Hello from J Bay!!!
This is my South Africa recap blog, BUT it is also my END OF THE WORLD RACE blog! I don’t know how nine months went by so fast. This has been an incredible year.
I can’t even begin to describe all of the places, people, cultures, nature, and ways to worship our God that I have seen. I have new friends scattered across the world, can tell you my favorite coffee shops and how to get there in random cities, and have served in one highschool, one college English club program, and three after school kids ministry programs along the way. I’ve learned how to sit on a bus for 30hrs, use a squatty potty, and carry ALL if my belongings on my back in a 50 lbs pack. I have learned how to get visas for 50 people. I hiked up a volcano. I attended a wedding in Cambodia. I watched hot pink African sunsets. I have so many memories of laughing with this squad of people, and have endless stories to tell. I have visited many homes across the world and learned to love just hearing peoples stories. Now I can say “hello” in five languages, can sing songs in three, and can count to 10 in Vietnamese. My feet walked across borders and brought the Good News to ears that didn’t know it.
What a joy this year has been!
This final season in Jeffery’s Bay, South Africa, has been the best ending to The Race that I could have asked for!
My team worked with a ministry called Beats and Books! It is an after school ministry do elementary-highschool students. This ministry was built to give them a safe and loving place to do homework, have a snack, and learn about music.
We spent our mornings doing a Bible study through the Proverbs with our ministry hosts. Afterwards we would spend a couple hours preparing everything for the kids! My tasks during this time varied from cooking egg salad sandwiches to reading and making small group questions for our book club book. When the kids arrived we helped them with homework if they needed and got to just hangout with them! I also had to opportunity to teach piano lessons to several of the kids in the afternoon! It was a blast! We would end off our days by doing a worship session with the kids where they got to play the instruments and sing, or with the small group book clubs. It was always a sweet time!
This ministry was fun to get to build relationships with the kids and really just be a loving friend to them!
We lived on the base of Global Leadership Academy with another team of girls from our squad! It was SO fun to live in a house of 14 girls! We had many giggles and movie nights!
The Lord showed me a lot of new ways to abide in Him, and this place is full of His goodness!
My squad and I will be starting the trek back to the United States on Tuesday morning! We have a non stop 17 hour flight ahead of us! Once back in the states we will spend a week at a Young Life camp to serve at the work week! We will then be back the AIM base for a few days of final debrief. I will arrive back in Texas in May 23rd! I can’t even believe it!
Thank you for keeping up with my journey! And thank You Jesus for The World Race!!
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