I have arrived in South Africa with my Kingdom Journeys Team!
And let me tell ya, South Africa is AWESOME.
I have been here in Capetown only a few short days and I think it may very well be one of the coolest & most beautiful places I have ever been! No joke.
Capetown a big city, on the water.
The coastline here is breathtaking.
The beach culture here prevails through it’s metropolitan & cosmopolitan looks.
(Example: when we arrived into the Capetown Airport there was a Jeep Store – selling Jeep logo T Shirts & paraphernalia IN the airport. I’ve never even seen a Jeep Store! So cool. Only in Capetown.)
It’s called the ‘Mother City’ because it boasts peoples from all over Africa — literally in the short few days I have been here I have met ‘locals’ with roots in Zimbabwe, The Congo, Mozambique, Kenya, & Nigeria — all who call Capetown home.
Capetown attracts tourists from literally everywhere in the world. Walking down the street you might here 5 different languages being spoken on one street corner.
Captetown’s got all the color and flavor of Africa (the art, the music, the vibrant people & way of life), but with all the amenities of the first world (Air Conditioning, wifi, everywhere accepts credit cards, and you can flush the toilet paper!). It’s pretty amazing.
But I didn’t want to just tell you about Capetown — I want to tell you about how God has been giving me and my team SO much favor. He is blowing my mind. First of all, this team is hand-picked by God All-Stars. Love these girls. But God is really out doing himself with how He’s been loving us.
We had our Team Launch last week Thursday-Saturday the weekend before we left and I was not so certain how it was all going to go — since I was planning the whole thing! (Launch is supposed to be like a ‘send-off’ conference.)
I had invited lots of great speakers, planned some activities, and scheduled out KJ Team Mentors to come and share with us — but I really didn’t know how it was all going to come together. My boyfriend Seth encouraged me to pray and ask God what He wanted the ‘vision’ of the Launch weekend to be. And when I did, God brought to my mind the words, “Authenticity. Refreshment. A time of solidifying the foundation. Crystallizing our identities.”
…and that’s exactly what it ended up being all about! God revolved everything around those words that He gave to me. Each speaker wove so perfectly into the next (I had not planned all that in advance) and our host for the weekend, our KJ Mentor Duhi Schneider surprised us with pampering us to the max! She wanted to make sure we felt refreshed before the big trip. God did, too 🙂
Then we embarked on our 40 hour journey to get to South Africa.
We had a 9 hour lay-over in Istanbul, Turkey and while we were there we happened to fly in at the same time as one of my teammates Ruth’s co-workers. Ruth has some friends doing some ministry film work in Istanbul and we literally ran smack into them in line at customs. They insisted on giving us a whirlwind sightseeing tour of the city, treating us to dinner, and praying over us before sending us back to the airport!
Coincidence? I think not.
God’s favor for sure!
Then we arrive in Capetown and it just happens to be the coolest city ever — and I was so not expecting that. God is doing me favors.
AND I just checked my fundraising report and God has wrangled in about $1,600 for me over the last week! Thank you SO much for listening to his prompting and supporting this mission! I SO appreciate it. I know so many of you have been praying for me and my team and I want to thank you and tell you: Your prayers are working!!
Before I say goodbye, I am gonna appeal to God (and you for prayer) for one last favor:
THE HIKE.
We leave in 4 hours….ok, no 3.5 hours….to go on a 5 day hike: The Freedom Journey up Table Mountain.
Guys, I am from Florida. I am not a hiker.
And I injured my knee slightly tearing my meniscus this past December (the same knee I had ACL reconstructive surgery on in college), which landed me in physical therapy recuperating since.
And….well….with all the excitement of Capetown and packing for hiking and blogging and FB photo uploading…well, let’s just say I’m not sleeping much before Day 1 of this hike (we leave in 3.5 hours! eeeek!)
So….
please pray that God’s favor continues and I don’t keel over tomorrow on this hike!
Or during the 4 days following tomorrow! 😉
I am confident that God’s favor is not only following us, but going ahead of us.
But, I think he likes hearing our prayers, too! 🙂
Please pray for the safety of my team.
Our health.
My knee!
And for us to draw near to God and each other
as we embark on this journey in the Physical
to prepare us for the coming journey in the Spiritual.
God is going to show us a lot these next 5 days, please pray we are attune (and awake!) to experience it all 🙂
Big hug from South Africa!!
