For those of you who are unfamiliar with the schedule of events, we left the Seattle area and traveled to Durban, South Africa on Wednesday December 3rd.
Here we are on the plane. Our first transatlantic flight together!
Arriving in the evening of December 4th, we were welcomed at the airport by Glenda and Mark and taken to our host family’s home. Raymond and Kathy were our wonderful and gracious hosts (along with their two lovely daughters, Zoe and Joelle). Friday morning we were picked up and taken to meet a busload of children who were heading to leadership camp for the weekend. After meeting T.P.-self-appointed representative of the group, who introduced himself and asked if we knew such and such celebrity, we arrived at Pennington Beach. Here’s the view from the cafeteria (yep, that’s the Indian Ocean!):
The first activity was going to the beach with the children of the leadership camp (6th graders). It poured rain.
Later that night, we got to do a little program for them. Jodie gave the message from Luke 15 (parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin), explaining that they are so valuable to God that He is willing to leave everything behind in search for them and celebrate when they return! She also relayed that they are each so valuable to God that He called us to leave behind our families and lives in America to travel all this way to meet them! It was humbling to see how quickly the children responded to the message and how they opened up to us in response!
Saturday was when I really began to notice a trend that continued for the whole trip: Jonathan ALWAYS had a crowd around him:
The morning was spent participating in team building activities and the kids LOVED it. We joined groups and traveled with them as they did the foofee slide (zip line), obstacle course, rock climbing wall and group activities. It was a good time to get to know each person a little better too. That night, each child was given a Zulu Bible with a letter from their youth worker. Many of them have nothing so to have a book is special. We continue to pray that having a Bible has a significant impact on their lives.
The next morning, Jonathan sat with one of the campers and asked him to read passages in Zulu. These kids had endless questions about God, theology and the Bible!
We spent Sunday morning applying temporary tattoos, face painting, beading and hanging out with the children while they took turns to meet individually with their youth workers. After lunch, we headed back to Durban proper on the bus….the first three days. More to come!