VERY EXCITING, BLOG CHANGING NEWS!

The day has come to switch to a totally new blog for the sole purpose of recording everything that happens while in Mali, both ministry and personal experiences sort of thing. I will not be posting here at Nisondiya for a very long time, as all my posts leading up to leaving for Mali will now be at my new blog. I will post there the entire time I am in Mali, allowing you guys to follow along on my journey to where the Lord has called me to. So, if you would like to continue following my life and all the Lord does in Mali, please become a follower of my new blog at: http://hereigotomali.blogspot.com/. It's been a pleasure to share my life with you guys up until this point, and I'm sooo excited to see what He is going to do next! See you at Here I go! :)

I really want to go camping. Despite my dislike for bugs, I really am a get dirt under my finger nails kinda girl. I’m ready to smell dirt again. I remember the first - and only - time I went camping. It was in good ole Bertie County, in someone’s back yard that lived in the middle of nowhere. It was scary, but oh so cool. I want to camp where the stars are.

I went through this stage of wanting to live in Montana for the longest time when I was sixteen/seventeen. I still have to say I could deal with a very long stay there. I want to cook something that took effort to find and kill. I want to taste sweet victory of actually eating it too.

Within me, there’s this girl (or maybe it’s a woman now?), that would love roughin’ it outside for a week or three. I want there to be dirt on my feet. I want to forge for my own supply of berries, and know which ones are those I can eat. I want to know the difference between the Milky Way and the other stars. I want to be able to tell my direction by looking at the sun, or trees, or whatever it is you do.

I just want to go camping really badly. But I’m just too scared to try it out in my backyard because there is this possum that lurks every night, and I promise you he is the size of a small dog. Not a Taco Bell size dog, but a beagle size. That, and I’ve yet to find anyone that shares this desire to camp, and/or would actually really do so. Maybe I’ll get a chance in Africa? I’ve heard we may be staying a week in a village - which includes camping out under the stars type of thing, with outdoor showers, bathrooms, and just about everything I am praying for right now. Please?

Tonight made me

ache for a kid. It felt so natural holding little Nayt. I loved it when you laid your sweet head on my shoulder. I loved that I was standing there talking with two of my best friends. I felt like I should say, “Hey, meet my son…”, but then I realized he wasn’t mine. :/ Someday, Natali. Someday.

I want that brood of kids. I long for a set of twelve sons. And a daughter or two :)

At least while I wait I can keep adding names to a list I’ve had since age ten.

Boaz, Hosea, Ezra, Hadassah Joy, Israel…

Just me and my imagination longing to be there already.

She walks with their five little hands in her two. One little guy even holding onto her bag. To be honest, she loves this. It tickles her to pieces that she is thriving. She feels at home here. Africa is home for her; He has ordained it from the beginning of time. His purpose is bigger than her and her wishes to remain with what she knew before. She knows she is supposed to be here giving hugs and kisses to all these children. She knows this is where she is to bring the Good News. She knows she must go show His love to these precious people. And she is here. Finally. Now she waits with bated breath for the day when revival sweeps this land, and He pours out His Spirit on all flesh here. Gosh, she can barely wait.

A mix of emotions and "cheeeeese".

Sigh - one that is both happy and one that is beginning to feel the pains I knew would eventually come. It’s almost Christmas, and with that comes lots of extra family time. And suprisingly, or not, family members eyes being teared up when you come in the room. You try not to cry, just to be strong - for yourself and for them. Because you know if you cry when they cry, then it will go on for a few minutes and everybody will cry. Nobody ever told me this would be easy, so I didn’t expect it to be. Especially the conversations with my Mom about not being here next Christmas. It’s not all bad though, because I’m suffering for the cause of Jesus. People will see how much His love means because I will not turn back, but do the thing many have deemed impossible. I will leave those I love dearly, for those who are unaware that Christ loves them even more.

I think the tears are a good thing actually, because without them there would be no feeling. The hurt and pain I’m experiencing is real. And feeling these is only human. This time is definitely making a weak person strong in His promise and His love.

Tonight I will go to the Christmas play practice that I’ve participated in ever since I remember. But it will be different this year, because I’m in the audience. But that’s a good thing, because it means I’ve been too busy to go to play practice because God’s been rockin’ my world with fundraising and other events. I will most likely babysit some awesome kids tonight and give away some more silly bands, just because I want to. I’m hoping to get some pictures of those sweet people in the Christmas play so that I can fill up my scrapbook for Africa with familiar faces. So, get ready to smile, people. Get ready. :)

46 days and a Visa.

