Celebrations: Days One and Two

Greetings FROM SOUTH AFRICA!!! Well we are here! It ended up that Sara's other flight was cancelled so she switched to the flight that Jennifer and I were on. We arrived in Johannesburg early Sunday morning and had a few hours to relax before our final flight to Nelspruit. Marc met us at the airport and brought us back to our rooms, and we met a few of the people around the HUB that we hadn't met previously. After that we had a chance to shower and get settled before dinner when everything kicked off. It's so nice to be back!

My week from here on will involve a lot of sessions. (Just like orientation - the good old days!) BUT our first full day (Monday) started off with Morning Prayer Meeting, a short talk with Dan to put us in the right mind, and then it was off to Siyathuthuka! Siyathuthuka is one of the first communities I went to during my orientation over two years ago. It was great walking those roads again, and the building looks amazing! We met at the life center. It was a pension day, so not many care workers were there as they had gone to retrieve their pensions. The kids were still in school at the time, so 10 of us got to go on home visits. I was in a group led by Bentwell. Two of the families we were trying to visit were not home, but Bentwell told us what he knew about their stories and we prayed for them. The second family we went to see was home. A gogo(grandmother), her daughter, and neighbor. Her oldest grandchildren were in school and her youngest were a few yards away playing at the family market. Every family you meet has a similar story. They face a lot of the same challenges and yet every family has such a unique story. This gogo is from Mozambique. She moved to give her family a chance at a better life, but was relocated from her neighborhood (along with her entire community!!!) in order to accommodate the construction of Mbombela Stadium. There are many dark sides to professional sports, and this is just another instance of that. They were relocated to another area but it didn't feel like home and she wasn't happy there. She relocated to Siyathuthuka and is so happy now, she says this is where she will stay.

After visiting with that gogo and her family, we went back to the life center and ate samp with the care workers. The children were still not there yet, so the care workers decided to eat with us first and then we washed the dishes and waited for the children to arrive. We played with the kids. We hoola-hooped (the kids were WAY better at it than we were!) and we danced!!! We sang a few songs, including Wahamba Nathi which is the song I know best and often sing at home in America! After that we had a proper African rain storm and hid out in the life center while we waited for the storm to pass. Then we came back to the Village to clean up, go to debrief and dinner.

Today we woke up and went to Ladies Prayer. We have a devotional, list praises and prayer requests. There is always much to pray about, but as Byron and Diane are leaving to go home this Friday, today was very emotional and bittersweet. There were many hugs and tears.

After Ladies Prayer it was time to dig in to sessions. We are here, after all, because we are each involved with the work of our respective country's International Office in some context. Today we had three sessions. The morning session was broken up into two parts, followed by two additional sessions in the afternoon. It is very challenging, emotional, but also very good. We've seen amazing amounts of honesty and vulnerability these last two days. That has allowed us to really speak into each others' lives through encouragement and new ideas. There are four International Offices outside of South Africa, so it is such a blessing to have these tough discussions together. Different offices have different ideas, and if something isn't working, another office often has good advice. We don't need to reinvent the wheel! Hopefully this experience will strengthen and rejuvenate all of our offices!

It has also been so special to be back and to have face to face conversation with people who have dramatically impacted my life and how I interact with others. Today after one of the sessions, something was really bothering me. I immediately sought advice from someone here who already knows the full context of the situation. While in the past I may have weighed the pros and cons back and forth and come up with a list, etc etc etc (you know how this goes...) I said what I needed to say and I listened to the answer. I trusted in the relationship I have with this friend and in the advice I received. And I'm moving on. Indirectly, in a separate session, we discussed boundaries and the boundaries we need to tear down but also boundaries we need to put in place. How we need to discern the way we allow people to speak into our lives. Some people are loving and truly have our best interest at heart, and some people are not 'our people.' The person I sought out, for better or for worse (but not in the marriage sense) is one of my people. I guess this is part of growing up. It's hard to learn, but so rewarding.

After that, we had another debrief. Today our last session ran long, so luckily the debrief group I attended let us just decompress. Honestly we spent a few minutes of silence just staring at each other. This was a good thing, not an awkward uncomfortable thing. Finally  Brooke and I went to dinner at Daytona and Kristi's. Kristi made us an amazing Greek meal with still-warm chocolate lava cake and ice cream for dessert! After dinner we talked for a long time about anything and everything. My heart is full! I received such a warm 'welcome back' from everyone I knew from my last time in Africa. I've reconnected with old friends and am forming relationships with new friends. God is good!

Tomorrow I know we begin our day with small groups. Then we meet in the field for team building activities... I'll let you know how that goes.