It has been a fast and slow transition to month 8. We left Ma and Pa in Cape Town last week and now we are in full-time ministry here in Phuket, Thailand.
The World Cup stadium!!
We left Cape Town on a Thursday morning and arrived here on a Monday using bus, plane, truck and van. Instead of processing the past month over the long travel days, I began to put my focus on this month in Thailand and the changes that are occuring. Our team changed a bit. Lindsey is now leading another team, and I am now leading Team Tandem, which I really enjoy. Tabi has been leading since January, and is now enjoying some rest! I have learned so much from her leading style and insight, making this a good transition.
So now to tell you of my time in Cape Town, South Africa. The month was a little different for Team Tandem. We were joined by two students who were participating in a World Race exposure trip. Before going to Cape Town we met Mich and Wesley, our two new team members, who would be joining us for the month. Mich grew up in Equador and is going to college in Michigan, and Wesley is from Seattle and goes to another college in Michigan. One of our squad leaders, Amiee, also came with us for the first half of the month. We grew to a team of 10, and we lived in a really small house!
We were so excited to have new people on our team. Throughout the month I learned so much from both Wesley and Mich!
Wesley is so gifted in administration and basically led our week of children’s day camp! She was always so willing to serve the children and serve the team. I learned from her to be honest even when you don’t want to. She has such a heart for children and she constantly seeks God in her life. It was awesome to see her grow in only a month!!! She was an excellent addition to team Tandem.
Mich also brought so much into our lives last month. She showed me really how to love others. Everywhere we went she wanted to go talk to the people and just show them love. We fed soup to the squatter camps one day and Mich was so excited to go meet everyone who got soup. She truely loves and cares for others. She led us in that and also was such an example for the young girls who lived in our area of Cape Town.
We miss them both very much. They are back in the States now and continuing university this fall. It’s really neat to see that God planned both Wesley and Mich to join our team for the month. We were able to see both of them grow SO MUCH over the month! We wanted them to come with us for the rest of the months.
Our whole team and Franklin and Justin hiked to the top of Table Mountain.
We had to say ‘good-bye’ to not only our teammates Wesley and Mich, but also our parents for the month (Ma and Pa), which was really sad, our little sister Xena (their granddaughter), our South African friends, Franklin and Andre, and so many more. You would think saying good-bye for the seventh month now would be easy…it just keeps getting harder 🙁
We did, however, say ‘good-bye’ to cooler temperatures and say ‘HELLO’ to hot weather! I’ll write another blog soon about Thailand.
Bye,
Anne
