one week...

Hello Everyone, 

I'm not sure how many people are still checking this, but for the few that still may be, I just wanted to let you know that Amber and I will be sending out a news letter with a summary and stories about our trip, as well as more pictures! 

I hope this finds everyone doing well! If you have any questions about the trip please feel free to ask, call one of us, and we'd love to tell you all about it!

Much love, 

Ambs and Nat

hello everyone...well we are back...a little upside down, but back...catching up on sleep when we can. it was an absolutely amazing trip...we will be sending out a letter to let you all know more about it, stuff we learned and saw, to share our stories and experiences with you, but i wanted to post a few pictures for you all to see. we had a blast, yesterday was a very long day of travel...and we appreciate your prayers and ask you to continue to pray for you as we transition and settle back into summer and jobs. especially for ambs and i because for most people on our team, the trip ending meant going back to family and their homes...but for us it meant saying goodbye and being separated from family again...it was really hard to say goodbye and transitioning always takes time...so please be praying for us in that process...and for the rest of the team as well...we appreciate all your prayers and support and look forward to sharing our stories with you!!!


this is the car we drove through Kruger Park! It was fantastic! and the huts behind are what we stayed in, in Kruger.
we went on a night ride in Kruger! absolutely amazing.




this is one of the elephants we saw... :)










a precious little girl in one of the towns we were in..the kids came flocking to us...it was incredible to see the smiles on their faces in the midst of their situation...very poor, yet full of joy and hugs and smiles for us.






now thats talent...




worship the last night at the missions conference...

Natalie and a few refugee kids from Zimbabwe

Some boys we were playing with in a township
some of the houses we came across...we were in areas of extreme wealth, houses right on the beach and then just a couple miles away, houses like this...

Amber after a hike we took...with the Atlantic behind her...
our first morning in Cape Town!!! after a good night's sleep...

more to come in the next few days, but we wanted you to at least see a little...love to you all and we are so thankful for each one of you...this wasn't possible without you...
love ambs and nat

Home!

Just a quick note to let you all know nat and I made it to our "homes" safe and sound!! I am in Seattle and nat is in Ripon  for the night and then she heads over to Santa Barbara...thanks for all your prayers more to come later...now SLEEPP! Ahhhhhhh :)

hello everyone...well tonight is probably going to be the last blog for the next couple of days because we are heading up north to see the camp site and then to a couple churches and to do a service on friday night and saturday night...
today was a cool day...we went and saw a friend of ours from ecuador...one of my sister's best friends from ecuador is here serving for the summer...so it was really fun to see her then we helped out at the ministry she's working in, we helped prepare lunch for the people kind of like a soup kitchen. then the people came and they do a quick service before lunch and they asked us to sing a couple songs and do a skit! it was a lot of fun...very spur of the moment but good...
then we had the last night at the missions conference which was amazing...a lot of people on their knees before God and He was moving in a very powerful way, really cool to be a part of...for God to allow me (Natalie) to see.
then we went out with the JAM staff for coffee and dessert which was really cool...we got a chance to share with eachother and just pray together and wrap up...tonight/tomorrow we are saying goodbye to their team and traveling up north...this is really hard because we have become a family...and i HATE goodbyes...something in my heart just really hurts...i would ask you to please pray for us as we say goodbye to these dear friends...and that God would bring us together again soon...and hold us together when we're apart...
tomorrow we travel early early early....so you can be praying as its already 12:20....and we haven't packed and all that good stuff...
but a little from my heart....God has really just been working in a little way...it hasn't been anything huge but huge in its own way...i've just been challenged and impacted by the passion this team has for their ministry and to serve God with all their heart...and its challenged me to just go back to Cal Poly and serve there...God has brought me there for a purpose and is calling me into ministry there...I have been asked to be a Bible study leader next year at Poly and i've just been encouraged by this trip and just excited to go back and serve...i would appreciate your prayers in that as well...
well i have a lot to do tonight...but just wanted to share...thank you all for praying...and we will upload pics when we get back!!!
thanks and much love!
ambs and natalie

