Countdown: 18 days to go

It's Christmas day, and in the quiet following the festivities, we find ourselves once again counting down the days until we leave for South Africa. Only 18 days to go! The days have been filled with many last-minute activities.

We had another team meeting with Ian--this one to guide us in spiritual preparation for our trip.  Ian had many great insights and ideas to help our team.

We wrapped up our Aurora giving tree at co-op, and were blessed by a great outpouring of support in the form of school supplies and other items--so many items that there was concern about being able to pack everything in one extra suitcase. Since each extra bag costs $80, we needed to fit everything in one bag, and it needed to weigh in under 50 pounds. God took care of it, as He always does--every last pencil, crayon, and glue stick fit into one suitcase, and when we stepped on the scale with bated breath to check the weight, it came in at 47 pounds! Perfect!

We purchased short-term missions trip journals to guide our devotional times for the seven days preceding our trip, during our trip, and seven days after returning. We plan to start each day in Africa with a time of prayer and debrief together in the evenings.

Many other logistical details have occupied us of late, including working out arrangements for making local and long-distance calls, getting trip insurance, determining how we'll pay for things in-country, even how we'll do laundry. Not to mention curriculum planning for the classroom!

Finally, I am tickled to report that we've reached and exceeded our trip budget! God has been so faithful! We'll be able to use additional funds to purchase something for the school, if the need presents itself when we are there.

Fund-raising Update

I am so pleased to report that we currently have $12,456 in our Aurora fund, which is about $200 shy of the budgeted amount. Woooohoooo! Any funds that come in above and beyond our budget will be available to bless the school or a future team going to Aurora. If God shows us a need when we're there at the school, we can use the extra funds to fill that need. He has been so faithful!

Oh, by the way, 29 days until departure!!! :)

Learning cultural sensitivity

Last night our team (minus Kyle, who was not feeling well) met with our missions Pastor, Ian Campbell. We each filled out a questionnaire to help us create our own personality profile. These profiles were used to examine how we, as a product of our culture, might view certain things differently than those we'll interface with in Africa. For instance, we Americans are very time-oriented, but Africans are more event-oriented--for them, life happens without a lot of concern about how much time things take. Understanding this difference in cultural attitudes will help us keep from getting frustrated or from accidentally offending someone. It was a very interesting exercise!

A gift for Aurora from the American Heritage Girls

The American Heritage Girls recently completed a service project for the children of Aurora. They compiled 200 sewing kits, which include a selection of fabric squares, thread, and needles in a zip lock baggie. We're going to teach the children to mend and sew!

Team Verse Has Been Chosen!

We had a great team meeting the other night and while going through some prep materials from Aurora, we came across some Scripture that seemed perfect for claiming as our team verses!  It is:

Psalm 67: 1-2

May God be gracious to us and bless us
   and make his face shine on us
 so that your ways may be known on earth,
   your salvation among all nations.

This is our prayer-- that God would bless our efforts and go before us in this endeavor, so that God and His salvation would be known among the nations. Amen! 

Now to see if we can get this put on our team T-shirts.....!!  

Posted by April 

Fund-raising Update

Fund-raising is coming along well! As of today, we've raised $11887!

Bapsfontein, South Africa: the location of the school

Here's a map of the area surrounding Johannesburg. The Aurora School is located in Bapsfontein, to the northeast of Jo'burg.

Here's a link to the Aurora Website

Feel free to check out the Aurora School at this link:
Aurora Primary School

The Aurora School garden as of November

Photo taken by Daniel Owen on a trip to Aurora in November 2011

Black Friday luggage!

A black Friday jackpot means we have new luggage for our trip! We'll be packing these up in 1 month and 12 days!

More glimpses of the Aurora children from February 2011

I love those smiles!!!

A picture from our trip in February 2011

Boys are boys, no matter WHAT continent they're on!

