Howzit! Writing from Durban, South Africa! My team and I have been here for almost 5 weeks now and have loved it! I am so excited to share all about it. Thank you for your patience with this bit chunk of time between blogs!

We have had a lot of variety in ministry this country and I will go into more of that in a later blog, but the most recent has been serving at a children’s village, LIV for about 10 days! We just got back, and man, it was such a great time! This village is about an hour from where we are staying. Though it is a children’s home, it is run so much differently than most orphanages or foster care systems. This place is in the country side with a lot of land. Every child, 190 of them, are placed into houses with other kids and a mother. So instead of every child living in the same space, they are placed in a family structured home. The goal is to remove the orphan spirit and build up the idea of having a family, as many kids come from many rough family backgrounds. The village has children anywhere from newborn to early twenties (until they graduate college/work studies or move out on their own). These kids and moms have everything provided for them by the village, including school on the property!

^our barracks and my hammock

During our stay we helped the village run fun game time/club time for the kids during their easter break. We had 3 different sections a day, one for preschool, one for elementary, and another for girls 12 and up. We planned skits, played games, led songs, made crafts, facilitated water games and other fun activities to keep them busy. It definitely was tricky keeping them all engaged at times, but we had lots of fun with these kids. Some of skits include Peter walking on water and the good samaritan. Songs like ‘My Lighthouse’ and “Stop and Go” were very big hits among the kids. For the older girls, we had some bracket making time and did some line dancing.

Outside of kids ministry, we helped serve breakfast at the church service on Sunday morning that is held in the Multi Purpose Hall on the property. The last couple days consisted of a lot of odd jobs around the village such as organizing shoe donations, sorting clothes, painting cabinets and walls, and cutting a LOT of fabric for the sewing business the village moms help run.

The whole time here was so sweet and it was very nice to get out of the city/neighborhoods into a very open and quiet space. The views were so beautiful. In our free time, we enjoyed this nature by taking walks on the hiking trails on the property. Another highlight would definitely be playing tennis! The school has tennis courts that we would use at night which was so fun for me to get back into! When the sunset, we would normally be outside to watch it, and then have dinner as a team. We take turns making dinner in pairs which is always so fun and delicious. After dinner, I spent most of my nights in a very competitive mode while playing banana grams or dutch blitz with some of my teammates. We have also made some friends here, one gal named Demi was also volunteering here and she hosted a braai (south African BBQ- it is a HUGE thing here, as in every Wednesday and Saturday, and maybe even a Tuesday because they are excited to braai on Wednesday) for our team on our last night on the village. It was so delicious and was so fun to learn this tradition. I am constantly in awe of the Lord hand in bringing people together. Truly the only reason we met was because of Jesus. Its wild. Side note- she has a sourdough business and gave us some of her 40 year starter!

For a lot of South Africa, I have been seeking out quite a bit of alone time. After being constantly around people and not being allowed to go anywhere alone, I’ve felt very “peopled out” at times. It was hard for me to find delight in team times due to feeling pretty drained. However, it’s been very beautiful to bring these things to the Lord rather than dwelling on them in an unhealthy way. Being at LIV really gave me the space to go and be alone with the Lord. Without even realizing it, I was seeking the secret place with Him, which is something that I have struggled to comprehend all my life. Being in these spaces were so so beneficial to me and my mental state of being drained which turned into big homesickness (which I will touch on in a moment). These spaces looked like verbally talking out loud to the Lord in prayer, worshipping by myself, listening to sermons, reading bible passages out loud, and just enjoying His beautiful creation. This was a huge season of growth for me, even if it was literally 10 days!

As I was saying above, I also got veryyyy homesick while at LIV. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved it there and honestly wanted to stay for longer, but many other factors played into that. You are probably aware that my time on the race is coming to a close with 2 weeks left of ministry in South Africa and nearly a month left of the whole race itself. Along with my other squad mates, a current question going through a lot of our brains is “what are my next steps?”. So after thinking about that and making calls and plans, it made me even more eager to be home and start these next chapters. Also, sometimes calling friends and family back home and hearing what is going on, how things (and people) have changed makes it a little harder as well. I had a little stretch where I got really sad which made me physically unwell. But after bringing it to the Lord and calling my parents, I feel a lot better. Instead of counting down the days in excitement and exhaustion, I am counting them down with a lot less relief and more sadness as May 13th means leaving these friends and this specific environment behind. It truly has been the most amazing thing I have ever done and wouldn’t change it for anything. The memories, growth, and relationships have made it all worth it!

^easter lunch call with my family

I am so excited to fill you in on all of the other things that have been happening in a later blog… and one of them involves sharks! (Don’t worry we are fine)

Lots of Love!

Ellie