http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org Allison Callahan First Year Missionary - Serving The Kingdom en-us Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:14:22 GMT 30 http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=tribute-to-swaziland http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=tribute-to-swaziland As I am reaching the end of my time here in Swaziland I have decided to take some time to appreciate the public transportation I have used for the last four months. Just about every day I have ridden on a Kombi which is a 15 passenger van. There are many interesting things about the Kombis here, but my favorite has been the names of them. I have ridden on or seen hundreds of Kombis with various names. I have taken my favorites and narrowed them down to what I consider the top ten best Kombi name Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=one-among-the-many http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=one-among-the-many    This has been a hard week for me.  Not only is school over with and I do not get to see my kids everyday, but I have heard some very sad stories.  One of my teammates and I have decided to support a few students from our school for the coming years so the head teacher wanted us to hear about the students' lives directly from them.  We talked with one 14 year old girl in grade 7 for a while and it brought me to tears.  This young girl, Sebenzile, lost her father Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=the-need-of-the-true-gospel http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=the-need-of-the-true-gospel "There are thousands of people in Swaziland who are disappointed in the Jesus that has been presented to them."   The pastor of the church I attend here in Swaziland made the above statement at church a few weeks ago.  It is a very powerful statement that many people may not agree with at first, but I agree wholeheartedly.  At least with my experiences here and the people I have talked to I would say this is very true.  About a month ago I was struck with the fact that what Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=supporter-email http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=supporter-email For those of you that missed it, here is the email I sent out this week to my supporters: Hi Everyone, Well, we have made it to the first week of March and I am missing, yet again, another birthday. Happy (early) Birthday Austin! This has been another good week. I showed up Tuesday morning to school and found out that the teacher Im working with would not be at school all week. So I had the class all to myself all week! I was a little worried at first, but I actually enjoyed it a Mon, 3 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=what-to-say http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=what-to-say I have been reading through 1 Corinthians over the past couple of weeks and have really been enjoying it. I do not have anything extremely profound to say, but decided that Gods Word is sufficient on its own. I found many verses while reading through this book that stood out to me and found them all to be reminders that it is God working in and through us to produce anything good. I pray that these verses will be as much an encouragement to you as they are to me: For Christ did n Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=a-little-girl-named-bongiwe http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=a-little-girl-named-bongiwe My team and I do some form of ministry together as a team every Saturday morning. This Saturday morning we spent a few hours at the hospital in Mbabane and I spent my time in the abandoned baby ward. In this ward are all the children that have been abandoned by their mothers after birth. They range in age from one year to 10 years old or older. Most of the younger ones are fairly healthy except for one little boy who looks very sick and is extremely skinny. The older children all hav Mon, 4 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=ezulwini http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=ezulwini My team and I made it safely to our house in Ezulwini, Swaziland on Saturday afternoon and have been busy getting our things organized.  We have not had water or electricity all weekend, but it will hopefully be turned on today.  Our house is very nice and in a nice town as well.  Today we had our first experience taking public transportation to the mall in Mbabane.  We are going to start visiting the various ministry options this week and will hopefully all pick have an inte Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=we-made-it1 http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=we-made-it1 Well I'm happy to say that I made it safely back to South Africa without any problems.  All of my flights were on time, one even arrived early!  It has been raining since I arrived at the airport at around 3:00 yesterday, but it hasn't been so hot so I can't complain.  We are planning on leaving for Swaziland in the morning and are hoping to arrive at our house tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully I will be able to give you more information about my trip next week.  Thanks for Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=semester-2 http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=semester-2 Tomorrow I'm heading back to Africa.  This semester I will be living in Mbabane, Swaziland.  I do not know very much about where we will be living and what ministry opportunities there are since our trip was changed at the last minute.  However, I am excited to be heading back to Africa and am looking forward to how God will use my team and me in the coming months.  Below I have attached all the information I have received about my trip and a map of Swaziland.  