We Made It!

"You're the God of this city, You're the King of these people, You're the Lord of this nation, You are." -God of This City by Chris Tomlin
Ahh! We're finally in Africa!! These past few days have been an absolute whirlwind. We arrived in Cape Town last Thursday afternoon. As soon as we got picked up we never stopped moving. It took us a few hours to get to Stellenbosch due to the traffic and when we got to the Island we had to pack up a tiny bag and get in cars again to head north to Wellington. There we had a mini retreat weekend to kick this trip off. We stayed in this house that was up on a mountain. The view was absolutely beautiful. Friday was full of silly get-to-know-you games and team building exercises. That day was the first time I had ever seen rain in South Africa. Even though we got wet which made the activities harder and us colder, it was a blessing though because they have needed rain a lot lately.

Team Love: (top) myself, Sam, XJ, Paige, Zach
(bottom) Jennifer, Elizabeth, Mary Morgan

My favorite part of the day was when our whole group was split into three teams. Some of us we're given disabilities that we had to work with throughout the different challenges. The members of Team Utando (which I'm not sure if that's how it's spelled in Xhosa but that's how it sounds. It means Love or Awesome Dragon) were as follows: Sam (blind), Mary Morgan (blind), Zach, Jennifer (team leader), myself (mute), Paige (invalid), and XJ & Elizabeth switched halfway being mute. We had to get through different stations that had puzzles that tested our minds. It made us really stop and think because we had to consider most of all Paige, who couldn't touch the ground. Every team received pieces to a puzzle that ended up all fitting into one giant one. The message on it read "If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together". This was a great way to start this trip off because it really made us learn to trust each other quickly and work towards becoming a team rather than just a group. This would be a major theme over this weekend as we learned the important differences in groups and teams. That night Fouad started his first talk from the book of James. He is an amazing man of God, with an incredible wife, Karen (my wonderful small group leader!), and the Holy Spirit truly speaks through him.

Mary Morgan overlooking
the river valley

The best part of Saturday was when we took a break in between our lessons and went on a run as a team. We ran down to an undisclosed location and were amazed at where we ended up. We climbed this huge rock and sat on top of it. The view was absolutely breathtaking. It hovered over this valley that had a river a few hundred feet below. We sat up there for a while separately, silently, and just observed God's beautiful creation. After a while a few of us got together and sang a few worship songs to praise our amazing Father. We can't even begin to comprehend how great He truly is, this is only a small glimpse at what He can do. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands" Psalm 19:1.

Today was absolutely my favorite day so far. We woke up really early and after quiet time and breakfast listened to our first lesson given by Quinn. Since our focus the past two days was on the value of Proclaiming the Gospel, our task was to break off in groups and create a drama that clearly displayed the six focuses needed when sharing the gospel (creation, sin, judgement, cross, resurrection, response). After lunch and indoor fitness activities, we got to go on our first outreach! We went back into Kayamandi to work with the same ministry we did last year called Kuyasa. Kuyasa is located in the middle of Kayamandi and offers lunch, tutoring, computer lessons, and lessons on the Lord and His love to children from the township. We helped serve the kids, most of them ages 10 and under, lunch. The head of the kitchen, a very sweet woman named Big Mama, makes the kids sing (or shout) a few songs about Jesus including the cutest blessing you've ever heard. Once the rain stopped we were able to play with them for a little over an hour. Some kids played soccer the whole time with our team. I was with a group that did silly songs and dances the whole time. We sang Boom Chicka Boom, the Banana Song, Pharaoh Pharaoh, and what felt like 100 more. Even though I had a serious voice crack towards the end of our time there it was so rewarding to act like a little kid with them. One of the main things we were supposed to do when going into Kayamandi today was not to look at all these children don't have, but just notice how even though they have little they're still filled with joy. It made me look at my own life and wonder why even though God has blessed me greatly I become discontent with what I have. 1 Timothy 6:6-8 says, "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we have brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." I'm used to so many luxuries that sometimes I forget that all I need is God's love, and sometimes I feel like that's all that I have.
After all of this we had an amazing and eye opening (for me at least) experience back at the Island, but that's for the next post!  

I hope your day is brighter now than before, if anything you've just read has inspired or encouraged you thank the Lord; for it is His Spirit that flows through my body, my heart, and through my fingertips as I wrote this. Bless you.

Myself, Kellie, Elizabeth, Clark, Jennifer, & Rencia with some of the kids in Kayamandi.