This is a journal I wrote while I was on a week long mission trip in South Africa.
You'll read stories about my adventure to South Africa, interactions with the locals, the amazing food, and most importantly how God used that week to transform me, t...
Genesis 2:2 (By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.)
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Five a.m. drifted across Africa and grogginess claimed most of our group as we arose; mostly due to the past week full of activities and work. Once we had finished breakfast and charged our batteries with some coffee, we made our way towards the van. As we surveyed the sky, we saw the moon lingering low on the horizon welcoming the early wisps of morning. Without the sun to give off its warm life giving rays, the exterior of camp was dreary and frigid. We quickly loaded into the van and turned the heater on to kill the frigidness that tightly stuck in the air. Once the interior of the van was warm and toasty, we left the camp compound and began our trek northwest out of Johannesburg, towards Pilanesberg national park. Africa is so very beautiful during the wee hours of the morning. As the sun gracefully rose, its rays cascaded over the mountains and valleys in a gorgeous display of God's creation.
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On our way down the road, a myriad of mountains began spearing up on the horizon and the landscape began looking like the Africa I envisioned; this being compared starkly to the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg and Soweto that we had already experienced. As we passed through a small town nestled among the mountains we saw many unfinished brick buildings with many small tents scattered among their yards. Jon asked Ruth why there were so many unfinished buildings here and she began to describe to us that many African people begin building a home but run out of money halfway through the build and then they slowly add bricks as money becomes available from their job. She continued to mention that until the building is finish, many of these people will pitch tents in their yards and live out of the tent while they continue to add bricks to finish their home.
Ruth then began to tell a story about the time she first arrived in Africa she genuinely wanted to experience what a true African village was and how life was spent there. Unfortunately, what she experienced was not what had anticipated. Her house mate at the time invited her to stay a week at her home village, Ruth accepted but after a few days she found that the conditions were worse then what we experienced at the camp. Wooden floors, brick walls with no insulation, and no doors on any of the rooms. With privacy being almost unheard of due to the lack of doors on all the rooms, she decided to pass on a bath when she found out she'd have to take one in a small bucket with previously used water. The food was made up of mostly dishes that included polony, an African version of bologna. The only difference is in Africa, they cut it by hand. While getting ready for a meal, Ruth observed a man cutting the polony and she began to notice sores on his hands as he cut and distributed the meat. This caused Ruth to not want to eat, which led her housemate's mother to cut how much Ruth was served because she wouldn't eat much. Suffice to say her week there was miserable but she learned much about what conditions they must live in. It grew thankfulness in her that God had provided her with what she had.
