Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

So this is what this feels like…

 

Tiny hands reaching up, brown eyes looking into yours, grin on their face…”Auntie!” they yell, wanting to be picked up out of their crib in the morning, change typically a dirty diaper called a ‘nappie’ here in South Africa…6:30 AM breakfast time with 8 little toddlers ages 1-4 years old, pray, tiny hands together, ask “Pastor” to pray for us (one of the 2 year olds)…clean up, change out of PJ’s, school time at 8 AM with Auntie or Uncle (that’s what they call usJ ) learning about animals, numbers, or colors…snack, imaginative play time with blocks or dress up, play outside riding little bikes, lunch time, nap time, wake up have snack, outside play time on the jungle gym or go for a walk…of course since being in Africa for almost 2 months now we throw one kid on our backs with a rappa (African print piece of fabric all the women use to carry their babies on their backs with in Africa…yes I ABSOLUTELY will be carrying my children in America like this, its AWESOME!)…music and dance time, super time, bath time…8 toddlers in the bubble bath all together, another teammate running one child at a time to the room putting vasaline all over their bodies and PJ’s on…snack time at 6:30 PM…watch veggie tales or chicken little movies and cuddle time until 7 PM when the first 5 go down…older 3 stay up until 7:30 PM…read stories, pray, kisses, and shut off the lights…as the big ones aka the adults collapse on the couch for a moment before getting up to cook dinner for ourselves…not to forget all the other things that need to be done during the day, cleaning the windows, mop the floor, do a million dishes, wash the clothes, hang them up to dry on the lines, clean up toys, and then every night at 1 AM give one of our little girls her medicine…and of course the days of dripping diarrhea out of the diapers, all up the back, falling into mud, drinking in the bubble bath, food all over the place, spilling or throwing milk everywhere, potty training…wow that’s intense thank you parents for your patience…J

So this is what it’s like? This is truly what it is like to have children and take care of them every day at all times…We are here in South Africa this month for 4 weeks working with an orphanage called Door of Hope which has 51 children…we actually live here in the Toddler House with the 8 toddlers, there are other children at Baby House One and Baby House two where we have small babies (premature and very young) then Big Babies that are 4 months to 1 year, and Star Fish kids which are children with special needs…our team works in all the different areas at all houses except with the premature small babies…So this month is different from any month yet on the race in that we actually have jobs here, we work 11 hour shifts every day here from 7 AM to 6 PM and we do night shifts from 6 PM to 7 AM…we have a car here that we can use so Tommy or Kyle (only ones that know how to drive stick shift) drive and pick us up from work and then we always take care of the 8 toddlers we live with so you just wake up and there they are J

It is really amazing how God works, this ministry literally just had to let go of a lot of workers because their financial support has stopped coming in and they are really struggling and then God sent them a world race team to help out and also volunteers from New Zealand, Sweden, the States, and France! It has been wonderful because they other volunteers are 18-31 years old so we all get along great. This is truly a month of coming alongside an amazing ministry in their time of need.
How much do I love this? So much!!! This is EXACTLY what I needed and it is SO much fun to be here around Christmas time, putting up Christmas trees for the kids, presents under the tree, Christmas lights everywhere around Johannesburg, Christmas music playing, stockings hung on the wall in the living room (YES we bought stockings and wrote our names on them J)…God just provides in ridiculous ways for His children, we have been provided all decorations for the house and our room AND one of our teammates siblings gave us money to be able to throw a Christmas party with all of our new ministry friends and friends at church we have made…which was AMAZING! Seriously one of the best Christmas parties ever in my life AND the girls we made friends with came over and did our hair AND BROUGHT DRESSES FOR US!!! AHHH I can’t tell you how much fun it was to feel girly again for a night!!

One of the things I am learning on the World Race is about how God provides every time…like when we have had to spend most of our budget on getting visas to get through all different countries in Africa and then are left with $2.50 for food per person per day, God shows up and provides. This happens every single month, because every month something seems to come up and we are forced to use budget money to cover things like visa costs we weren’t expecting and then are left with very little for food or to pay lodging, and what happens? GOD SHOWS UP IN CRAZY WAYS. Literally we have been sent angels here in South Africa to take care of us and a couple here that pour into us and play a mother and father role in our lives here this month…I can’t even begin to explain how blessed we have been, it brings tears to my eyes all the time and I just smile an look up and wonder why it took me so long to live this way, freely you have received so freely give with hands open never holding onto things because we TRUST God will provide in every way…

All you mothers and fathers out there probably laughed out loud at some point during the first part of this blog because you know it’s a full time job and the things that are causing us to be so tired, well that’s your life everyday! J I am learning and praying that the Lord would give me the strength and heart of a mother because I truly believe mothers are given a special strength and energy that comes when you have children! Because I am not going to lie some days I feel as though I might just fall over I am so tired! One thing is for sure though I will be more prepared for one after doing 8 toddlers at one time or 11 babies ages 4 months to 1 year old all day long J PS-wow I never realized how much little babies sleep, I mean its true eat, sleep, change their diapers…they barely play they get so tired to easily!

I hope this gives you a better idea of what I am doing this month until January 7th 2011! We will be here for Christmas and New Years! We have been invited over for Christmas Eve dinner at our “mom and dads” house and Christmas day we will all be working and playing with kids J I couldn’t have asked for more this month…AND great news there are 9 of us for the next 3 weeks because our squad leaders Joshua and Lia came to live with us for the rest of this month! The Lord is teaching me a lot about love, serving, and what is really important in life this month.

I love you all SO much and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a great New Years!! I wanted to THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH, my teammate Kameron is FULLY FUNDED NOW…I cant tell you how blessed I feel and how much it truly touched my heart that my friends and family would all donate to him!!! So I have one more teammate, Tommy Shireman, who still needs $2,500 by the end of December, so if you are wondering what you could get me for Christmas as some of my family has asked, you can help keep my teammate on the race by donating to him at tommyshireman.theworldrace.org J