Here we go part two! The next three countries were of my time in Africa 🙂
Month 4 – Lesotho
First long distance flight of the race. We flew from Panama to Florida to Dubai to Johannesburg for our first African country. It wasn’t without our little diversions along the way. I fell coming into the airport with my pack on and really did a number on my ankle, our flight got delayed to Florida and so we were put up in a hotel for the night, it was unreal! Breakfast was awesome! The flights were really good, for someone who doesn’t travel well they were some of the better ones, I even got a row to myself on one of them, #blessed.
Lesotho is beautiful! We did ministry in the middle of the malealea valley with an incredible ministry and hosts that loved us so incredibly well. From early morning walks, quiet times to the food, they were amazing hosts and people. We did ministry mostly in the villages, serving and helping with whatever needed done and shared the gospel.
This month the Lord continued to speak to me in new ways about things that were to come, that I was entering a transition season that would be predominately unknown to me, it required a new level of trust and obedience to him and that I would look back on this time and see what a shepherd he had been to me. If I’m really honest I don’t do well with unknown things as you can imagine, but the Lord knew what he was doing, creating a pioneering spirit within me.
One of the really big things happened here, I became fully funded by my community back home and it just blew my mind, he surprised me in a way I didn’t imagine… this was just the beginning!
Favourite moments
Like I said early morning walks with our host were amazing, bring in the mountains and just taking in the beauty of Lord was so cool, the food was immense! Meeting and spending time with people from the village. The sunflower fields! So pretty, grandma Agnes what an amazing woman!
Month 5 – Swaziland
Wow this month! First of all this was my birthday month so it was extra special getting to celebrate it here. We travelled by bus from South Africa were we had debrief and also changed teams for the first time. The bus took several hours but we eventually made it. Our ministry was called Hosea’s Heart and they primarily worked with girls who are at risk of being trafficked or abused. When we first arrived we were so welcomed and loved really well. The team were incredible and we built not only amazing relationships with them but with the girls at the home. Day to day ministry looked like preparing talks, classes for the home school, flyers for events. We would normally go to see the girls in the afternoon, spend time with them, play games, help them with homework and do bible studies. Throughout the month we would have worship sessions together, we went to the safari together and have many meals together.
One of the biggest things the Lord showed me this month was the power of His word. Whether you believe it or not spiritual warfare and opposition is real, and in Africa is very clear and prevalent. I knew to be prepared and that the enemy is sneaky and he’ll use anything and anyone to try and win dominion. But the one thing I do know is that the enemy is not creative he can’t make all things new, whereas the Lord is always making things new, revealing his goodness and kindness and creating solutions to whatever the enemy throws at us. His truth is enduring and his word is powerful.
So when we came up against spiritual attack, I knew who was victor, I knew who had the power and I physically saw the Lord set free people from the chains of oppression in incredible ways.
I am forever thankful to my team that month and to our hosts and their team because we became family and we still talk often to them and about them – thank you Jesus!
Favourite moments
Braai (BBQ) oh they were amazing!! Multiple dance parties, parlaying cards, watching movies, sloth time!!, celebrating my birthday!!! Taking new photos of the girls for their website, going and praying and painting their new house, learned how to make bracelets, safari – seeing lions and my favourite elephants was so cool! Cooking and eating meals together with my team and Brittine such a sweet time, the bakery that sold the amazing sweet bread rolls, nandos!!
Month 6 – South Africa
Phew! The half way point in the race! Crazy to believe, we actually made it that far, went spend it in the beautiful Jeffrey’s bay. The Lord spoiled us incredibly. Our hosts and the South African version of adventure is missions called Global Leadership Academy (GLA). They were really amazing at making us feel so welcome and part of the team. We did lots of different things from manual labour, to English classes, music lessons, going to bible studies, partnered with their school to do whatever they needed help with. We also met some other cool ministries one called Christian surfers international – they are awesome people you should def check them out!
This month was really hard for me personally in my walk with the Lord. I was in that place of tension, knowing that the Lord was growing and stretching me to make space for what was coming next at this point I had no clue. I had a lot of insecurities rise up in me and also wanting to be there for my team was incredibly hard, I had to choose vulnerability and let them into that so that I had the pressure taken off me that I was expecting myself to do. I ended up getting a weird viral thing and needing to rest for some time. This is when the Lord presented me with the truth that rest and sabbath are His gifts to us, to spend time with him and I was not using them for the gift that they are.
I have learned to find a rhythm of rest and sabbath and it has been life giving in so many ways and I really value the time and space created by the Lord in order that I would come before Him and just be and have conversation with Him as a friend has been HUGE!
Favourite memories
Watching six nations and watching Ireland beat England whilst in South Africa, one the best experiences! We were right on the beach and had the best view always of the sea and blue skies, if we didn’t cook food together there was always amazing food places near by, bungee jumping – what a thrill, didn’t expect to do it, it was amazing but I’ll never do it again! Lol. We had debrief just outside Cape Town which was great, no WiFi actually became a huge blessing, and being able to process a whole lot more without distraction. Going to table top mountain was also beautiful and driving around the coast of Cape Town was great!
P.S – as you probably know i have a little bit of fundraising to do for squad leading. I have to raise $3,800 dollars which is £3000 pounds. I would like to raise $5000/£4000 in total as I have to come home in November for family reasons and have to pay for flights.
Would you pray and consider giving a donation towards my trip? Pray also that I can do this and still be travelling as I have little opportunity to host events in order to raise the money.
I have been so fortunate in this last year to have done all the things and now I get to come alongside others and encourage them in this adventure.
If you would like to donate, the bar at the top of the page that says donate, click there and you can do all the things OR if you want you can donate to me directly through PayPal or my bank account.
If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to ask 🙂
