I simply cannot believe that my trip with the World Race is coming to a close. Writing this, I’m sitting on the airport floor in Dubai, during our 10 hour layover, halfway through our 50 hour travel day back to the states. Wow am I so blessed to have had this opportunity!
Let’s take a glimpse of what the last couple of weeks in Jeffery’s Bay, South Africa looked like! We spent our final weeks in Africa serving at a youth camp, doing some construction work, and helping at 7th Heaven (the orphanage)…
The youth camp, #imagine, had about 100 kids who were so on fire for the Lord. Our team was challenged through some of the leadership and structure of the camp. Overall, this camp united our squad and made us so much stronger. We helped with set up, tear down, and danced on the stage, looking foolish for the Lord. I was on the media team, and in charge of taking pictures for the camp! Here are a few of my favorite pictures that I took:
GLA (our hosts/school/church) is trying to build a technical school that will allow students to have hands-on career experiences before they graduate high school, to open greater doors to post-grad opportunities. So for a week, my squad and I helped wash walls, grind them, prime them, and paint them! What seemed to be point less work, soon to be covered up by wooden panels, me and one of the members on my squad decided to do the math of how much we really helped. As a squad of 17, in the hours that we spend doing this, saved 2 men a month of work!
Our last weeks at 7th Heaven were filled with intentional conversations with Nelly (the mom), singing “Gummy Bear” and “Barbie Girl,” and getting kisses from the sweetest and cutest babies ever! Also, me and my team had the opportunity to bless Nelly through your guys’ giving. We fundraised money to fly Nelly home for a funeral and the Lord doubled the amount we needed. On our final ministry day, we were able to give them a big supply of diapers, cleaning supplies, new bikes for the kids, Easter baskets, and many more essentials. Not only Nelly was blown away from the generosity, but as a team, we were too. How sweet it is to be the hands and feet of Jesus!
As I reflect on this trip overall, I am blown away by how kind the Lord has been. I have learned so much about myself and have gone deeper with the Lord. I don’t believe I would have grown this much without this trip .
We will spend this week in Gainesville, Georgia where it all started exactly 100 days ago! I am so filled by the things I got to see and experience. Everything from loving on the cutest kids to saying very hard goodbyes to sweet friends we made around the world.
I don’t know what I am going to do when I get home and am not sharing a room or sharing a house with 16 other people. My heart breaks having to leave these friends that became family. All I can say is I’m excited to get some matcha and to squeeze my family & friends! I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve God and others. I could not have done this without your support. I am so blessed to have seen the things I saw, and experienced the things I experienced. I would love to talk all about my trip for days on end, but I don’t think a blog post will cut it. Please reach out if you want to know more about my trip or want to hear about what’s next! Africa will be missed and has a special place in my heart, but it’s time to be home for a while 🙂 Thank you so much for following along on this journey, your support, and your prayers! I will see and talk to you guys soon! <3 I am SO THANKFUL AND GOD SO SO GOOD!
Leave a Reply