We have officially made it to South Africa and almost all of the way through our first week! Mitch and I met our entire team at 8:00 a.m. Sunday, July 1st, at the Atlanta airport where we began our journey to Durban. Our flight arrived in Durban at 8:00 p.m. Monday, July 2nd. We had a little mix up with the rental cars, but we finally got it smoothed our and we were on our way to our home for the next 5 weeks!
Tuesday morning, we woke up and headed to our first day in the township of Kwa-Dabeka. We helped do some much needed landscaping (clearing overgrown roads), handing out rice and soup to the orphans and the sick, and getting to know our partners from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The team leader, Anele, has planned out our entire 3 weeks in the townships and we have loved getting to know him and the other South African students we are working with. We ended Tuesday night in our small groups going through Tim Keller's 2 Timothy study.
Wednesday, we ventured to another part of Kwa-Dabeka and spent the morning picking up trash around the houses/apartments. In the afternoon, we split into groups and began getting ready for our AIDS/HIV training session that we will be hosting on Saturday. The 5 different sessions explain what AIDS/HIV is, how it is contracted, how to protect yourself, how to treat others with AIDS/HIV, and how to make smart choices with God for your life. We will also be putting together a Vacation Bible School for primary age children on Saturday as well. Wednesday ended with a night of reflection to meditate on the things we have seen this week and how God can be using us while we are here.
Yesterday, we spent the morning hosting a thrift store for the community and a soup kitchen. Before soup was given out, the gospel was presented and we had the opportunity to talk to members of the Kwa-Dabeka community and pray for them. In the afternoon, we continued our AIDS/HIV training and some of us girls also got dance lessons from some of the women in the community center. We ended Thursday with men's and women's time, discussing the past week and our spiritual walks.
Today, we had a day off which has been spent on the beach hanging out with our South African partners. The boys have made attempts to play rugby and we ended up running into a World Race Team that is currently in Durban and from the States! It has been a great day of fellowship, relaxation, and spiritual conversations that will end tonight with a group cook-out and a trip to watch the local rugby team play!
We have loved being in Durban and are so excited to see how God is going to use us to serve the people here as well as work in our hearts and the hearts of our students. Please continue to pray for changed lives as well for the safety of us and our students, as we are in some pretty dangerous parts in Durban. We will update again at the end of next week and cannot wait to share some amazing stories!
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