Ah, God is so good!  Yesterday started rather poorly...I was woken up quite early by my dad who said that he wanted me to run some errands in town...the very day after getting my license!  It was quite frustrating...I went to get an ink cartridge, 'cause my mom had to print something that morning...but they didn't have it, so they said they'd refill one of ours and it'd be ready Monday, several days later...so my mom was quite upset about that...but what could I do?  Then I went to get some bolts for making shelves in the storage room...and then dropped off the electric sander at my dad's office at Ascot...and when I got home finished the shelves...hmmm, you know in retrospect, it doesn't sound like a very bad day...just a bit busy...but anyway, I know that I was quite upset with my dad for waking me up so early...but I guess it was a bit selfish....ANYWAY!!!  That's over...the rest of the day was pretty cool...Kuns came over and we played guitar a bit...he had a stash of pedals...quite sweet...and he gave one of them to me!  'Metal Factory' it's called....ah...sweet distortion...mmm...yeah, then Shungu called...hadn't talked to him for over a year...and invited us to his get-together at his place...so around 5 or so we drove over there...and everyone was there!  Like so many guys...Rob and Tracy, Jess, Tarryn, Sam, Nick Simpson, T.K., Alvero, obviously Shungu...ah...lots of guys...and Ryan even brough Mdu...which was really cool...great to see him there.  I'm not sure if he's a Christian...but it's great that Ryan's reaching out.  Yessss...and someone pushed Kuns into the pool in his clothes...got all wet...and I have leather seats in my car, man!  But he dried up pretty well...sat on a towel and stuff, so everything was cool...we had a time of sharing after the socializing...just saying what God had done in our lives in 2005...it was quite cool, really...yeah...and there's so many guys leaving the country...it's weird...makes me wonder who's gonna still be at the church...but I'm sure there's gonna be plenty...it's just gonna be different tho...but I can tell that others are being trained up...there will be new musicians...new leaders...it'll be fine.  Yes, so the day actually went pretty well...and I thank God for such great friends...even though I didn't do all that much while I was here...there were always people to go to for talking...I think their personal witness did more for me than any church sermons I heard during my stay here.  It's just so encouraging what God can do in a heart that's surrendered to Him....mmm...well, I got stuff to do...packing and stuff, so adieu!

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2 Comments

Hey... saw you on the Missionary Kids Blogring.  My mom was a missionary in Zambia, Africa but she got married to a "missionary kid" from Burma and now they're both in Thailand... which is where I was born and am now employed under our mission.
Anyway... just thought I'd pop in and say hey, and to ask you a few questions about Africa if you're up for it. (just let me know if you're not)  Oh... and the whole drivers license thing... out of respect for my older sister, i waited six months after she got hers before getting mine.  That seems to be a big deal for the older brother/sister.  Why is that?

Posted 1/7/2006 at 5:1 AM by tropics_girl

Hey, thanks for posting...you are officially the second person to post on my site! Congratulations...hehe...yeah, I wouldn't mind talking about Africa...ask anything you want and I'll do my best at answering...you can either ask me on here or email me...it's your choice...

Posted 1/7/2006 at 4:3 PM by Dark_Vidar

Kylie's Party

The late morning sun found me still in bed, sleeping, due to my late night last night. I got up and ate breakfast while I watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a fairly good movie, mostly good for eye candy and advancements in filming technology and computer animation than an entertaining plot, but I enjoyed it.

I then got dressed and had my shower and was finally ready for the day around noon, when I did the dishes and then proceeded to ready the pool for vacuum-sweeping. I had the hose connected to the pole and was just ready when I heard the computer's UPS beeping. I waited to see if it continued to beep (which it did) and then went into the house to turn it off; the power was out again.

My dad had a staff party scheduled for 3pm today, so my mom's cooking plans were pretty much ruined. This seems to happen to us a lot; when we're having visitors over for a meal, the electricity cuts on us. So, without electricity, I couldn't sweep the pool, so I went to have lunch, made three tuna fish sandwiches and read Act I of Antony and Cleopatra as I ate. At about 2, while I was still eating, my dad arrived with a car full of people who all came to the living room and so I was pretty much kicked out of there, so thus I ascended to the solace of my room upstairs to finish my reading. I had resolved earlier to keep myself as inconspicuous as possible in the house while the staff party was in play, so I read some more and listened to some music (though softly, since I knew my dad would complain if I played it loud). At about 4 I started getting ready for the party...picked out my highlighters and glo-gear to bring with me, then I went downstairs for a drink of water. Finding no cold, filtered water, I resigned myself to some warm water and nasty ice-cubes (they tasted like plastic). I saw my family out back talking, so I went to listen as I drank, and to my disappointment was then sent off to get the pool running (as would be guessed, the electricity finally did come back on a bit earlier). I did as was requested of me and then went to go back to my room, but Leo saw me and asked if I could play guitar with him (He and another guy had been playing piano and guitar quite noisily ever since arriving at 3 - I could hardly hear anyone on the phone). I told him that I had to get ready for another party and he asked for a better guitar (he was employing a classical at the time). I nodded and brought my dad's acoustic from upstairs, which had been unofficially given to me, and so consoled Leo. Checking my watch and seeing 4:45 - Tom would pick me up at 5:30 - I dashed upstairs to have my shower and spiked my hair, packed my bag and was nearly ready at 5:50, wondering why Tom was late too (but glad of course).

