Final Blog Post

Hello everyone for the final time. I have enjoyed getting to share with all of you everything that we have been doing on this amazing mission trip to Eswatini and South Africa! We wrapped up our final week at the orphanage by spending more time with the kids! The babies were being taught all kinds of things this week, they even did some worksheets where they drew their hands and colored them in (we may have had to help most of them with most of that work haha). We also learned our ABC’s and numbers and shapes as well! Most days looked the same, but it got harder as the days went on because we knew we were saying goodbye. It was amazing to spend time at the orphanage because there were only about 20 kids in total we worked with, so we each built a relationship with every single one of them. I knew all of their names and could call them by name and they’d respond. It was truly amazing to get to have that with each of them. They were so full of joy and it really felt like a family there. The three ladies who ran the place were always there for them and treated them like their own kids. The lady who was the main contact calls them her children and they all call her ma. It’s precious. On our last day we took a field trip to the beach and the park to do an Easter egg hunt! The kids were thrilled and we all loved getting to put that on for them! I’m going to miss all their smiling faces and joyful hearts. The last couple of days we made sure to say our goodbyes to everyone else that we met. We ended up making friends with a couple dozen different people over our time in South Africa where we would each go hang out with some of them or they’d come over and we’d talk about God and play card games or share a meal together. I personally got close with a man named Paul who I went out to get coffee with on the morning of Good Friday! We had a wonderful conversation about his life of ministry in places like Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, and other areas of South Africa as well. I also got really close with the people who cooked for us, Francois and Tannie Engela. They were truly wonderful people of God and they all wanted me to know that we were always welcome back anytime! Saying goodbye was quite difficult, but I always make sure to say see you later because we never know what the Lord has in store for us! Having to say hard goodbyes just means we made truly wonderful relationships. The blessing and joy of meeting wonderful people always outweighs the pain of the goodbye, so it’s always worth it to meet new friends. We finished off the week with our own squad church service with Tyler and Catherine giving a Good Friday sermon! We also had a potluck meal for our final meal together and Marisol and I were on the main course potluck dish, and we cooked lamb, steak, and chicken for everyone!Thank you all for your continued support through this journey, I will see you all later and God bless! P.S. I also went bungi jumping.