for that is where my happiness is found." Psalms 119:35
***WARNING: this may be a long post, so be prepared.***Words can hardly describe what happened in my heart while in South Africa. Everything from Sunday morning church on our first day to the youth event we held on our last evening there. It was all so wonderful.
We left at noon on Friday and arrived at 5:30pm (they are 6hrs ahead) their time. We all had those jitters of being in another country-especially Africa. We had about a 4 or five hour travel time to where we were staying and got settled in for the night. Sunday's church service was great. As we were driving down the dirt road (that was hardly drive-able yet considered a good road), the jitters began to settle and emotion started to set in. As we approached the church, my heart was pounding. I saw the "C3 Church Real Hope for Real People in a Real World" sign out front in a place all could see! Although my ears were ringing after service(I was right in front of the speakers), I walked away with more faith than when I had walked in. The kids just wanted to sit on our laps, Pastor Gideon preached an AWESOME message, and everyone, that I saw, was so full of joy.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were AMAZING. We got to play with the kids, put on a VBS style kids event, kill chickens and later feed them to the kids(meat is a rare meal), paint people's houses, clean up their yards(found some very interesting things growing...), visit the public school and talk to the students about the church, host a youth event, and pray for the students in the community.
Oh my gracious. I wish you could have seen the youth event. They said we would be lucky if we had one student, due to the fact that teenagers there are more interested in drinking and smoking than in what people claim to be 'church'. The church was overflowing! We didn't even have enough seats for everyone. But I'm telling you, that was the most fun I've ever had at a youth event outside of our home church here in Clayton. I got to be a part of leading some worship, along with Sydney, Matt playing acoustic, and James playing three buckets for drums!We had a dance off and everybody went crazy! You think tribal dancing, but no. It was legit. It was a joke for a while, but some lady got really into it and started to "back it up" on me...yeah...Anyways, Lee brought an awesome word about God being our Father. Most of the kids there do not have good fathers-if any at all. At the end, we got to pray over the students and give them a FOREVER wrist band to remind them that God will never leave them.
We had to part with the sweet village of Mganduzweni on Wednesday to head to Swaziland. Yes, we did go on a game drive (safari), and saw some awesome sights of lions, rhinos, elephants and many more. I even ate some wildebeest! Not my favorite taste. Friday we were able to visit GLA-Global Leadership Academy for Children's Cup. It was fantastic. They are doing some awesome training there. We got to visit the preschool carepoint....ah! Look, those preschoolers walk up to an hour to get to school each day...I don't know how high school kids complain about riding the bus to school here. These preschoolers have more Bible verses memorized in English than most Christians I know! It was great to be able to play with them and hug them for the time that we were there...you never know what kind of home life they are going back to when they leave school. After that, we visited the I Am Not Forgotten Home. These are kids who had such horrible family lives that the king allowed for them to be put into an orphanage(there are no orphanages for kids in Swaziland unless the child is in an exceptionally terrible situation).
I have cried many, many times since being back in the States. God is doing something so wonderful there and I'm glad that I got to be a part of it for a week. I don't know much of what to say to people when they ask how the trip went, but I just keep praying that God calls me back. It was home. It IS home. There are faces of precious children that I pray over every night-hoping that I will be able to see them again. My heart is constantly overwhelmed with waves of compassion that I never even realized I had. But for this one week that I got to spend in Africa, I know that God did his thing through me and through the rest of the team that I was with. I watched my peers glow with the light of Jesus when they were silly dancing for the kids, when they cried their way through cutting of chicken's heads just to serve the kids, when they greeted the youth walking into the event when they had those intimate moments with the cooks, kids and neighbors that meant so much. I could go on, but I know they have their own stories. :) South Africa is forever in my heart, but hopefully in my future as well!
Thanks to our super cool missionary leaders, Chris, Blanche, Mark and our outstanding driver, Sofiso! If you would like to hear more details about the trip, I would be glad to share, just ask!
On a side note: I am still raising support for this trip! I have $800 left to raise out of $1500. I am ready to do some hard work for it, so let me know if you have any jobs that you need to be done-I'm your girl! Anything helps. I would like to get the rest of my money turned in as soon as I possibly can. a HUGE thank you to those who have already been a part of supporting me...your letters are on the way!
I bid you all a good day!
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were AMAZING. We got to play with the kids, put on a VBS style kids event, kill chickens and later feed them to the kids(meat is a rare meal), paint people's houses, clean up their yards(found some very interesting things growing...), visit the public school and talk to the students about the church, host a youth event, and pray for the students in the community.
Oh my gracious. I wish you could have seen the youth event. They said we would be lucky if we had one student, due to the fact that teenagers there are more interested in drinking and smoking than in what people claim to be 'church'. The church was overflowing! We didn't even have enough seats for everyone. But I'm telling you, that was the most fun I've ever had at a youth event outside of our home church here in Clayton. I got to be a part of leading some worship, along with Sydney, Matt playing acoustic, and James playing three buckets for drums!We had a dance off and everybody went crazy! You think tribal dancing, but no. It was legit. It was a joke for a while, but some lady got really into it and started to "back it up" on me...yeah...Anyways, Lee brought an awesome word about God being our Father. Most of the kids there do not have good fathers-if any at all. At the end, we got to pray over the students and give them a FOREVER wrist band to remind them that God will never leave them.
We had to part with the sweet village of Mganduzweni on Wednesday to head to Swaziland. Yes, we did go on a game drive (safari), and saw some awesome sights of lions, rhinos, elephants and many more. I even ate some wildebeest! Not my favorite taste. Friday we were able to visit GLA-Global Leadership Academy for Children's Cup. It was fantastic. They are doing some awesome training there. We got to visit the preschool carepoint....ah! Look, those preschoolers walk up to an hour to get to school each day...I don't know how high school kids complain about riding the bus to school here. These preschoolers have more Bible verses memorized in English than most Christians I know! It was great to be able to play with them and hug them for the time that we were there...you never know what kind of home life they are going back to when they leave school. After that, we visited the I Am Not Forgotten Home. These are kids who had such horrible family lives that the king allowed for them to be put into an orphanage(there are no orphanages for kids in Swaziland unless the child is in an exceptionally terrible situation).
I have cried many, many times since being back in the States. God is doing something so wonderful there and I'm glad that I got to be a part of it for a week. I don't know much of what to say to people when they ask how the trip went, but I just keep praying that God calls me back. It was home. It IS home. There are faces of precious children that I pray over every night-hoping that I will be able to see them again. My heart is constantly overwhelmed with waves of compassion that I never even realized I had. But for this one week that I got to spend in Africa, I know that God did his thing through me and through the rest of the team that I was with. I watched my peers glow with the light of Jesus when they were silly dancing for the kids, when they cried their way through cutting of chicken's heads just to serve the kids, when they greeted the youth walking into the event when they had those intimate moments with the cooks, kids and neighbors that meant so much. I could go on, but I know they have their own stories. :) South Africa is forever in my heart, but hopefully in my future as well!
Thanks to our super cool missionary leaders, Chris, Blanche, Mark and our outstanding driver, Sofiso! If you would like to hear more details about the trip, I would be glad to share, just ask!
On a side note: I am still raising support for this trip! I have $800 left to raise out of $1500. I am ready to do some hard work for it, so let me know if you have any jobs that you need to be done-I'm your girl! Anything helps. I would like to get the rest of my money turned in as soon as I possibly can. a HUGE thank you to those who have already been a part of supporting me...your letters are on the way!
I bid you all a good day!
