life is HECTIC!

i'm on my second week of school and i cannot believe how much work has already piled up. the work here is INTENSE. i have class tuesday through friday, one class on each day lasting from 9-3 (though most classes only go til 12 or 1, thankfully). We have packets upon packets of reading to do in each class (no books cuz its too expensive, so we just copy all the pages from the books and pretend its not illegal, hehe!) along with papers to write, exams to study for and presentations to prepare. and i thought bethel was hard! however, one person told me to look at it this way: we are here for 8 weeks of our life (for some students a bit longer but i think it still applies to me). in this 8 weeks the work will be hard and life will get crazy but in that time not only are you educating yourself on things of the world, you are intensly studying the word of God. you are here, immersing yourself in a world with other christians to go out and apply yourself to your society with a Christian worldview. is it not worth it to spend these 8 weeks getting the very best out of it that you can? these words were very encouraging to me and have helped to prepare me in the work ahead. i'm kinda bummed cuz i wont get to do the ministry that i was hoping to do (not only because of the work load but also because of transportation) but i know that i still have ministry within the household i'm living in and God can do a lot right where i'm at. please please please pray for my relationship with sharoneze and that i will be able to work in her life to bring her to a point where she wants to LIVE her life as a born again Christian and DESIRES to know God more. none of her friends are strong christians (that i know of) which makes it difficult for her to want that relationship with Christ. pray that i can be a light in her world and that she will listen and take in all that i can give her.
this past weekend for me was quite interesting. friday night i went to a 21st birthday party which HUGE!! no joke, 21st birthday parties here are like weddings... it is one of the biggest celebrations in south africa. me, uncle dez and auntie sandra drove about 45 minutes to this decked out hall with beautiful decorations, a massive amount of food, and a DJ. When they announced for Azalia to come in, she wore a beautiful white dress with a train (can you see how it reminded me of a wedding?!) and walked in with her cousin. the family all spoke and gave toasts to her, congratulating her on becoming a woman. unfortunately i really had no idea what they were saying cuz everyone spoke in afrikaans. but, all in all, it was still a pretty good night. on saturday, i hung out and talked with my brother and sister for most of the afternoon and then left to go spend the night at naomi and laines house. that night was great fun! we watched MADEA (ohhh i just love those movies!!) and laughed like no tomorrow, played a few board games and then took andre (their host brother) outside to jump in the rain puddles! (that was by far the best part!). later on, around midnight or so the power went off so we lit a bunch of candles and just sat around and talked in the candlelight. me, jill and mike went to bed about 4:30 whereas laine, naomi and andre didnt go to bed til 7!! needless to say, we had planned on hiking up table mountain that morning but weren't able to make it. fortunately, the guy who was going to bring us up never called us back anyway so it probably wouldn't have happened. sunday we had a huge lunch which was super good. i worked on homework, well, tried to work on homework, the rest of the day. not much else to say, pretty much just been consumed by work :( tomorrow is valentine's day so tonight i'm gonna help sharoneze get ready by blowing out her hair and straightening it so that should be fun! i just found out that if we dont wear red at school tomorrow they are gonna charge us 2 rand! lol, thats pretty clever if you ask me. i'll let you know if i get a date :D haha! love, melissa