This weekend we were blessed to work at the Cobble Classic in Port Elizabeth and have accommodations covered by The Boardwalk Hotel!
Hello friends, family and those in-between!
Again, I must apologize for my lack of communication with you all; I'm truly terrible at keeping in touch! I would like to give you all a brief update of what exactly I have been up to these past few weeks! This includes: Aleph the Waterhole turtles the Afrikaans alphabet Spring Day Birthdays King Shelter Baptisms (not in this particular order) SO . . . Lectures are almost finished and we will shortly be starting out roadshow phase of the CSALT program. This means those of us involved with Aleph will possibly making a trip to Durban to plant another Aleph up the coast while those who are focusing on Christian Surfers will be working around the Eastern Cape at surfing competitions. This is a really exciting part of our program we're doing but it really saddens me that our little family will be splitting up until November! It's such a bittersweet feeling seeing my brothers head out in a different direction than I am. I'm proud of them and how they've grown in the Lord but I'm being very selfish and want them around all the time! THE WATERHOLE Basically it's this baby cliff that you can jump off of into a freshwater pool. It has a hipline and some smaller jumps as well but seeing the boys jump off only made me want to do it even more! (I was also persuaded with cheesecake) It was definitely a HUGE thrill and I was pretty stoked because I finally know what it's like to feel like Pocahontas! TURTLES Apparently finding and keeping a wild box turtle is frowned upon in South Africa, thus, if your heart is truly set on owning a turtle, you must purchase a special turtle permit. I kid you not. Well, so far the Po-Po haven't caught me with my beloved turtle, Rufio, yet! One of the boys who frequently surfs with Aleph found a turtle with some holes in his shell and seeing the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream of owning a turtle I quickly snatched the fellow up and secretly brought him back to the CSALT house. He is still happily living in the garden (somewhere) and enjoy long and slow strolls in the sunlight when he decides to come out of his shell. THE AFRIKAANS ALPHABET I'm trying to it in with the locals around here but my Afrikaans is somewhat nonexistent so I decided to try and start with the small stuff…like the alphabet. The small problem is that when I try to use it, the letters come out sounding very Russian or somewhat Italian. Alas, I am still working on it and will try to have it down by graduation. SPRING DAY "It's the first day of Spring, and my life is starting over again…" One of my favorite bands, Noah and The Whale put it so eloquently. In other words, it is officially Spring here in South Africa! Nothing too much to celebrate except one of the local restaurants was handing out free cupcakes. So really, that was pretty rad and I definitely did a little happy dance. Also, it was another reason to listen to Noah and The Whale on repeat all day. BIRTHDAYS We had two September birthdays this month! Danie and Claudio both were lucky enough to spend their birthdays with the CSALT gang with surfing, braais, cake and more surfing. KING SHELTER SO, one of my favorite bands in the world just released their self titled new album, King Shelter, and I'm so stinkin' stoked for them and am green with jealously that my friends in Orange County were able to cheer them on live while I reminisced of their previous concerts through older songs and pictures. I highly recommend you listen to the album or even buy it on iTunes. (they're also Spotify friendly for the cheapo's like yours truly) BAPTISMS Hooray for Jesus! Our entire intake was baptized at one of the local surf breaks, Point, right along the tide pools! We're all super stoked to reaffirm our faith and declare our love for Christ! If you click on the picture in the slideshow above, you can watch the video! . . . Thanks for reading my blog and supporting yours truly with your donations, words of encouragement and prayers! I really, really miss you all and love you! Talk to you soon! Ren |