Photo Scavenger Hunt

 You never know what type of hall event will take place on Imani. I've experience everything from watching "Planet Earth" to going to Swingfest with our brother hall. But this Sunday our hall did a hall event that may just be my favourite event yet – a photo scavenger hunt.

If you have never done a photo scavenger hunt:
a). You are missing out.
b). We should do one sometime!

Photo Scavenger Hunts are amazing! Teams are divided up and given a piece of paper with multiple "things to find or do" on it. Teams are given a time limit to complete the tasks given and the winner is the team who got the most accomplished.

Now enter Sunday. Sunday afternoon our hall teamed up with a guys' hall to go on a Photo Scavenger Hunt downtown. It was a sunny and beautiful Sunday afternoon, we had a great team, and lots of laughing took place (which is always great!).

Here's just a few of the crazy (and fun) things our team had to accomplish:

Roll down a grass hill.

Throw a paper plane off a bridge (don't worry we picked it back up).

Do a model pose... Lovin' Janessa. 

Ask a stranger to serenade your team. Well, she didn't sing for us, instead she performed with these sock type things.  

Take a picture with people from Covenant who aren't involved in the scavenger hunt. 

Pose like a statue. 

Take a picture with people in uniform. (Also, please notice how the park ranger is giving Jamila bunny ears. Haha.) 

Do the Hokey Pokey in a public place. (This was so fun!)

Give a flower to a stranger.

Duck walk across the street. 

Dance on the dancing sidewalk.

Kiss a mannequin. 

Walk a stranger's dog. 

A picture of your team on the glass bridge. (Yay! Team!) 

A picture of your team on one chair. 

A picture of your team looking relaxed. 

A picture of something from Covenant (This shop is owned by Covenant grads).

Our team won! (Yeah!) And we had a great time, complete with sunburn and all. 

Great time - check.

Fun pictures - check.

Sunburn - check.

Aloe Vera - hoping to buy some.

Awesome memories - indeed!

Resting in Him

You know those days when it just feels like everything overwhelming suddenly hits you? Well, that was my Monday. I think it finally sank in on Sunday that my family is far, far away. Damarise and I had our weekly Skype call with them on Sunday. After multiple delays, fuzzy internet connection, and the “Hello? Can you hear me now?”’s, we got to talk for a bit.

I realized that it’s been hard to not be able to pick up the phone at random moments of the day to talk to them and tell them the little details of my life. They are no longer close to the same time zone, and we can’t contact them via phone. All of that, plus two tests and a paper conveniently due on Monday, just hit me and felt overwhelming.

So, Monday afternoon, in between tests, I sat down and wrote out my thoughts in a poem. Not sure if that came about because we are studying poetry in class or just cause. But, either way that is the way my thoughts came out, and I thought I'd share it with you all.

The tears at bay,
The heart calm.
One phone call melted it all.

Seeing their faces,
Hearing them laugh,
My heart hurt, the dam burst.

The tears fell.
My voice choked up.
Will it get easier, pain subside?

Peace He promised.
Peace He gives.
And I am resting solely in Him.

An ocean away,
Or merely a street,
God is faithful, them will He keep.

Resting, Resting,
In His strong arms.
He is my strength, the Lord my God.

And oh! It has been wonderful to rest in the peace of God. Monday ended, two tests and a paper were behind me, and God was, is, and always will remain faithful. By the end of Monday God had given me a peace and joy that only He can give. A peace that I can trust in Him, and He has my family where He wants them. (What better place to be in?) And a joy that I can rest in Him even when life seems overwhelming because He is so much bigger than life itself. He is the one who created the universe. He is the one who controls the lighting and the rain. And oh! What a joy to trust in Him!

And so I end this post, not in sorrow or overwhelming worry, but in joy and peace, praising God from whom all blessings flow.

"Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable." –Psalm 145:3

Focus

I'm sitting here toasty warm in the Imani commons. The weather outside, to put it in Christmas carol words, is frightful. I think Georgia has finally gotten the cold front that most of the northern US has had for a while. In fact, not only is it freezing (literally 32ºF freezing), there are also actual snow flakes slowly flurrying to the ground. Granted there aren't very many snowflakes falling, but even the thought that snow is in the air is fine with me. I love this time of year!

Today is my second to last Sunday here. It is hard to believe that this semester has flown by so suddenly. I can't believe that I am close to half way done with my sophomore year! And as this year is coming to a close, finals are looming ahead. Oh, finals. It's a weird time of year. The joy that Christmas break is so near is evident among all, yet that feeling mixed with the anxiety and frantic studying that falls upon the Covenant campus is just a strange mix.

