Abram Moloi
Job at Thrive: Outreach Assistant
Hometown: Qwa Qwa, South Africa

What do you like best about your job?
I get to meet with a lot significant people, and build great relationships.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I enjoy reading challenging books a lot.

What is your favorite food?
I really like chicken and lamb.

What’s it like working with so many Americans?
It is real good to work with a lot of Americans because I learn about their culture and their lifestyle.

What music do you like to listen to?
I like to listen Gospel and worship music.

Share something unique about yourself.
I like to spend most of my time alone.

(See Abram’s official bio.)

Brittany Marie White
Job at Thrive: Leadership Summit Assistant
Hometown: Mint Hill, NC

What’s your favorite part of living in Africa?
My favorite part of living in Africa is learning as much of the Sotho language as I can through daily conversations with the Basotho staff who work around the base.

What do you like best about your job?
I love researching the various topics that are included in each of the curriculums.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I really enjoy cooking and baking and doing anything creative or outdoors.

What do you miss most from home?
STARBUCKS!!!

What’s playing on your iPod these days?
Anything and everything that is not rap or hard rock; definitely a lot of praise and worship!

What’s a movie you can watch over and over?
The Lake House, The Notebook, and Patch Adams

Share something unique about yourself.
I can do the “wave” with my belly. (I do it best lying down.)

(See Brittany’s official bio.)

Cassandra Nichole Phillips
Job at Thrive: Leadership Summit Coach Development Manager
Hometown: Hamilton, OH

What’s your favorite part of living in Africa?
I really love being able to take part in another culture and seeing some of the unique things of the culture become a part of me.

What do you like best about your job?
What I like best about my job is that I have the opportunity to not only influence someone’s life here and now, but for eternity as well.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I really enjoy going on walks or just relaxing on the couch.

What do you miss most from home?
I miss pancake syrup the most; it’s just not the same here.

What’s playing on your iPod these days?
Shawn McDonald has been playing more than anything else these days.

What’s a movie you can watch over and over?
I could watch Cinderella over and over and never get tired of it.

Share something unique about yourself.
I literally get chills when someone takes a scoop of butter out of the tub instead of neatly scraping some off the top. That’s strange!

(See Cassie’s official bio.)

Amanda Puleng Radebe
Job at Thrive: Leadership Summit Assistant
Hometown: Qwa Qwa, South Africa

What do you like best about your job?
The fact that I’m changing lives for the better—lives that might not have had a future if God didn’t care, but He does and uses ordinary people like you and me to change them.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Youth choir, spending time with youth at my church, and exploring different ways of worshiping God.

What is your favorite food?
Spur Hawaiian Burger with their delicious sauce. (Mmm… finger lickin’ good!)

What’s it like working with so many Americans?
It’s definitely an adjustment in terms of cultural differences. That’s what I like about different cultures though—you get to learn and adjust as you go along, which I think is cool. I also know that God put us together for a purpose—and a good one, I must add.

What music do you like to listen to?
Classical, Andrea Bocelli, and Josh Groban to name a few…

Share something unique about yourself.
I listen to Christmas music all year round!

(See Amanda’s official bio.)

We had a great time at our belated Superbowl party last night. It was a lot of fun to have the whole family together—all the staff and interns. And Kelly, our resident party-planner, made sure there was plenty of food. With loaded tater skins, homemade soft pretzels, chicken wings, all sorts of baked (and unbaked) yummies, and a veggie tray (the one token healthy item), no one went hungry.

About half the crowd weren’t really into the game, but it didn’t even matter. Everyone still enjoyed themselves, with some hunkering around a table for a bit of serious card-playing action. With game-viewers supporting both teams, there was lots of shouting and cheering—and even some good-natured smack-talk. Amid boatloads of laughter, we were all glad to spend the evening together as one big Thrive family.

We obviously know how to throw a good party…

David Joseph Ditges
Job at Thrive: Creative Director
Hometown: Jacksonville, FL

What’s your favorite part of living in Africa?
With the constant power outages, freezing winters, and surprisingly high cost of living, there are just so many to choose from. All joking aside, I do enjoy the peace and quiet that comes with this country. Part is the culture and I guess part is just how things work at a slower pace here, so it’s nice to be in a place that isn’t quite like the rat race of America.

What do you like best about your job?
That it’s all for the Kingdom. Just about everything I create, design, or work on is in some way helping grow the Kingdom of God. I don’t think I would be able to say that if I didn’t work here.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Relaxing! It can be hard to find free time around here so when those beautiful days come along, my couch is my best friend.

What do you miss most from home?
Movie night. I really enjoyed heading to the movies on opening night to catch the new blockbuster movie that was coming out. Now, with the closest movie theater over 3 hours away, that just doesn’t happen too often.

