Field Service: Completed!

The last two and a half weeks have been incredibly eventful. We finished up onboarding, traveled to South Africa (with a brief stop in London), completed our field service and are now packing up to head to the ship. I’ll try and cover each of these things, but I mostly want to focus on the field service, because it was quite the experience. [Sorry for the overload of pictures, I think they tell the story better than I do - also thank you onboarding team for being so diligent in your picture taking because I am not!]

To graduate from onboarding we had to present our final project, which Liz and I chose to do together. We made a puzzle in the shape of a cross with different pieces representing the new aspects of God that He had revealed to us during this time, and the empty space showing how much more we had to learn. The two main aspects I felt that God revealed to me were Friend (a personal God) and Communicator. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you’ll understand why. That Wednesday we began our long journey to Africa. One neat thing was that we had a 12 hour layover in London, so some of us chose to go out and explore briefly (after having not slept the night before). We figured out the underground and visited Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (where we got to see where William Wilberforce is buried), the eye and Buckingham Palace (I was very amused that there is a gate for both Canada and Australia – no gate for you America). We also went to Kings Cross station and visited platform 9 and ¾ (from Harry Potter), which was pretty amusing.

   

After several flights and car rides, we arrived at our temporary home, late Friday night. It was an old air force base in the Drakensburg mountains. It was freezing. Coming from the super hot Texas weather, it was quite a shock to our systems, especially when early this week it began to rain and the mountains were covered in snow. Who ever thought we would see snow in Africa? But the base has a big room with a nice fireplace so we gathered there daily to warm up. The first Saturday we were taken on a tour of the various sites we would be working at, and on Sunday we split up the group to go to three different churches. We all had very different experiences. Two groups went to small ‘house’ type churches, where there were between 8 and 12 people (not including us). I was in one of those groups. Two members of our group shared their testimonies (which was amazing!), our leader Stephan preached, and we participated in a lot of spontaneous worship (in Zulu and English). Their worship is so unreal – they all have amazing voices and are so passionate and engaged. We were all thinking how lovely it must sound to God. They prayed for us and commissioned us in a sense. The third group went to a big church, with over a hundred people, and I think their experience was a bit different.

         

Then came the work week. There were many different tasks to be done. The teachers went to a school and helped to teach. The nurses (and physiotherapist) went on home visits, providing care where they could. They were accompanied by some of our team who were designated as prayer people and they prayed over the people they visited. Our nutritionist met with various groups and patients and developed a nutrition plan for them. Our videographer/designer helped her design a beautiful poster in Zulu, showing which foods they should consume to have a healthy diet (and how much). Our photographers took many pictures and printed some out to give to the people they had visited. We had some people gifted with computers who helped fix operating systems, customize things and teach basic computer skills. The kids helped to paint window frames (to keep them from rusting) and played with the Zulu children who were around. Some people helped to build several shelving units to clean up a storage area at one of the sites.

And then there was the group of unskilled manual labourers (of which I was a part of). We spent the entire week at one site, completing many projects. We dug many, many holes and trenches. We dug holes for fence posts and put up a beautiful fence. We dug out a path between two buildings and dug out the entire front of the building to fill both of those with gravel (so that when it rained the mud wouldn't flood into the house). One of our main tasks was to build a playground that would be indestructible – apparently they like to destroy things there. We built several play areas with tires which were then bolted together, rebarbed into the ground and cemented in. The tires also got painted bright, beautiful colours to make it all look amazing. As we finished off this project on the last day, about 20 children were pressed up against the fence, watching us. 

At one of the nearby houses, there was a lady who used a walker and her husband was in a wheelchair. They weren’t able to get out of their house, so we were tasked with building them a ramp. They had a ramp in place but it was very uneven and very steep. So we destroyed the old ramp, and built a new one. Our carpenter had a big hand in making the ramp perfect for what they needed. We also cemented in some poles and set up a beautiful clothesline for her. We got a chance to come in and pray for them as well. On Friday evening, we heard that the husband was in very rough shape and might not make it much longer. However, on Saturday, we drove by and saw that he had come down the ramp and was sitting outside. That was amazing to see. 

Tiffany worked so hard to dig this rock
loose - it was a team effort to get it out
of the hole!

On Saturday, we capped off our week by going to the home of Sophie, the amazing lady who runs the place that we were helping to fix up. It’s meant to be a safe place for the whole community. A place where children can come play, a place where people can get food, they can talk to social workers to help them with various paperwork and legal things, and just get general counsel. We marched around the property seven times while singing and were able to pray over each corner of the property. She invited us to her home and we had a wonderful time eating, playing soccer and praying over her and another lady named Betsy, who runs the place that the others were working at. We also got to go to a game reserve earlier in the day and saw some giraffes and zebras, among other things (you can tell I get way more excited about people than animals, but some people really loved it).

This time was definitely filled with it’s challenges, but I really believe that God was using each and everything to teach us and strengthen us. It was very cold, the work was back breaking and we were on missionary rations in terms of food (which I definitely struggled with the most). About midway through the week, I came across Psalm 23 and the first line says “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” I couldn’t move past that one line. I shared this with the team during my devotion and asked, do we really believe this? Do we think that God cares about the small details? Proverbs 30:8-9 says “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” Jesus tells us to ask God for our daily bread, just for what I need today. God will provide everything He knows what I need in this moment, this hour, this day, this week, this month, this year, forever. God was using this time to teach me how to have empathy for those who get up everyday and work so hard, yet have nothing to eat. He was teaching me that I am strong in Him. He was teaching me to rely on Him for everything, which includes the physical. God made me aware of the devil’s lies (that I don’t have everything I need) and now I am better able to combat them. 

I’m posting this now that we’ve arrived on the ship, which will be my home for at least the next two years. I’m very grateful for everything God has been teaching me and all the experience I’ve been having, but I am very happy to finally be on the ship and I’m ready for the next part of this journey. I’ll try and write more about this week and share it in a few days, before we sail!

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 
~ Titus 2:11-14

When we went to the game reserve a random guy asked us to shout "Save our rhinos" so he could use it to promote his cause.