Finally, I’m blogging! When I wrote my last blog apparently the computer I was on
messed up and so it didn’t show up! Since my last blog that worked was written
before I left home, I have a lot to write about! I don’t quite know where to
start… I guess I’ll start from the very beginning.
So the adventure all started at training camp near Gainesville, Georgia. I
was there for a week and our team got to know each other as we slept in tents,
showered with hoses, attended sessions, and did team challenges. My team is
awesome, by the way. There are 13 of us girls and 2 guys and we have some good
times together. I’ve really enjoyed the past month and I’m looking forward to the
months ahead.
Back to my African journey… next we boarded the plane to South Africa!
After a really long flight, a 15-hour layover in the Frankfurt airport, and
another really long flight to Johannesburg, we arrived in SA! The first week we
lived at Alabanza, a Christian retreat/missions center just outside of Pretoria
and attended sessions in the morning and went out for ministry in the afternoon.
There were about 45 other people living and doing ministry with us – they are a
part of a general ‘Africa’ team at the moment, but they’ll be splitting up into
three teams before December… one team will minister in and around Johannesburg
and Pretoria, another team will serve in Swaziland, and another team will go to
Kenya. My team did manual labor that first week… we shoveled dirt, moved sand,
built walls, and such things.
The next week we all traveled in vans and Kombies to Swaziland and spent 9
days there. We all stayed in one house together… close to seventy people
altogether(!) and so we really practiced the art of community living! It was such
a good week… God taught me so much personally and also the experiences doing
ministry were amazing. We visited two care points, which are places where kids
can come for a meal (usually the only meal they get that day) and various
afternoon programs. We also went to a hospital and visited with the patients
there. It was really hard to see the suffering so vividly – seeing young women so
ravaged by AIDS that they were skin and bones really hit me hard. I can’t even
imagine what they’ve gone through in their short lives. It was hard to feel so
helpless, but all that we were called to do in that moment was to talk to them,
hold their hand, and just love them with God’s love. We also visited a squatter
camp, which is an area of land on which people build huts and shacks and live
there, but could get evicted at any time since they don’t own the land they live
on. The poverty is so great, and so much goes on that is absolutely
heartbreaking. The things that those little children have gone through just tears
at my heart. But to see their faces light up from a simply hug or smile, and to
watch the people in the church there praising God and thanking Him for His
blessings is also astounding. A really neat thing to realize is that the greater
the suffering, the more need for Jesus, and when that need is realized and Christ
is received, the joy seems to be so much greater and the contrast is seen so
clearly. God is good, and I’m so thankful that even when I don’t understand
things that happen, God is working and I can trust Him.
After the week in Swazi, we returned to Alabanza for another week and then,
on October 13th, early in the morning, we piled into two Kombies and headed for
Jeffrey’s Bay!!!!! The drive is an estimated 12 hours, so add stops and car
trouble and you’ve got yourself one long day of travel! But we made it, and I’m
so glad to finally be here in J-Bay! We live all live in one house together, and
we’re really starting to feel like a family. The past few days have been filled
with orientation and getting to know the town. J-Bay is pretty small and
everything is within walking distance which I love. The beach is about a 15
minute walk away… and it is absolutely gorgeous. I’m afraid to post pictures
for fear that people will think I’m on vacation rather than a missions trip!
Seriously, it’s amazing. God is so good – sometimes I still can’t believe I’m
actually living here for the next seven months! Today we started touring some of
our ministry options, and within a week and a half, I should know where I’m going
to do my internship (the ministry I’ll be serving at for the rest of the year.)
So right now I’m just praying that God would show me exactly where He wants me
this year – I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do in J-Bay in the next
months!
Well, that is pretty much everything in a nutshell that has happened so far!
Hopefully soon I’ll get a chance to put up some pics as well of everything that’s
going on. Love you all!
