The Beginning of This Journey

I cannot believe that I am sitting on the couch at our ministry location in South Africa. As I was preparing for this trip people would ask me, “Are you in school?” and I would reply “Actually I am going to mission in Africa for three months”. But those were just words, they didn’t stick and hold the full meaning of this reality. Now I am here and it is absolutely insane. The travel was really rough getting here. Sooooo from Atlanta to Qatar we had a 14 hour flight, a 10 hour layover in Qatar, a 10 hour flight from Qatar to Cape Town, and finally a 12 hour bus ride from Cape town to here in Port Elizabeth. And we will have to do that all over again to get back home! As painful as it was it definitely taught me patience, learning how to sleep wherever you are, and the ability to make friends with who you are smushed next to on an airplane for 14 hours.

Now let me tell you about the ministry we are staying with and what we will be doing for six weeks! The ministry we are partnering with is called Love Story. We are staying in their office space which is more modern than I expected. We have two bedrooms that we share (six in each room), beds are provided, two bathrooms, and a shower whenever we want it which is truly glorious! A big part of Love Story is being a working dependable part of the community. For our ministry we have a couple of days in which we help out around the office by preparing food in the kitchen, office work, making sandwiches to deliver, and packing pamper hampers for new moms. Love Story focuses on early childhood development, distribution, feeding schemes, and community upliftment. Every Monday through Friday whether it’s a holiday or not, Love Story is always at the bus station center for City Feed giving hope to the men and women who don’t have a home and providing them with a meal. On Tuesdays and Fridays my team alternates between three places for outreach ministry. We go to a school for younger kids, a daycare, and a babies home. I LOVE KIDS so this ministry excites me soooo much to love on these kids and to show them the love of Jesus.

For our first couple of days here we could only do one day of ministry on Friday so I went to the school and City Feed. The children at the school immediately start hugging you and drape all over you to the point where you almost fall over. I love to love those kids but at the same time my heart aches for them. We passed the squatter town where a lot of them live and I just want to give them so much more. I want to be a constant presence in their lives and build a relationship with them instead of being a missionary who came for only six weeks. But I know that just isn’t possible right now and God has helped me to come to terms with that. I have realized that showing them love and hope during these six weeks is enough. I can’t expect to radically change the entire school but I can extend God’s goodness through me. When Jesus multiplied the bread and the fish “taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people” Mark 6:41. Jesus himself didn’t perform the miracle of feeding the five thousand, He blessed it and then gave it to the disciples in which it was multiplied. God gives us the tools that we need to act as Him and share the good news. In this season that He has called me to I am to be that for these children and that is absolutely enough.

With our week full of ministry we get two off days which are usually the weekend. Being away from home and only having one day of ministry made me feel very discouraged. I had so much down time to ache to be home and question if this is really where I’m supposed to be. On our off day we went to a cafe up the street to grab some lunch and decent coffee which was amazing. But my heart just wasn’t in the community and I felt like my brain was off somewhere really distant. We were taking pictures in front of this beautiful door and all of a sudden a man named Reginald came around the corner. I was so shocked and overjoyed because I had met this man and introduced myself to him the night before and gave him his food at City Feed. That location was not anywhere near where we had lunch and I was just so overwhelmed that of course he was here out of all of Port Elizabeth. He remembered me and my team. My teammate and I got to speak with him and pray over him. I have never prayed over a stranger before and the question of “Can we pray for you?” just came out of my mouth which was so shocking. But man is God funny. No one else on my team recognized him because they didn’t have direct contact with him like I did. I had no idea when I met him at City Feed that he would become such an important part of my journey on this trip, but God sure did. He not only gave me encouragement with the presence of Reginald for my purpose here on this trip but also the strength and desire to pray with him. And now when I go to City Feed I can pray with Reggie and see the growth that God is doing in his life. God is really cool (or as they say in South Africa, lekka).

Ministry isnt easy but I am so ready to see the change that is going to take place over these three months in the people around us but also myself. And I’m also in love with South Africa so I might never come back. Pray that I come home with the wicked awesome accent 🙂