Before I began the race, South Africa was the country I was most looking forward to. I imagined Cape Town to be the home of rich and aristocratic Englishmen who smoked tobacco pipes and wore checkered suits despite the African sun blazing down. I still laugh at the thought. Cape Town and South Africa in general was nothing like that.
South Africa was one of my favorite countries and it was even better because our ministry was centered around Cape Town and the suburbs. The first week, my team leader and good friend, Sam and I stayed with our contact, Chantel, and her parents and we worked at local meeting hall helping children prepare for an upcoming concert.
We'll begin with the best of SA. Chantel challenged all of us who were in Cape Town to learn the most Afrikaans and after one week, whoever learned the most, she would accompany them on a tour of Cape Point, Cape Hope, Cape Town, and a few other key points of the coast. I had no money for anything that month and so if I was going to do any other activities besides ministry, I wanted this to be it because it wasnt going to cost me any money. So I studied Afrikaans and won the contest. A couple days later, Chantel and I went on a tour of Cape Town, a coastal area called the Twelve Apostles, a winery, Fish Hoek Harbor, Cape Point, Cape Hope, and saw the penguin colony! It was one of the best days on the race and is something I will never ever forget! I never would have thought I would be able to go to South Africa and do something like that! We ended the day walking around the Waterfront.
The worst part of SA came unexpectedly. I've written several blogs about how I enjoy ministry with children and how its been such a blessing to spend quite a bit of time with them on the race. I've always been able to get along with them and they've always liked me. Well, the second and third week of SA, we worked with a school full of children with fetal alcohol syndrome. Those two weeks were two of the most challenging on the Race. Maybe God was testing me. Maybe He knew I needed to be challenged. If I can work with children who love me with ease, maybe the next step is working with children who dont love me and who aren't the best-behaved. Maybe the challenge is how I react to that; how I react to not being in control or not having it all together in those moments of frustration with the children. And it WAS frustrating. At any one time, there were about 10 fights going on with the children. It seemed like they all had ADHD and I'm sure it was difficult for the girls who were teaching them.
So yes, maybe those two weeks were tests for me. I believe they are and I believe that new steps were taken towards the application of the compassion and love I feel for children.
The end.
