Welcome to my first picture blog!!! I’m going to take a few of my favorite pictures from each month and share my memory that goes along with it! So, enjoy getting a glimpse into what the last few months of my life have looked like.
MOZAMBIQUE: Beacon of Hope ????
Beacon of Hope is a home for 11 teenage boys. The home is run by Angie Wheeler (an absolutely amazing woman)! She provides food for the kids, an education, and the guidance they need in their relationships with Jesus. In month one, my team along with Team Manna stayed at Beacon of Hope and the month was dedicated to discipleship and fellowship with the boys. During the month, our two teams taught classes to the boys each day. We taught whatever skills we had combined between all of us, including bible class, English class, art class, first aid, civics, sports class (their favorite!), and so many other classes. Taylor and I were responsible for the Bible class. My highlights from month one were the amazing food, hammocking with my team, eating chocolate from the shop across the road, and this boy… David.
1. Me and David
David is 11 years old. He lives at Beacon of Hope in Maputo, Mozambique. With a huge language barrier between us (he speaks Portuguese, I speak English), most of our interactions were pranking each other. All month you could catch David chasing me with dead bugs and birds, hiding behind corners and scaring the life out of me, or tickling me to death. I pranked him back but he never seemed as phased as I did (he definitely put up a tough guy front). I found out at the end of the month just how much David loved having us around. It was 6:45am and we were boarding the bus. He was hiding his face behind his friends because he was crying. It absolutely broke my heart, but I’m so thankful for the joy and the laugher that David brought me in month one, and I’m happy to know that my team and I had an impact on him too.
2. Me, Taylor, and some of the boys!
This is Taylor and I with 9 of the 11 boys at Beacon of Hope. Such hardworking, smart, and kind boys! This was our last full day with them. We took this picture after our teams and the boys brought food and school supplies to a church down the road who was housing flood victims.
3. “If we never get married, let’s just adopt a bunch of kids together, okay?”
Taylor and I with some of the flood victims who were staying at the church. Each kid got a backpack filled with school supplies!
4. Team Firebrand on our beach day
This was such a good day! For our adventure day we took a bus to a huge, beautiful beach. The waves were so strong that day and we got to sit under a little hut to get some shade because it was insanely hot that day! We all put on so much sunscreen but everyone walked away with a sunburn regardless. We ended our beach day with our favorite Mozambique restaurant… Mimmo’s Pizza!
5. Our end of the month celebration
On one of our last nights with the boys, Angie, and her family and team, we had a party! We blessed the boys with a pizza (from Mimmo’s!) and pop party, and it was half of the boys first time having pizza. They gifted us that night with our capalanas (the skirts we are wearing in the above picture!). I still use my capalana almost every day and I got it two months ago. I use it as a bed sheet, a blanket, for reading books outside in the grass, or anything else it will work for. This night we also got African names from the boys. The name I was given was Tslhavikile (Luz), which means “woman who shines bright and has faith.” It was the best ending to the most amazing first month of my race.
