Our next stop in Africa and where I am currently is SOUTH AFRICA!
This journey included a 6ish hour bus from Gaborone to Pretoria, then a 20 hour bus to Port Elizabeth, and then an hour drive to Jeffrey’s Bay where I’m living this month!! The views on the drive were incredible. I looked at them so much so they would be ingrained in my mind. And I’m glad I did that, because along the way I was able to see monkeys, zebras, impalas, a giraffe, and two rhinos, just chillin’ on the African plain. It was awesome!!!!!! Our host picked us up in Port Elizabeth to take us to our base in Jeffrey’s Bay. I had a good feeling about them from the beginning, especially since one of them was barefoot, they got us strawberry milk, and they took us to a well-known surfing venue to dip our feet in the Indian Ocean for the first time on the way. And that was only day one. I can say with confidence now, after being there for two weeks, that these people are incredible and have become family. They are some special people who have blessed us immensely.
A few things to note about my time in Jeffrey’s Bay:
– I’m with a new team for the first time! Team Selah is a group of 6 wonderful girls who I’ve gotten to spend time with and go through this month with and it has been awesome. I love them a lot.
– I turned 23 on our second day here!! It was an awesome day, team Selah made me feel so celebrated and loved, and everyone I couldn’t be with made me feel so loved with my messages and notes and photos – love you guys!
– We live about a 2 minute walk from the beach. Yep. You read that correctly. It is wonderful.
– Remember the hosts I mentioned and said were so great? Well, I love them a lot. We sit at a table together (!!!!) and have delicious meals, they joke with us and make fun of us, we have family game nights together, they planned a whole day for us to go around Jeffrey’s Bay and get to experience the local culture here, they have two cute boys who we get to play with, and they love us so well. I could go on and on. But man, they are awesome.
– This place as a whole is the most at home I’ve felt on the race. When we walk to the beach, we go down the same strip each time and have become friends with the local shop owners along the way. The people are so friendly, the town is so cute, and the atmosphere is so refreshing. It’s awesome.
– We are partnered with a ministry called UCSA – Uniting Christian Students Association. They hold Christian camps year round for grades 5-12 (not all at once) and in difference capacities. Some are leadership camps, some are going off-site and actually camping, and some are camps on base that include some beach time! So we’ve been camp counselors/small group leaders and started the month with a camp of over 150 5th and 6th graders. It was cray. UCSA also does school outreach where they go to different schools in the area and get to go into classrooms and do a whole bible lesson with prayer and the bible and everything! We were able to do that last week and it was really cool. I discovered how much I really love getting to share with people what the Lord has taught me and use my life as an example, so it’s been neat getting to do that. They got a good thing going.
– I lost my phone for a day. A few of us were going out to the beach one afternoon, and when we got there I realized I didn’t have my phone and it wasn’t in my bag, but I couldn’t remember if I had actually grabbed it or not, so just figured it was at home and I’d get it later. Welp, it wasn’t at home. I searched our house, talked to our host, retraced my steps, asked a few shop owners that were still open, and even went to the police station on the off chance that someone had turned it in. In my mind, I was thinking that if I had happened to drop it and someone picked it up, there was no way they would turn it in. I figured they’d keep it or sell it or whatever else. I didn’t have much hope. However, while walking around trying to find it, I simply prayed, “Lord, if I dropped my phone somewhere out here, I pray that a kind person picked it up will find a way to get it back to me. Amen.” And just kept searching. No luck. The next day, I decided I would ask around a little more, look around our house a little more, and if I didn’t find it by the end of the day I would tell my mom about it and try to get things figured out (in my head, I was already planning out / freaking out with how to tell her about it, especially since I had just lost my phone 2 months ago in Vietnam and this was a new one…I know, pretty bad). That day, we were out by the beach singing and playing guitar and talking with any of the people who would stop by to listen. We had been there for a while and were almost done, when one of my teammates saw a man who was close by and looking at us, but not coming over. So she approached him to say hello, and he asked if any of us had lost anything yesterday. Audrey says, “yes, one of us lost her phone.” Then he points at me and says, “it was her.” I see him pointing, so I go over to see what’s happening, and he proceeds to tell me how he saw me drop my phone (sorry mom) on the way to the beach and how he picked it up and took it home and then came down to the beach the next day hoping to see us there so he could give it back to me. WHAT?! I was completely shocked and blown away. I couldn’t believe it. The odds of that happening, in my mind and realistically, were super low. Close to non-existent. So I was flipping out and told him the prayer I prayed and how he was the answer to that prayer. It was incredible. And just a way that the Lord was showing me that HE HEARS and HE CARES and HE ANSWERS PRAYERS, no matter how big or small or seemingly silly or insignificant – it was a way to remind me to pray with faith and expectancy and confidence, knowing that prayer changes things and He will move. Amen. So don’t worry mom, I have my phone!
– We went to a church service that used 4 different languages and it was beautiful! The Lord has also been showing me some cool things during this time and I had a revelation about it during this service – I’m pretty pumped.
– We got to go sand-boarding, surfing, and bungee jumping on our off days. It’s been so fun for my adventurous spirit.
– WE REACHED THE HALFWAY POINT OF THE RACE!!! I cannot believe that it has already been 5 ½ months…and we have 5 ½ left to go, it’s crazy!
All that to say, I love Jeffrey’s Bay. & I love South Africa. This place is really cool.
*I’m currently in Cape Town to finish up SQL training and plan for debrief with the whole squad next week – keep us in your prayers!
I am so thankful for all of you.
I praise you alone, Yahweh.
