Our debrief week

Howdy everyone… it’s been a crazy week that’s for sure.. We traveled to “Crazy Dave’s” villa about an hour from Kruger national park in South Africa for our debrief! Yes he actually introduces himself as Crazy Dave and he is quite the character!!! He is so friendly and funny and welcoming! His place is absolutely beautiful… I feel like I’m in Bali or something… there is also a pool here so we are extremely lucky and super excited and blessed to get to stay at such a fun beautiful place for the next few days!

So basically our debrief has consisted of calling Allie (our leader in charge of everything back in USA).. in our teams and just talking about everything that we’ve learned/experienced/good things/hard things etc. then we have one on ones with Allie to talk more in depth about our personal experiences etc. so outside of every team having to do one with Allie and then individuals we also have a lot of fun games we have been doing as a full squad!!

We did get told about a week ago that we will have new teams in Jeffery’s bay so finally got to learn and find out our new teams which is so exciting… also I want to just say.. WOW.. these past few days have been super relaxing and peaceful… God have been really letting me find peace and rest in him these past few days and that has been so refreshing!!
So we did finally find out our new teams.. we had to pop balloons and then whatever color was in ours that’s what team we were on! Our leaders did pray and think about how to place us as far as teams go and so they handed us specific balloons.. it wasn’t random.. So we have 3 new teams, one is our 4 guys, then my team is 6 girls and then there’s one other girls team of 6… they had us play a bunch of fun games in our new teams and we also had to come up with our new team names and then later that night we had to perform a skit introducing our team names!

Well my team thought for a while and went back and forth and back and forth with so many different options but we decided that we wanted it to be more funny and silly because we all had team names that were more “meaningful” the first time and we were struggling to find anything meaningful that everyone agreed on so one of the girls on my team Suzy got extremely Burnt in eSwatini… we are talking like boils and blisters… it was reallyyy bad… it was on the back of her neck and she couldn’t turn her head for days she had to just move her whole body when she wanted to see something to the right or left of her… if you’ve ever had a kink in your neck or slept on it wrong and you can’t turn your head a certain way you know exactly what I’m talking about…. Anyways we had been saying we should pick a word and then spell it backwards…. So we picked sunscreen because it’s been a little funny inside joke with Suzy and since we were going to Jeffery’s bay a beach area we would need LOTS of sunscreen… so my teams name is Neercsnus… sunscreen spelled backwards! Now for our skit we decided since our name was backwards we were just going to do a bunch of random things backwards… hug backwards… walk backwards.. high five backwards.. sit in a chair backwards.. etc. but the whole time we weren’t going to talk we were just going to be silent and awkward and funny and just continue to all keep doing random things backwards then eventually we all would say let’s go to the beach and lay down in a row together like we are sunbathing and Suzy would sit up and pretend to put on sunscreen and caity would say what’s that? Then Suzy would say neercsnus! You want some? Then we would all sit up together and say in unison Neercsnus… sunscreen spelled backwards….. Let me just tell you now… when it was time for our skit the other teams went before us and they all had such sweet meaningful names and cute little skits and we were like ABORT ABORT we have to switch everything let’s just be the rainbows or something… but we didn’t switch.. we stuck with our original name and skit… when I tell you I laughed so hard during our skit that my abs got a work out in… we were all laughing so hard we had tears during our skit and were just trying to do everything the way we had planned and couldn’t because of how hard we were laughing and that just made it even more awkward and funny and the rest of our squad was laughing soooo hard watching us because they had no idea what we were doing and what was going on… we had also put on all our clothes backwards and hats on backwards and random things on backwards too… honestly it was such a hilarious and great memory I won’t ever forget it!!! I do have a video of our skit so I can definitely share it with you guys if you would like when I am back!! We have a lot of serious time in our mission trip  but we also have a lot of special sweet fun moments too!

So our debrief we ended with going on a safari to Kruger national park!! That was absolutely incredible… one of the best experiences of my life!!!!! The safari jeep was so fun and buckk..we could have went and not seen any animals and I would have been just as happy because of how fun it was just ridding around in that safari keep and bouncing around and enjoying the beautiful views!! But God is so good and my safari jeep (we had two different safari jeeps for our squad) we were driven by none other than Crazy Dave himself… he doesn’t own shoes and drove us barefoot… we saw the Big 5!!! The other safari jeep didn’t get to see all of the Big 5 like us… but the Big 5 is lions, rhinos, leopards, elephants and buffalos!!! We saw many many many other animals but the coolest thing we saw was a pride of lions… we saw 17 lions!!!! 2-3 male lions… they just kept coming out of the bushes… we sat and watched for like 40 min maybe? It was incredible… I can’t even really describe it.. I am so thankful for all the ministry work we did in Manzini eSwatini… but I am also so thankful and grateful that we had a few days to go over our time there.. reset.. enjoy a day on a safari together… and then prepare ourselves for Jeffery’s bay!! Also I did just want to say that our “Adventure days” comes straight out of our pockets… we pay for all of the things we get to do on our adventure days.. the money we raised for our trip doesn’t go towards our adventure days or things we get to experience or do on that “Adventure day” which we have one day every week where we do something fun all together as a whole squad since our week is so filled with ministry. I just wanted to say that because I didn’t want anyone to think we are just having all this fun and doing all these things with the money people donated!!

The Lord has been speaking to me so much and showing me his beauty and love and Joy and greatness and goodness in so many simple things and ways… I truly am blessed beyond measure and grateful for this wonderful opportunity… I not only get to pour out encouragement and try to outreach but I also personally get sooo much encouragement and get poured into as well.. I am so thankful for the past month and I can’t wait to see how God works and moves and what he has in store for me and my squad and the people we will meet in Jeffery’s bay! I pray that you have a blessed week and whatever season you are in or whatever you are going through that you just lean into God and lean into what he has for you in this season and in this moment and not try to worry about the future or look to your past but just stay in the present moment and be thankful.. even if it’s not the best… God has a purpose and a plan for you.. I am reminding myself Patience… and Grace… my middle name is grace and I have to remind myself of something my uncle told me… How amazing and never ending Gods grace is for us and that I also have to Give MYSELF grace… so whatever season you are In remember it’s just a season and seasons change and this too shall pass!

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 4: 17-18 17 “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unhuseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”