Part 1 of a 3 part blog!
Africa stole my heart. I love the people. I love the culture. I love the wildlife. I love the landscape. I love the stars. I love the sunsets. I love the heart that people here have for God. Their love for Him is so real and their hearts just burn for Him in ways I have never experienced.
I started my African experience in South Africa where we lived with amazing hosts. To them, we were part of their ministry. They treated us so well. They made us dinner, let us use up their wifi, drove us around town, and loved us like their own children. We lived in a house on the beach. They taught me why it means to be truly hospitable. We stayed in a city called Jeffrey’s Bay. It is a very tourist town because it is the surfing capital of Africa. They hold the Billabong Surfing competition every year.
When we were there, it was holiday for many so we met a lot of rich white people. We walked the 5 minutes to the beach and passed out Bible verses to the people there. We met missionaries from South Africa, we met pastors vacationing from Switzerland, we met families who love Jesus and teach Sunday School. It was a great week, but it is not really what any of us thought we would be doing in Africa. But the next week, we met some friends who took us the other direction from our house and not even 10 minutes away was a big township. We walked through the township (aka slums). As we walked through the township and prayed and visited with people, we met some very inspirational people. They are living in very dark and dirty part of town, yet their love for the Lord is so strong and they are such a light to those around them. South Africa was my favorite month of ministry so far. People would come up to us and ask us to come pray for them or for their friends. We would follow them, weaving through the tin houses, garbage, cows, and fences to get to their house. Although the houses protected them from the sun, it did not protect them from the heat. The houses had a green house effect. Here, we would pray for people affected with illnesses like tuberculosis, diabetes, and sores. We also met children who just want a hug and for us to meet their dogs. Although these people were living with so little, they have an incredible amount of love.
The last half of the month we worked on a horse farm for people with disabilities. Although we didn’t get to work with the children, we got to scoop poop! Yay! One day we shoved 20+ wheelbarrows of poop and then scooped 40+ bags of poop from a pile of poop that was knee deep. It was fun being able to work with the horses, but I would have rather gone back to the slums. At the end of the week, we got to go on a horse ride on the beach!
We also got to attend meetings that our contacts led for people trying to quit drugs and alcohol. There we got to share our testimonies and encouragements. We also got to serve at a soup kitchen a couple times where we also got to share and pray with people.
Part 2 to come soon 🙂
