Hey y’all!
It has been about 3 1/2 months since I’ve been home from being in Africa for almost 2 months. When I came home, I said I was going to write a few blogs… I emotionally wasn’t able to do it. I will get into the raw and vulnerable details of that in my next blog. But for now, Im really glad I am able to write now.
This blog is going to be about my time in Africa and what it was like to be away from home.
SOOO the plan was to go to training camp for about 4ish days that felt LIKE 400 DAYS, then fly to Johannesburg, SA, after a month; drive to Swaziland (after a week long debrief with our coaches and squad mentor, then after that; drive to Lesotho to end the trip. Spending 3 months in each country we traveled to. Obviously, plans did not go that way and we cut our trip short to go home after Swaziland.
(Again, details of obvious reasons for coming home will be in the next blog.)
SOUTH AFRICA!!!
Man, this was a really fun place to be. It definitely opened my eyes in ways other mission trips I have been on could never. We did ministry alongside a ministry called Impact Africa. Our team mainly did door-to-door outreach in different communities. Impact Africa runs 4 different schools currently and I think they are trying to open up another one and are always improving/expanding current schools. Our everyday schedule was waking up to spend time with the Lord, eating breakfast, heading out to do ministry with our Bibles, packed lunches, our waters, and hearts to learn and serve. We would split up into teams to do community outreach. Sometimes the inters, my sister included, would be with us but most of the time they were split up to work with IBR (Infant Baby Rescue), teach in the pre-schools, or help do ministry in the local high schools.
We, as a team, put on the “everything skit” for a local high school and every Friday would get to be apart of 4 different children programs called JK meaning Jabulani Kids. Jabulani means “happy” in Zulu. HAPPY KIDS!! It was such a fun thing to look forward to at the end of every week. We would sing songs that had dance motions for them and a story time. We would handout candy at the end of it and of course, the kids loved that.
I want to add a little section here about community outreach. I will say that this was the one thing that pushed me the most as a Christian. I grew up not really believing in healings or prophecies. But MAN did God prove those things real to me in Joburg. God showed me these things through my teammates and even myself. I will only give one story on here because I can’t not share it and I think its worth the typing and reminiscing.
We, as racers, got to work in this one community called plot 89. it was one out of many that we got to work in but this one was what we were planted in for a whole week. We got to build relationships with the people who lived here. One day… I was teamed up with a translator named Tepo (probably not how you spell his name but that’s how its pronounced), Jo and Jadon, two others that were on my team. The very first house we went to, we encountered a women who was dealing with some serious spiritual warfare. We were able to talk to her and didn’t even find out about what she was really going through until we walked over to her neighbors house to witness to them. Apparently her and her neighbors were dealing with the same demonic issues. Jo and I split up. I stayed with the neighbors and she went with the First Lady we were with, Anna. I didn’t get to actually witness Jo praying out against the evil BUT I got to witness the aftermath. I also prayed over the neighbors and against the demonic warfare going on with them. They had been having dreams of being murdered in their sleep. One of them actually ended up in the hospital after one of her dreams. These demons were taking a physical tole on them. The next day, we went back to check on them and Anna was blaring worship music from her house and was so excited to see us again. She said that her dreams were gone and she’s been reading her bible. Something I didn’t say much is that we were not the first people to come to her. Her sister told her that she needed to go to a witch doctor (what they call a sengoma) to extract the demons out of her, by slitting her arms from her shoulders all the way down to her wrists. We were so glad God allowed us to encounter her. Otherwise, Anna could have been dead and without the Holy Spirit. Everyday that week, we went to visit Anna and her neighbors just to check on them and learn more from them about the culture.
That is just one of MANY stories. I would like to shoutout my teammate, Jo, for just being so spirit-lead on that trip and specifically with Anna. But She couldn’t have done it without God. Wow… I am just so overwhelmed in spirit of how magnificent and powerful He is. I worship a God that can LITERALLY do anything.
Okay so after I left Impact Africa (it was so sad because I was leaving my sister and I thought I wasn’t going to see her for the rest of the year) we drove to Nelspruit, SA which is right above Swaziland to have our debrief for 5 days. Got to ride some horses with Liv… it was pretty legit. she fell off but it was okay! It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world.
Next we drove to Swaziland, known now as eSwatini. THIS COUNTRY HAS MY HEART. We had our own little house that the girls stayed in and where we all had our kitchen and living room. I felt like our team really bonded here. We got to meet our ministry hosts. They were directly from Adventures in Missions and they partnered with Childrens Hope Chest. They work to sponsor kids and feed them a meal everyday. We were assigned with a care point in the mountains. It took us about an hour and 15 min to drive up there. We got to spend the entire first half of our day having one on ones with our leaders and spending time with the Lord. They only needed two of us to teach the pre-schoolers everyday some English and I was never one of the teachers because I honestly just really enjoyed that time to myself. It was much needed. Plus, once the older kids got out of school around noon, I got to play with all of them. The older kids could speak a little English so that was also pretty cool and refreshing. There was a small mountain behind the care point that the kids usually came from and we got to hike up it in the morning to get some exercise in. It was also just absolutely beautiful once we did get up to the top. Once the kids came… all we did was spend time with them and play games.
There was this one little girl that I really connected with. I can’t pronounce her name but it means “beautiful girl”. So that’s what I would call her. She is 8 years old and She called me her special friend… as do most of the kids that have a bond with students from America because they would get letters from their special friends that sponsors them. It was the sweetest thing. I miss her so much. I miss singing with her and her teaching me her language. I miss her playing with my hair and playing games with her. I know we aren’t suppose to have favorites and don’t get me wrong.. I absolutely loved all of the kids so much, but beautiful girl had a special place in my heart and I just hope that I can go back and maybe see her again. Man, it’s getting harder and harder to write. I wish I could go back. I wish I could wrap my arms around her one more time. I wish for so many things in this world but God had different plans for all of us. I just have to keep remembering that this didn’t just happen to me… it happened to missionaries all around the world.
Ughhh.. Im not going to go any further because that’s a story for my next blog. But that is a little insight into the ministries we did in Africa.
You guys got me there. I couldn’t have done it without your support. Love you so much and Thank you!
Grace Googe <3