Thank you Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=its-not-up-to-me http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=its-not-up-to-me I have been going to a coffee shop/bookstore with Carrie everyday for the past week and getting to know the owner and have been reminded of a very comforting fact.it's not up to me. God doesn't need me to accomplish anything, but He allows me to take part in what He's already doing. Carrie and I have been talking with this lady for a week and had not felt like we needed to share the gospel with her, but to just sit with her and show her that we care about her. Yesterday we got clear co Fri, 7 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=god-is-good http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=god-is-good "Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you" Psalm 31:19 This week the Lord has been teaching me of His goodness. In my head I know that God is good, but I have been trying to really study this to better understand what that means. "God is good" is a phrase that is often thrown around, but is much more complex than I realize. I have to believe that God is really good all the time. In the mids Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=amazing-grace http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=amazing-grace "Indeed, it would be perfectly fair for God not to save any human beings who sinned and rebelled against him" (Wayne Grudem, Christian Beliefs) As I was listening to Chris Tomlin's version of Amazing Grace I realized how often I forget about God's amazing grace. I get so caught up in what is going on with me that I dismiss the greatness of His grace. The truth of the above statement by Wayne Grudem in his book Christian Beliefs blew me away. Nothing about me, nothing I do, Fri, 2 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=mamelodi http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=mamelodi I have been spending all of my time in South Africa ministering in the town of Mamelodi.  Our team works at a daycare and after school program every Monday-Thursday afternoon.  I have been able to work with the school age children a lot and have gotten to know many of them pretty well.  I had the privilege to walk one little girl home on Thursday and I got to meet her parents.   It was so neat to  not only spend time with this little girl, but to also see where she Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=swaziland http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=swaziland We have spent the past week ministering to the people of Swaziland and it has been an amazing week.  We have seen and heard some horrific stories involving AIDS and the awful effects it has on this country, but we have also learned a lot.  My team and I have ministered in the local hospital, a squatter camp (many, many people crammed together in a very small place living in small houses), and a care point (a place where local children come to receive food).  Ministry has been grea Fri, 5 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=we-made-it http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=we-made-it I do not have much time to write, but I wanted to let everyone know that we all made it safely to South Africa.  We have been here for a week today and things are going well.  We did not have any trouble with the flights and the two days of travel went fairly smoothly.  I have been ministering in a town called Mamelodi this week doing children's ministry.  Tomorrow we are leaving for Swaziland for about a week.  I miss everyone at home, but am enjoying my time in Africa. Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=its-almost-time http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=its-almost-time Well it's hard to believe that I only have one more day at home before I head out.   My parents have a Bible study that meets every Monday night and tonight they ended their prayer time by praying over me before I leave.  This is a very special group of people to me and I'm so blessed to have them all in my life.  Also in the last week I have gotten to spend time with most of my family and some of my good friends.  I am going to miss them all so much, but I know that God Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=support-update http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=support-update The Lord is so faithful! So far I have raised $6,080. This means that I have enough money in my account for my plane ticket and for the 60% of the total trip cost in one time gifts! Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for me and who has given financially to help me. I still need to raise the rest of the money in pledges by September 12th and I have recently found out that I need to raise an extra $800 dollars in order to take a trip to Kenya in the fall. The Lord has been so g Sun, 19 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=christfrom-the-beginning-to-the-end http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=christfrom-the-beginning-to-the-end For the past year or so the Lord has really been showing me the importance of the gospel and in seeing Christ in the whole Bible.  My dad posted an article on his blog a few months ago by Charles Spurgeon that I thought was a great illustration of the importance of understanding Christ being central in the Bible.  I was reminded again tonight of this article so I wanted to post it.  From Phil Johnson's Spurgeon Archive: Mr. Spurgeon related a story that I believe woul Sun, 5 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=a-fourth-of-the-way-there http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=a-fourth-of-the-way-there I've been blown away at how quickly my support has been coming in! I sent out my support letters only 2 weeks ago and already I have just over $4,000 in my account. How great is our God!! I'm so thankful for all the people in my life who are willing to support what God is doing in my life. Here is an excerpt of a sermon by John Piper that has changed the way I think about missions and is one way the Lord has challenged me to do missions. The whole sermon is about 45 minutes, but is Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=why-africa http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=why-africa "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.  Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth."    & Sun, 22 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=jesus-paid-it-all-from-passion-06 http://allisoncallahan.myadventures.org/?filename=jesus-paid-it-all-from-passion-06 This is a video of the song "Jesus Paid It All" from Passion 2006 and I really like this version.   Sun, 22 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT