Today we did our challenge and we crushed it! This month in J-bay we are working with Global Challenge and today we got to do what is like a right-of-passage for them. Multiple people had asked us how our challenge went since being here. Now I can tell them it went a little something like this….
We went to ministry at 8:30 a.m. as per usual for this month, and we went off to ministry. This morning my ministry was to help prepare food for a family who’s child had been in the hospital for a while. Marah and I chopped veg and cleaned up the kitchen most of the morning. Then around 11:30 we were taken back to our flat where we are staying and were told to get into comfortable clothes. The only thing we were told was to wear comfortable shoes for walking and that we would be picked up in 15 minutes.
We knew it was challenge time but we had no clue what that meant. All I knew was I was strapping on my sneakers (that I’ve worn only a handful of times on the race) and putting on sunscreen. We were picked up shortly after and taken to the cafe at the school where we have been serving the past couple of weeks. The only instructions we were given on the way there was that when it comes to transportation, there are no rules! Once we are all there we are presented with a piece of paper with instructions on it. The challenge is to complete all the things on the list. We were broken into our two teams and then we were off.
The first task written was to find Moulder (Yep, just like X-Files. We had worked with him and his brother at the site for the last couple weeks.) and get our next instructions from him. So, off we ran. Upon finding him and asking him what to do, someone runs up and tells us they wrote the wrong name. We must now find Peter! Off we go again! We find Peter shortly after the other team and find out that our task is to pull apart a wood pallet with a hammer. It takes us a while but we eventually get the job done and then its on to the next task.
Task number 2 is to go get lunch at a restaurant in the nearby mall. We are still behind the other team at this point so we try and catch up to them. We finally catch them and all arrive at the next task together. We aren’t getting lunch there. We are using the child playset thing to have an obstacle course. We must weave through the bottom part of this playground and then help each other climb the rock wall to touch the top. Then we had to go through the top part of the playground and slide down to finish. We didn’t leave until every person had been helped to the top of the wall.
Task number 3 was a big one. We had to buy lunch for our whole team (5 people) and get a meal for someone else for under 50 Rand which is about 4 USD. Then we had to find someone to have a meal with us and pray for them. We also had to get from the mall to our next destination (all the way across the city) without any transportation or money. (A.K.A. We had to hitchhike.) As we run out of the restaurant, we are scolded by the mall cop about running in the mall. (Whoops…) At one end of the mall is a grocery store where we will pick up our food, so we decide to divide and conquer. Marah and TL go to find us a ride, while Naomi, Lynden, and I go for the groceries. We are able to get the tiniest jar of peanut butter and some bread and jelly for just under 50 Rand. As we pay and are walking out of the store, Marah and TL come running in to say we have a ride but we must run to catch it. As soon as we are out of the doors of the mall, we start sprinting. We arrive as the car is backing out of the parking spot. We hop in and the lady starts off down the road. We are frantically trying to make PB&J’s as she drives like crazy to drop us off and make her next appointment on time. We get dropped off in the neighborhood of our next destination and we thank her and pray for her as she drives off. We still had to have lunch with someone though. The first person we ask said no thank you. Right when we were about to stop and pray about who we should be looking for, Marah says to ask the guy riding by on a bicycle. We ask him and he agrees. His name is Chris and he is a welder and MMA fighter here in J-bay. He was super cool and we even invited him and his girlfriend to attend church with us on Sunday night. He ate a pb&j with us and we were able to pray for him and his father who recently had cancer but is now cancer-free. It was a super cool, random encounter. Once we finished lunch it was off to our next place.
Task number 4 wasn’t ready for us when we arrived. We are told to move on to the next tasks and that we would have to return later to that site. The next task was to take a jumping picture with the dolphin at dolphin beach. We walked about 10 blocks to the beach and got the picture and then we had to go to a local coffee shop to wait for our next task. While there, just to stay busy, we de-shelled coffee beans. Once it was about 2:00, it was time to head back to our previous destination again.
Task number 5 was to go to Timeon, a local workshop that makes chairs and other things for children with cerebral palsy. We got to hear all about what they do and how they really help the lives of these families with these children. They do hippotherapy, hold camps, and so much more for these families. Its truly inspiring what they do through this place. Our challenge was to put together one of their standing tables that they create to help the children stand on their own. It took us about 7 1/2 minutes with no instructions.
Our final task was to go back to the coffee shop again. Our job was to separate and count all the white and brown coffee beans they had in a tub for us. There were 1,783 white beans and 2,860 brown beans. We were about 20 beans away from being perfect in our counting. Then we were done.
Our challenge was a wood pallet, an obstacle course, a cheap lunch, a ride in the back of a pickup, lunch with a stranger, a beach picture, an Ikea challenge, and counting beans. It was a lot of running and a lot of fun. I’m so thankful we got to participate in this Global right-of-passage. I would do the challenge again any day.
