Urban Chaco: Africa

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."- James 1:27

Where do I even begin? I'm about to attempt to summarize to you 22 new, amazing friendships, numerous life lessons, and one of the most wonderful trips I've ever taken in my life. Brace yourselves for a long-en. If you're not prepared to spend a little time reading you might want to revisit this post at a later date.

Let's be honest right now, I had some skepticism about just how much I would LOVE this trip. I mean I was sure it would be enjoyable, I was sure I'd meet a few people that were nice, I was sure I would like getting to see the kids, I was sure I'd learn something new. God blew my feeble expectations out of the water. Even just a few days before going I was regretting picking the trip I did. How's that for a loaded confession? I was kicking myself for not picking a trip that I

already knew people on. I was upset that I picked Africa instead of China. I was bummed my parents had to pay some of my support. When picking a trip I signed up for South Africa BEAM pretty spontaneously and because it was the only one I could find that was explicitly orphan ministry. I'm not really the one to spend weeks mulling things over in prayer, if I know that they aren't out of God's moral will then I just do them, or let him shut the doors if it isn't supposed to happen. I was beginning to doubt that method of thinking simply because I was nervous about being stretched and out of my comfort zone for 2 weeks. So now that you know where I was at before the trip, lets get to the actual trip, shall we?

I wasn't the only person out of my comfort zone on day one. I was in a training room with 18 other students and 5 leaders, most of whom didn't know anyone before going on the trip. I stayed in a hotel room with 3 other girls and all of us were a bit nervous and awkward (which is really funny to think about now). I mean, we knew nothing about each other. Get-to-know-yous are hard! They take a lot of effort. Once again I was kicking myself for not going with someone that I knew. I was so far out of my comfort zone that it frustrated me. Let me say this now, Christians are meant to live their lives outside their comfort zones. That was the very first lesson I learned on the trip. I needed to be stripped of all my reliance on other things and other people and just fully trusting God. If I had stayed where I was comfortable our had had someone else to rely on I would not have grown like I did.

On the way there our group was delayed in Atlanta for 6 hours! SIX. HOURS. Sounds dreadful, right? Well, it wasn't. It was a completely unexpected annoyance that turned into a total God-thing. I was a little sad before leaving, which led me to sharing my life story with one of our leaders, an incredible girl named Kayla. Oh how I love her now. But I wouldn't have gotten to get to know her as well if we hadn't had that time. She wouldn't have heard my life story, I wouldn't have heard hers, which means we wouldn't have had the great conversations we did throughout the trip. As a team we also just got to relax and play Signs and Mafia together. Everyone was tired and silly and having a good time. Without those 6 hours I don't think we would have meshed quite like we did. God knew we needed that time. Which leads to lesson number two. God's plan is better. Always. Plan, schedule, do whatever you like, but God is going to have the final say and his plan is always best.

Don't worry. I will now begin my general summary of the trip, I won't go day-by-day. But I really just wanted you to know and understand that God taught me so much right off the bat.

MY TEAM

My team was a collection of a very wide variety of people. There were people from Hawaii, Maryland, California, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Talk about variety. Our life stories were even more diverse. It's just incredible hearing how God saves people that are so very different and he does it in a unique way for each person. We have a creative, loving God. I'm thoroughly convinced that God hand-picked the team that we had and he blessed it. Don't ask me why he let me be a part of it, but I'm so thankful he did. There were no cliques, there were no fights (actually, Andy and Jenna couldn't decide one night whether or not we should get tomatoes. Whew. Rough one *cough* sarcasm *cough*), there was no drama, there was only a lot of love for one another. Again, with how diverse we were there is only one good explanation for this. God. He did it all. I was so blessed by each other members he brought into my life. I honestly feel like I've known these people for so long. I'd be perfectly comfortable calling up any of the girls and just chatting about life. I constantly thought of

Philippians 2:1-3 during the trip. We did have one spirit and purpose, we were all there to show some people the incredible love of Christ that we had been shown.

SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa is corrupt place as far as government goes. Early in it's history, there was an apartheid, in which all of the Africans were only allowed to live in slum areas, the "townships", while the Afrikaans were allowed to live in the nice parts of town. Because of this you can literally drive 5 minutes from shacks in shambles to mansions. While the apartheid is "no more" the Africans can't make it out of the slums easily at all. Jobs and good education are hard to come by

and sometimes they get jobs from Afrikaans and then don't get paid. Sometimes just the mentality of the people is selfish. Drugs, alcoholism, and abuse are all prevalent in the townships. I have never seen anything like the poverty there. Ever. Everyone in South Africa has barbwire protecting their house and all the stores and malls shut down as soon as it gets dark outside. Crime runs rampant, especially just petty theft. And this is the culture that the children we met are being brought up in. Some had been abused, some were orphans, and those that weren't had very broken home lives, some were completely homeless, and all lived in poverty.

