the journey home begins
Today’s our final full day in Cape Town. Scary to think that 5 weeks is actually over. There were so many times when I thought it would never end. Tomorrow we’re flying back to Durban and then on Saturday night it’s back to Australia! Wow….time has really flown. One of the things I hate about leaving is that you have to pack. It sucks. Especially when I’ve bought stuff while I’ve been here and now I’ve gotta work out how on earth to fit it all back in.
It’s amazing to think that 6 months is almost over. Now that we’re actually slowing down, I’m realising how exhausted I am. We’ve been going pretty full on for 3 months and now that we have time to relax a little I think my body’s going to shut down completely. It seems that no matter how much I sleep, I’m still tired when I wake up. I think when I get home I’m going to sleep for a week. Sometimes it felt like we weren’t doing much. Lots of dead time, waiting for things to happen. But now that I think back on it all, we really have done a lot of stuff. So many stories to tell. Where am I going to start when I get home?? Will I get sick of telling the same stories over and over? Probably not…and there’s so many stories that I’ll just tell different ones everywhere I go.
Home….interesting thought. Something that I’ve looked forward to for ages and now that it’s so close, I can’t believe it’s actually going to happen. When I start thinking about it too hard it overwhelms me at the thought of all the things I want to do and all the people I want to see and all the stuff I want to share. And then I think about what it’s going to be like fitting back into normal life after 6 months of DTS life. That’s going to be the hard bit, I think. I know that they do some preparing us for that during report back/debrief week but I think it’s mostly going to be working it out as it happens.
It’s so easy to get caught up in all the hard things that could happen or the things that I think I’m going to find difficult. But really, who cares? I’m getting to see my family and friends again after not seeing them for 4-6 months. And this time it’s longer than just 4 or 5 days! Yay. I’ll just focus on them and I guess real life will fall in around us.
Speaking of getting home
Add a comment June 11, 2007
Final weeks
Hey there family and friends,
This may well be my final update in South Africa. Today’s our last official ministry day, although it’s not exactly busy! This morning we had worship with everyone on the YWAM base here. It was hilarious coz the School of Biblical Studies students did a modern interpretation of the story of Esther complete with Darth Vader and 80′s clothes. It was so funny. Then some of our team went out for breakfast (we’re living the hard life here). Then this afternoon we’re off to Mfuleni for our final youth group with the young people out there. But none of us are complaining about a slightly less full day coz we’re all pretty exhausted. This morning I woke up and wondered why I even bothered to go to bed because I felt more tired than I did last night!! Oh well, I think I’ll be sleeping for a week straight when I get home!
Last night we went to Pallsmoor Prison to do a prayer walk. I thought there’d be about 30 people there….but no, there was 200!!!! It was amazing. We walked up and down the halls of Medium B where they hold prisoners who’ve been sentenced but aren’t maximum security type. It may well have become the best experience I’ve had on outreach so far. We walked through the halls praying and singing and saying hi to the prisoners who were waving at us through the small windows from their rooms. We shook hands with lots of them and prayed for them as well as just praying through the place. God’s presence was so strong there and the prisoners keep asking for you to pray for them. They really are hungry and desperate for truth, light and life in their world. All of our ministry at Pallsmoor has been so cool. I can honestly say that it’s one of the places that I’m going to miss the most from my time here. The guys have been so encouraging and challenging. Everytime we leave they tell us not to forget them and to keep praying for them. It’s not something they really have to worry about coz there’s no way I’m ever going to forget them!!!
Before we went there the first time I wondered what it was going to be like hanging out with prisoners. What would we talk about? Would I feel comfortable talking to people who might have done things that I hadn’t even heard of? But it only took a little while to remember that beneath all the stuff they’ve done and the hard things they’ve been through in their lives, they’re still human and it’s easy to talk to them. I would’ve loved to have had more time to sit with them and find out about their lives. It’s crazy to know that just being there has made a difference to their lives without us even saying anything. Whenever we walked in, their faces lit up and they shout hellos at us and want to talk to us and shake our hands. Being a girl there has been interesting, but the initial awkwardness wears off and you just have to accept the fact that they haven’t seen girls in a while….lol. Seriously going to miss those guys.
We leave Cape Town on Tuesday to go back to Durban for 5 days. It’s going to be awesome to catch up with the people we met in both Chatsworth and Umhlanga. And we’re going to spend a day at a game reserve!!! I really hope that we actually get to see some animals…lol. We’re praying we see one of each of the Big 5!! And it’ll be nice to have some time to relax and sleep and time to hang out with the team without the pressures of a schedule. Then on the 16th we leave for Perth where we have a week of report back and debrief and then I’m home!!
I’d appreciate your prayers for this final week as hanging out with the same people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week can be very draining and a serious test of patience. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing some different faces when we get back to Perth!
Add a comment June 8, 2007
random moment
So I was standing in the shower this morning and was hit by the thought that Josh isn’t going to be there when I get back to Wangaratta. It was the most random thought process to get there…but suddenly I was thinking what it’s going to be like with him not around. I guess I haven’t really had the opportunity for it to sink in. Being this far away means that the reality of it hasn’t hit me yet. I just unconciously assume that he’s going to be there when I get home. I don’t know what it’s going to be like having the reality hit. It’s going to be weird going back and everything being different though. And tough.
Add a comment June 5, 2007
