I’m happy to report that after 3 days of travel, 3 flights, spanning 4 continents, and clocking 31 flight hours, we arrived safely in South Africa!! From a logistics stand point, travel day(s) went VERY smoothly! We were able to check our bags all the way through to Cape Town, which is HUGE and meant we only had to go through immigrations and customs once!! We even got a personal escort to our 2nd flight since we had a tight connection! And if you are ever flying to or from Dubai you MUST fly Emirates Airlines! It is AMAZING.
I’m still processing the fact that I’m in AFRICA!!
Me at the top of Lion’s Head, Cape Town, South Africa
We arrived in Cape Town and spent 5 days there before moving on to our various ministry sites for the month. The focus for our time there was to recover from a long 3 days of traveling from Panama, debriefing our last 3 months of ministry, and attending meetings and sessions with our individual teams and our whole squad to gear up for the next 3 months of ministry while in Africa.
We also had squad-wide team changes at debrief. Our Squad Leaders are alumni World Racers and they only stay with us until the end of month 5, so at the end of month 4 they “raise up” 3 squad leaders from within our squad to be trained during month 5 and then lead for the remainder of our race. So with that shift, all the teams were consolidated (from 6 teams to 5) and rearranged.
Personally, I experienced a lot of change over debrief. I had to say goodbye to my team, the “Kingdom Shakers”. Our team leader, Hayley was promoted to a Squad Leader!!! We’re all so proud 🙂
Me and my old team leader/new squad leader, Hayley!
I’ve decided to step down from the role as a Logistics Leader to accept the position of Team Leader for my new team, “Relevant Love.” And I’m now transitioning from a previous team of all girls to a mixed guy and girl team, including a married couple, which will be a very different team dynamic. But I’m excited to get to know this new team and do life with them on the race!!
Meet my new team! RELEVANT LOVE.
R to L: Alex and Caroline Fowler, Evan Bobbitt, me, Sarah Hoss, Scarlett McCall, and Michelle Bond
We then traveled (20+ hours) by bus to Middelburg, which is just 2 hours northeast of Johannesburg to work with a ministry called Cross Generation Church for the rest of the month. It was an incredible month! Most people in Middelburg speak both Afrikaans and English. Coming off of 4 months in Spanish or French Creole speaking countries… it was so nice to finally be able to communicate with people of the country in our native language! 🙂
We helped with bible class in 3 local high schools and at a local college.
Team Relevant Love taking a selfie of a selfie before preaching at a local high school!
Evan “bringing the word” and preaching at the college
We were also tasked with working with the staff at the Cross Generation Church in the various departments (ushering, worship, intercessors, altar workers, etc.) and helped evangelize within the community to promote the launch of a brand new English service that was scheduled to begin the last Sunday we were there. (More on that in an upcoming blog!)
Evan and Caroline serving on the worship team at Cross Generation Church
As our ministry host, Jan (pronounced Yon), says “when we work, we work hard, but when we play, we play harder!” The ministry blessed us in just so many amazing ways, they are too numerous to list here! But some of the highlights:
They took us microlight gliding, which is a small little 2 passenger glider plane. I was able to watch the sun rise from the air and saw zebras (apparently it’s pronounced like “Debra”- who knew???!!) and springbucks at a watering hole. So amazing.
The whole team with our pilot
Having a little fun making the World Race logo for the areal view.
They also took all us ladies to get our hair cut for free!!! My first one in 6 months!!
Looking lovely with our new hair cuts!
And later in that same week we took a trip to Kruger National Park for a Safari! We saw the “Big 5” all in one day! The buffalo, rhino, lion, leopard, and elephant – the five most dangerous game animals to hunt on foot. We also saw many birds, giraffes, hyenas, crocodiles, hippos, warthogs, and more. I also got to feed a wild zebra that came right up to the fence of the house where we stayed!! An amazing blessing and an unforgettable experience!
The Big Five in Kruger National Park, South Africa!
The best part about our month in Middelburg hands-down, had to be the amazing ministry hosts and the community at Cross Generation Church. From the first day we were there, Pastor Renier invited us to his home to just hang out all day and get to know us. It was there that we were introduced to South African comedian – Trevor Noah, and the game “Master to Jack.” And the rest of the month was history! Filled with inside jokes, laughs, game nights, mattress surfing, endless card games of President, and braais. Lots and lots of braais. For anyone who doesn’t know what a braai is – think BBQ on steroids. Lots of bonfires, meat, s’mores, and fellowship.
At one of our many delicious braais! L to R: Jan, Scarlett, Caroline, Sarah, and Evan.
It was clear: they all genuinely desired to include us as part of their community and family. We were always included in their plans and welcomed into their homes. It made serving alongside them every week in ministry that much more meaningful and fun.
On one of our last days in Middelburg, we finally had some free time to bless our hosts who had blessed us all month. We made them tacos – which they had never had before! We even had to show them how to load and roll up the tortilla! Then we brought them to the front of the sanctuary to share with them how much we appreciated them and all that they had done to serve us this month, shared scripture from John 13 and washed their feet.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” – John 13:20 (ESV)
They received us and loved us well. It was an incredible and emotional moment for all of us and one I personally will never forget.
Thank you Pastors Renier and Renol Pelser, Pastor Jan and Marisca Matthysen, Morne and Chantelle Coetzer, Thys and Tanya Dupont.
L to R: Pastor Renier, Thys, me, Jan, Morne