Counting the rest of today, as it is only 9:56am Eastern time, there are 46 days left in the countdown. I mainly wrote this post for prayer for my Malian Visa. I sent the app. off the other day to the embassy in DC, and from there they contact the Malian embassy (which is close every Wednesday), and then send me my Visa. Would you pray that everything goes smoothly and quickly, as Christmas is approaching us? I'm not exactly sure when the embassy in Mali closes (if they do at all) for the holidays coming up (since they are not majority Christian, in fact only 1%). But for some reason I just feel that I should ask you guys to pray that everything goes smoothly. There is a lot of important documents that had to be shipped with my Malian Visa application in the mail, such as my passport, etc. My friend received hers back within a week. I sent mine out this Tuesday, so I should get it around Tuesday or Wednesday I suppose! I would appreciate if you would join in prayer with me :) Thanks.

I'll leave you with this fabulous news : There is an apartment awaiting my teams arrival!! :)

And a picture of some of the cutest little kids ever. They are from the city I am moving to (Bamako).

My mind is blown so much lately. Okay, here’s the backstory:

On the packing list for Africa it was listed that we needed a pair of sturdy sandals. Then I saw how much they cost, and the cheapest pair I could find were $40. There was no way I could see spending that kind of money on a pair of sandals when I already had some shoes that I could get along with okay. I was ready to deal with my Walmart flipflops and my old pair of Rainbows. My mom, on the other hand, really wanted me to have some nice sturdy sandals like the list said and she was searching high and low for them. :) So, long story short, a sweet friend who works at a shoe store nearby said that they carried Teva sandals. Then comes the shocking part. She knew about what I was doing next year and gave them to me for free. The exact style that I had liked online was on sale in the shoe store, and yeah… it’s a God thing. I guess He really wanted me to have some sturdy sandals for Africa too. :)

Today is...

only-fifty-days-left-day. :)

This morning at the yardsale (some precious people threw me a yard sale to support fundraising), it could’ve been easy to be negative. It was FUHreezing outside, and we had snow later in the day. At 7:30am, I am not in the best oh my gosh I’m so extra awake moods. And like I said, it was colddd. After I woke up a little and had a cup of coffee or two, I was doing better, but I still wasn’t in the best mood ever. Probably because it was cold. Haha. {If you can’t tell, I didn’t like the cold.} Then it happened. A kid showed up to the yard sale with her parents. I was smitten. You could tell by her appearance, that her family is struggling to make ends meet, yet they came to the yard sale/fundraiser to support my move to Mali. As I’m typing this, it just hit me how selfless that little girl’s family really is. If you could’ve but seen the pain I saw in her eyes, you would know. That little girl, who we’ll call J, didn’t have the money to buy all the toys she saw and wanted on the toy table. Yet, her dad would give her 10 cents here, and 25 cents there to make a purchase. She even chose a baby doll. A baby doll me and my sister used to play with when we were just a little bit older than 4 year old J. In J, I saw the kids next year. I saw the Malian beauties and the pain in their eyes. I felt the pain of wanting to hug little J and whisper Yesu b’i kanu. I wanted so badly to be there in Bamako with the kids. Then I looked away as my eyes teared up. But, I know that I was there today for J. I know that God has a plan even in our meeting that lasted about an hour. I loved that her family hung around the yard sale, just talking and chatting, and laughing. Oh, did we laugh. And when little J rubbed her precious little hand over Coco (that is what she named her new little doll baby that she bought) I thought I would melt. She took care of her new baby so tenderly, and I wish I had had a camera at that moment. The way she looked down at the baby doll… gosh, it was darling. I wish I could’ve brought J home with me and showed her all my other old dolls from when I was a little girl… and given them all to her. To see them as He sees them hurts, people. It really does. But then sometimes it’s really good too. Today was both of those. And it was wonderful.

Two secrets revealed!!

For those of you who are not friends with me on Facebook (please friend request me if you're not - Natali Williams), I have some very exciting news. First of all, the secret from a couple of days ago was that there is an apartment in Bamako with my name and four other girls' names on it! No pictures yet, sorry :( BUT wait! I have another surprise! Through a miraculous thing of getting a loan of $1600 in just a few hours by just crying out to God and asking for prayer from people, but not from those people who ended up loaning the money (from people who prefer to remain nameless from the public), because I found out I had to pay for this expense out of pocket and then get reimbursed, I was able to PURCHASE THE TICKETS FOR MY FLIGHT TODAY and fly with the rest of the group!!!! Praise God for the amazingggg provision! I am officially leaving on January 26th. No more guesses with the countdowns! :) Not counting the hour left in today, it is day 54 in the countdown. I am almost at 50! Ohmygosh, wow! And I am amazed at how excited I am to get on those three airplanes. Can you believe the change in this girl since last October? I said to myself I would NEVER get on another airplane, because I was so freaked out and sweating like a crazy person. But here I am, a little over a year later, moving to Mali, Africa and excited about the flights over there (one I even have to take by myself to be able to meet up with the rest of the group). Oh! And I get to make a pit stop in Casablanca. :) That's in Morocco for all you people like me who never knew Casablanca was in Africa. It makes me want to watch the movie now. Lol. Anywho, aw ni su (or goodnight in Bambara). I must go!

I have a secret!! :)

I know something you don't know! Can you guess what it is?