Well month one in this journey has come to a final close. Its wild to me that it has come and gone so fast but I guess that’s how most of life happens. In preparation for month two, I’ve spent some time reflecting on what went well last month and what could have gone better.
Most of our month was spent within the gated walls of Eden. Upon arrival it was explained to us that walking around the town of Bloemfontein was not the safest. We didn’t really ask questions we just accepted the reality that we would only be leaving during the weekends. After three weeks, we had finally experienced enough of the city to realize going out and about (during the daytime) was indeed relatively safe. We spent the last week going to KFC or Mc’Donald’s or (my favorite) the coffee shop at a big mall close by to get wifi, coffee, or snacks after ministry. By snacks I mostly mean ice cream. We went on walks for fresh air and to explore the city we had come to love so much; that we have called home for an entire month. The very last day in Bloem we hiked Naval Hill (a hill that overlooks the entire city); an activity every local we had met since day one suggested we needed to do. And it was breath-taking. Throughout that last week I kept thinking, “Ugh! Why didn’t we do this sooner?!” We could have been contacting friends and family all along! We could have been exploring something new everyday had we just known it was an option! Then I began to reflect on how we actually spent our after-ministry time…
Our time was spent in a little room at Eden called the Coffee Bar. Our time together in that room was spent sitting around an ordinary looking dinner table. In this average room and at this simple wooden table, an extraordinary family was formed. We, The Sonflowers, ate three meals a day as a family at this table. We shared testimonies, chocolate, and stories about boys here. We laughed, cried, sang, and danced…a lot. We learned who can control their bodily functions and who can’t. We discussed anything and everything you could possibly think of and consumed an embarrassing amount of peanut butter at this table. I can tell you everyone’s common phrases and what fact they wouldn’t want posted on their dating profile. Daily we would read the Bible, pray, and worship together. There were hard days and funny moments and everyday, we always came together and shared our lives and our hearts around what became so much more than a table. It was a symbol of the unity forming within our hearts. We poured our hearts out to each other at this table and it became a sacred place to us amidst a sometimes hectic and heart-breaking atmosphere where we were just trying to love people well. We learned how to better do that because of conversations held at this table. There were plenty of times where someone didn’t want to dance or didn’t want to talk but we leaned into that and encouraged participation. At the end of it all I wouldn’t trade one day of adventure or exploring for a day in our average room around our ordinary, no extraordinary, table.
