by Cammy Brantzeg
It is 9:00 pm in South Africa. Today, we had a brief visit to the valley before we climbed back up to the mountaintop. When you come on one of these trips, a few days in you get so tired. You are overwhelmed by what you have seen. You need to stop to process things but there doesn't seem to be enough time. Your sleep may be off. I need to mention again that you are TIRED.
Our Thursday morning started with a visit to the Ma's for Wellington ECD program (preschool). These kids will be going to grade R (Kindergarten in US terms) next year. Michele (Hopewell Christian Preschool Director) and Amy (Hopewell Christian Preschool Teacher) were soaking everything up. You might think that we would be coming to South Africa to teach them how to run their preschool but that would be so wrong. We visit their preschool to learn from them and find ways to make our preschool even better. We humbly show up and God opens our eyes to show us things that we never would have thought of. It was a great visit and thoughts and ideas were exchanged.
As the leader for this trip, I am constantly thinking, adjusting and praying to try to discern and move our group where God is calling us to go. Today, I had to make some tough choices. We just won't have enough time to do everything I wanted our group to do.
I wanted to visit all the Mosaic families (around 27) and drop off the soap made by our youth and the Bible verse that I mentioned in one of my previous blogs. My church Hopewell UMC also had money available for us to spend on this trip so we purchased a food parcel/package for each Mosaic family. The food parcels cost $25 each and look like a giant Ziploc bag that contains canned goods, sugar, etc. The kids will be on a school holiday that last 3 weeks starting on Monday. Many families do not have enough to eat during this time when the kids are not at school or at the Mosaic programs. The food will help them bridge the gap while the kids are not in school. Unfortunately, I realized today that we just won't have time to help do the deliveries.
I also wanted to visit families who are going through difficult times and pray for them with my friend Cornel. This is always a blessing for our mission trip teams and for the ladies we visit. Unfortunately, Cornel's availability and our teams availability did not overlap to make this possible. The good news is that I have learned if God wants it to happen it will and if it is not meant to happen then it won't. This wasn't a part of God's plan for this trip and I will trust his plan that this is how it was meant to be.
As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, we were tired today so I cleared our schedule after lunch until 4:00 pm to give our group some time to rest, relax and reflect. We just needed a break. I took a 30 minute nap, had a snack of cheese & crackers and felt like a new person.
After our down time, 2e met with a group of Mosaic high school students from 4-5:15 pm and then went to Stephanie and Kiffie's house to have dinner with some of the ladies from Ma's for Wellington.
As you can see from our picture, we had an evening full of love and laughter. When we left Stephanie and Kiffie's house, we were all back on the mountaintop leaving our afternoon in the valley behind.
The feelings here are hard to describe. The relationships we have with the people we meet are so special. You think you have had the best moment ever and then a new one comes along that is just as special. It was a great night.
We will be heading to Port Elizabeth on Sunday. Right now, the group kind of wants to stay here in Paarl Valley because it has been so special but I keep telling them wait until we get to PE. I know it will be special there too. I don't think they believe me but that is ok because they will see for themselves next week.
I need to get to bed. I started writing this around 9:00 and it is almost 11:00. I did have a nap today so I am feeling pretty good but I still need to get to bed. :-)
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