Sawubona, South Africa!

Disclaimer: anything written most likely does not or will not do justice to or adequately explain the experience of South Africa. It is fairly impossible to explain with mere words.

 The first day that we arrived at our new home, African Enterprise (AE), in Pietermaritzburg, Reg, our main man, said to us, “welcome to heaven”. No three words could be more fitting. The word “Zulu” translated to English actually means “heaven”, and I have never felt closer to heaven anywhere else in my life. Each aspect of this country and of this adventure so far has been heavenly; absolutely and completely perfect, of God, from God.

The only way that I can even attempt to do the beauty of this country justice is to tell the story of my entrance into Durban. As we climbed onboard the bus that would take us to Pietermaritzburg and began the drive through Durban, the song “This is Africa” began playing, and I began crying. I was completely and utterly overwhelmed by the beauty of the land and the reality that THIS IS AFRICA (TIA) and I AM HERE. Ever since we landed in Africa we have not been able to stop gawking at the landscape and aching to explore and experience more of the beauty that lies in this place. God is so present.

Not only is the land consumed by beauty, but the people are as well- both on and off campus. Never have I felt so welcomed and loved without so much as an introduction or explanation. The 49 other students that I am on this journey with are incredible. It has only been about 4 days and it is already feeling like family.

The beauty and love of the people of South Africa was shown extremely well yesterday when we attended church. It was an experienced that placed me fairly far outside my comfort zone in the best way possible. The church that I attended was primarily “coloured”, with a mix of “black”, “indian”, and “white” people. (All nonderogatory terms used to classify people in South Africa). As about 20 students walked up to God’s Family Life Center church, were Reagan and Liezel belong, each and every one of us was greeted with a hug from 2 greeters of the church. The hugging did not stop there. When the point in the service where the pastor usually instructs attendees to shake their neighbor’s hand and say goodmorning, the pastor issued us about 5 minutes to walk around and hug people. We proceeded to be hugged and blessed by just about every person we came into contact with. The service then proceeded with about an hour and a half of worship in 3 different languages (English, Zulu, and Afrikaans). The sermon was about 20-30 minutes long, but was packed with enthusiasm and thought. After the service I stood with a group of girls as we waited for our ride to get ready to leave, when an older man approached us. He welcomed us saying, “You are God’s walking flowers. We are so glad you are here. Please come back.” That first sentence melted my heart in a way that built it back up again, enlarged it for this people, and made me stand taller.

Later that day, a group of us decided to take a leisurely walk to the game reserve just down the road with our cameras in hand, hoping to see some of God’s exotic creatures. Little did we know, that leisurely walk would actually be about an hour and a half hike, and that boat shoes or TOMs wouldn’t be the best option. I ended up with blisters and blood in my shoes by the end of it, but it was all worth it because we saw ZEBRAS! (Apparently pronounced zeh-bra, not zee-bra). It was completely surreal and unbelievable. They were so beautiful and just enchanting. We were so close to them and they had no complaints about our presence. I can’t even put into words just how COOL it was.

Then, after orientation, during which it rained a wonderful warm rain, there was a spontaneous mud pit adventure. We all ran down to the stream/mud pit and completely covered ourselves with mud as we rolled, sank, and threw mud at each other, with the occasional mud-angel as well. We then rinsed ourselves off in the waterfall and raced to shower before dinner in 20 minutes. It was an absolute blast. We are determined to make it happen many more times while we are here at AE.

All that fun in just one day! I feel like I have been here for a month already with all that we’ve done! I will have to write another post about what has happened in the past 4 days, but I can feel writer’s block coming on right about now, and it’s almost lunchtime! But, overall, this experience has been overwhelmingly wonderful and almost inexplicable. I cannot wait to see what is in store and what God is going to reveal to each student here. Marvelous are His works and marvelous they will be. He is so present and active and I am constantly being reassured that He is great and is working!