A new love for South Africa

I am so excited to share some stories from my 10 days in South Africa. It was an amazing trip full of God’s goodness and grace. I could feel the prayers from the moment we left home so thank you for everything!

We arrived in South Africa (after almost 30 hours on a plane including layovers) at midnight. It was nice to crawl into bed and go straight to sleep. We stayed at a Christian camp called Skogheim. It was like a mini-house for our Rockwall and Firewheel team. We ate South African inspired food everyday in the cafeteria and enjoyed coffee and tea ALL the time. The food was great – sometimes odd – but for the most part really good.

We spent the week ministering at many different places. We did a kids club for 4 days at Murchison Primary School. One of the days we estimated 500 African children. They were beautiful! All dressed in school uniforms and very excited to meet our American teenagers. They were a mix of speaking English and Zulu so we used translators quite a bit. We did bible stories, crafts, basketball, soccer, and of course, snacks!

We visited 2 other schools – one where we led a leadership day for 8th graders and one, a high school, where we did a school assembly and 2 of our students shared their testimony along with a gospel presentation.

One of my favorite days was a Toms shoe drop at St Martin’s School for the mentally challenged and hearing impaired. We handed out 320 pairs of shoes to children of all ages. This is where I met “Z” (can’t pronounce her name). She had down syndrome and was probably 6. She was so excited to receive her new shoes. She hugged me so hard she knocked me over! We also did Toms shoe drops at the Murchison School, Genesis Care Center, Assissi orphanage and Reheboth orphanage.

The Genesis Care Center was created by Norweigans Settlers Church (our Lake Pointe partner church) for men and woman who are released from the hospital dying from HIV/AIDS. Many of the people that come to the care center pass away but some are so well taken care of that they get healthy and are able to go home. Our students prayed with the men, women and care takers. I met a woman named Faith. She was mid-20’s and had a 5 yr old son. Her smile was gorgeous! She asked that I pray for strength to return to her legs so she could get up and walk again.

My heart is automatically drawn to teenage girls so when I met Precious I was ecstatic. She was a 10th grader and found us at the Murchison school one afternoon. Precious had lived in children’s homes for 4 years as a child but was now living with her brothers. She was writing a report for school on teen pregnancy and showed it to me. It was full of God’s truth; about waiting until marriage and saving yourself for that one special man. I was able to give her a Zulu bible and an English bible. Greg taught her to use his camera and she took a picture of Greg and I.

I also found my African Jud! He was almost a year old and was living at the Reheboth orphanage. The orphanage was started by a couple who had never stepped foot on South Africa. They received the need for an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS by email and sold everything to move there. The children live with ‘house moms’ (4-5 children per house) and go to school, play, enjoy life and get the care and medicine they need for their disease. This is Greg’s favorite place in all of South Africa so it was really special for me to finally see it in person!

The missionaries we served with and the staff members at the church are amazing! They seek to love those that are lost and dying each and every day. Cala and Steve Flippo (the missionaries with IMB) served in student ministry in the states for years before selling everything and moving to South Africa, also having never stepped foot on the country before. What a sacrifice!! They are amazing people who LOVE God and LOVE South Africans.

There are so many more names of people I met, each serving God faithfully. This trip was inspirational. You can’t come back unchanged. I am SO grateful to have gone and so excited to hopefully go back one day. Thank you for your contributions to my trip and for your prayers. I felt them! My biggest prayer request was to fully engage and not miss the boys too much – both were answered!