hey hey! life update! I’m in South Africa! baie dankie, Jesus (thank you, Jesus)
travel days were very long but so fun! we left costa rica at about 1:30am saturday morning, flew to & spent the night in Toronto, Canada and then took an overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then took another overnight flight to Johannesburg, South Africa AND THEN took a 16 hour bus ride to Jeffery’s Bay!! so basically we went to three continents in three days and got to have winter for two days out of 15 months of summer! how crazy is life lol
my team and i are staying at the United Christian Student Association ministry in Jeffery’s Bay… a five minute walk from the most beautiful beach ever!
here’s a little look at what our schedule looks like everyday
8:30am-10:00am: site clean up & house clean up
every morning we have cereal for breakfast and then do some simple campus clean up. this includes dishes (& dance party), sweeping & mopping our room, cleaning out the Braais, and taking out the trash!
this is avery cleaning the Braai
& this is our living room! peep the christmas countdown:)
10:00am-12:00pm: community service
this is a really cool part of our day. our team has the opportunity to spend two hours everyday serving the community we live in how ever the Lord calls us. there are two main things that we do everyday…
1. the park – there is a park right down the street from our house where a bunch of kids spend their day playing soccer and just hanging out. however, just by looking at it, it is very clear that this park is a big party location at night. the first time we went there we decided to clean it up a little and just pick up the trash… we thought it would maybe only take one day. little did we know, its been four days and we’re not even half way done. however, we are very passionate about getting all that trash cleaned up because most of the kids who play at this park don’t have shoes and have to run around barefoot over a ton of broken glass and beer bottles, and it’s really sad to see.
& we do just a little bit of gardening
2. the beach – about a week ago, avery and savana met a group of kids who were asking for food and money. since they didn’t have anything with them at the time, they offered to hangout and teach them how to read instead. that afternoon they spent time learning the english alphabet and then went down to the ocean to swim. everyday, half of our team goes with the kids and teaches them how to read, but some days the kids don’t show up so instead we just do ATL on the beach and make a bunch of new friends:) everyone is so kind and willing to talk to or play silly games with us. it’s really evident that the Lord really wants to use us to reach His people out here on the beach!
12:00pm-4:30ish
– lunch: our ministry hosts are so incredible! they have set up a full (& very healthy) mean plan for us where they provide groceries and a recipe for us to cook our own meals everyday
– team time
– down time (aka. beach time & coffee shops!!)
4:30-6:30pm: dinner
there is a group of college student from south africa who are here for the month of december to serve and do ministry with us! most nights they come over and we get to make and have dinner with them and learn about their lives and the culture of south africa! they are the coolest people i’ve ever met honestly.
6:30-9:00pm: “holiday services”
after dinner, we go with the other team up to the primary (elementary) school where they are staying and do holiday camp with them. right now in south africa it is summer time so J-Bay is full of tourists who are camping out in the school. so, every night we put on a little program for the kids that is basically just get to know you games, a message, and worship! it’s really cool to see such young kids be so excited and invested in learning about the Lord even while they’re on summer vacation!
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life here is so so amazing! after the new year ministry will change a lot, but for now this is our life and its so incredible:)
thank you thank you to everyone who has reached out with love & encouragement! please continue to pray for my team and the ministry we are doing here in south africa!& if you have any questions or prayer requests or stories please don’t hesitate to reach out!
