South Africa
For the past four hours I’ve been staring at a very large spider making a spider web. I have been trying to figure out how to put my first month of the Race into words, let alone condense it to fit into a blog. I’m finding it impossible. Five hundred words or less. Right. Countless times throughout my whole World Race, I would reference the Sonflowers’ time at the Eden Christian Center of Hope in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It laid the foundation for our Race and our team. My incredible, selfless, humble, beautiful, bold, encouraging, and unforgettable team. I could easily use a million more words to describe them, but instead, I’ll get right into the month and let them speak for themselves.
I know I won’t be able to touch on every detail and when I start writing stories I can get carried away, so I’m categorizing these blogs to hopefully limit the word count while still touching on as much as I can.
Team and Ministry:
We called ourselves the Sonflowers because we hoped to plant seeds of Christ’s love in all the places we went together. Eden Home of Hope is a home for the mentally ill, AIDS victims, those recovering from drug or alcohol addiction, and those just in need of a safe place to stay. It is a center of Hope for those who feel like they have none. We were all spread out throughout the center doing different jobs all month (see All the Things), and I was in the clinic everyday. It was always freezing. I wore so many layers but it didn’t matter, my hands were always cold. Warm tea got me through. There wasn’t much of a system for their medication administration or patient filing organization in the clinic, so I helped them create one. We made files and medication cards for all the patients and Rhoda, our host, helped to totally clean out and organize all the meds in the drawers. Such a task but what an accomplishment when it was all done!
Our team also spent time out at the “Plot” or the farm. There, our host’s son, Lingford, let us help with some manual labor. We weeded the cabbage fields and cleaned out the chicken coops. I sang to the chickens. It was great. Lingford was such a blessing to us during our time there. I’ll never forget how selfless he was and how much he reminded me of Jesus. It was also great meeting the residents who worked out there and I loved doing worship and devotionals with them. We even popped popcorn and had pudding for dessert during our stay. It’s the little things like that which I hope I’ll always remember about Eden. There are hundreds of ‘little things’ like those that pop into my head when I look back to Eden. Our time there felt very full and purposed. We spent our meals around a table and it became our place of refuge. That table was where the foundation was built for our team. Testimonies, fears, dreams, struggles, challenges and celebrations…everything; we shared it around this simple table. I’ll forever be grateful for what came out of Eden; a team that was planting seeds while also growing in the Lord together at the same time.
Celebrations:
Moments. So. Many. Moments. Sweet moments I will cherish for the rest of my life. Like sitting in deep conversation as all 6 of us were snuggled up on a tiny twin bed; laughing and just being with each other. Serving up porridge together at 6 a.m. (sometimes later because we didn’t know how to make porridge). Dance parties and worship in our special ‘coffee bar’ with Althea and Matthew. Interactions with residents (some funny some not so funny – like that time Mel got slapped in the face during an impromptu dance sesh in the courtyard) and supporting one another as we stepped out of our comfort zones. Singing and playing worship for the first time in my life and being so grateful my team was up there to do it with me. Divine appointments with random people on our off days. Dancing in a mega church together during worship. Sitting atop Naval Hill, singing the Doxology. Hand stand contests on the only green patch of grass we’d seen in weeks. Aerobics with Selloane. Deep heart talks with Sue Marie, a resident there who I just loved a lot. There are so many more. The Race could have ended after month one and I would have been content. I’m glad it didn’t, but we truly lived whole-heartedly.
Challenges:
Vulnerability, lots of it. Walls were being broken down day by day and I experienced a ton of freedom. I think we all did. We all wanted intimacy with each other on our team. It’s why we worked; why we grew so much. But it wasn’t easy. Saying the hard thing to someone you care about isn’t always fun. Hearing it about your self, less so. But with each instance, we prayed. Always. Even when it hurt and we wanted to quit, still we prayed together. It’s what made the challenges worth it, the ‘thorns’ as we called them. Most of them turned to ‘roses’ which is why my brain is drawing a blank at an example to share. The Lord used them for good and turned them into something beautiful.
What broke my heart:
The frailty of the people the lived at Eden. Holding pressure on the bleeding head of a man who kept falling because he was so weak. Praying for hope with a woman who had AIDS. Seeing mental illness up close; with their families far away. Fixing up a wound on a man who kept having seizures who kept asking what happened and why. How do I help him understand? I felt so helpless at times. But they had hope because of the place God had put them in. Our hosts, Ralph and Rhoda, loved those people and worked hard to empower them and give them hope. They did it by giving of themselves constantly. Having to leave the people we’d become so attached to at Eden; our hosts, their kids, Althea and so many others…that was hardest of all.
In all that I learned with my team at Eden, God was breaking down walls and bringing freedom to my life through forgiveness and recognizing the value I have in Him. We talked a lot that month about abiding and I’ll just end with one of my favorite parts of scripture from John that we actually painted on the wall of the church before we left:
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” (John 15:4)
South Africa was my first country on the Race, but it stayed with me in the ones to follow.
See you tomorrow for Part 2.
