Over these past 11 days, there have been many highlights and challenges. Here in Port St. John we are working with Living Hope ministries and we are living in a boys home. During the week, we go visit a winter school everyday. We help prepare and serve the student’s lunch along with building relationships, playing games with the kids, and sharing the gospel. Our host is a God fearing man that takes in young teens that want to turn their lives around. Since the area that we live in is so rural and small, most people just drink and party. Being able to come alongside these youth to share the love of Christ is a daily reminder that doing God’s work should always be first on our list.
Highlights Over the Past 11 Days
Living in a boys home
Arriving and realizing that we were staying in a boy’s home at first was quite strange, but as time has gone on, these boys have become our brothers. We are now one big family living with 12 disciples. It has been such a blessing to share our culture with theirs, and theirs with ours. Some great moments are when they try to impersonate us or when the bust out in their amazing opera singing voices!
I’m on top of the world!
Port St. John is full of hills, mountains, and cliffs. Some amazing ones that we have been able to experience is one called “the Gap” and another with a huge airplane landing strip. The Gap is known for the huge blowhole that sprouts up. The other cliff over looks the whole city! It was absolutely beautiful!
3 days of Survival Camp
Well we drove 4 hours going about 20mph through mountains and hills all the way to the other side of the ocean. Once we arrived we did a 30-minute hike with our packs over boulders and hills and arrived at our campsite. We pitched tents within 50ft of the ocean. Over the 3 days, we hung around the fire, sang worship songs, played games, went hiking, had great quiet time, and had amazing conversations. We definitely had to get used to nature becoming our bathroom. One memorable moment was after sharing about a history maker in my life and encouraging the students, one boy, from the home we live with, stopped me before going to sleep and told me that he believes God created us to meet him. He told me how our presence there has helped him change his life and he just wants to constantly give everything to God. Hearing someone say, they believe God created us to encounter him, was a powerful and encouraging moment.
We got arrested!
On the second day of survival camp, we did over an hour hike along the beach, over boulders, hills, and through jungles so that we could arrive at a big national park. This hike was one of the prettiest hikes ever. Once we arrived, we played games, had lunch, and looked over the ocean, while our leader went to get us tickets to go into the reserve. Well, he came walking back an hour later with a piece of paper saying that all 50 of us had been arrested for trespassing! Turns out we were already in the national park and we had came in through the back way! We ended up having to leave immediately. This moment was filled with surprise, laughter, and joy that when you get arrested here all you receive is a piece of paper lol!
Feeding the children
Being able to serve the high school students food and build relationships has been such a joy. We have been able to gain relationships with cooks as well as the students. In South Africa, the women are known for cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the kids. The women are not often looked at as powerful. Being able to show God’s love to these women, by letting them know that they were created for a purpose and with Christ they can do all things, was an amazing turning point. These seniors have been opening up and it’s been beautiful to see them come out of their shells and show the same confidence that they see in us.
Fetching water
The average women walks 3 miles everyday fetching water for her family and then have to carry buckets weighing about 35lbs all the way back. Some of these women have no shoes, and the routes they take are full of rocks, glass, and hills. A group of us went to fetch water from a flowing stream of fresh water. On our route, it was filled with walking through a trail of boulders along the ocean, until we reached the stream. We filled our buckets and water jugs with a stream flowing from a hill. Looking from our eyes, this wouldn’t be a clean stream, as we fetched from a puddle filled with dirt and some trash, but to others, this was fresh water. As we walked back I was carrying the 35lb bucket and had to constantly stop every 10ft or so. This bucket was HEAVY. I ended having to have help carrying it and had to switch with someone else halfway through. This is the life of many women here and they carry it on their heads. How often do we have moments in our lives when we need something and we have to work to eat it, fetch it, or sweat to get it?
Hiking through jungle
Yes it is true, I went hiking through the jungle. Monkeys are like squirrels and bulls are too! We commonly see these animals roaming all around. Hiking through a real jungle instead of a man made one was pretty amazing
Challenges
Sharing 15×15 feet of space with 6 people
Well, we are a team of 6 girls that have just met each other and we are from all over America forced in one room of small space that we must live in for a month. We have to get used to each other sleeping patterns, messiness, movements, and we can’t escape each other. Yep, although it is not always east, it has definitely brought us closer together.
Fear
Well, when I decided to do the World Race many people asked, “What about safety? Are you worried.” And I always gave my normal answer, “No, I’m not, God’s got me!” Well on our first night of arrival, a friend and I went running and on the way back a man tried to stop us in the middle of the street and take us. We yelled at him to get back and sprinted forward. We didn’t really know what to do and hoped it wouldn’t happen again. The next day it did, we were in a group of 7 and the man tried again and this time I was his main target. This encounter happened again and it reached the point where we were terrified for our safety and had to report the man to the police. We found out that the man was an ex convict that had just got out of jail for sexual harassment. I must say, that I have never felt more fearful and unsafe in my entire life. To be in a foreign country, with people you barely know, knowing that there system is completely different, and you don’t even have your own friends and family to help you, is one of the scariest moments you can imagine. This fear reached a point where none of us could sleep in the night by the third day. It consumed my thoughts and worries. On the third night when none of us could sleep, one of my teammates told her testimony and I was very encouraged. I was truly put in a position where I had no choice but to truly cling to the truth that is written, and that is to only fear the Lord and put on my Full Armor of God daily. To this day Ephesians 6:10-18 reigns in my heart. Sometimes is easy to say that we believe something until the time comes, and we are truly tested. Well I have been truly tested, and without Christ I couldn’t make it. After reporting the man to the police, I did encounter the man again, but this time, I had no fear because it is God who lives in me!
No Internet
Sadly, Internet connection has not been our friend. Here in Port St. John, out of the few places that have internet, they all run on the same network and cost money. Sadly, if it works it’s only for a few seconds. This is the reason; you are finally reading this blog so late. Sorry!
Dying to self
What is dying to self? Dying to self is putting others before you, making sure your team is fed, and making sure that others are ok before yourself. Well these are all things that I am not often put in the position to have to pay attention to. I am the youngest on both sides of my family and I have never had to look out for anyone younger than me. Over the last few years, I have lived an independent lifestyle, and even when I lived with friends, we were always on our own agendas. So basically, what I am saying is that it has always been about me in ways that I didn’t even know. Living in community so far has been an eye opening experience so far, and opened my eyes to really caring about others before yourself.
Corruption in the system
Here in Port St. John many things are run by bribing the officers or people. It is common to usually get what you want by just offering alcohol or money. Yep, this even works if a police stops you! Now, don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t happen everyday, but definitely common!
Sandwiches and corn flakes have become my new best friend
Well, here in Port St. Johns the only type of cereal they make is mainly tons and tons of different brands of cornflakes. So if you are wanting some cereal, cornflakes it is! Along with those, I think the amount of jelly sandwiches we have eaten in the last 2 weeks is more than I have eaten in the last 5 years. We usually eat sandwiches daily for lunch or breakfast.
