My three months at Joyela carepoint will be remembered long after I finish the World Race. I wanted to write a blog about our time at Joyela as a way to honor our sweet kids and to share some of my favorite memories. It might be a little messy but putting Joyela into words is not as easy task, here it goes.
Everyday looked a little different and there was something special about everyday, something funny happened that we would laugh about for hours.
There was a day during month one where it was freezing cold. Not really freezing but when it’s normally in the nineties, sixty five feels freezing and it was super windy. I remember sitting on the ground in my rain jacket for and just holding kids while the wind blew dust all over us. Afterwards we laughed at how dirty we were but that was a long day.
One day the boys team got to come with us to Joyela! We were so excited that they were there because the kids had off school that day so by the time we arrived there was already a lot of them there. We played and danced and sang Joy to the World all day long. It was a such a fun day and such a blessing to have the boys there to help us out on such a busy day.
One day we did a house visit with a blind lady in the community. Her baby granddaughter lives with her and while my team helped clean her carpet, I held the baby! I loved getting to just play with that sweet girl and love on her for a few hours.
One day it rained, like pouring rain, for hours. My team went outside and danced and played in the rain with a lot of the older kids. I decided to stay inside and it ended up being such a special time. Two of the younger kids who are really shy, Byante and Angie, sat on my lap and played with me for hours. They usually don’t even come close to us but that day I got to spend a long time just being with them and holding them and it was one of my favorite days.
One day we had our carepoint party! Every year each carepoint gets to have a “fun day” where all the kids come all day they get special food. We had fried chicken, beef, rice, and potato salad! The kids also all prepared dances and songs and we all sat together on the playground while they performed. We even made up a dance to share with them! It was so special to see the kids do what they love and be celebrated.
One day, after getting a lot of rain, a river had formed close to the carepoint. A bunch of our kids were missing so Thuli walked with us to show us where all the kids were swimming! There was so much joy there! The kids were jumping in the water and running all around just playing and being kids and it was so cool to get to see.
Our day last at the carepoint was hard, but one of my favorites. Not a lot of kids came but we had a really special moments with the ones that were there. Angie came to me and let me hold her and she even fell asleep on my lap. The older girls did my hair for the last time and we got to pray for the kids. When we left, we cried and the kids cried.
Driving away knowing that you may never see someone again is really hard. I love those kids and I loved getting to know all the little things about them. I know that Jesus only wanted us to be here for three months and that He’s been with our kids all along and I’m finding a lot of peace in that. I know Jesus loves and protects them more than I ever can and while I’ll miss them, our hope is found in knowing that one day we can see them again. We loved them the best that we could and we pointed them to Jesus the best we could. Now we just pray, we pray for their hearts and for protection, we pray that the next team that gets to love them will love them really well, and we pray that one day they will understand what it means to accept Jesus and we’ll get to see them again. I fully believe that these goodbyes are not forever, Abba is faithful and I know how deeply He loves them and desires them.
I’m so thankful for the time we got to spend with them and these aren’t even half of the stories I have to tell from Joyela.
Your prayers for us and for the kids as we’ve said our goodbyes are so much appreciated. We’re headed to Asia! I’ll post more blogs as soon as I can!
All my love
abby 🙂
