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?

If so, I am so stoked.

According to the new date that I am planning on leaving for Mali (January 26th), today is day 57 in the countdown. :) I can barely believe it is getting so close! These pirogue boats are in Mali, and I have heard that in order to get to a village (that I may be visiting sometime next year) you must take this boat there - one hour there, one hour back. To say I am excited doesn't cover it in the least. This is in Segou, Mali, about 3 or so hours from Bamako, the capital.

“18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.” — Isaiah 43.
I am a new thing. This thing that so many perceive as a desert for me is You making a way through something that should break me. I should not be able to do this, but with You and through You it is being done. It will be done. Now and in the future. Forever You will be with me. Where I should be thirsting to death according to the world, there will be streams of You, and Your grace, strength and love. You are my stream, You are the way.

[picture courtesy of Google Images]

I'm

longing for warm weather. What is wrong with me?! I’m a cold weather loving person, or used to be. I cannot believe I am seriously wanting 80 degrees right now. Or, maybe I can. Africa is where I want to be. Mali, West Africa to be exact. I want to be in that apartment where I am learning a new way of life. I want to be amongst the Malian adults and smaller people. I want to see and experience the move of God there. I long to eat that food, and add some recipes to my stash. If I could go tonight, I would. I just want to be in this place I feel like my heart’s residing in right now. I want the dirt, and the dust, and the messy feet. I want dirt underneath my fingernails and no makeup. I want a little person’s hand clasped in mine, and the laughter to abound. I just want Africa. Please, come soon. But most of all, I just want to breathe in that warm air, and know that I am there - that I’m at home on this Earth,and preparing to meet You in my eternal Home forever. Oh gosh, I so just made myself even more homesick for a place I’ve never known.

I'm Very, Very Thankful for You, and this past year.

This year has without a doubt been the best year of my life. And I am never going to be the same because of it! I am purposed and feel Hope in my life. As my friend Kylee has done, I am going to make this post month by month what I am thankful for, as this year has sooooo much packed in. The first part of this post will be just that.

December 2009
I am thankful for You continuing to stir my heart for Africa, and for allowing me to fall in love with You like I never had before. I wanted more of You, and I was NOT disappointed in my seeking, for I truly found You. :)

January 2010
I am thankful for God placing missionaries Glen and Karen Smith in my path, and finding out about an opportunity in Mali, West Africa to serve You. I truly surrendered my life to You, and will forever remember the hard nights I spent crying my eyes out, and just wanting to do what You wanted me to. I'm thankful for the time You clearly spoke to me and said, "What I've Shown You, Go". You even placed a West African professor in my life two days a week!

February 2010
This was the month I left everything behind and followed Your lead. Enough said :)

March 2010
I am thankful for You being there with me in my time of need. I knew I was leaving everything behind, but for how long I did not know. I had a choice, and I didn't want to make it, I wanted You to make it. I wanted only to follow You. Throughout this time You were faithful to me and never left my side. This could've shook me so hard, but I had peace throughout, amazingly enough.

April 2010
I felt in my spirit that I wasn't giving everything I personally had to give until I gave that year for Mali. I was so scared of it, and yet I knew You that's what You wanted me to give. I'm so thankful for you confirming that in a sermon right after I told one of my very good friends. I could barely believe all the loving ways You were showing You were in this. I was truly falling in love with You more each and every day.

May 2010
This month I was thankful for you sustaining me through all those difficult times before, and being with my Mom during her surgeries. I remember being amazed, and still am, at how Izzie the cat gave birth to those kittens. Thank you for that amazing opportunity to see little ones grow up, and just how awesome Your creation really is.


June 2010
This was one amazingggggg month! There was an awesome revival that took place in my own soul. One I will never forget. I fell even deeper in love with You through the weeks of revival, and You gave me some amazing new friends as well through it (and I get to spend more time with them in January before I leave! How thankful I am!!). There were nights where I stayed up and cried, thinking of how long a year was and the unknown that came along with that, but You calmed my keeping-me-awake-all-night-long-fears and gave me a peace that passes ALL understanding.

July 2010
This was the month where You broke my heart for all the people who don't know You through a children's class I was working with at church. I hope to be able to go back before I leave and see just how that one little girl who inspired all of this is doing.

August 2010
I'm thankful that You let me reach my last semester in my BA degree, and that You placed the West African professor once again in my path! I prayed about a new campus ministry to attend weekly, as the one I used to attend wasn't in session this semester, and boy did You ever confirm which one! I am very thankful for Victory Campus Ministries and the amazing friends You have given me through it!! Also, I was praising You big time when I was officially accepted into the program to go to Mali next year!