Good Morning

My heart already is starting to hurt as I think about our time here coming to an end. We are headed up north tomorrow morning early and we will be leaving the JAM staff that we have come to love. They are bringing a team of high school students up to where we will be but they will be a couple of days behind us so we will not be able to be with them at all while we are up there. It has been an incredible week and a half or so and God has tremendously opened our eyes up. Yesterday was a powerful day for me (Amber) God broke my heart in several different places. I will share one really quickly as we have only a couple of min before we are heading out. As you may know there has been Xenophobia (fear of refugees) here in South Africa. We went to a community center yesterday that was about the size of an average US basketball court. In that GYM there were 200+ refugees mostly from Zimbabwe who are living there. They were forced to leave their homes because of the violence they were experiencing and they cant return home because that country is a mess as  well. I looked in the faces of 200 people who literally had no where to go-no place to call home. They were stuck in this gym and were at the mercy of other people to bring even the basic necessities of food (and that wasnt always brought to them). It was a powerful moment to stand around holding hands with these people having nothing to offer other than the hope that our Jesus brings. These are people who have nothing and it broke me. How often am I so dependent on the things around me and the people around me to make my home, and yet Jesus wants my home to be in him. These people are now in a place where they have to make that a reality because they have nothing else. Please pray that God will provide above all else love for these people. They feel cut off and hated simply because they are from another country. Many of them have kids and families back home that they were sending money to but now they cant so there are some HUGE needs. Please pray for peace and forgiveness in that area. Please pray that they will have food and medical attention. As I write this I am rocked again by the reality of yesterday. This was just a small less than an hour segment of a day that will be forever burned into my mind. God is doing some amazing things in this country but there is still a lot of work to be done! I love this country and I love these people and I cannot wait to see how God brings me back here and leads me to get involved. A quick side note from me-this whole week has been focused in on the ministry of JAM and what they are doing in this country (which is identifying leaders and building them up and discipling them). That fires me up and I could really see myself investing my whole life doing that-but as you know I am studying nursing and so I felt a lot of confusion wondering why God lead me to this degree. On Tuesday we got an opportunity to see a ministry called Living Hope, and they are working with AIDS patients. We walked through their facilities and met their staff and I was fired up. God spoke directly to my heart and he blessed me with showing me how I could fit in with the gifts and talents and degree that he has given me!! I cannot begin to describe how amazing it was! The lady that gave us the tour told me that the hardest position to fill in their clinic was christian RN's and I was moved deeply. I am confident that God is leading my heart in the direction of international missions and it God confirmed that in my heart on Tuesday. So the plan for today is...the boys all went shark cage diving!!! How amazing does that sound?? It didnt work out for me to go on this trip but DEFINITELY the next one :) Us girls are going to meet up with a friend of mine from high school who is working with that Living Hope organization. She is working in the branch that feeds homeless people so we are headed over to the soup kitchen this morning. Then we will meet up with hopefully ALL they boys (all limbs included :) this afternoon and then I have no idea what the plan is from there other than for sure church at 6:00 pm for the last night of the missions conference. But the JAM  motto is TIA (this is africa) so its okay that I dont know the plan and that we are currently running a half an hour behind the scheduled time to leave :) Thanks for all your prayers much love to all of you!

Ambs and Nat 

Mandela Park

good night...evening...afternoon...morning...
whenever and wherever this note finds you in your day...
well today was a really amazing day. we had breakfast together with the JAM staff and our team and just got to hang out some more. Then the JAM staff shared their vision and dreams and hopes and plans...prayers and along with some challenges with us, it was really cool to hear more of their heart and just passion for Africa, for South Africa. Their statement and just desire is the "cross of Jesus for the cross of Africa" such an amazing dream, a dream that is becoming a reality in so many different ways, the work that they are doing is incredible.
One of the things that they shared with us is just how its a Kingdom vision, not to glorify anyone but God, and that was just really cool to hear their heart and their passion to reach the youth in South Africa and then like a ripple affect to have it spread throughout all of Africa.
We went to this place today called a squatter camp, or Mandela Park, or Inazama Yethu...I don't know exactly how to pronounce that but thats what its called. We got a chance to just walk around and see the community, these are really poor communities where they are reaching out and working with the youth there.
One story that I was just touched by and blown away...
I met this lady named Agnus (who you can pray for) but she had a stroke awhile back and now her whole left side is paralyzed. But the cool thing was that she makes jewelry, scarves and hats. WITH ONE HAND! she uses her paralyzed hand just to stabilize, today she showed me how she crochets with her right hand. she lifts up her left hand places it on the scarf and then crochets...its incredible...beyond words...
later that night we went back to the missions conference where my dad spoke, and he really challenged the youth to follow Christ with everything they are and have, really cool...challenged me too...how much God desires for me to call on him wholeheartedly!
okay i know this is long...but i'll give you a couple prayer requests...
thank you for your prayers already and for lifting us up in your daily prayers and thoughts...
continual prayer for safety, for our team, just open hearts and eyes to what God is doing here. for the JAM staff, support and encouragement for them...for their vision that as they seek God they would continue to see BIG things happen...for the hearts of these students that as they go out they would remain in Christ, but also for the people their going to talk with.
for me personally...(Natalie)...just for my heart, that God would speak to me, I'm not really sure yet what I'm hearing...what God is teaching me...but that I would be open and faithful and trusting...i would really appreciate you prayers in that...
much love to all of you!
love ambs and nat






































ze

Missions Night

Last night was incredible!! We went to the first night of the missions conference at the church we are going to be at all this week. I cannot even put into words how incredible it was to see so many high school students on fire and passionate about what God was doing in their hearts and in their country. So to give you a little context, this church is a church in a nicer (mostly Africaans) affluent area of capetown. These are kids that have grown up in a situation very similar what most of us grow up with, they are pretty well off. They spent this last weekend at the JAM camp getting prepared for the outreaches they are headed on all over the country this next week. This week there are night meetings at the church to prepare for that as well. It was so amazing to sit with South African believers last night and to worship God with them and get excited about the ministry that they are getting ready to go all over the country and do! These people are getting it done for the kingdom of God and it is so incredible to be here and partner with them. I am excited about what God is doing in my heart...not sure what its going to look like but I am excited about the direction that God is leading me (Amber) in. I would love to get more involved in this ministry here!! More to come later, 

Thanks for all your prayers!

Ambs and Nat

We are both still feeling healthy and strong and rested! I even got to go on a run this morning!! Nothing like running along a South African beach!!