve a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs." Isaiah 61:1-2, 7

MUCH LOVE AND JOY TO YOU ALL!

*if you woul like to donate to my time in south africa you can send checks to my home address:

10513 S. 86th E. Pl. Tulsa, Ok 74133

you can make checks out in my name (Whitney Caldwell). if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at whitneyelise211@hotmail.com.

claire layla caldwell

claire layla caldwell was born

on december 7th at 4:22 pm
in amman, jordan

7 lb. and 20 inches long

i love her big eyes and sweet chubby cheeks....i could kiss them ALL day long. my favorite thing is when i get to wake her up to eat...she is so warm and snuggly and i love watching her streeetch and open her eyes...it really is the best thing ever.


watching drew with her...he LOVES to burp her, change her diaper and do anything to take care of her. she is mesmorized by her daddy...his voice soothes her every time.


she loves her hands. she hates being swaddled and she likes having her hands by her face. she is so sweet. snuggling her is the best!


this pic is hilarious. since she was born, one of her ears flops over. the doctor said she probably was laying weird on her ear in the womb and that if we flatten it, it would lay right. but we discovered how her ear really got this way.... she loves to grab her ear! she was sleeping like this the other day! and she had her arms just like this in her 4-D ultra sound pic...so funny!


i have LOVED being an aunt. i love claire so much and i am so excited to get to see her grow up and become all the things the Lord has dreamed over her!

MUCH LOVE FROM JORDAN :)

adventures in jordan...

here are some more highlights from my time in jordan...claire definitely took her sweet time coming into this world, so we had some time on our hands!

one day my brother took my mom and me to explore downtown amman. we had been sitting around doing NOTHING for about a week waiting for claire everyday so it was so refreshing to get out and have an adventure!

downtown is filled with tons of small shops and little markets up alleyways. a pic of me and drew in a fruits and veggies market...everyone just yells as loud as they can...we bought kiwis, my new fav.

we ate at one of jordan's most well known restaurants. sitting outside eating falafel and hummas and egyptian tea...mmmm!

we also went to some roman ruins (who knew) and got to enter for free because the guy loved that drew spoke arabic like a native. (his arabic is unbelievable...sometimes people ask if he is arab because he doesn't have an accent...dang!)

here is a pic of our camel friend. this sweet camel lived a few blocks away from drew and mary's house in a neighbor's backyard!...really. this camel was bought for one the big holidays in jordan called the feast of slaughter (it was the day after thanksgiving). this holiday is celebrated to remember abraham's sacrifice of isaac. to celebrate families will slaughter an animal. (yikes! lots of blood in the streets ah). most will slaughter a sheep, however, this family went big and bought a camel to slaughter :( thus, our camel friend is no more! (also for this holiday there are feasts, and everyone goes and visits their families and they give eachother money and gifts...family is such a big deal here..i am learning so much about the culture which i love.

as i sit here writing this blog you can hear an array of noises flooding the streets of jabal hussein (the team's neighborhood). street vendors drive around selling things...they each have their own noise to let people know what they sell. so the fruits and veggies guy has a recording of him yelling in an incredibly obnoxious voice "fruits and vegetables" in arabic. some have songs, some just yell. the cotton candy vendor has a nice, whimsical sounding whistle that he blows as he walks by. and five times a day the call to prayer is blasted from nearby a mosque. never a quiet moment around here...especially now that we have the sounds of a sweet newborn to add to the mix :)

i will be back in the states on wednesday...so sad to be leaving family here :(
but i am excited for the holidays with family and friends in oklahoma!

PEACE AND JOY to you all!