So much has happened since I last posted a blog and I am so sorry for taking so long! So last time I updated you in a blog I was in tacloban Philippines, that was a really long time ago, so I will catch you up on what has happened since.
So after tacloban we had a debrief in Manila at a hostel called Z Hostel. It was a really good debrief for the most part, but it was the last time all of team Edifly would be together. After debrief the guys from my team went into the mountains and stayed with Caleb’s team for Christmas and then met up with the other guys in a suburb of Manila called Antipalo. Here we stayed at a home for street children. We lived with the boys and hung out with them every day! This was one of the best months of the race for sure! It was 10 guys, doin our own thing. For free days we would sometimes go to some mall somewhere and play assassins all day inside the mall, it was awesome! After manistry we had the Parent Vision Trip, which was when the parents for most of the squad came and visited and did ministry with us. We worked with an organization called Wipe Every Tear. This organization works to get girls out of the bars. They have 2 houses where these girls can live for free and eat for free, and Wipe Every Tear will pay for them to get an education so that they can stay out of the bars. We went to a city called Angeles City, this city if one of the biggest sex tourism sites in the world. What we would do is go into the bars at night and call down whatever girls God put on our hearts, and then buy them a drink and talk to them. We would then invite them to check out Wipe Every Tear. This was a very hard ministry for me, in most of the bars the music was far to loud to hold any conversation. It was really cool though to see the women who had already come out of the bars and were now working with Wipe Every Tear. My mom did a blog about this time and ministry that can be found Here. I recommend following this blog, my mom is a much better blogger then I.
After PVT our squad left for South Africa! For the first few days we attended the Awakening conference, which was a conference of only world racers. My squad was there (gap F), Gap G was there, N Squad, and a bunch of Adventures in Missions staff were there also. It was pretty cool hanging out with all of those likeminded people and worshipping together. I am convinced that some of the coolest people in the world work at AiM. During this time I also found out who my new team mates would be. I was quite worried about this, the only people I had ever truly and deeply opened up to out of trust were my old team mates. The team I ended up with is awesome! The leader is Caleb, he is a wonderful musician and singer, we have been writing a lot of songs together and we are even thinking about doing a livestream concert with all of the songs we have written on the race during final debrief.
When this team was put together God called us to be brothers and sisters and to have fun. Right after team changes were announced I started asking God what my role in this new team was supposed to be, one word kept popping into my head – Brother. Then during one of our first team times I found out that God told somebody else (who does not have the best relationship with her brothers back home) that she was put on this team to have fun with her brothers. There are 4 guys on this team. This calling for our team has sort of set the tone for how we live together. This team is amazing! I love these people as though I grew up with them as brothers and sisters!
After Awakening our team moved to Ocean View right outside of Cape Town. Ocean View is a very dangerous area, in the course of only a few months there were 28 reported murders and that is only the ones that were reported, people estimate the real number to be about double that. We do door to door ministry getting to know the neighbors and building relationships with them. In the afternoons we then go to a large field where we play with children and teach them bible stories and songs and games. I love these kids so much! Caleb, Nick and I are also the worship leaders for a church in Ocean View. In this church they yell A LOT and there is a lot of ‘show’ going on. People are being slain in the spirit, but most of the time it is obviously fake, and the Pastor often takes scripture out of context to preach a prosperity gospel. He even went as far as to say that half the gospel is salvation and the other half of the gospel is prosperity! We became worship leaders here after they called us up to lead worship one morning, and during the service the pastor told us that we would lead worship for there night service every week. God has been teaching me a lot through this church though. Because not everything taught here and done here is biblically accurate, I have had to search God’s word to find truth in these sermons. Even though that seems like work it has been good for me.
To be honest, our team is actually going through a bit of a hard time right now. Our Host family is really cool, but the husband does not seem to want us around and will sometimes say inappropriate things to the girls, our ministry host does not really talk to us, and he seems to like leaving things unresolved. Our ministry host has not shared his mission, his heart, his drive, or our place in any of it. We are not directly connected to his actual ministry Kingdom Sports, and when we try to make our own ministry on our off days he tells us not to. This team is solid, but outside of our team is quite rocky and stressful. Maggie, Rachel, and Tina feel like they have to hide from the guy who is hosting us, and our ministry partner does not seem to care about us enough to sit down and have a conversation. God has his plan for us, but until these issues get resolved it will be hard. Any prayers for our team and our hosts are appreciated.
For the last few days we have been on a little mini debrief in Muizenberg. It is a little surf town and it has been super restful and fun being away from all the stress of our home and ministry.
My new team mates are: Caleb, Nick, Sam Jones, Maggie, Rachel, and Tina (Destiny).
This pretty much brings us to now. I will have another blog soon that will include some REALLY BIG NEWS!
