Well… I have been here in this country of South Africa for
only a week, and my world has already been rocked!
My first week was training camp… and I don’t really have
much to say about it. It was sooooo hard. We were roughing it! Hahaha…. I can
rough it…. But for some reason this just seemed really hard. We were using
port-a-johns, sleeping in tents, showering with a hose and freezing cold water,
and in the blistering hot weather of GA! This week was hard and it pushed me
and stretched me in more ways than I could ever know. I missed my friends and
my family so much. They were only 30 minutes away from me and I couldn’t see
them. My bed, my shower, and my toilet were only 30 minutes away. I just wanted
to be there, not where I was. I was surrounded by a group of people I didn’t
know or understand. They didn’t know how to meet my needs and I didn’t know how
to meet theirs. I felt alone and unwanted. The enemy was speaking pure lies to
me, but
I decided to choose IN with what I was doing. And soon enough things
got better. I began to connect with my team through crazy, absurd team
builders. Friendships began to immerse and now we are on this incredible
journey together.
So, we arrived in Africa late Tuesday night. It seemed so
surreal, and I have no idea what is about to come. My team spent the first
couple of days getting over jet lag and getting to know the town we were in.
Those were an interesting couple of days and I don’t even know where to begin.
I just remember one incredible moment: I was on the beach with a few people
just admiring God’s incredible creation. We stood at the water’s edge of South
Africa, in the Indian Ocean, and we were facing Antarctica. I think that was
the first moment that I realized exactly where I was…. IN AFRICA!!!! It was a
precious moment, that’s for sure.
Next thing you know, we are all packing up to head out for
the weekend. We were going camping in THE BUSH of S. Africa. CRAZY!!!!! Here,
we cooked every meal over fires, slept in barely nothing shacks/ cabins, didn’t
shower the whole weekend, and were put to the test! It was freezing, about 2
degrees Celsius, which is only like 30 something degrees F. Let’s just say, our
team was pushed to the limit. We did a few more team builders, and were united
in the fact that we wanted to come back home to USCA, the place where we live!
Hahahahaha.
WE SURVIVED THE BUSH OF SOUTH AFRICA!
Now, on Sunday night we returned to USCA, and had about 30
minutes before dinner. We unloaded and got settled back into our cabins. We had
the option of going to this thing called Nations Celebration. And I decided to
go, but the only problem was getting a shower and getting settled within the 30
minutes we had before dinner. The only time we had was before, but somehow God
made it happen. I showered and got settled into my cabin in less than 20
minutes. We ate dinner and then we were off to Nations Celebration. It is at a
church called Deo Doxa, which is maybe 5 minutes away. I walked in, not knowing
what to expect, and God just blew me away! This Sunday Night service was just
all the nations coming together to celebrate the Lord. There were people from
all over the world who came into this little room. We sang songs in English,
and then there are a few in other languages as well. I LOVE SINGING SONGS IN ANOTHER
LANGUAGE TO THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE! There is something about it that just
brings me life and joy. I love knowing that God hears it all the same, no
matter what language. I just remember the first song that wasn’t in a language
I understood, everyone ran to the front and starting doing a dance for God. So,
our crazy little American selves decided to join in. We ran to the front and
danced with everyone to our God. We gave Him praise through our voices and
through all our movements. Nations Celebration now holds a special place in my
heart, and I cant wait to go back every Sunday night we get a chance to.
Now, the next thing that happened was on Monday. We found
out what our ministries were going to be. I was placed into HOUSE VISITATIONS!
At first, honestly, I was really sketchy about it. The first day we went to
visit people that our leaders knew and kind of get a feel for what we were
going to be doing. It was really awkward and weird for me. I didn’t like it
very much. But I told myself I would give it another chance the next day. I
told God he lad to blow my away, and sure enough he did. Tuesday rolls around
and we are still with our leaders walking around, getting to know the township.
