Hey friends! I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written a real blog. Life has been really busy that’s for sure! Here’s a little update on where I’m at and what I’ve been doing:
Mid December we moved from Costa Rica to South Africa! Costa Rica was full of SO much growth and I am so thankful that we started out there. Wow. I finally feel like I’ve been able to process things from Costa Rica.
Now we’ve been in South Africa for a month and a half. We’re about a week away from starting month 6. Whoa. My team and the boys team (Relentless) are together in Johannesburg at Impact Africa while the other 4 teams are in Jeffrey’s Bay. Our two teams are some of the loudest on our squad, so Cy came up with our mega-team name: Joyful Noise.
Impact Africa is amazing. What they do is absolutely incredible and I’m honored to be here. A lot of the time we do evangelism in the informal communities around the area. It was really difficult at first. I had a hard time talking about my faith with friends at home, so going door to door and talking to people about Jesus was way out of my comfort zone. But oh man, that’s changed.
Over the past month and a half, we’ve seen over a hundred people saved and start a relationship with the Lord. We’ve seen countless healings, we’ve been able to disciple numerous people, and done a whole bunch of kids programs.
One day, we talked to a young mother and her family. They had heard about Jesus, but they believed in the sangomas, witch doctors, and praying to the ancestors for protection. After about 2-3 hours, her and her sister, daughter, niece, and mother all took off their necklaces and bracelets that the sangoma gave them for protection and burned them in the street. It was so powerful.
Another day, we got to visit the biggest mosque in the southern hemisphere and have conversations with a Muslim man there about respecting each other and the differences and similarities between Christianity and Islam. We were all heartbroken as he told us about how, to them, God is compassionate and love, but is also the bringer of death and a schemer. We learned how to minister to the Muslim community that day, too.
Just the other day, I was out with a group of four others in a community called Zandspruit. A woman called us over to pray for her, so we walked over. She quick ran inside to put some chicken intestines on the oven (yum!). The 4 others sat down with a family outside and I talked to the woman’s neighbor until she came back outside. She asked me if I wanted to come into her shack with her while she cooked, so I went in. She proceeded to tell me about the relationship that she’s been in for three years and how she was “not proud of that man” and how she wasn’t proud of the life she was living. She showed me bruises all over her arm and told me about how her boyfriend beat her when they got into fights. I was heartbroken. I sat down and talked to her for a while. She told me that she hated who she was and the situation she was in. She told me about how she loved her son unconditionally, and I told her about how the Lord sees her like that; how He loves her even more than she could love her child. She started bawling. I just sat there and let her talk and encouraged her for a bit. I talked to her about the Bible and she ended up telling me that she wanted to read the Bible but she didn’t have one. So I gave her mine. My Bible that I got senior year at Praise Crowd. I had three years worth of notes, underlining, and highlights in that Bible. And I am so thankful that I was able to give it to her.
Every day here is full of so much. We see so much and get to live like Jesus daily.
The first month here was really difficult. My relationship with the Lord was not great and I was struggling a bit. Everything was so new and really difficult for me. We had our mid-point debrief a few weeks ago in Port Elizabeth and I was able to rekindle my love and passion for worship again. Being with all 50 people again was amazing and I felt so blessed to be able to worship with all of us. Something fun happened too! My friend, Trevor, and I wrote a song! It was one of the coolest experiences to be able to write what the Lord had put on our hearts and sing it to Joyful Noise.
So now we’re here… Almost done with month 5 and almost 2 months into South Africa. Thank you so much for all the prayers and support! It’s meant so much.
I am not usually vulnerable on my blog too much, but I want to ask a favor. Please keep me in your prayers! Since debrief has been done, I’ve been struggling more than I have since I started the race. If you would like more information feel free to message me or text me! Prayers right now would be very very much appreciated.
Thank you guys again so much!! Love and miss you all.
Katie
