It’s a bittersweet morning here in Cape Town. In just a few short hours from now, we’ll be boarding a plane to Dubai and then another plane to New York from there. This season of life is coming to a close. This past week has been amazing. It’s been incredible to spend the last week of the Race with my squad in Cape Town.
Erin, James, Abby and I drove down from Jeffreys Bay a few days early to get ready for debrief. On the way, Erin, Abby and I stopped at Face Adrenalin to bungee jump. The bridge is the highest bungee jump in the world at 709 feet! It was nerve-racking and so, so, so much fun! You can watch the video here.
That was just the start to our adventures for the week! Cape Town has a ton to offer and since we had rented a car, we took advantage of the ability to explore! We picked up our alumni squad leader, KK, on Monday night from the airport. On Tuesday we set out to see the V&A Waterfront, Table Mountain, and the penguins! Table Mountain is absolutely incredible and a stunning addition to the Cape Town landscape.
The next day, we planned some more things for debrief and the rest of the family started arriving. A few of us decided to head down to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, which is the southernmost point of Cape Town.
On Thursday, we had team meetings all day long at the V&A Waterfront. Our goal was to leave all the teams in an awesome place remembering all the great times we’ve had over the past 11 months. It was awesome reminiscing great memories with all the teams. We had a great session with some worship and talking about re-entry and what that’s supposed to look like.
On Friday, we had free time all day and did some more exploring. We also had an evening talent/performance show. Some teams danced or performed and some other individuals and small groups had some great acts as well! Saturday night we had our Final Banquet. It was super fancy. We were supposed to get all dressed up and eat with white tablecloths and candles and flowers. It was really great. We also showed some team videos and other videos that people had made over the course of the Race. It was a wonderful time of celebration and community.
(Squad Leader Team – Travis, Erin, KK, Tess, Carly, Me)
(Team Tumbler)
On Sunday night, we had our final session together as a squad. It was called the sacred ceremony. It was a time spent mostly in prayer and worship – thanking God for the experiences that we had on the Race. It was also a time meant to release, forgive, and transfer all burdens to Christ before getting on the plane home. There was a giant map of America and we were asked to put our thumbprints where we’d be living upon our return. At the end of the evening, the map was covered with thumbprints. Our squad is spread all across the continental United States. It’s beautiful.
Then there’s this morning. We’re spent our final few hours together as a squad by having a braai (barbeque). We were praying for great weather and God sure did provide. It has been rainy and windy outside for most of our past few days, but it’s beautiful outside today! After the braai, we loaded up the bus and took our final all-squad photograph.
It’s been a wild ride, L Squad. Thank you for everything you called out in me, everything that you taught me. Thank you for giving me space to fail, succeed, learn to love, cope, heal, process, and even have introvert time! You guys are seriously so awesome and such great men and women of God that I don’t even have words to express. I love each and every one of you so much and I cannot wait to see how God uses you to further His Kingdom.
