Hello world! I am finally getting a chance to sit down and write a blog about my ministry and life here in Cape Town, South Africa and I am so excited to share with you the joy that the Lord has brought into my life these past few weeks.
So basically, I am in love with this country and its people. After leaving Cambodia, we had many days (really a full week) of traveling by bus and airplane and bus again to make it here to Cape Town! My team and I were placed at Restoration camp called “Camp Joy”, which is a home for men recovering from drug and alcohol addictions and restoring their lives from gang violence and crime in their past. It is not a rehab center, meaning it is a faith based center where the men and women can get help, therapy, treatment, and job training, while growing in their relationship with the Lord and knowing that He is the ultimate healer. The camp is partnered with Hanover Park First Community Resource Center, which is also an organization that helps fight gang violence, provides food for families, gives children drug and gang violence education, and much more! I am amazed at how awesome these organizations are. They are really changing the culture of this area of Cape Town that has always been a very violent and drug filled part of town.
I will admit, when I found out my team of six girls got placed at Camp Joy, I was a little nervous. But now, we are about two weeks in and I love these guys like brothers. They love us and love God so much that it shines through their eyes. I love how each and every one of them is here by choice and so determined to get better and make a better life for themself. I go to bed every night thanking God that He put me here for a reason and gave me these people to help restore my heart and put so much laughter back in my life. I can’t ever stop smiling during our runs on the beach, or while washing the camp’s sweet pit bull, playing intense games of pool, watching chick flicks with all of the boy’s commentary, or during worship in the morning and at night in Afrikaans (some of the prettiest and most fun worship I have experiences on the race yet)! The people here are so kind and loving and I am so excited to get to spend three months here. I feel so blessed to be here and absolutely love life.
Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think I would find myself spending Christmas 2015 at a restoration camp in Africa…. But God is good and knows what He is doing and is so faithful. His plans for us are good! My prayer is that I can be a light in these guys life and bring them as much joy as they have brought me. I may never understand what they have been through or are going through, but I know God has a purpose for it all! He will use them just as He will use me.
“The Lord is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him with integrity. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry for help and saves them.” Psalm 145:18-19
