Christmas!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

To describe to you this week is almost impossible. So much has happened. But I will do my best, thousugh you are missing lots... (Doesn't that make you curious? Hehehe that is my plan. ;) )

On Monday we helped out at this place called Kidstop. It is run by Youth for Christ and is put on by this AMAZING  woman called Aunt Betty. It is a place for kids to go to keep them off the streets. We help by entertaining the kids and putting on a program for them. It is a lot of fun. :)

Tuesday we went to this place called Options in the morning and in the afternoon we went to Golden Valley. Options is a place of counselling for teens who get pregnant and are not sure what to do. It is really cool place. It is run by a Lady from Minnesota, Chanhassin (I can't spell by my Aunt Cheryl lives by there). We went there and we weeded the place for them, as well as did other odd jobs that they don't get to that often. Golden Valley is a very poor district. Also called the Blanco district. We went and played with the kids there.

Wednesday was the day we went to the drug rehab center. We were there all day. And also weeded their garden. This garden was a lot more work though. That evening we did a service for them. I was the one who spoke. Which was very nerve wrecking. But it taught me to relay on God and he really did get me though it and it turned out really good.

The morning of Thursday we went to the Hospital. Some people dressed as clowns, others facepainted, and the rest went where we were needed. We prayed with a lot of people. It was cool. That afternoon we went and did a street connect. Which means they dropped us off at one end of the street and we would go so far and pray with whoever we met. It was really cool.  My group ended up spending most of our two hours with this Lady (Esther) and her son, Praise. Esther, we learned had already has a relationship with Jesus. What we ended up doing was filling each other's love bucket. I spent most of the time playing with her son. We had a great time. He is a sweet little boy. He was fascinated with my camera. Didn't really get that you could take pictures with it, just liked seeing things though it. My two teammates prayed for Esther and the back-pain that she has had constantly for the last four years was gone. It was amazing.

On Friday we went back to Kidstop. If you would like to know more see Monday.

We had a flu bug that past around our team. It was awful. It made stuff come out both ends, if you know what I mean. I got it Friday evening. But it looks like it is over now. We are all better and no one else is getting sick. Praise God!

Sat was our day off. I spent most of the day in bed recovering. But stuff was staying in.

Sunday (or today) we went to church. Then went to the Blanco district and handed out packages to the kids. little Christmas gifts. It was cool. After we went to Kidstop and helped give them a Christmas lunch and read them the Christmas story. Than we came back to where we are staying and had a very AMAZING Christmas dinner. It was fabulous. Afterwords we opened secret angels gifts. (everyone picked a name and secretly bought them a gift) Than we had a big surprise. Our School Leader Deb, had secretly contacted our families and they sent a gift with us. We all knew that today was Christmas, but it didn't really have that Christmas feel. No snow, family, family gifts or cold. It was head knowledge, getting a gift from my family made it heart knowledge  It really made Christmas, Christmas. (If my ma isn't crying by now than something is not normal with her) Thank you everyone who sent a letter to me. Words cannot say how much I  love getting them. It really made it feel like Christmas. Thanks Ma for the bright idea to send people's letters to me. It made my day. (Now I am guessing the tears are even bigger) I love you Ma! Thank you so much everyone! I really felt the love.

To my CMA buddies. I met someone here who is thinking of joining CMA. It is AWESOME. I am halfway around the world and still found a biker buddy. ;)

I miss you all. MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Love,
Haleigh

Finaly South Africa!

Dear Family and Friends,
We have made here. :) It was a long journey and it is good to be here and alive. :) It is so beautiful here. And it is nice and warm.
This afternoon we have been preparing kid skits. We have yet to start minstriary(sp). Tomorrow we start. :) We are sharring testamonies at church and will also be doing a drama. The drama is really cool. It is called the dolls skit. Lots of fun.
On Monday we are helping out with a program called kid's stop. It is a street kids minstriary.
They keep us busy here.
I love you all. Thanks so much for supporting me.
Love,
Haleigh

Africa this Monday

Dear Friends & Family,

This Monday I head off for South Africa. I am so excited. I am looking forward to God changing me and to experience missions at a deeper level than I have before. Also to getting to know my team better.

If you asked me if I felt fully prepared, I would say no. I don’t think one could ever be fully prepared and there are so many variables. But I believe that I am equipped enough to do what I need to do, and let God do the rest.

This is how Monday/entire travel to SA looks. At 9:30 we leave to go to the airport, our flight leaves at 12:30. We have a 3 hour or so, flight to Washington DC. A five hour layover there, then an 8 hour flight to Germany. A seven  layover in Germany, than a 11 hour plane ride to SA. After we get to SA, we have a 5 hour ride till we get to George. Then it looks like that evening we will be doing some kind of ministry. It will be a really long day/days. So prayer that we make it through, would be wonderful. :)

Praise Reports: Our whole team got the funds to go. It was really close, but God provided. :)

Prayer Requests: Health [I am getting sick :(], Travel, Spiritual Growth, Wisdom, and anything else you can think of.

A really BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me and prayed for me. It has meant a lot to me, and I couldn’t have done it without you. Me minus you equals very sad and deprived Haleigh. I have been so blessed by you. Words cannot describe.

I will try to Blog occasionally, but it may not happen. Due to the trouble of getting on line.

My love to all,

Haleigh Haaland

Dear Friends and Family,

For most of my posts I have focused on what the speaker has talked about the current week. This one I want to talk about our outreach and prayer requests for it.

We are going to South Africa; we will be in George, and Muizenberg. We will be working in orphanages, hospitals, townships, and also serving the local churches through dance, drama, and testimony. Pretty much anything we are called to do. They are going to give us an itinerary for our time and what we will be doing, but they have not gotten that to us yet. So I know just a little bit more than you do. Though they do tell us that we have to be flexible, because you never know what we may end up doing. So everything has a possibility of changing.

Some facts about South Africa:

·         Population – 44.8 million

·         Capital – Pretoria

·         11 official languages

·         Approximately 12% of the adult population is infected with HIV

·         The HIV epidemic has produced  large numbers of Aids orphans

Prayer requests (for me and everyone on my team):

Funds, I know I say this every week, but it is a big need. We have 5 days to get all the money we need. I think we still need at the very least $10,000 for all of us to go. It could be more, I am assuming it is more, I just don’t know how much. We just learned on Wednesday that we need $300 more per person than we thought; due to the cost of transportation in South Africa.

Vehicles, because we have 15 people we are having problems getting them, because we need at least two. And pray that someone would love to pay for gas money. That would be a great blessing to us.

Health, for obvious reasons. We have a family with a 1, 3, and 5 year old coming. Pray that we all stay healthy but especially them. And that nobody dies. We would all really like to come back alive. (Now I have just majorly worried my parents. Don’t worry, we should all be fine.)

That we will all sleep well. So of the people on my team have difficulties sleeping, and it is always harder when one is not well rested.

Team unity. That no matter what happens we stay together and support one another.

For the right words to say. We are going to be speaking in some of the townships there, and we want our message to impact them.

Safe travel, to there, while we are there, and for the way home.

That we all will be able to adapt to warm culture.

Peace, grace, and anything and everything else you can think of. We would be so grateful for your prayers.

I love and miss all of you greatly.

Haleigh

P.S. The speaker was still really good this week. I didn’t avoid him because he was bad, he was (as all the speakers are here) amazing.