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Dear Reader,
Welcome to our first team blog, this means that all of the ladies on team Joy are collectively writing this blog, so hold on tight. Update, we made it to Africa after three or four, days of travel, depending on who you were. We do not have access to wifi, other than MAYBE once a week, until further notice. We are staying at an under construction AIM compound, so we don’t have power at the moment, but we aren’t staying outside, besides the boys, so God bless. There are real showers and toilets here much to our surprise and even though water pressure is low we are still thriving (SOS we are almost out of toilet paper, please send more). When we leave the shower we still end up with dirt on our feet because the floors are caked with dirt, Julie Rodgers consistently has an orange/blank tint to her feet. With cement walls, a tin roof and twenty girls shoved into a room, Sophie Ball has still found a way to nest into her tiny bunk bed. We have all done laundry at least once, by hand and possibly in a sink and then we hang it up by the rafters at night…don’t expect us to do that at home Mom. Much to the general populations surprise, us teenagers end up going to bed around 8:30. Lillian Tarantino ended up falling asleep while being handed a sandwich because of exhaustion #traveldayz. The weather hasn’t been as hot here as we expected, but it does end up getting dark by 6 o’clock which has thrown our sleep schedules for a HUGE loop. The bugs here our interesting (do not worry we are safe), and are very attracted to Madeline Credeur and she sprays down her sheets with deet every night.
We have an half an hour drive to ministry each day through the bush of Africa, dirt roads included. But through it all we are having an amazing experience. Each morning we wake up and make ourselves Pb&J’s to take to ministry but Colleen Davis makes herself a lovely just jelly sandwich which she carries in the same doggy bag everyday. We have met some of the most incredible people, one of them being “Gogo Sweetness” (pronounced “Ko-Ko”) who told Liz Slager that if she didn’t get out of the sun she would turn black like her. Each day we get there and we get to play with children of all different ages and it looks like in the near future we get to teach Bible lessons to them. The children have to bring a large firewood stick to the care point with a tupperware in order to get a meal, this meal may be one of the only meals they get during the day. Some of you may think that we have a planned schedule for ministry days but in all reality we are just loving on kids. Hugging them, holding them, playing new, fun games and just being the hands and feet of Jesus to show them that they are loved and seen.
Prayer/Praise Requests:
Praise, none of us are sick at the moment! Pray for continuous health throughout our weeks here and our race in general.
Please pray that we form strong relationships with these children, specifically the older ones and that we have break throughs in conversation with them. Swaziland people are more reserved and we would like to get to know them really well.
Prayer and Praise, we are getting a squad baby! One of our host partners, Jenna, is having a baby due within the week so please pray for a safe pregnancy and labor.
Praise, team Joy has been having AMAZING unity on the field. Although, we have known each other for a matter of weeks total, we are loving one another so well. Please just continue to pray that this nature follows us throughout our entire race.
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Thank you for reading and continuing to support us in your prayers and in your finances,
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Team Joy
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P.S.
LT: Dear Mom, Dad, Ella, Andrew, Aiden, Sissy and Poppy,
“I love you guys so much and I miss you a lot. Your letters mean a lot to me and I read them every night. And Ella, sorry I haven’t been able to Facetime all the time, I love you so much and I will call you as soon as I can. And Mom and Dad, I haven’t gotten a tattoo yet, so thats good. Talk to you soon, I’m living the high life.”
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TIA (this is Africa!!!!)
I found myself in the middle of the bush of Africa (so pretty remote) sleeping three to one tent next to another tent with three girls as well. We were cuddled up and cozy, laughing so hard that we were snorting and crying over the dumbest things until 10 pm. Cows were an earshot away from us munching on grass and mooing, goats “baaaaaaaed” in the background and the inevitable fear of scorpions made Madeline appear crazy as she squealed and moved in weird ways to avoid the ground. It was silent for a few moments, I doze off to a light sleep when Colleen freaks us out with a blood hurtling scream. We all sit up, eyes wide with concern just to find out that she thought Madeline was right outside of her tent. how anti-climate…. We thought a cow was attacking her tent to be honest. Then it was silent again after we finished scolding Colleen. i distinctly remember yelling “i’ll forgive you in the morning” after she apologized 30 times. Moments later I doze off to a light sleep and I hear Madeline randomly exclaim “Do you think it is okay to buy grapes here?” We immediately crack up to the randomness of that comment. A few moments pass and I fall asleep yet again. This time I managed to sleep for an hour or so before I was woken up by the worse possible thing ever. My stomach got queasy and I knew I only had minutes before I HAD to go to the bathroom. But please recall my situation. We are all squeezed into one tent like sardines and I happen to be in the middle. Sophie was out cold, sleeping so sound that she began snoring. And Madeline’s side was directly touching the other tent so I was in a predicament. I turned on my phone, unzipped the tent, and I felt a rumble powerful enough to somehow manage to get Sophie to sit up (still asleep though, I might add), I became nervous and start freaking out. I find myself hunched over straddling over Sophie to get my shoes on and I fall out of the tent into the dark African bush. immediately, I hear her zip the tent up (she is STILL asleep!!!) I run to the bathroom which is supposed to be for the boys only and yell “MALES GET OUT” but there was no guys so it was okay in the end. Then, once all the adrenaline of sprinting to the bathroom settled, I realized, “oh crap, I have to get back to the tent” and I was absolutely petrified. I walked to the tent swiftly and prayed the whole way (literally about 10 feet) as i held my phone light like it was all i had left. I unzip the tent, pop off my shoes, straddle Sophie yet again to position myself and plop into the middle of the tent to which Sophie sits up and zips the tent with even more emphasis (she is STILL ASLEEP)! I lay in bed thanking God that I made it to the bathroom because that was honestly a miracle. I was thinking “I hate this so much” but then I looked up and saw the billions of stars stretched out across the empty canvas of a sky and I remembered that we came out here to camp by choice. My team wanted to witness this spectacular view. We all ended up getting a good nights rest some way or another and when we woke up we walked about ten feet to our warm, cozy, and safe bedrooms with a story to tell!
