South Africa Recap
Ministry of the month
Our ministry this month consisted of a lot of different facets. We were working with Johan and Marie, the founders of Zehandi Missions, an organization that has been up and running in Malawi for six years, but has just started here in South Africa (and by just started I mean that they arrived in South Africa one day before we did). They have a vision for many different ministry opportunities to flourish under their organization and this month we got involved in all of them. We spent days and nights working at half way houses for abandoned children helping feed, care for and love the infants that are living there until all of the paperwork for adoption goes through. We spent nights walking the streets in search of women that are living a life of prostitution in order to build relationships with them and speak encouragement and love into their lives. (Zehandi hopes to open up a coffee shop that will be open late at night where these women can come to get warm, drink coffee and hear about Jesus through conversation and gospel centered movies that will be playing in the café). We spent afternoons at a squatter village where families live because they don’t have the money to live anywhere else. We spent our time there having conversations with the community, finding out what their needs are and laughing and playing with the children who are in desperate need of regaining their childhood.
Favorite memory
Some of our team spent our last day in Cape Town hiking Table Mountain. It included 2.5 hours of climbing up staircase-like rocks to the plateau at the top (with no real plateaus along the way as was promised us by our contact in advance). Normally, I would have hiked quickly to the top without much rest along the way. Hiking with our group though resulted in many frequent stops; stops that I am so grateful for because I got to see things like this:
And have a conversation with Jesus that went like this:
Jesus: “Pretty neat, huh?”
Me: “Yeah, Jesus! That is pretty cool!”
The required pauses for my group that I normally would not take allowed me take time and look around me instead of just rushing to the final goal (in this case the top of the mountain) and experience Jesus in such a real way; a way that I have been searching for since the race began.
Biggest challenge
Waking up before 7 A.M.
Church situation
This month, we only went to church one Sunday (but we went to two churches to make up for it). We went to the early service at Hillsong church (which was amazing!) and then spent the evening at the church that Johan and Marie call their home church. With this church brought a form of worship that I have never experienced before: Worship Flags. And along with worship flags, came freedom. The way the people worshiped at this church was so free. There was no fear of judgment for the way they were dancing or singing or praising. They were just purely worshiping the Lord; lost in the intimacy of their dance with Jesus. It was beautiful.
Food
For everyone who thought that we wouldn’t eat well in Africa…this is not the case in South Africa! We helped cook some of our meals in our makeshift kitchen on the farm, but on other days we were either treated to a braai (a good ol’ fashion South African barbeque) by Joy and Stiaan (the owners of the farm we stayed on for the month) or spoiled with all you can eat buffets on Tuesdays (and I don’t mean buffet like golden corral, I mean fancy, everyone gets dressed up to go, sushi, steak, pasta, traditional dishes and a huge selection of desserts to choose from type of buffet!) Needless to say, we were never hungry. Oh, and did I mention that we lived on a guava farm for the month? That meant that we had unlimited guavas whenever we decided to go out to the field and pick some.
Random WR moment
Our hosts took us to their beach house for one of our off weekends. We lived on the coast for three days. We ate steak with mushroom sauce and potatoes while sitting on the deck looking over the waves as the crashed on the rocks below. Never thought that would be a weekend on the Race!
Also, Flash Mob Debrief.
Funniest moment
While we were in the cage for shark diving, the guy in charge of attracting the sharks asked us if we wanted to see them really close. Our response was “YES!” Duh! So the guy dropped the huge tuna head that he was using to lure in the sharks inside the cage on top of Kayla (which resulted in a lot of screams from her and many laughs from the rest of us).
What I will miss
I will miss walking up and down the space between the baby cribs bouncing a baby to sleep. I will miss the look on the kids’ faces at the squatter camp as our van pulled up. I will miss walking the streets at night wondering just how one starts a conversation with a woman who is waiting for the next car that taps its brakes. I will miss the way Johan and Marie move in and with the Spirit. I will miss waking up and my nostrils being attacked by the smell of guavas. I will miss the good food and great company that our hosts Joy and Stiaan provided for us. And the list goes on and on. This was definitely not a “goodbye” month but a “see you later” month.
Spiritual lesson/revelation
Go back and reread my favorite memory section.
Prayer requests
Pray for our squad as team changes are happening this month. Pray that the individuals will grieve well and that teams will open their arms and hearts to the new members.
Pray for us all as we get a real glimpse into what the World Race actually looks like in Africa.
Pray for my teammate Sarah Riddlebarger as she transitions back home and for her family.
Pray for our team as we say “see you later” to Riddle and begin to figure out what the Race looks like without her here with us.
Pray for my squadmates that are still raising funds to continue on the rest of the Race.
Pray for Zehandi Missions as they seek to raise support and get their ministry off and running here in South Africa.
