Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven’t blogged in forever, but here is finally one!!
We are officially on month 8 and that blows my mind! The time has gone so quick! I’ve grown and learned so much, God has showered so many blessings on me during this trip, He is good and He is so crazy amazing.
So little update on where I’m living now and team and things.
Living: I am living in Ocean View, SA! It’s about 45 minute drive outside of Cape Town. It’s basically the hood, we hear gun shots at night, we aren’t allowed to be out past 7 at night, and they have lots of problems with drugs and violence. We live with a family here, Raymond and Octavia, and their two boys, Nashere which is 8, and Jude is 4. It’s a two bedroom house, and the 4 boys live outside in what we call “the bungalow”. It’s a little house, but we fill it up with love and joy!
Team: Since I wrote my last blog we had TEAM CHANGES!! Yay! I love change, it’s the only thing constant! (Other than God, yanno) So I’m still with Maggie and Tina which were two girls on my old team! Love those two so much, I’m so glad I got to stay with them! And then 4 boys! Caleb, Sam, Nick, and Kyle, 4 of the sweetest and caring guys I know! Our team gets along super well, it’s really nice! We are all chill people, who love Jesus and like to do fun adventurous things, so it works out really well!
Ministry: We are with an organization called “Kingdom Sports”, and we also partner with other local organizations here too. So we do lots of door to door ministry, getting to know our community. And prayer walks and music ministry, bunches of things like that. Then in the afternoons once the kids are out of school we go to the middle of the community to this open field and kids come. We play with them and give them lots of hugs and cuddles. We teach them Bible songs and bible stories, and be their friends. But the biggest thing we do, is just love them. These children are surrounded by violence, they grew up in the midst of it, most likely some of their family members are part of a gang or on drugs. There’s so many things we have to offer them and teach them, to be kind and considerate, and to listen. And show them love everyday. Also, recently I’m starting to do a bible study with the older girls who come each day! Then on the weekends we sometimes do surf ministry with another organization on our off days! It a really cool organization! We also volunteer at a preschool, in the town next to us, I love that a lot! My class is the 3 and 4 year olds, and the name of their class is “the peanuts”! So freaking cute! And the teachers name is Pumsa, we are besties already! Drinking tea and laughing together when the little ones fall asleep while their eating lunch after a busy morning full of lots of playing! They are the cutest little peanuts!! It’s my favorite morning. 🙂
So lots of things happened since my last blog! So here we go!
PVT!: I got to see my parents!!! And so many letters from all the people dear to me back home, man that was so uplifting and encouraging! Thank you all so much who wrote me letters! I like to go through and read all of them when I have a bad day, or just for fun! 🙂 It was so amazing to see my parents of course, what a truly amazing opportunity!! We worked with an organization called ” Wipe Every Tear”, we went into the bars, in one of the most popular sex trafficking areas in the Philippines, we offers education, a home, food, a new start to all the girls we were able to talk to. I’ve tried over and over again to write a blog about that week, but I’ve decided I can’t express how I feel and what I want to say through a blog! So if you want to hear more, let’s talk in less than two months when I get home, I’d love to tell you more then! But I will be going back to that ministry some time, it’s remarkable, it definitely captured something in me, and I want to do more.
First month in South Africa/February: I think that this month may have been my favorite month on the race so far! For the first week, a guy named Zach who works for AIM and makes videos and design and things came and lived with us and got lots of footage about our lives and what Gap Year does. He’s making videos to hopefully get a better picture of Gap Year. I’m super pumped to see what he does, he’s good at his job. And it was a ton of fun to have him with our team! It was fun getting into our new ministry and learning about that. And we did so many adventurous things. We climbed table mountain, went to Cape Point, went to a soccer match, went to see the penguins at boulders beach, went shark cage diving, went to Hillsong South Africa, explored new towns around us, and found lots of beaches! All pretty amazing things!
March: So at the beginning of march I decided I was gunna read the Bible from beginning to end. So I’m about half way through judges now, and the goal is to be done by the end of the race! Reading the Bible through in two months, let’s do it. Our team is doing a little mini vacation next week, I’m pumped for too! So March is looking pretty great too, just finishing out strong!
Well I think that’s all for now! Lots of updates on all various things!
Thank you all so much for your prayers, I wouldn’t be able to do all this without you all! From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much! I’ll be home in about 7 weeks!!! 🙂 Sending bunches and bunches of love to everyone!
