October 8, 2016
Emily left Canada 9.5 weeks ago on a grand adventure to discover God, discover herself, and discover the world. Now, in month 3 of her World Race, Africa is starting to feel somewhat “normal”. Maybe Africa is normal, or maybe Emily’s “normal” is so far gone that this side of the world serves as just as good a home as any.
I am loving this adventure.
First things first, I again apologize for posting so few updates. Some things are more numerous and less expensive here in Africa, but wifi is not one of them. It’s hard to find, hard to maintain a connection, and it’s expensive. So not many blogs or FaceTime dates in this 3 month leg of the race! I can honestly say though, the wifi is about the only thing that has consistently sucked
so far. Everything else has been pretty consistently amazing!!
Last blog I wrote, our whole squad was gathered together in Durban for our month 1 debrief. That was awesome. We had sessions with teachings and worship, we had one on ones with our coaches and mentors, and in our free time we ate at some great restaurants, went snorkelling with sharks in the Indian Ocean, and spent hours walking around Durban exploring the city and seeing the sights. A great 5 days.
Once debrief ended, all 56 of us, plus our 3 leaders and our 1 mentor, hopped a bus and headed to Swaziland for month 2. Month 2 was “all squad month”, meaning all 60 of us lived, ate and fellowshipped together for the month. That was different! We arrived at the Adventures In Missions (AIM) “Anchor Centre” in Nsoko, Swaziland and started sorting out where all 60 of us would sleep. Some got bunks inside. Some slept on the church floor. And some pitched their tents for a month long camp out. My team was in tents. At first we thought this kinda sucked because who really wants to tent in the land of dirt, wind, lightning storms and millipedes. But then we realized, thank God we are in our tents so that we can actually have a moment of alone time every once in a while! Yes, the amount of ever present people was a challenge for me. As was another month of using long drop outhouses and showers that only produce just enough water to rinse off some of the constant layer of dirt on your body. But God used it all to build my character in many ways! And for that I am grateful.
Our ministry for the month was to work at our team’s assigned care point. A care point is a centre set up to provide food, love, discipleship and in some cases preschool and basic medical care to orphans and vulnerable children. AIM has 35 care points set up throughout Swaziland. With a national population of about 1 million, the country spans 135km wide and 176km long. It is typically green and lush, but 2015 was the worst drought in the past century and the drought is still on going, so it is currently dry and dusty. Of the national population, over 40% are under the age of 18. Of those under 18, over 40% are fatherless and over 20% are orphans. Swaziland has the highest HIV rates in the world and the lowest life expectancy, with a majority of the population living on less than $1/day. We were told that HIV rates were over 40% in the area we were staying, with an average lifespan of about 35 years. Most of the generation between 20-40 years has been wiped out due to AIDS and many kids live with their “Go-Go” or grandmothers. This is unfortunately what the country is known for. AIDS is rampant, unemployment is everywhere, orphans are abundant, fatherless children are even more abundant.
So what do you do for ministry in such a situation? Well, you love people and you help with anything and everything that you can. Our first week in Swaziland we had the opportunity to participate in a 2 day training course on life coaching through sports. Life coaching through sports is a way to bring mentorship, life skills education, discipleship and love into the lives of children and youth, while at the same time allowing them to enjoy a fun aspect of childhood and all of the benefits that come from participating in team sports. We leaned about the effects that generations of fatherlessness have had on the country, and we learned small skills to begin to counteract that in our interactions with the kids. We learned about encouragement, discipline, consistency, and also how to incorporate mentorship, discipleship and the gospel into our interactions. Then we spent the next two Saturdays running a soccer camp for the kids! It was great! The kids had fun. The team from our care point won the first place trophy. And people came to accept Christ! An all around success.
Other than soccer camp, ministry consisted primarily of spending time with kids. This meant hugging them, holding them, running and dancing and playing with them, letting them put braids or dreadlocks in our hair and steal our sunglasses, even letting them curl up for an afternoon nap on our laps while we prayed that the little ones wouldn’t accidentally pee on us. I got lucky on that front, some did not. We also spent some time helping the Go-Gos cook and feed the kids, some time helping in the preschool and with discipleship training, and some time doing manual labour around the property. Oh, and we got to hand out Tom’s one day!! That was pretty sweet. I buy Tom’s at home and have wondered just how legit their promise is to give away a pair of shoes for every pair purchased. Well now I have seen it and handed them out myself. Buy Tom’s, support the movement to put shoes of the feet of orphans!
Another big part of my month was that I was asked to serve as the squad “health track” for the remainder of the race. The “health track” is 1 person on the squad that steps into a role of leadership to help keep the squad members healthy for our 11 months on the field. This means I get to encourage people to exercise and come up with fun and creative ways to make that happen. I am the go-to girl if anybody has basic questions about fitness, nutrition or anything health related (I now get to pretend that I am well versed in all things health related). I also get to plan activities for upcoming debriefs and do pretty much anything health related thar I can think of. Also, for our “all squad month” in Swaziland, I was responsible for the meal planning, grocery shopping and somewhat managing the food for all 60 of us. It was a challenge, and I loved it. Trying to make a meal plan that makes 60 people happy is no easy task, but I sure got a lot of positive feedback and affirmation, so I must have done well enough! And we had lots of veggies, so I was happy. As another “health track” initiative, I made up a banner and put it on the wall at the beginning of the month. The banner read “Say I Can’t” across the top and “But I Will” across the bottom. The middle of the banner was open for people to write personal goals for themselves and to set a date by which they plan to achieve it. It got filled right up. Very cool to see people’s goals of doing a pull-up or running a 5km or reading the whole bible or losing 30lbs. It was encouraging and inspiring. I am on a great squad.
Our month in Swaziland is over now and, looking back, I can see many ways that God challenged me. Mentally, spiritually and emotionally I was invited to step up my game and walk a more disciplined and courageous walk of faith. With the support of my team and mentors I walked through a couple of storms into new greener fields of joy and freedom. We built new relationship, grew in older relationships, learned new skills, and were able to bring a lot of smiles and hugs to a lot of open armed kids. It was an amazing month. My team is now in Pretoria, South Africa. We arrived here on weds and are already in love with this place and looking forward to our month here.
There is so much more that I could share about last month, our first 5 days in pretoria, and all of the amazing things that Christ has been doing in my heart and mind lately, but this blog is already longer than I’d like. I’ll save all that juicy extra stuff for later 😉
Let’s just say, God is so good. Actually, He is showing himself to be much more amazing than I ever knew He could. What a gift this adventure is!
Thank you again so very much to all of you who are supporting me financially and through prayer. You are beyond valuable to me on this journey! I am still hoping to fundraise about $1900USD by November 30th to meet my final financial deadline . If you would like to contribute to that you can do so by donating directly on my blog page, or through my church (Port McNeill Full Gospel Church). And as always, please be praying for safety, health and effective kingdom impact for my team, my squad and I.
Love to all of you!
Thanks for reading my blog! There will hopefully be more coming soon!
Cheers and God Bless 🙂
Hanging out with some care point cuties
Home sweet home for the month
Smiles all around
Playing tag with a zebra ??
The pantry after one of my weekly shopping trips. Check out that produce shelf, Mom!
Some of my lovely teammates getting their hair done 🙂