We went back to one lad named Noma, who we met the previous day. She brought us
over to her neighbor, Evalyn. Evalyn had a stroke about 4 or 5 months before
and her family was taking care of her. This woman was in awful condition,
basically paralyzed. Somedays are good and some days are really bad. She was
stuck in her bed and the stinch in her room was almost overwhelming. Poor
Evalyn was just going to the bathroom right where she slept because she
couldn’t move. You could see the wetness of her bed just running up to the top
of her sheets. We prayed over her and her health. As we prayed, we layed our
hands on her and showed her love. She kept saying “Baie dankie,” which is
Afrikaans for thank you, and “Enkosi”, which is thank you in Xhosa! She was
mumbling with every once of strength she had in a different language, and she
began crying. As she was crying, we decided to sing over her, so the chorus of
How Great Is Our God blessed her life, shortly followed by Amazing Grace. This
woman broke our hearts from the moment we walked into the room. When it was
time for us to head out, she mustered up enough energy to reach her hand out to
us and grab each of our hands and she thanked us multiple times. Needless to
say, we would be back to visit Evalyn.
Later on, we started heading home for supper. As we are
walking and talking, we run aross this woman. She looked at us and just stared
(which is normal because we are white Americans walking around the slums). So
our group stopped to talk to her. The first thing that came out of her mouth
was, “Do you know J-Z?” hahaha…. Apparently if you are from America, you know
all the famous people, or so everyone around here thinks! Well, we decided to
continue talking to her for a bit. We found out their names Ethel and Eunice.
Ethel is blind in one eye, and so we prayed healing over her. Ethel told us
about Eunice, she has seizures, so we also prayed healing over her life. After
all of this was over, we were about to head home, Ethel begins tring to tell us
where she lives, but her accent was so heavy it was hard ot understand her. We
finally kind of figured it out. She lives in a blue house across from Zama Zama
tavern. She told us to come visit her, so we would try.
Now for Wednesday, here’s an excerpt from my journal:
“So today was wonderful! Except at first- honestly… I was
really discouraged. So- today we went to go find this woman we met yesterday,
Ethel. We went to where she told us to and she wasn’t there. We couldn’t find
her and no one around knew who she was. We kept asking around and praying for
her to show up- but we had nothing. We had no lead… literally we were clueless-
and we had no idea where we were. We started walking back in the direction we
came. We have all these really annoying kids hanging all over us- holding our
hands, singing and kind of getting on our nerves. So- then we went to this
creche(daycare) with one of our leaders. She knew some people there. And the
whole time I was just antsy to leave and to get going on my own. So our big
group split into 2, as we will be for the rest of the time, and we just started
walking in opposite directions. My group was clueless and lost, but we kept
going. So as we were walking, we went to go see Evalyn again and we prayed
healing over her. She is so sweet! Evalyn was in great shape- compared to
yesterday that is. She was talking… a lot! Praise the Lord! She spoke more
clear and a good bit louder. She had so much more energy than yesterday, and
she was speaking a decent amount of English! It was so good and it brought us
and her so much joy. Then we left and continued walking through the township.
We turned left down one street and all the kids that were hanging on us earlier
saw us and immediately ran up to us, jumped on our arms, backs and legs! So we
picked them up and went with them to the house they were playing in front of. And
as we were there, we went up to the door and knocked… hoping ot be welcomed in-
and we were. As we walked in, 3 women were sitting there: Thelma, Madisa, and
Precious were there names. We started talking and this wonderful conversation
developed with Thelma. She was incredibly welcoming and asked us why we were
there. We told her we were missionaries from America. Through the conversation,
we asked her if she went to church, and she responded no. But she replied that
she wants to go. We told her she could come with us when we figured out what
churched we would be going to. We also told her about Nations Celebration at
Deo Doxa. We invited her and she will come with us. (just a little info: when
someone in this culture says they might do something, they WILL do it). We got
her number and told her we would call her to let her know when we go. She wants
us to come back and visit- and we want to!!!!”
So that was a nice long excerpt from my journal. WOW… this
is a long blog, and so much has happened. I hope this gives you all a glimpse
into my world in Africa so far.
This place is amazing and God is moving in miraculous ways!
Just a few more things. Please please please pray for these
women who I have talked about above. They are opening up in ways that we could
never imagine… and its only been 3 days of ministry so far! Pray over Evalyn’s
health. Pray that we find Eunice and Ethel. Pray for Thelma and her family to
be open to what Christ wants to do in them… especially Thelma. God has big
things planned for her… I can see it. Pray for my team’s safety. And pray over
the Beat the Drum ministry. If you don’t know about it, I have an earlier blog
that you should check out. We need a minimum of $1500 to come in. So please
prayerfully consider giving. Check out the other blog to find out how!
Well, I love you all, and have many updates with lots of
amazing information and stories that need to go up. So continue checking my
page. God is good all the time, all the time God is good!
***Giving myself away***
-Roth
