South African Adventures

“You can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” Words I feel that this team has learned to live by in the past week.

We’ve gone from plane transfers, jet lag, and sightseeing, to the realities of the township in which we’ve been staying. We arrived safely last Saturday afternoon in Durban and were greeted with the warm, gentle, humid wind as we watched the sun slowly disappear into the Indian Ocean. We piled all of our luggage into the back of the truck and got into the cars to head to Pietermaritzburg. The scenery on the way of rolling green hills and “Lion King” trees was absolutely amazing. You think you know a place well enough, but even google images can’t truly capture the true beauty of Africa. We drove for about 2 hours until we arrived at “Hamba Ekukanyeni” (Walk in the Light) in the township of Haniville. We were greeted by Heidi, Keryn, and Ryan Taylor, as well as Sandile, Neils and Katie (another APU student). They showed us to our rooms and after tea at about 8:00 p.m. everyone headed off to bed.

Everyone was up and ready to go at 9:30a.m. for church there at Walk in the Light. A service that i’ll never forget. As we walked towards the main building you could hear the strong harmonies and clapping of the service. The music was joyful and upbeat, and we saw May team already there sitting and singing in the church with the kids. I was greeted by a little boy named Bonga, who was out dancing everyone in the church. I’ve never wanted to move so much in a service, but for the first time, my insecurities of expressing worship in dance were gone. I don’t think anyone could help themselves but dance and sing even if it wasn’t the right words. It was all in the spirit worship. May team went up and spoke about their experience at WITL and you could tell the kids were bummed they were leaving, but they wished us a great experience and hearing the impact that was made on them was a huge encouragement to us. They sang a couple of songs during the service and then Pastor Sepo called our team up to introduce us to the church and to the ministry. We each went around and said our names to the church and heard giggles here and there. Then they asked us to sing a song so after much freaking out trying to figure out a song, we started to sing the chorus of “Rejoice.” PTL that it went well and then it was time for the sermon. I’ll never forget the moment Sepo told us to turn to Phillipians 4:4. “Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again rejoice.” Our faces just lit up in knowing that God really makes NO mistakes in having us have been there singing that song on that particular Sunday morning. It all came together and we felt right at home. After church we played with the kids and I had one of the girls come up and tell me that I was her new mother, her name is Masisah. There was one little boy who had the biggest brown eyes and as soon as he grabbed on my hand I just couldn’t let go. Ionda is definitely something else. A pretty big baby who we could tell and have been warned would be trouble. But he was just too adorable to resist. We met up with the team at Bruce’s house for a Braai and we hung out and heard their amazing stories. Thank you May team! You guys seriously helped prepare us for our time here. :0)

Our first day of work started up at 7:30 a.m. with prayer and song with the workers of Walk in the Light. Then it was off to the fields to harvest corn. After that day, I don’t think i’ll ever be able to see corn the same way again. My grandma had made me help her with corn before, but never like this. We went up and down the fields picking the ripe corn, but the workers had pretty much cleared the fields. They filled up about 10 bags of corn to shuck, chop, and package for sale. (The three ways Walk in the Light gets money is their Sugarcane, Corn, and Donations) [we’re working the sugarcane fields next]. It took pretty much all day to get it all done, but we had about 20 boxes of corn ready to go for the vendors and it was enough corn for us for the day. By the time we got home we were all exhausted and ready to sleep, but as we drove through the gates of smiling kids running and waving, you couldn’t help but find the energy to play. And that we did. My “daughter” Masisah ran up to me with a present and melted my heart. Those kids gave us the push we needed to keep going. So much love in one place and I feel like we didn’t deserve it at all.

The next couple of days we spent playing with the kids and running errands around the townships. A few of us got to go on Clinic runs with Pindile and Bruce.

Ran out of time...oops! more to come!