Whoa! Should we just act like 2020 never happened? In a lot of instances I could say yes, but I don’t want to dismiss the important things that happened. So, I’m going to start by telling you about a miracle that God blessed me with this Christmas. If you didn’t already know, my sister and bro in law live in Kiev, Ukraine. My sister was pregnant last year and was going to have the baby in Kiev and then they were all going to travel to the States at some point last summer so that our families could all meet the first grandchild of all sides of the family! (Insert dramatic music here) Covid! So, no traveling back to the states for them! This meant that if we were all very fortunate, the soonest we might see them was at Christmas. It could also be considered a miracle that on June 1st my beautiful nephew arrived in Kiev! By the time November rolled around my new nephew, Miles’, paperwork (passport, birth certificate, etc.) had not all been issued by the Ukranian officials. So, it felt like the Christmas trip wasn’t going to happen and I admit with the state of the world and the challenges of the times I was not getting my hopes up about their coming home. Even in spite of that the Lord provided all of the needed documents just in time and they booked a flight, traveled to the states with a six month old, had an American Christmas, and got back to Kiev covid free! What a miracle! We were all so truly blessed to have that time! I got to meet my beautiful, always happy nephew!
So that’s miracle number one! Miracle number two is that I got the opportunity to come back on the world race! My group found out in December that we were going back to Eswatini/ Swaziland (the place where we last ended the race) in January for three months. Then, at the beginning of January we were told that Eswatini is closing its borders because their covid cases are going up and a second strain has been found in South Africa. So instead we’re going to be rerouted to Jeffreys Bay South Africa. If you haven’t heard of it before, look it up! It is such a dream of a place! The seven of us that decided to go back out on the race are Kierin Churchman, Isaac Eicher, Hannah Hughes, Hannah Kraus, Isabel Salazar, and David Smits. They need your prayers because I was asked to be the leader of the group! Next, we get to our training in Georgia a couple of days before we’re supposed to leave and on night two of training we’re informed that South Africa is entering a new safety restriction level that might make it difficult for us to do anything once we get there. So the world race leadership is going to discuss and pray about whether it’s a good plan for us to still go on this adventure. The seven of us going? chew our fingernails for a few minutes but ultimately know that the Lord has brought us this far and that He has an amazing plan for us! The next morning we get the all clear to go and we pack up and head to the airport. All seven of us have our negative covid tests in hand (another miracle!) And make it to our twelve hour layover in Paris (no, we didn’t leave the airport!) One of the passengers on our flight was chatting with us and asked where we were headed and we told him our final stop was South Africa. He then proceeded to tell us, “You guys are so lucky, this is the last flight out to South Africa anywhere! I kept having to be rerouted and couldn’t find anything but this flight.” And here we are, three weeks into our time here in Jeffreys Bay South Africa enjoying every minute of God’s miracles happening all around us! I still can’t believe that I get to be part of it all!
Since being in Jbay we have gotten to go on a camping adventure with all of the missions staff and interns here at GLA (Global Leadership Academy.) It is a bunch of organizations under one umbrella. There is a school, church, long term missionaries, and a global challenge that is very similar to the world race because the world race founder and the GLA founder thought up the idea together almost twenty years ago. Then Seth Barnes, being American, started world race in America and the other founder Anna Marie, being South African, started in South Africa, right here in JBay. We have gotten the opportunity to live and work alongside the four girls that are currently on their global challenge journey. They have been a great encouragement to us and really have huge hearts for missions. Another amazing development since we’ve been here is getting to be part of another local organization, Beats and Books. It is an after school program for the underprivileged kids of JBay. They come everyday after school and get help with homework, learn how to play all different kinds of instruments, learn about God, and have a snack! The amazing leaders Cornelius, Jonathan, and Carla have such a passion for the kids in this community and their love for them is infectious. I’m going to have to seriously brush up on my music theory before I can start helping in that area!
We’ve also been super blessed to hear from so many missionaries about their times in places like India, Egypt, Uzbekistan, and Mozambique. I have to admit that it has gotten my travel bug buzzing again! There are so many places to see and share God’s love! It feels like the miracles are endless after hearing all of their stories! Something that has been standing out to me lately is something that I read in my Bob Goff devotional, Live in Grace – Walk in Love. He says, “the time in between miracles; this is where most of our lives are lived.” I know that’s true because much of my life has been spent that way, just waiting for the next miracle, waiting for the next trip to Haiti, waiting for 2020 to be over! And a lot of times the waiting felt long and hopeless. “See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.” -Isaiah 60:2 We still have so much to hope for and so many more miracles to see. Even in the midst of loss and struggle we can hope expectantly for God’s light to shine through!
I feel like I’ve definitely posted this song before!https://youtu.be/dTAAsCNK7RA
Another song that keeps coming up lately! https://youtu.be/rQYpJ_-Za3Y