September 2010
This month marked the first speaking opportunity You placed in my path, and I truly cried out to You, not wanting to be like Moses and say I was unable to do what You had given me to do. And You were so faithful in giving me every bit of courage I needed to stand in front of that crowd, and I loved it! Also, I was sooooo thankful for Your faithfulness in provision. It was coming in BIG TIME. And something I had prayed for happened. My sister and her sweet little family were able to come visit me before I move. Thank You so, sooooo much for that one. (And stayed tuned in a couple of weeks, for I think I have exciting news to tell soon! Oh, how He is gracious!)

October 2010
I was so thankful that You kept remaining faithful, and the provision for next year kept pouring in. How awesome just to see it! Yard sale, donations, etc.

November 2010
This month has been awesome! I am just floored by generosity and faithfulness of Him. He has strengthened me beyond anything I EVER thought possible. I am so thankful for You, and my family and friends. I am almost about to graduate from college with my BA in English ( in 20ish days, people!!), and celebrating. I am very thankful for this holiday season, and being able to spend it with a whole bunch of people that I love so much. I am so blessed in every part of my life. And this marks the countdown in 2 months 'til Africa.


P.S.
Oh my goodness. You know what?! I'm going to be in Africa next Thanksgiving! I'll definitely have to post what that is like when the time comes!!
Here is some of my Thanksgiving this year:


My Mom's very yummy coconut pie that I'm not sure what I'm going to do without!! :D
My wonderful parents who I have come to love so much these past 23 years!

And last, but definitely not least, one of my (4) nephews, six year old Holden. I was talking with him earlier tonight, and said, "Holden, can I take a picture of you so that I'll have one in Africa when I go? I'm going to miss you." And he said, "Yeah!", much to my surprise! This is the kid who never likes me taking his picture anymore. We then went on to take like 15 more!! :) So this is my Holden picture for Africa. You've gotta love this little boy to pieces!

Okay, so I'd better go! I'm going out with Holden's mom, my oldest sister, Stephanie, to Walmart and maybe Belks for Black Friday at 12am midnight eastern time! :D This will be my first time ever doing this, and I am so excited! I just had to do it before I leave for Mali! :) I hope everyone has enjoyed an awesome Thanksgiving with family and friends, and have realized just how thankful they are to Him. Love you each and every one of you guys! Happy Thanksgiving!

So thankful & a countdown day.

I am very thankful for today, and tomorrow, and the days to come. I have my parent’s house to myself today. I’m watching Adoption Stories right now (which is totally making my heart happy for the years to come, and it’s been too long since I’ve watched it), and then I am planning on making an old pair of jeans into some capris :) This should be fun.

Tonight, my sister and her boy are coming over to my parents house, and we’re all spending the day together tomorrow as well. These moments are so special, and I’m beginning to realize just how thankful I am, once again. Tomorrow will be a day of great food and amazing relaxation. I hope to get everything squared away today with the flights for January (the date may have changed for departure lol once again, but all's good! Only maybe a day or two difference), and apply for my Malian Visa, and register (meant to last night, but we all know I’m forgetful) for the SALT Conference in Jacksonville.

Gosh, I love today.

Oh!! And today is 50ish something in the Big Countdown 'til Mali. It could be day 58, 59 - I think you get my gist. :) Anywho, here is Day 50-something :

Timbuktu!! You guessed it! Timbuktu (or Tombouctou) is a REAL place and it is in Mali, West Africa. Oh yes. And, I hopefully get to travel to this far away magical place next year! Yes, God has sent me to the land of Timbuktu. I so often get a kick out of that :) In this map (from Google Images, as all the other photos in this post as well) you can see the distance from Bamako, the capital city where I will reside, to Timbuktu. It's quite a long trek. :)
Here is a picture of life in Timbuktu. And yes, I am very excited, but nervous too, about riding a camel.

I also wanted to explain the racial differences in Timbuktu. There are a more Arab-looking people living there (called the Tuareg people) who are nomadic. Also, there are the Black Africans living there as well. There is a history of the Tuareg's enslaving the Black Africans, but I'll leave that for another post.
So, there you go. He has sent me to the land of Timbuktu. :) You've gotta love it!

day 64.

Yummy. Fo sho. This is supposedly some type of okra sauce with rice and onions and stuff in Bamako, Mali. Seriously, if that was in front of me right now, I would eat it without hesitation. Okay, I’m officially starting the daily countdown until the day I leave (to hopefully be carried out every day, but maybe just a couple days a week, not sure). Consider this day 64.

I’m seriously craving that now.

My Mali Missions Video (the other was just to get you familiar with the people)

Please feel free to share.

a new look for the African heat.

The temperatures in Mali can easily get to 112 degrees. So yeah, today I...

got 8 inches cut off my hair!! :DD Ahhh!! and. I. loveeeee. it. Here I come, Mali!