When we
were in Laos, my team lived together in that small guesthouse room for a
month. We spent a week by ourselves in
hotel rooms in Bangkok, but we had no idea what Africa would have in store for
us. On June 1, after a rather relaxing
flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, our quest to reach Mozambique began.
Right off
the bat, our squad was met with difficulty – how to move 52 people from the
airport to our hostel outside of town. When this happened, we knew getting to our ministry sites would be no
small task. Fortunately, we have some
awesome squad leaders who would not give up until we arrived there…but what
did God have planned?
What was
planned to be an overnight stay outside of Johannesburg turned into a big
question mark as the leaders searched for buses or other means to move us
east. The cost of living in South Africa
posed another problem – our food/lodging budget did not stretch very far. This meant saving money in any way possible,
which led to one conclusion – community living.
Each day
several of us would head into town and pick up another food for the entire
squad. In the mornings, it meant bread
and cereal. Lunch was usually eaten in
town at the cheapest, dirtiest restaurant we could find. Dinner was always in community. The 52 of us have traveled around half the
world together, but up until this point, it never felt like community…like
family.
We ended
up spending two nights at the hostel in Joburg before God opened a door for us
to move on. On the evening of the 3rd,
we traveled in waves to the bus station where we caught a bus to the city of
Nelspruit, about 5 hours east and one hour from the Mozambique border. We arrived at 3AM and were met by a gracious
American family who took us to their guest house. We had no idea what it was like or how long
we would be there, but we didn’t care – it was a place to sleep!
The Betor
House turned out to be an amazing place to stay, and the caretakers were just
as wonderful. It was a little out
of our
price range, but breakfast and dinner were included (and the food was
amazing!), and with a light lunch, we were all set. With 52 people crammed into a house that
normally sleeps around 30 people, we all knew we’d be doing some more community
living – and that’s just what we did.
As we
waited for a door to open to Mozambique, we all spent a lot of time
together. This started with times of
prayer, praise, and worship, but quickly became a common thing. We bonded over card games, times with the
Bible, talking, just hanging out (there weren’t many places to get away), and,
of course, cornhole.
Cornhole,
or bean bag toss, quickly became the squad passion. Blair Brendle put together an H-Squad
cornhole tournament, and it was a blast! At any given time during the day, you could find several racers watching
the action, hanging out, having a good time. Cornhole turned out to be a great squad bonding experience that I hope
no one will forget. Please check out the
cornhole video that Di Dinnis put together by clicking here! By the way, my team ended up losing in round
2…
We ended
up staying at the Betor House for 5 days. As it turned out, God had some work to do in us individually and as a
squad before we entered Mozambique. We
received words from God that He wanted us to become a much more unified group
and that storms are coming in Africa that we were not ready for. He would not let us go until we were ready
because He cares about us that much. It’s an amazing thought.
I am
writing this from the bush right now, on paper. Definitely no electricity out here. What are we doing, you ask? Well,
that’s a story for another blog.
