Hi friends and family!!!
For the month of January I had the incredible blessing to be able to be on a team with only the 8 girls I have been living in one house with while the boys were away in Lesotho, and while it wasn’t always easy, I wouldn’t trade that month for anything. Being surrounded by some of the coolest girls I have ever met each day and serving alongside them was something I won’t ever forget. I want to share with you guys a couple things the Lord taught me during girls month that I have been able to take into this past month of the race.
I can’t rely on my own love or my own patience. Our first week of ministry as an all girls team, we got thrown into putting on a holiday camp for kids living in a very tough part of town with a 30 minute notice. These kids were by no means easy to love. Our 7 hour days in Lavender Hill were spent breaking up fights, confiscating sharp objects, and listening to heart wrenching stories of these children who hadn’t eaten for days and came from broken homes. They were hard to love; it’s as simple as that. I found that I was trying so hard to love them on my own strength until it just clearly wasn’t working anymore and I was ending the day so drained physically and emotionally. The more I thought about it, the more I realized the seemingly simple but tough truth that I need God and I need his love in me so that I can pour that love out onto other people and not my own.
God always has a hand of protection over us. There were many situations we were put in where we didn’t necessarily feel the safest we ever have in our lives. Even so, God was there through all of that. he was right by our side, walking with us and keeping us safe. He will never leave us to make it on our own.
He showed me what it means to truly have a heart for people and to feel for His beloved. He gave me an even greater love for his people and for their stories than I went into this race with. He showed me what it means to join in people’s suffering and in their joy. All people need sometimes is just for someone to care.
Lastly, I love my sisters of the Love Shack more than I could have ever imagined. There is something different and beautiful about being surrounded by girls that know your heart so well and can relate to you and want to be there for you. I have so much to be thankful for.
After a good, restful week at debrief in Port Elizabeth, our house of 18 (better known as the Love Shack) made it back to the beautiful Cape Town. We got back to ministry right away with an after school program we helped out with during girls month. In addition to the after school program, we got the chance to go help out at the school that a majority of the kids we hung out with after school went to. I loved it. I loved being back in schools just like I was in Thailand and just getting to minister to these kids in such a beneficial way. I had my very own third grade class that I fell in love with. I spent a lot of my time doing one-on-ones with kids from my class whether that looked like tutoring or just hanging out with them and getting them to open up about their home life. I helped my teacher do the things necessary for the kids to learn that just took way too much time out of her very busy day to do. I read stories to my class and answered lots of ridiculous questions about America. I loved all the time I got to spend at Westlake Primary school and couldn’t imagine this past month doing anything else. These kids became my normal, the beautiful little faces I got to see each and every day whether that be at the school or at the after school program. They became my little babies and saying goodbye to them was no one near easy. But I’ve found on the race that goodbyes never are and they never will be.
Saying goodbye to home wasn’t easy. Not even a little bit. Leaving everything behind and trading it all for the unknown was hard. Saying goodbye to Thailand and the wonderful friendships I created there was not easy. Not anywhere close to easy. Saying goodbye to my sweet Cambodian orphans was without a doubt one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my little kids. I would go back in a heartbeat if I could. Saying goodbye to Africa is not going to be easy. This place has become one of my favorite places in the world. I wish I never had to leave. I love everything about this place. Africa will forever hold a special place in my heart. I love it more than I thought I did before coming on this trip and if you know me, that is saying a lot. I’m going to miss this place like crazy and it will no doubt, consume my thoughts for a good while. But I believe the Lord is faithful to His promises and He is going to bring me back home to Africa some day real soon, I hope. I know God isn’t finished using me here.
So here’s to Africa and the best 3 months of my life thus far. To the Loveshack and getting to share every waking moment of the last few months with 17 of the greatest people I have ever met. To watching the breathtaking sunsets on the roof with my best friends and night trips to the beach under a sky full of stars. To eating way too many mcflurry’s and making way too many runs to Pick n Pay and food lovers. To binge watching Catfish and playing hot seat for team time an absurd amount of times. To stingy wifi and squishing in cars to get places. To running half marathons with basically no training with some great friends and ordering way too much pizza from dominoes. To spontaneous trips to the beach to watch the sun go own over the ocean and night drives through the beautiful Cape Town.
Africa, you will always be my favorite.
Sending all my love from Africa,
Reya
