I made it to South Africa wohoo!! Travel days lasted for 5 days and were very long, but at least I made it here safely. Our first flight from Costa Rica was to Toronto, Canada for a 26 hour layover, so we got to spend the night there which was amazing. Then from Canada we flew to Frankfurt, Germany and had a 10 hour layover. From Germany to Johannesburg, South Africa and then we had an 18 hour bus ride to Jeffrey’s Bay and that was our home. So you can see we had a long 5 days of traveling. With that all being said I am very glad to be here safe and sound.
As soon as we got to our ministry site I was extra exhausted because of the 5 days of travel and then the 8 hour time difference. We got our orientation of what we are going to be doing for the next 3 months and what life was going to look like for us in J-bay (Jeffrey’s bay). At first I had a breakdown when they told me we will be doing hard manual labor and that there are deadlines for the projects to be done, so we have to be efficient with our time. I knew for a fact that I didn’t want to do hard labor and I just wanted to work with kids. The next day we woke up bright and early and got to work right away. At that moment is when I found happiness and joy in living here. I learned to love the hard labor that we were doing and actually enjoyed it. I have been pushing myself to work harder so that we can meet these deadlines because my dad always taught me how important deadlines were to him when he works, so I wanted to be like that too! When we first got here we were assigned to work on the missions house so that we could move in right away and have a beautiful home to live in. The mission house is dedicated to one of our ministry host son and his wife. They unfortunately died in a car accident at a very young age together after getting married in the U.S. After hearing their story we knew how much this house was going to mean to their family, so we have been working extra hard on it. God is so good that he provided almost all the funds they need for this house to be finished. We moved into the house already and it is absolutely a blessing to be living here. There still are some things that need to be done and we can’t wait to actually see the final product of this house hopefully soon.
Our ministry is a blessing and I am very excited to see how God is going to work in me these next couple months. One thing that God has taught me from living here is that you may not always enjoy what you are doing, but you have the option to choose JOY and you have the option to choose into it each day. Our ministry is called Global Leadership Academy and I am living right at the ministry site. They have a huge high school that was recently built and is beyond beautiful. I think it is nicer than some of the high schools in the U.S and that is very neat because getting supplies to other countries can be very difficult. Our next job is to work on a couple classrooms that have to be built by January 9. The kids come back to school the beginning of January because that is when their summer is over. December is their vacation month like their summer. Once the kids come back to school then we will be working with them in the schools and helping them out wherever they need us. I can’t wait to see what our ministry is going to look like when the kids are here in school.
On Saturday and Sunday are when our off days are, so that is when we can go exploring in the town. So Saturday we went out into town and the ocean is about 5 minutes away from our ministry. We were shopping around and seeing all the cool surf shops and found some pretty amazing coffee shops also. Then in the afternoon we laid out at the beach and the water is absolutely beautiful. Later that night they had fireworks on the water and that was pretty neat to be apart of. Sunday is when we found an awesome church called Victory. It apparently is well known and they have an awesome program. That is when I felt at home and felt loved here in South Africa. This church was amazing and we made some really cool friends and are very excited to get involved in all their programs they have. I can definitely see myself living here one day. South Africa brings so much joy and happiness to me that I love. This place reminds me of Uganda when I went there and that is when I truly found how good God is. I love this place so much and I can’t wait to see God move in me these next 3 months. Thank you all for the prayers and support it is such a blessing to me. Hope all is well at home love all you guys!
