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!

Today was our last day of Holiday Club for iThemba Lethu. Parts of it were sweet, parts of it were bittersweet and some were downright sad. There was a boy Nhlaka, who took to Jonathan right away while we were at our first camp (leadership camp this past weekend), they bonded over electronics and it was really wonderful to see the way he and many other boys watched for Jonathan’s appearance in a room or in the morning. Sunday as we were dropping off the children at the school, he was sad because he loved spending time with us and we were going away. He was consoled by the fact that we would see him again on Tuesday and oh the joy at seeing us again when Holiday Club started. The Holiday Club was one of our specific duties, run sort of like a day camp, for the iThemba Lethu students. We had songs, a Bible story, a testimony, scripture memory, craft and games each day and each day, we would see Nhlaka (Gadget Boy-his favorite television show is Inspector Gadget and he was calling Jonathan Inspector Gadget). Starting Tuesday, Nhlaka had a “diamond” cross necklace he was wearing and he was trying to give it to Jonathan so we wouldn’t forget him. Feeling badly for taking something of such value from someone in elementary school, Jonathan always thanked him, but declined the offer. Today, he was so sad that we were leaving, he was in tears most of the morning. He kept offering the necklace and eventually Jonathan decided on a trade of a bracelet for the necklace so they would each have something to remember each other. We’ll be praying for you, Gadget Boy and we certainly won’t forget you.

In other update-ish news about our trip:

Travel from the US to South Africa went well. A real highlight for Kelly was having the immigration official say, “Is this you? Your face looks so fat!” (Just stamp my stinking passport, please) to which I replied “Thanks, I think, that must mean I look thin now.” -Note to readers-my passport photo was taken in JUNE as in six months ago, I’m certain I’m the same size.

Our host family is fantastic! They are a couple in their thirties who have two daughters who are seven and three. They have been very welcoming to us and so kind. We’ve seen quite a few performances of dances, music and listened to stories about things they’ve done each day. It’s been great.

The work of iThemba Lethu continues after we depart and the ministry here is incredible. The children in the transition home (orphanage) are well loved, cared for and love each other like brothers and sisters. There are about 12 children all age three and under and they are happy and cheerful and area always waving when we arrive each day. The school program is helping to restore a sense of respect and dignity to the children. They often talk about respect and how they should respect others and others should respect them. They are like children anywhere-love to perform skits and be on stage and love to talk about their families and school and what they want to be when they grow up. Some of them want to be archeologists or teachers or scientists; every student with whom I spoke wanted to have a good family when they grow up and help make their community safe. We are so thankful to be a small part of this ministry this week. More when we get home. It might take us a bit to process everything.

Sorry for the lack of photos, those will come when we return home….

Love you!
J&K