What’s playing on your iPod these days?
Unfortunately, I am a statistic and my iPod was stolen. But lately I’ve been listening to Dave Wilcox, James Taylor, Nina Simone, Caedmon’s Call, and on occasion, I’ll get the led out with some Zeppelin.

What’s a movie you can watch over and over?
Last of the Mohicans

Share something unique about yourself.
I once camped out in a Chick-fil-A parking lot for 12 hours to be the 71st customer at one of their new stores and receive free Chick-fil-A for a year. So next time you hear about a Chick-fil-A opening near you, bust out the sleeping bag and be one of the first 100 in line. They do it at every new location opening.

(See Dave’s official bio.)

It’s summer in Africa. Or it’s supposed to be anyway. The past few weeks haven’t felt very summery. I was wearing a sweater almost everyday! Seeing as it’s supposed to be our warmest time of year, it had me pretty concerned about how many layers I’d be wearing come winter. But suddenly it’s warmed up again. The past few days have been absolutely gorgeous.

Rosy cheeks and tender shoulders quickly reminded everyone of the need for sunblock… The African sun is so strong and often catches people off-guard. As is the custom each year, the interns learned this lesson the hard way. I’m thinking they’re going to polish off the large bottle of aloe vera I gave them a few days ago!

This weekend is supposed to be in the 70’s — the perfect temperature! So while you shovel your sidewalks and defrost your windshields, we’ll be thinking of you down in sunny South Africa.

Oh — And with the time difference, we’ll only be watching the Superbowl on Monday night. It’s become a Thrive tradition to gather for a belated Superbowl party… and while some show up to actually watch the game, others of us really only come for the awesome food. Since we’ll be watching after the game’s already happened, we need to work really hard at not hearing the score. So please don’t tell us who wins!

Kelly Ann Corder
Job at Thrive: LaunchPad Director
Hometown: Stockton, CA

What’s your favorite part of living in Africa?
My favorite part of living in Africa is all the unique experiences. I mean, where else can you teach and be taught in such an amazing environment? Or get the chance to pony-trek trough remote villages on vacation? And it’s beautiful here — I’ve been living here for almost 3 years, and the view on the walk home from the office still stops me in my tracks.

What do you like best about your job?
I love knowing that what I love doing is exactly what God wants me to be doing right now. Is that confusing enough?

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Well, if we have a chunk of free time, I enjoy going on trips. South Africa’s got a lot of diversity in a fairly small area so there’s a lot to do that’s not too far away. On a weekly basis I spend some of my free time going on walks around our property. And watching movies. Movies are good.

What do you miss most from home?
Going to the beach with my friends, but we do that here too, so who’s complaining?

What’s playing on your iPod these days?
Well, at this moment I’m listening to “Jeremiah’s Prayer” by Andy Simonds. Some of my other favs right now are “Nothing Left to Lose” by Mat Kearney, anything by Paul Wright or The Beach Boys, and I’ve also been listening to some fun Country lately.

What’s a movie you can watch over and over?
I’ve got a couple (which is good when you live in a place with limited movie options): Pretty Woman, Dirty Dancing, and Blue Crush.

Share something unique about yourself.
I actually like being sunburned. Not like totally toasted, but just a little sunburned. I enjoy it.

(See Kelly’s official bio.)

We want to introduce you to our incredible team of staff. Each week we’ll feature a different staff member, sharing with you about their role in the ministry as well as some of what makes them unique! Enjoy getting to know our family…

Rebecca Joy Burris
Job at Thrive: Executive Assistant to Niel van Rensburg
Hometown: Flagstaff, AZ

What’s your favorite part of living in Africa?
I love living in, adapting to, and learning a culture different than my own.

What do you like best about your job?
My job fosters an environment where I have daily opportunities to serve others and help them get one step closer to reaching the vision God has placed on their heart. I love that!

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
Hanging out with friends, reading, scrapbooking, and watching TV shows on DVD.

What do you miss most from home?
I miss being able to share special moments or difficult times with friends and family in America. And of course good Mexican food. ;-)

What’s playing on your iPod these days?
Casting Crowns, Caedmon’s Call, and Racal Flatts

What’s a movie you can watch over and over?
Mmm… I guess it would have to be The Fugitive.

Share something unique (or strange!) about yourself.
Apparently I have long ambidextrous toes; I can even type with them!

(See Rebecca’s official bio.)

Life on the mission field is full of ups and downs.

Lately, the electricity has been going down a lot. Thankfully, most of us use laptops so our work doesn’t immediately disappear before our very eyes. But going hours without power in the middle of the work day is definitely frustrating. Once we’ve exhausted all the work we can do without electricity and internet, we sit around and talk, or read, or (if we’re lucky) take a nap.

The power was down for a long time this afternoon. Now that it’s back up, I figured I’d try to post this quickly—before it goes down again!

Never a dull moment in Africa…