He arrived finally and we set off. We stopped at the Hillside Spar to look for a birthday card (I continually do things last-minute), but couldn't find a single birthday card! They had wedding cards, get-well cards, and baby cards, but no birthday cards of all things!! So I went back out to Tom's car and someone hooted at me. Shungu yelled "Hey Jordan!" from his car nearby as he parked. I greeted him and told him about the card situation. He suggested a store around the corner, which Tom said was closed, so we never did get anything for Kylie (my procrastination is a rather big problem for me). Colleen was in the car with Shungu, and we chatted a bit. She hadn't been back to Zim in over 2 years and was quite glad to visit. Shungu said that he would be at the party around 11 after the Panto, we said our 'c ya l8r's and drove off.

When we found the house, we didn't see any cars parked and wondered what was up. I got out just as Kole came walking up the driveway to open the gate. He said we were the first to come, so Tom parked, though rather worried about how he would get out if a whole bunch of cars parked behind him, and we went in the house. We said 'hi' to Kylie and I introduced Tom to her (she told me I could bring friends even if she didn't know them). Then we waited. Finally some people came and calmed our worries that the party would be rather unattended. Kole was DJing with Graeme on the computer and some teeny speakers which I looked upon rather doubtfully. Yet they could crank the volume pretty well - well enough anyway. We pretty much just stood around and talked...not much dancing. Finally Shungu arrived at 10:30 or so and got the party going a bit. The guy just makes you laugh and loosen up...quite cool. So we finally danced until midnight, at which point I had to go, concluding a pretty cool night.

Holiday Happenings...mowing the lawn and cell group

I mowed the lawn today...fun, fun, it took almost the whole day: from 10:30 to 12:40 and then 2:00 to 5:00. We have such a huge lawn, so it was big work, but I finally finished. My dad says that I should feel satisfied that I worked so well, but I think my after-feeling was one of more relief than satisfaction.

In the middle of mowing, I found Toby harassing a lizard, one of those beautiful blue and yellow, colorful ones. He was throwing it around and it landed on it's back, kicking it's legs about. I felt sorry for it and ran over, pulled Toby off and picked the lizard up. He didn't seem too badly damaged except for two bloody holes near it's tail. The guy just stuck his head up at me and opened his mouth real wide, as if trying to intimidate me...hehe...brave dude. I showed Ally, who wanted to touch it but didn't want to get bitten, but I don't think it was going to bite. Besides it wouldn't hurt much if she did get bitten since lizards have such small teeth meant only for crushing bugs and stuff. So anyway, I let him go outside the gate so Toby couldn't find him again.

The cell group people started coming around 7:05; Jono, Sean (sp?), Arthur, Antoinette, Keelin, Tom, Jo, Pam, Rob and Tracy, Boise, Kole, Kylie, Thulani and that other girl, Graeme, Ryan and his cousin, Donald? were those who came. It was pretty cool. We watched the second video in the I Kissed Dating Goodbye series. It was titled "Purity" and was dealing with remaining sexual pure, as well as in thoughts and other things. Very good series, I must say. That lasted about 50 minutes, then we began discussing...cell was cool. This time I actually told them that there's coffee and food, so it all got eaten (last week I had neglected to mention anything and nothing got eaten). People started leaving around 10:30...Sean realized that she had locked her keys in her car, so I went and got a wire hanger and Rob proceeded to demonstrate the uselessness of Solex locks. It probably only took 5 minutes of work before he caught the latch and popped the lock. At least Sean got into her car, but it sure makes me question the security of our cars...So the last of them left around 11, and that takes my day to the present where I'm writing now.

I'm excited about Kylie's birthday party tomorrow, should be good...60+ people 6pm to 1am. Although Dad doesn't think I should stay out so late, but I see no problem as long as I catch up on the sleep I miss. It's the holidays after all! I'm gonna spike my hair, use UV gel, do some kanji drawings on my arms and stuff...gonna dance like mad! Sweetness...it's been awhile since I've done that...too long! But I need some sleep now...until tomorrow night!!!