Lunch time on our last day at the school

The children had an assembly and sang a song about Jesus for our team

One of many sweet notes the children wrote

Giving Tree Opportunity for school supplies

Here's a cool fund-raising idea that offers our home school co-op students a chance to be part of our teaching team. We'd like to take a number of items to Aurora to help in the classroom and to use during free time. Some items for the classroom are glue, crayons, markers, construction paper, scissors, play dough, index cards, and more. Some free-time items are Frisbees, jacks, cards, arts and crafts items, jump ropes, face paint, etc.

We're setting up a giving tree with "ornaments" featuring these relatively inexpensive items. Our prayer is that the students will each choose an item to provide for the Aurora kids. What a blessing it will be to arrive at the school fully equipped!

Prayers needed for Aurora

I just received an email from Veronica Walker, the director of Aurora. She asked for prayers, saying that the school is currently under a huge amount of spiritual warfare. Please pray!!

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God gave us half-price airline tickets!

Our original team budget was drawn up using a price of $1700 for each airline ticket, which was the expected cost. On Sunday, April checked airline prices and found a BIG surprise--the tickets were WAY less expensive than anticipated! Our tickets will be about $890 each! God is so faithful!

Aurora Walk Photos by Brittany Emory, our Official Walk Photographer

The walkers enjoy coffee and bagels as Cindy gives route instructions

They're off!

Kyle, Gwynne, Anna and Michael

Rachael with April, Mike, and Jess

Thumbs up for the Aurora Walk!

Our route was the walking path around WSEF Church

Linda and Mark lead the pack, with Marianne and Anna close behind

Mom and daughter

Gwynne, with Debbie and Cheryl; Kyle G and Kyle F talk with Rachael

And here comes Kari and Julie

Mike and April, followed by Rachel and Lucas, the newlyweds

Nice walking stick, Gwynne!

Finishing the second 1.7-mile loop, we head down the home stretch

Kari leads Michael and Julie

Finishing out the last half mile. Thank-you, walkers!!

Aurora Walk Was Great Fun!

After being derailed on October 29th by a snow storm, the Aurora fund-raising walk took place today under gorgeous sunny skies with perfect crisp fall temps. We had 27 walkers, one official photographer (thanks, Brittany Emory) and a mascot, Rocky the dog. Several walkers had to bow out at the last minute due to illness, but still raised funds for their walks. Quite a few folks also walked before today due to schedule conflicts. The team would like to send out thank-yous to everyone who walked and to those who supported them!!

Pictures will be posted soon!
Cindy

Gotta love those awesome Aurora kids!

Cindy with Tintswolo and Hazel

Obama

King

Pictures from the decontruction trip to Aurora, Feb 2011

One entrance to the school

In a classroom

The "cafeteria" where kids line up for "pup" (on the right) and a stew/soup of meat and beans (on the left)

Michelle Lockwood teaching Math

The new girls' dorm, which came in February, 2012

Off and Running!

The first official meeting of the 2012 Aurora Teaching Team took place with much fanfare at the Kepko household last night. After fueling ourselves with a lasagna dinner, we distributed team folders and began to talk about the expectations for Aurora missionaries, as put forth by Veronica Walker, the school's director. The first six rules for those who are serving at the school are:

1. Be an example

2. Be safe

3. Submit to authority

4. Work hard

5. Live healthy

6. Be constructive

We also laid out some plans for spiritual preparation, including daily prayer for the children and teachers at the school and for our team's preparations and safety, among others. We are all going to be journaling about the trip preparations, and will continue to journal daily while on the ground in South Africa.

We wrapped up our meeting by choosing some specific roles for the trip and touching on our expectations for school time and leisure time. So much to do, and so little time!! It was a great start!

This Saturday at 8:45 AM will be the Aurora Walk at West Shore E Free Church--together with friends, we are going to walk 4 miles and raise support for the teaching trip. Hope the walk won't be sidelined by snow again, like it was on 10-29!

Cindy