The other night, as I was lying in bed, I was thinking about finals, my last few classes that I would have in the semester, and about how the week had been.I realized that sometimes I get very stuck on looking only at what is happening to me right now. I look at me and what is going on in my life. It is especially easy to do with finals up ahead. My focus narrows in on the stress of the moment, the anxiety, and the fear that the exam will be harder than I anticipated.

While these thoughts were running through my head I thought of Damarise's camera. Now, bear with me through this example. Damarise has a very nice camera. It's one of those fancy ones with the lens that sticks way out of the camera. My siblings and I definitely had some fun laughing at the lens when Damarise first got her camera. But, even with us laughing at it, it was and is a great camera. There is one little "problem" with it though. You cannot take a close up picture of something. If the lens is within about 1"-2" of the object the lens begins to try to focus like crazy, meaning that it turns this way and that trying to get a good and focused picture, but to no avail. In order to take a nicely focused picture you need to stand back and look at everything around the object as well.

Sometimes I feel like my "camera" is too close. It intently tries to focus on me and what is going in the moment, and when it tries there is anxiety and fear (the lens fidgeting back and forth). In order to see I need to step back and take in the whole picture. I need to step away from it being all about me and focus on God. I've realized that with the stress of final things piling up on me it is easy to get sidetracked and to begin to worry. And the closer I get to focusing solely on me, the more worried I become. I'm praying that in this final week and a half of school my focus will be on God, the sustainer and giver of life! It's much more wonderful to be focused on God and what He is doing in the world around me, than to be focused solely on me and my worries.

I was talking with Janessa this afternoon about not focusing on myself but on God and who He is. She was telling me that every year she reads through her journals. Ah, I love doing that! Sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in the moment and wonder how you will ever survive, but God is faithful. And I often see that when rereading through my journals. God's promises never fail. There are so many wonderful examples of this even in just my own life! Oh what a great and mighty God we serve! I'm so thankful that He does keep His promises, that He is faithful, and that I don't have to worry about the future because God has it all under control.

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

Colossians 1:1-3

AQ Chicken

Sunday we went to FBC (Fellowship Bible Church in Springdale). That's the church we went to when we lived in Arkansas for 8 years. Oh! It was SO nice to be back! It definitely feels like home there. :) It was a wonderful morning with wonderful teaching and the best thing of all... it was all in English! I could understand every single word of it! It was so wonderful!

Anyways, after church we went out to lunch with some of the couples from church. We went to AQ Chicken! Mmmm, that is the best restaurant! And it's only in Arkansas. :)

Andrew, me, and Sarah waiting for our food :)

The menu.

Sarah and I.

Damarise and Ian.

Andrew had three straws in his drink. He was shocked!

Andrew and I.

They had a honey bear!!! :D I love those guys!

Andrew's heart :) awwww

Andrew pretended he was stuck behind jail bars :P

It was an amazing lunch of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and apples! Thank you for the food!!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday :)

Damarise had the camera out for most of Sunday, so I thought I'd post some pictures and tell about our Sunday :)

After church time we ate lunch... and filled out application stuff :P

After lunch we went to SIL to practice music :) Thomas was back from Norway! Yeah!! 

Kent and Andrew played guitar and bass.

Then Damarise and Esther went out looking for flowers to take pictures of. 

I love this picture of Esther smelling the flowers!!

One of God's beautiful flowers!

Haha, Esther and Elijah by Elijah's dirt bike. 

Ian, Elijah and Andrew by Elijah's dirt bike :)

Cool number thing on a car 

Damarise, Esther and I :D

Some lock thing on the office of SIL... don't worry we didn't mess with it :P 

Esther and I in Ms. Peggy's lawn. Her grass is SO green!!

Pretty yellow bushes. 

Esther was going all around SIL trying to find a tree to climb :) She did eventually find one :D

A cool nail shot :) Yah.... my sis is a great photographer! :D

Anywho, that's all the pics from my Sunday :) Later on that night we got rain!!! It hasn't rained here for over a week which has made everything very dry and HOT! So, last night, when it poured and got cold we were praising the Lord!!! Thank you for the rain!!! :D It was a wonderful way to end the day!

Week with the Woodrows: Sunday

Saturday morning Mom and Dad headed off to Zambia. Zambia?! Yes! God is leading our family to Zambia now. It is amazing! You can read about Mom and Dad's trip here. 

As, for we kids, we stayed back in Nampula with the Woodrows. As Gracie put it, "We (the Woodrows) dull the pain for the Turnbull kids when their parents are away." It's true! The Woodrows make us feel right at home and take care of us like we were their own kids :) It's like our home away from home :) Anyways, Satuday morning the Woodrow's picked up Sarah and Andrew (Ian was at a sleep over and Damarise and I were babysitting that night so we were going to their house later) and brought them to their house. Damarise and I came later that night after a fun time of babysitting the Kern boys. :)Sunday morning we girls wore our African dresses. Mom and Dad had some made for us for Christmas :) Bethy and Gracie also had some but we didn't take a picture together :P 

Later in the afternoon we took naps :P hehe, and played volleyball (no pics sorry) it was a blast! Girls against guys. The girls beat the guys on the first round 21-20. Then the second round the guys whooped us 21-1 and for the third :P hehe 21-2. It was a fun game though! After volleyball and dinner we watched Beethoven and went to bed :) 

Spectacularly Super Sunday!

