Day three in SA:
It is 9:55 in the evening here in Africa and 2:55 in the afternoon in Tennessee and I’ll tell you what the jet lag has got me good 🙁 today I fell asleep on the Mc Donald’s bench and actually took a really good nap but that’s beside the point 🙈 We have officially made it to Jeffrey’s bay SA, praise God! It took us three flights, lots of layovers, a bus ride, and a total of three days traveling to get us to our lovely little cabin. However through it all I would dare to say that it was well worth it 🙂
Our days here consist of ministry, meals, and team time. For ministry my team is at a school, Kiley’s team is at an orphanage and Regan’s team is doing an after school program. My schools language is Afrikaans so I’m trying my best to learn some every day so I can better communicate with the kids. My class is three and four year olds and they are absolutely precious and also completely relentless when it comes to playing at the playground. They will climb you like a ladder, happily pull you to the ground, and almost rip all your hair out when they try to refashion it into a “beautiful new hairstyle.” It can get pretty treacherous at recess but they easily make up for it with their sweet little smiles and eager eyes. Every morning I come into my class and instantly there’s about 20 eyes on me and the all come running for a hug, I would dare to say it’s my favorite part of the day <3
As for the meals it’s a great system they have in place, every day two girls stay back from ministry and they cook and clean all day providing us breakfast lunch and dinner. All day we call them either the housewives or mom, both are very accurate descriptions. Every day when we get home from ministry they come out on the porch and give us hugs as we walk in the house and then we proceed to tell them story upon story about what happened in our day. They even go to the effort to bake us cookies (which Isaac and Caleb definitely ate more then their fair share 😉
Lastly we have a scheduled out team time each day which I’ve come to thoroughly enjoy. For those who don’t know team time is not our whole squad but it’s a smaller group that we do ministry with each day. So in my group is Sarah may, Bethy, me, Issac, Caleb, and our leader is Jaiden. These are the people I see most in my days but then as a squad we have a joyful reunion when we come together for dinner in the evenings. Something special about our team is our leader, Jaiden is such a good friend and leader to us! We love her whole heartedly and would follow her anywhere she leads. I feel truly blessed to have gotten her as a leader and look forward to all the good times we will have together <3
I would love to say more and maybe even include some stories about training camp but it’s eleven oclock here so I’ll have to write more on that in my next blog. To all those reading this I love you dearly and miss each one you! Please keep my team and me in your prayers and don’t forget that no matter what is happening in your life your relationship with Jesus is more important, so treat it that way! Have the best day!
-Love Annie💕