Kelly Corder

I fully believe the saying “you only know what you had once it’s gone”.

I’m learning to appreciate. everything. I hope I learn this lesson the first time around because, honestly, I would not want to live these months again.

This is a subtle pain.  A slow burn.  And as much as I want this season to be finished, I want to glean and gain as much as possible while I’m in it.

I would jump ship on this lesson if I could and so I’m thankful I can’t.  I am dead locked and determined to fasten it in my heart that sooner is not always better.  That the process is sometimes exactly what God wants.  And if it takes me another year to believe that, then I better fasten my seat belt because God’s not going anywhere.

A few posts back I shared that I was about to head to a local dam with the rest of the staff to celebrate Thrive Africa’s 10-year anniversary.  It was a great time of relaxation!  We played lots of games (some of which I had never played before), rode the jet-skis til we hurt and I even learned how to play squash on a rainy morning.  Here are a few pictures of the weekend:

Jenn and I watching the jet skis

Here’s a shot of Niel teaching me how to play squash (He’s a great coach!)

And that’s about all the photos I have from the weekend.  Hope you enjoyed!

In the last few years I’ve become slightly obsessed with words.  I love them.  I’m always interested to find out why we have certain sayings.  For example, why do we say things like “He’s just trying to ‘get your goat’”.  I don’t have a goat…never have. Cows we have, but that’s a different story.  Or how about “I crossed the line”?  There’s got to be a good story behind that one. Anyway…

I also love to learn new words.  As anyone who walks through my office during the day will tell you, I receive word of the day emails.   It’s become a daily ritual for me to quiz my office mate, Charlene, on the definition and origin of the word of the day.  And sometimes she even gets them right! ;)

So when one of our interns turned me on to a website called FreeRice.com, I was stoked!  It’s a site that helps improve your vocabulary while simultaniously donating rice to the World Food Programme.  And it’s fun! But be warned, it can be addictive!

Hi.

Does that count as a post?

no?

Ok… how ’bout this:

Tomorrow we leave for a staff retreat to celebrate the ministries 10 year aniversary.  Happy Anniversary, Thrive! We’re going to stay at Qwantani - a resort on Sterfontein dam (South Africa’s largest dam).  I’m excited because it’s sort of like going to the beach and if you know me then you know that I LOVE going to the beach.  Recently I’ve been dying to get to any sort of a body of water so this is just the ticket (who says that anymore?)!

The only bummer is that I sprained my ankle yesterday so I’m not sure how much Jet Skiing I’ll be doing…but I’m bringing floaties so there’s no way I’m staying off the water! Also, I hear they have tennis courts so my rackets will be in tow!

I’ll post some pictures when we get back (hopefully I won’t be sun burnt!).

Hello! So it’s been awhile since my last post and much has been going on, so I thought I’d just type up a quick re-cap of my life lately. So for those of you interested, read on…

- We’ve had 7 mission teams come through in the last 6 weeks. Hibo - busyness.

- I helped facilitate a week-long debriefing trip for our Summer Interns at a Game Park in Limpopo. That was all around amazing. Great growth, great animals, great God.

- This weekend Dave and I took our 24/7 Interns to Passion conference in Jo’burg. A-Mazing! For real, it was pretty great. We heard Louie Giglio speak and Chris Tomlin lead worship. And another band, FEE, led worship too. If you haven’t heard their stuff check them out here.

- I read a funny online book called Black Heels to Tractor Wheels in a single 7 hour sitting.

-and lastly, I had the opportunity to see (or rather hear about) God using our interns to run 10 school assemblies!

It’s busy times, but good times and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!