27 days...

I know I have not written for awhile. Sorry Ruth! :-)

Life has been crazy for most of the African team. Two weekends ago, we held our African Gala. Everything seemed to be coming together. We had 34 tables set for 8. Our whole team was there and many sons, daughters, wives, husbands and friends who had willing hands and a willing heart to serve. Almost everyone was there in the morning to set up the tables and the silent auction room. We had everything almost done so that we had a 3 hour break before needing to return at 4pm to start prepping for dinner. About 2pm it started slushing. Not really raining, but really snowing but an inbetween mixture. We weren't sure how that would affect our fundraising efforts but we were ready. We had 18 of us serving the 34 tables. So we got our directions from our coordintor and we were ready.

Within the first 10 minutes our coordinator realized that those in the kitchen couldn't serve up food fast enough to keep a steady flow of us going out to the tables serving. About 30minutes into the first course, salad, those in the kitchen realized that half of the salad they had bought had froze and then thawed and was disgusting. So we had half of our tables served salad, and the others waited another 45 minutes while someone ran to Sam's Club to get more.

Our leaders had spent weeks planning the agenda out to the minute of how everything was going to go. They knew when each course would be served, when the speaker would speak, when the drama team would perform, and when the African choir would sing. It was DETAILED. The agenda went out with the ruin salad and we all started just going with the flow. It was a great team building activity.
This was the set up of the room. We held it in the chapel building at the MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) Headquarters in Nampa.

The simple, but elegant tables.

The African choir from a church in Boise.

The dinner guests not to sure about doing the moves with the African choir.

Everything worked out in the end. I'm not sure how much money we raised. Many of us were there until after midnight cleaning up. We had to hand wash all the dishes. Multiply 34 tables, by 8 place settings, by 4 utensils each, and that is how many forks, spoons, and knives I washed by hand. (1088 utensils). I had pruney fingers for two days after.

The gala gave me a chance to work with people other than those directly on my team. I got to know some of the other girls who are a little bit younger than me. It was nice to hang out with people closer to my own age, as I am the youngest one on my small group team. I have never had so much fun working so hard. It made me realized how blessed I am by my connections and friendships with my teammates. I still struggle with the personalities on my small team, but I know that the 37 hour plane ride will be a lot of fun because we will be so tired and everything will be funny :-)

This blog is turning into a novel.... But like I said earlier, Team Africa has been pretty busy. On November 22nd, Aaron left for Lesotho. Aaron is our leader's Jason and Connie's oldest soon. He was born in Lesotho and he feels more at home there, then here. He left to visit old friends and to start getting things ready for us. Last Saturday Jason left for Pennsylvania where his father was dying, and died Sunday morning. On top of all of they lost a dear family friend their sons age to a tragic accident Saturday night. Our whole team is feeling the affects. Please pray for Aaron as he is in Lesotho and lost both his grandfather and one of his best friends in a matter of day. Pray for Jason and Connie as they go through these loses and loved ones and are preparing to lead the first team to leave on December 8th. Jason will be returning to Nampa on Wednesday to turn around and leave next Monday for Lesotho. Connie is trying to remain calm, unstressed and strong for the rest of her family and it's wearing on her.

Well I think this is enough for now. I will try to write again this week as to not disappoint my dear reader Ruth. :-)