Snapshots from South Africa!

Hi everyone!

Today, I am writing you from our guest house (Del Roza) in Middleburg, South Africa!  The past few  days have been a whirlwind, but we are here, safely, with ALL 16 suitcases and 8+ carry-ons in tow. Thank you Lord for guiding our travels here, and for all of you who prayed for us during the loooooong travel journey. The weather here is chilly in the morning and evening, around 50 degrees or so. The daylight hours have been abnormally warm for a South African winter, hitting about 65-70+ degrees, so it's been very pleasant! Here's a quick recap of the past few days.

Wednesday & Thursday: Our flight left mid-afternoon from O'Hare. I had a lady named Julie for the check-in process. She was very sweet and she wanted to hear all about our trip.  One of my checked bags was 3 pounds overweight and I was fully prepared to redistribute some things, but she winked at me and told us to have a good trip and wished our team the best. #Godsighting!!

We sat on the tarmac for a while in Chicago, waiting for air traffic to clear. Once we got in the air, it was a smooth flight, and we landed around 5:45 in Atlanta, leaving us about 2 hours until boarding our flight to Johannesburg. Melissa & I went in search of a mailbox so she could mail her family letters, which ended up being about a 2.5 mile walk through the entire airport!  Fine by us, since we were going to be sitting for a looooong time!

The plane to Johannesburg was massive with 9 seats to a row, about 60 rows deep (3 sets of 3) and almost completely full, magically minus the seat between Kristin & I in the center set of 3 seats. Our flight took off from Atlanta around 8:15 p.m. and we settled in for 16 hours in the air. Each seat had a TV pre-loaded with movies/music/games, and also a flight tracker and a map. It was very tempting to check it every three seconds to see if we were there yet!  We were served 2 meals and a snack periodically throughout the flight. 16 hours, 3 movies and 5 series of hour-hour and a half naps and a few time zones later, we landed in Johannesburg! We caught the sunset as we were approaching the airport. It was really strange taking off when it was near dark, then landing when it was dark, knowing back home it was noon!

We had to wait in line to clear customs and get our passports stamped for about an hour. I met a lady in line behind me named Velma from Marshall, MI! What a small world. She was very kind and was traveling the area for the next month and a half. We chatted about our favorite Michigan hotspots and that helped pass the time a bit. All of our luggage arrived in tact and we met up with our driver, Knut (kuh-newt). He is originally from Pretoria, South Africa, about an hour and a half from Middleburg, so he will stay with us this week and transport us to and from school, town, stores for supplies, etc.

We loaded up the van & trailer in the chilly 50 degree weather and got on the road to Middelburg! It was about an hour and a half on the road and we were all very eager to get to our beds so we could sleep laying down instead of sitting up in a seat!  But first, we needed a snack. Meals were served at very odd times so our food schedule was a bit out of whack. Stores and restaurants close pretty soon after dark here, which right now is 6:00 p.m. because it's winter, so our food options were limited. We opted for the classic South African cuisine, McDonald's. I hadn't had McDonald's in years, but at that point, anything would have tasted amazing!

We got to our guest house, did a quick tour and called it a night. We are very blessed in our accommodations here! Everyone is so kind, warm & welcoming and our rooms and the landscape are just beautiful. It really looks like something out of the Secret Garden!

Friday: We got up and ate a fantastic breakfast together at the guest house, loaded up on espresso and set off on the short drive to St. Peter Christian College. It was so great to finally see everything in the daylight!  When we got to the school, we said hello to some of the kids and teachers who were outside, and went on a tour. We got see some familiar faces, like Drew & Lindsey Berson & Pastor Khumalo. It was such an amazing feeling finally being at the school and seeing everyone. I spent most of the morning filled with so many emotions because I just couldn't believe we were actually there! We spent the day getting acclimated with the school and loving on the teachers and kids. I got to visit with the 5 classrooms I'll be working with, two Grade R classrooms (kindergarten) and three first grades. I don't think any of us stopped smiling the entire time we were at the school! So.much.joy. #thankyouGod

Bruce Rudi (principal at St. Peter Arlington Heights), Pastor Khumalo & Drew Berson 

Grade R had a birthday celebration for three of them on Friday! 

After school, we had a meeting with the teachers and then went supply shopping for our service project at the school, which we completed this morning. Kristin & I got to sample Iron Brew, a South African soda produced by Coke. It reminded me of the red cream soda that Barq's makes! Then we had dinner at Nando's, a fantastic chicken restaurant that recently made it's U.S. debut near Chicago. We were back to the guest house by 9:00 and were all in bed shortly after, jet lag is no joke!

Today (Saturday): We got to sleep in a little bit and enjoy another nice breakfast at the guest house before we headed off to school for our service project. We put up curtains in the staff work room, painted some things for the walls, moved furniture out to make the space more welcoming and accessible, and then we spent some time painting the pillars and gates out front of the school to give them a fresher look. Another part of our group painted the boardroom at Bethel preschool and hung some curtains in there as well. Some of the teachers and staff joined us in our work and we enjoyed an absolutely beautiful day together, followed by a meal and fellowship. It was such a great day, an amazing experience and so much fun. I'll have more of those photos in my next post! Then we walked around Middleburg with Knut and explored some of the shops. A lot of the stores close at 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and are open for about 2-3 hours or not at all on Sundays, so that the workers can go home and enjoy their weekends! Tonight, we are going to enjoy a dinner at the guest house with the Berson's here in a little while and just enjoy fellowship with them and the rest of our team.

Thank you all for your prayers for our team and our work here! This opportunity is just amazing and I am so thankful to God for it, and for those of you who have supported it and are continuing to with your prayers.