4 parts:
1. a long walk, ended by watching 2 springbok fight and butt heads for 10 minutes.
2. binding 500 books for the next term of Leadership Summit (only 4500 more to go!)
3. seeing a horse and its newborn baby right after birth…it was kind of cute because the baby couldn’t walk well yet, but kind of gross – it had literally just been born.
4. coffee, friends, and a powerful thunderstorm.
What an amazing day. Even the binding. At the moment, I’m awestruck at life.
These are the interns, some of my closest and dearest friends. In the top row (from left to right) is Kaylen, Marc, Matt Moline, Shannon (my roomie!), Jace, Katie Tjarks, and Crystal. In the bottom row is me, Matt Peirce, and Katie Miller.
I spend nearly every moment with these amazing people.
Jenn, one of the staff members, said it perfectly, “You are so blessed to have each other.”
I agree.
36 days. That’s all that I have left of my time in Africa this year, and I’m sure that time is going to fly by.
On Thursday night, we said goodbye to Rebecca, one of the staff members, who is home for furlough. On Friday, we said goodbye to Anna and Jeanette, 2 kitchen staff members, who are going on holiday for 2 months. That’s 3 goodbyes in 1 day.
That was a bit of a wake-up call. I don’t have much time left here, and I want to soak in as much of it as I can.
The best way I can describe my feelings about coming home right now is bittersweet. I am excited to be home and to see friends and family, and to DRIVE. (I haven’t driven all year) But I will be deeply sad to say goodbye to friends I’ve made here and to leave behind the beautiful African continent.
During the day that we are travelling home, I am going to be such a mess of emotions.
This past weekend we went to Durban to attend the Global Leadership Summit. This is a conference done by Willow Creek, and we were able to watch it on video! There might be multiple posts about all that I learned there. God sparked a lot in my heart.
One of the days in Durban we spent at Ushaka Waterpark. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. We are in Africa, after all. But it was surprisingly AWESOME!
A bunch of us went pseudo-swimming with sharks. You get in a glass encasement and the sharks swim around you. A rope attaches this encasement to the side so they can pull you back in. While I was in there, a shark jumped out of the water and over the rope attaching me to the side. I heard a splash, but didn’t think much of it. I didn’t realize what had happened until I got out and others told me. But it’s a good thing I didn’t know. I think I would have freaked out.
One of the scariest moments was when I was staring at a shark eye-to-eye. It was like a Mexican standoff. THAT scared me. It all turned out fine…it was fun!
That’s a shark under me….
I also saw the Indian Ocean for the first time! It is BEAUTIFUL. The water is crystal clear, and the waves were humungous! It is harder to swim in it though…there are quite a few rocks. But I LOVE everything about summer…the warmth, the ocean, the thunderstorms, the sounds of crickets or grasshoppers or whatever makes those sounds at night. I love it all.
This is the first presidential election that I have ever gotten to participate in. Today, in the mail, I received my absentee ballot! WOOOOO!
I LOVE that the first ballot I ever fill out will be from thousands of miles away in Africa.
Thank you, Jerry Holland.
We met Saulina on Monday, and I shared that we were trusting God for her healing. On Tuesday when we showed up, she said over and over that she was feeling “so much better.” She said that normally she is cold at night. But when we left on Monday night, she was warm and slept through the night!
We also visited with her today. She declared, “The flu is gone!”
PRAISE GOD! He is, and always will be, ALIVE!
If she comes to your mind, please continue to pray for Saulina: that God would reveal Himself, His Truth, more and more to her. This is a picture of some of us with Saulina!