Sunday was a wonderful day. Simply wonderful in every way! 

I woke up to an amazing breakfast of hot, homemade pancakes with Mom's cinnamon syrup and peanut butter. Yum! After breakfast we got ready for church. Last week Mom had a Mozambican dress made for herself and she got to wear it to church this Sunday. It is so cute and makes Mom look so African :) 

Once at church we met up with a group of people outside and said, "Hi" (well, in Portuguese of course.) and got kisses on both cheeks. We then walked in to church and were greeted with a cool gust of wind... because... *drum roll!* our church got fans! :) It was so nice! They had their Day of Grace a couple weeks ago and someone donated fans to the church. It was a pleasant surprise and made it a lot cooler inside of the church. Yeah! 

After church, we (most of the church) went to a lady's house back in a bairo to sing and pray with her and give our condolences to her. Her mom passed away sometime during the week. She, the mom, was 90 years old! That's amazingly old for here! 

After spending time there, we headed out to the Woodrow's place! :) Mom and Dad had planned to go to Mt. Nairuco with the Stolks so we kids stayed with the Woodrows for the afternoon and had a swell time!

We got to the Woodrows and Bethy was making lunch. They were also showing us their new fridge! They had bought this fridge three years ago (yes, you heard me right three years ago!) and it finally got shipped over here (it was in South Africa). They were thrilled to have it! And it is really nice and cold! :) Anyways, back to where I was... ah, yes. Bethy was cooking up a scrumptious lunch. She made potato salad, which was mouthwatering! It had pickles in it! Yum! She also made Sloppy Joes! Mmm. Oh, sorry to bump into the story again, but while over there we had a question and I thought I'd ask my readers and see what you all think. Here's the story. 

The Woodrows had made Sloppy Joes when they had over another friend. This friend told them that the meat part was called Sloppy and the bread was the Joe. Now, Bethy thinks that is true, but the rest of us are kinda iffy on that one. We think the meat is called the Sloppy Joe and you put it in bread. So, my question is: When eating Sloppy Joes, is the bread called Joe and the meat Sloppy or is it all just Sloppy Joe?

Ok, sorry for the interruption, here's back to my wonderful Sunday. :)

 After lunch, which was great! We decided to play some games. First choice was Murderer in the Light.

Here's some pictures of us playing :)

Ah! Kent's winking! (if the murderer winks at you, you die 3 seconds later) and Benaiah's scared... runnn...

Time for "Who do you think did it?". Sarah has her accusation ready... Andrew looks a lil' lost and as for Gracie... haha.. who knows :)

Bethy and I :) Aw! What a great friend! 

Haha.. not sure what was happening here. Kent making sure Gracie wasn't the murderer and Andrew hopping on for the ride :P

Woah! Close up of Andrew! 

And Benaiah... he looks a lil' lost :P

The Sarah's petting Sparkle. Aww what a cute dog!

Bethy was on a delicious cooking spree :) She made these...umm... I'm not sure what they were. They were like a donut type texture covered in chocolate and coconut :) Mmmm... She is one amazing cook!

Just hanging out as a family :D

After playing Murderer in the Light, we played Charades! Kent, Gracie, Sarah, Benaiah and I were on a team and Damarise, Bethy, Ian, Andrew and Andrew W. were on another one. It was fun!! My team did open heart/bypass surgery extremely exaggerated. With huge knives, shots, and not very sanitary. Haha, and then at the end of the surgery the guy who just got heart surgery had a heart attack and all of doctors ran over picked him back up and started again :) We also did flying on an airplane... complete with a fat guy who squishes you, talks to much, and chews like a llama! The annoying kid behind your seat who bumps, knocks, and plays drums on your head.  And that person who always leans their seat way back in your lap... which also happened to be the annoying kid's mom so she was yelling back to him a lot. :) Haha! It was fun! ... The other team did a scene from Pride and Prejudice and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was cute :)

When we were done with Charades we went outside, sat in a circle and threw the volleyball back and forth. Every time you had the volleyball though you had to say one memory about being Woodbulls (our family Woodrow & Turnbull) or even before. :D It was really neat to hear all the different memories that we all have :) We have had some good times together!!! I love my family! :D

After playing that for a while, Mom and Dad came back. Time always flies when all of us Woodbulls hang out together. We talked about some stuff and then headed on home. It was sad, but I had a wonderful Sunday!