Wow, Africa has gone by so fast and once again I’m apologizing for being late with my blogs. This time I’m going to do a 3 part series. Part 1 will be explaining travel day and the first two weeks before my teams’ set ministry started, Part 2 will be about our ministry at the school and the dynamics in the town, and Part 3 will be all the fun excursions and experiences we’ve had in the free hours. Hope you enjoy!
Travel day was hectic as always. We started off strong with a departure time of 1am leading into an 8 hour flight from Bangkok Thailand to Ethiopia, where we had the most beautiful sunrise view behind a mountain as we landed. Landed around 6am, then from Ethiopia straight onto a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa where I thought my luggage was lost, but luckily Abraham had it all along. Once in Johannesburg we had an 18 hour layover but we made the most of it. We found a big open area on an upper level of the airport and parked all our stuff there as a home base. Faith, Joel, Ethan, Luther, Drew, and I played soccer and volleyball, walked and talked, ate some incredible $7 filet mignon and gelato, and then Faith, Drew, Ethan, and I sat down to paint and put together these wooden lion puzzle things we found at the book store. We decided to try and do it all without the instructions, so it took a bit longer than it should’ve. Then around 11 we set up our beds, some people got out their sleeping pads and bags, but I couldn’t bring myself to unpack my entire bag. So I slept on the ground with my jeans and tshirt rolled up as a pillow. Luther felt too bad for me and made me use his sleeping bag, probably saved my night. Then we woke up at 3:30am to pack up and finally went through security. Then faith, Luther, and I went to go take showers at an airport lounge, and let me tell you, after two days of travel, an 18 hour layover, and spending the night on the floor of an airport, that was the best shower of my life. After that it was an easy short flight to Port Elizabeth and bus ride to Jeffreys Bay where we set up shop at the Global Missions house about an hours walk from the beach.
Global missions is similar to Adventures in Missions in that they have multiple branches of missions work underneath, including a track that’s similar to the world race called global challenge. We stayed on their campus in the missions house for 5 days before moving down to the UCSA campus by the beach. During those days we hung out, spent time with the lord, and held a menlympics.
My team organized an event called menlympics where we split the boys into teams and had them compete in field-day type games, including swimming across a pond. The idea was to get them moving in a way that was not serious, so they wouldn’t worry about actually winning and just have fun. It was a total success. SO much fun, and Lexi recorded the whole thing with interviews and side conversations like an episode of The Office. So if you want to watch that it’s on our X Squad instagram page.
After those few days we packed up and walked down to the UCSA campsite. Picture a dozen little camp style bungalows with three triple decker bunkbeds on each side, and a little center space with a mini fridge, sink, shower, and toilet. They had no AC but didn’t get too hot. We also had a main area with seating and kitchen for meals, nice outdoor picnic table areas, and a sand volleyball court. It was the nicest place we’ve stayed by far and it was so great to be all together as a squad for so long.
The first week or two at the campsite my team did a mix of things, including kitchen duty prepping all the meals for the squad, a couple ATL (ask the Lord) days talking with locals and spreading the gospel, a couple days helping the teachers at the GLA school get ready for their year to start, and a few days of manual labor at the GLA village that’s being built for cute missionaries to stay at. It was a little tough to not be doing a set ministry when all the other teams were, but we learned to appreciate the importance of the behind the scenes jobs and also got to spend some quality time together with our temporary team leader Ethan.
We also got to spend so many afternoons hanging out at the beach swimming with the local kids, surfing, and we even started doing 6am cold plunges before ministry. I thought that would suck but it was so refreshing.
Well, that’s all for now. I’ll be posting Parts 2 and 3 shortly so stay tuned!
Also big news, I’m 94% funded!! Only $906 to go and I couldn’t have done any of it without your prayers, support, and incredible generosity. Please continue to pray for my squad and the people we encounter, as well as sharing my story with your family and friends. Help me be fully funded! Thank you so, so much!
