Have you ever been in a situation where it feels like so much is happening and it’s happening so fast that you can’t keep track of it all? And all of the stuff that is going on is just so completely awesome that you want to share every detail but when you finally get the chance you really don’t know what to say or where to start?
That’s what South Africa was for me.
Again and again I wrote notes, typed up ideas, jotted down potential blog titles and always found myself with so much to say that my thoughts became so scattered that I couldn’t say anything… Throw in a poor internet connection and you have one long month with no new blog posts. For this I sincerely apologize and I hope to make up for it by taking full advantage of the internet I have his month in Mozambique to keep you up to date on everything that I’m doing here.
-Arrived in Johannesburg airport with Shakira singing “o-o it’s Africa…” in my head on repeat.
-Rushed our way through customs and waited a couple of hours on the other side for our ride to the hostel we would be staying at. Once again confirming the World Race motto – Hurry up and… wait.
-Crammed too many people into a van with all of our luggage to drive 10 mins to the hostel.
-30 mins later, a few sketchy moments with a dying car and we have arrived at our bed for the night – one large room crammed full of bunk beds and luggage to crawl over – home sweet home.
-Was surprised at how cold it was in my Asia appropriate clothing.
-Midnight —-> Our Exposure program participants arrive!!! Everyone was really excited but only half awake so the introductions were short. According to Jess someone kept saying “I am SO excited…” in their sleep.
-Next Morning—-> I get to officially meet Sarah and Houston the two Exposure people joining our team for the month.
-Ministry and community living among around 30 people officially begins.
-Our first ministry duty? Spread the word AND get permission slips signed. We hike through the hills with permission slips and pens in pursuit of kids eager to surf and play soccer.
-Praise and worship as a community starts off every day. Numerous U Squad artists get their chance to sing, play guitar or come up with some amazing play lists so everyone can jam out for Jesus.
-We learn the hard way what it means to live in and prefer each other in a large community when we learn that lesson again when there are only 2 hot showers.
-Soccer and surf begins!!! I help out by going with the new kids who have not yet gotten permission slips signed while others begin to teach the basics and get to know the kids.
-I continue in my permission mission all week. Several things seem to make my mission impossible but these are my top 2:
#1. I don’t speak Xhousa – a language involving different tongue clicks – pretty much all of the kids don’t speak english and even fewer of the adults. Plus we had no translator. How do you explain legal restrictions when you don’t speak the language? You get creative…
#2. The kids did not live just around the block. They live over three hills and a mile to your left. Our favourite question to ask was, “Is it close?”, and the answer was alway, “Yes”… That was never the truth.
-Sarah Knapp finally gets fully funded and takes a shower!!! Yay!!!
-I got to pray for several people/families during my hikes through the hills. One precious lady in particular comes to mind. She was laying outside on the ground and looked like she was in pain. I just stopped and knelt down beside her asking through motions if I could pray for her. Her oldest boy actually knew some English, when I was getting ready to leave she tried talking to me – ‘please come back and see me!’ I tried to find her house later but couldn’t.
-Soccer ministry begins and I start my very own “sidelines” ministry. All of the kids couldn’t play on the field at once and several were to small to play. I would play with them.
-Celebrated Christmas in July (Soul Graffiti won the tree decorating contest!).
-Several people got rained out of their tents. Several others had their tents trashed in a nose to nose encounter with wild boars.
-Went star gazing and seen a carpet of brilliant stars stretching forever over the ocean and the cliff tops of Coffee Bay. Found myself marvelling at the creative genuis of the God who placed the stars in the sky and sets constellations in their places.
-Spent lots of time with my team standing around the fire in the evenings sharing toppers and swapping stories.
-Attended church at White Clay right beside the ocean.
-Fell asleep every night to the pounding of drums or the pulsing of popular music at the Bomvu bar.
-Had all of my clothing infected by the black plague that lurked in the kitchen.
-Seen 30 kids get baptised because of our surf/soccer lessons.
-Had the chance to speak one on one – through a good translator – with one of the girls and then pray for her to recieve Jesus.
-Packed up my tent, said good bye to Coffee Bay and piled into a crammed van headed for the Umtata bus station to go to Johanesburg and then off to Mozambique.
———————————————But Wait!———————————————
This is the World Race and nothing is ever that smooth or that simple.
-We get to Umtata and pile out of the vans at a gas station/bus stop. Call the bus station to make sure we’re in the right place, haven’t missed our bus ect. only to find out that our bus has been cancelled due to snow. It was Wednesday and buses hadn’t been running since Monday.
-After some searching we found a Bed and Breakfast that we could stay at for the night and we camped out on her lawn. The best part? We got to spend more time with our Exposure participants before we had to say good bye and we got to watch television in the living room at the B & B with hot coffee and tea.
-The next morning things went according to plan. We did a repeat performance of the day before except this time we got on a bus, made it to Jo-burg and into Mozambique.
And my journey continues at a new location in a new country.
Maputo, Mozambique…