BEAM

BEAM is a ministry that was started by a couple named Erika and Louie in the township of Nelmopolus. God gave both of them a dream and a vision for st

arting a ministry to help the kids of the area get food, clothing, and an education. I have never met two more faithful people in my entire life. They got BEAM up and running in 2005, I believe, and God has just blessed it in really awesome ways. They have somewhere around 100 children that they have been impacting the lives of, not to mention the countless high school kids and families that are in-turn impacted. If you're looking for a ministry to support I highly recommend this one. Even if you're not looking I think you should support them. God is working in their ministry and it is worth being a part of. Here's a link to their facebook page. Check it out, get info, and get involved. We as Americans are blessed to be a b

lessing. Buy one less Starbucks drink a week and change some lives. http://www.facebook.com/pages/BEAM-Africa-Network/163884096995137?ref=ts&sk=wall

THE KIDS

Oh. My. Goodness. The kids were so fantastic and so beautiful it blew my mind. I wanted to come home with all of them. I played with 4 kids mostly. Lethabo, who was 12, Mpho, 7, Karabo, 5, and Cabello, 2. Karabo and Cabello were brother and sis

ter and spoke very little English but they were so much fun and so precious. Lethabo and Mpho both spoke some English and I loved getting to play with them. At the end of the second week Lethabo accepted Christ!!!!!!!! It was wonderful. I just cannot describe the joy I got from being around these kids. They had so much joy on their own that it was contagious. I also cannot describe to you the hurt I felt each day saying goodbye and not knowing where they were going to sleep or what they were going home to. At nights it was very cold and these kids didn't have sweatshirts and sweatpants or warm blankets like we did. Here's an idea of how cold it was. I would wear 2 pairs of socks, long johns with 2 pairs of sweatpants on over, a longsleeve shirt, a t-shirt, and 2 thin sweatshirts over that. Then I'd grab my blanket and go sit out by the fire with the rest of the team. The kids had none of that. Not eve

n a firm structure over their head to keep the wind

out. And yet, they loved and accepted love so beautifully. It's something I will never ever forget.

LIFE LESSONS

I struggled a lot on this trip with one main thing: Is God good? I saw hurt and brokenness on a whole new level this trip. We spent one day walking around the townships and praying for the families there and talking to people. God's goodness isn't something I've ever found myself wavering in. In my mind, without even realizing it, I saw God's goodness in the fact that he had provided so much in my life. I used material things to measure the amount of goodness I thought God had. But then I was placed in a world where

there was nothing. Just a lot of hurt and emptiness. So the feeble foundation that I had built God's goodness on was completely kicked out from under me. I neglect to remember so often that this life is temporary. The good, the bad, all of it will, fade and make room for the perfect. During worship at night we'd sing "There will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes, still I will praise you." and I'd remind myself constantly that this was not the end. These children won't always be abused, instead they will be held in hands that only want to show them love. One day the orphans will have a father. One day the families of those broken down shacks will be walking the streets of gold. I also forget that God hurts desperately for those people too. He isn't turning a blind eye to their hurt. He hurts with them and for them, he just has a perfect plan in it that we can't see. His goodness isn't determined by fading gifts, but his everlasting gift of Jesus. The fact that we are offered eternal life at all

tells us that God is good and loving. But it took me a few days to remember that. I very seriously wrestled with it while looking around. Satan showed me all the things that would lead me to question it, and while I knew truth was that God is perfect I had to take steps of faith trusting that fact. It wasn't an easy lesson to learn, honestly it was kind of humbling and breaking because God being good seems so fundamental. God just needed me to build my foundation a lot stronger than what it was. Let me just tell you. God. Is. Good. Fact.

I've been working on this post for hours now. It's so hard to try to summarize everything. But a picture says a thousand words and so I hope that with my written words I just provided and the pictures I'm about to provide you will be able to taste a good portion of what I experience in Africa. God is doing incredible work and he is a God of the nations. I'm so thankful for everyone who supported me and gave me a way to even go in th

e first place. The prayers and money were so helpful, and I hope this post helps you see the fruits of your labors. I love you all.