Unsung Hero (UH) is a month when Adventures in Missions (AIM) gives a team the name of a city, the budget and the rest is up to the team. Rather than being placed with a ministry contact, our job was to hunt them out — to find unsung heroes, people who have a ministry and are doing all the work by themselves. These “unsung heroes” are people who would benefit from a world race team coming in along side of them in order to help them with whatever they might need. My team was given Durban, South Africa for our Unsung Hero month.
I could spend this time telling you about all the great ministries that the Lord put in our path. I could tell you about the street boys being offered hope through iCare, the babies being cared for by Angels of Mercy, or the families being fed through Missions Ablaze. Instead I want to tell you about how God provided for us, how He took care of our every need, how God used a party hostel to bless me in more ways than the people involved would ever realize.
First thing we had to do going into UH month was find a place to stay… that fit into our budget. We only had a week to find a place before we left Nepal, so we were able to narrow it down to two places: The Happy Hippo or Tekweni Backpackers. We decided that we would stay at Tekweni because the manager gave us a deal that brought us close to our budget. We planned to stay there for a week then find a new place for the rest of the month. However, God had different plans. After the first day, we all felt like this was the place we were suppose to be, but we wanted to give it a couple of days to be sure that this was were God wanted us to be. Before we ever had a chance to talk to the manager, Ben, about us staying longer, he approached us and said that if we wanted to stay for the month, he would move us into a flat (an apartment with two rooms, a living room, our own bathroom, and our own kitchen) for the same price. We took that as confirmation. We found out later that if we had chosen The Happy Hippo, we probably would not have made it out alive.
Our first night at the hostel, God introduced us to one of our biggest blessings, a man named Rolf. He told us about our very first ministry contact and offered to take us to talk with them. Rolf became a very good friend and was more than helpful during our stay in Durban. He introduced us to many other locals, brought us to meetings, gave us tours of the city, gave us surf lessons, and took us snorkeling. He was open to hear about God and allowed us to pray for and encourage him. I know without a shadow of a doubt that our stay in Durban would have been very different had it not been for Rolf. He was a true gift from God, and I’m so thankful for the friendship we had.
The staff at Tekweni would brighten anyone’s day. They always were happy to see us and interested to get to know us a little better. They helped us with our research, gave us people to contact, and helped us figure out how to get there. Each day we bombarded Ben with a million questions, and he joyfully answered each one the best he could. The staff never made us feel like an inconvenience, but rather they made us feel like we were family. Ben brought us so much joy with his fun personality. Adri’s sweet smile and kind heart could make anybody’s day. Watis was very chill and easy to get along with. Martin always had a big smile on his face and was always happy to see us. Chief was easy going and rolled with whatever was thrown his way, like driving us to where we needed to go with a very short notice. Then there were the cleaning ladies, Elizabeth and Felikka. They were always playing around and making fun of us; they made the struggle of waking up every morning more enjoyable. When asked why I loved this month of the race so much, what made South Africa so special, I can only say the people. I have never been in a place for such a short period of time and have it feel like home.
The Tekweni staff was a true blessing as they took care of us, even when they didn’t need to. It was so sweet to see them be protective over us. They would shut people down for saying something that they thought might offend us. One of them went as far as throwing a guy out one night because he had had to much to drink and was hitting on us. There was never a moment that I felt uncomfortable during my stay at Tekweni, and there was never a doubt in my mind that this was where God wanted us to be.
When I first walked into Tekweni, I was worried. I looked around, and I saw three of my old hangouts compressed into one. It reminded me of a time when I needed to by high just to get through the day, a cold drink in the morning was just as important as a my first cup of coffee. A time when a good party was nothing to be waisted, when one drink was never enough and the nights were never long enough. I honestly wondered if this place would drag me down, and if I was strong enough to withstand the temptations. But in all of those memories, I was reminded why I left it all behind. I was reminded of the deep depression I was in and I was also reminded of the joy I had found in Jesus Christ and how He helped me get out of that life. I am a new creation and the things that used to have a hold on my life are no longer there. It was such a blessing to come into a place, be myself, and be able to simply show God’s love.
Ben, Adri, Wati, Chief, Martin, Rolf, Mishka, Justin, Derrick, Rocky, JJ, Toby and anyone that I might have left out, I don’t know if I can say it enough, and I don’t know if I can make you truly believe it, but you were all a huge blessing to me. I have been to five countries, met some amazing people, and seen some awesome things, but month three in South Africa is still my favorite month, and it’s because of each of you. I miss you guys and reminisce about my time in Durban often. I remember each of you in my prayers, and hope to see you again some day.
I never expected to meet so many amazing people in a month without a ministry contact. When I first heard we were going to be having an Unsung Hero month, I thought it was going to look a lot different than it did. But as the girls on my team and I sat down to talk about our vision of the month, we all agreed we wanted to be open to whatever God had for us; we didn’t want to put restrictions on the month, or what we thought God had for us. We wanted to always be willing to stop and talk to people and to show God’s love in everything that we did. Because we were open to what God had for us and we didn’t put restrictions on Him, we ended up meeting some amazing people and having great some conversations. I want to challenge you to be open to the unexpected. When things don’t seem to be going the way you thought they would, roll with the punches because you may have big plans, but God’s plans are bigger.
