Community is essential...

When I knew I was coming back to South Africa I was excited for so many reasons. One of the reasons was community. I knew that I would be part of a Jesus loving community in the church of Riverside and through Door of Hope. Being an extrovert I crave time with people. I love being around people. However, the older I get the more I realize I do enjoy being alone as well but that’s not the topic of this blog. Can I just be honest? Real honest with you? Are you sure? Even if you might get your feelings hurt? Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

When I was in college I was actively involved in a Gospel driven, mission minded, non-believer reaching church. A church that made me excited to go to. A church I would be able to worship freely, hear a convicting message that would make me think and prompt me to change. This was a church that I enjoyed being a part of. When I returned home from college, I couldn’t find that anywhere. I couldn’t find a church that welcomed older singles, worshiped freely and taught convicting Gospel centered messages. I craved community. I craved to be a part of the body of Christ. I went to a church 30 minutes from my home but with it being in another town it was hard to get connected with people. For THREE years I’ve been listening to podcasts (Matt Chandler, David Platt, Francis Chan, Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton). Did you read that? THREE years I’ve been church hunting and coming up empty handed, broken and alone. During this time I would pray “Jesus, I know it’s not about me but I can’t go to a church just to take up another seat on a pew. I want to be involved and active and serve.” And even in that I still sound selfish.

Now that I’m back, I have that. I have a community, a place to serve, a church that convicts and prompts to go and be the hands and feet of Jesus. I am so thankful I am apart of bible studies and small groups. As a believer, being a part of community is essential to your walk and allows you to be sharpened and grow. Jesus brings people in your life at different times to show you new things. I’m sure there is a reason why I was in a church rut for three years. It did teach me how important community is and to be thankful when you have it. It taught me how much I crave to be a part of a church that preaches “meat” instead of “milk”. This is only my opinion, so don’t get too upset. Jesus is the reason of life and community is essential to that life.

April showers...

 Hello sweet friends! I hope you are well and enjoying spring! I know my friends and family in the south don’t know what spring is. We leave winter and the next day it’s in the 90's. It is getting colder here. Currently the weather is in the mid 40's and low 70's. I’m finding South Africa fall very nice.

April was a fun and stressful month. We had a fundraiser for Door of Hope and I helped with coordinating it. I had lots of documents and paper work to have approved and signed before we held the event. Then the day of the Superhero Fun Run came. I was in charge of coordinating games for the kids to play. We had lots of volunteers come and help which was great. We had a wonderful time.

We have had so much trouble with technology lately. The office phone didn’t work for 6 weeks and then the internet was down. Guess what guys, my job is to answer the phone and emails. Even though I found other things that needed to be done around the office, it was a bit slow at work for a while. Which was nice with the stress of the Fun Run behind us, we were able relax in the quiet a bit. The phones are down again so we are just praying they are fixed soon. Things take time to be fixed here. We can’t just call someone and they be here in 15 minutes and fix it immediately. Different country, different people, different way of life.

The May newsletter was sent out yesterday. If you would like to receive it, you can go online to www.doorofhope.co.za and sign up for it. Hannah and I had an introduction feature in it.

I moved out of Baby House 1 and moved into Don and Cheryl’s home for 6 weeks as they are in the states promoting Door of Hope and Arise Ministries. The flat that I will be staying in for the time I’m here is being renovated. We just moved back to Baby House 1 because Don and Cheryl return from the States this week. Hannah and I were talking about moving back to the Baby House. We felt like we were on vacation, it was nice while it lasted but we were ready to come home. This morning when I went to have breakfast the aunties kept saying welcome home. I didn’t realize how much I missed the aunties, babies and toddlers. I didn’t get to see them very often because I work at another baby home. It was nice to be back.

I want to open the floor up for you to ask questions and I answer them in my next blog. I don’t really know what you guys want to read about. Writing isn’t my strong suit and I forget everything so I need some help from you. If you would like to know something, anything, please send me a Facebook message or email at aredden87@yahoo.com and I will answer it on the next blog. I’m thankful for each of you. You, my sweet friends, are my favorite people.