Day 1: Travel Bloopers and Purity Rings

Hey Everyone

Jared here!  First off, let me apologize to all you parents who have been anxiously looking to hear how your kids are doing!  After 38 very long hours, a delayed flight and a missed flight... we made it!  In our exhaustion there were some pretty funny things done and said.  Julie asked her travel buddy, Danielle if "people still make fake passports?" in front of the TSA.  Kate took over handling Julie's passport after that.  Taylor fell asleep on Russell's tray table.  Julie cuddled her non-english speaking stranger seat neighbor lady.  Ellen was almost the middle of a luggage cart sandwich.  Kim ran over a large sign with her luggage cart that then fell on a man.  Jan fell on the luggage scale.  Kate and Sarah were practicing their "tripod headstands" and "downward dog" IN THE TERMINAL (Yoga Moves).  I made the poor decision of watching "The Call" on the flight and had to take a few laps (I hate scary movies and home invasions).  Jeff left his guitar at every airport; sometimes twice (taking bets on if he comes home with his guitar or not).  Chalane tried to force her coloring book onto a crying child.  Not interested.  Some people eat when they're bored; Ben shops.  At Muji (great Japanese goods with gel pens).  Karissa watched SEVEN movies.  Ellyn's water bottle exploded at 30,000 feet (think fountain) all over Rachel.  All the while Abby had a great couple nights sleep and feels quite rested.

In reflecting on it, we actually had a great time traveling!  The team is in great spirits and the kids have really embraced everyone right away.  My favorite part about coming back is getting to build on relationships that I've made over the last few years and I've been blown away at how much they remember from my last visits.  One girl at dinner asked me how my brother Kenny was?  I was really confused and asked how she knew my brother and she just said she remembered me telling her about my two brothers last year!  Very excited to be heading into Sweet Home tomorrow!  Handing the keyboard over to Ellyn now to share about some ways we've begun to see God move!

Airport Shenanigans.

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Hi everyone! It's Ellyn. (Dad, I am safe!!) So, we've finally made it to Bridges. The country of South Africa is so beautiful and totally not what I expected of Africa. It is very green, there's no smog, and so far we haven't seen any lions (haha!). One funny moment so far was when we were walking back to where we are staying from the school and we looked up at the stars. Most of us haven't seen that many stars before and some people were thoroughly convinced that some of the stars had to be satellites (Southern California people).

Anyways, this morning during our devotion time, the counselor at the Academy shared with us that because of the culture in South Africa, sexual promiscuity is common and it is almost unheard of to save sex for marriage. The Academy has enforced strict rules with the kids about maintaining sexual purity, but they have still had a few issues arise, especially in the past three weeks. So, the counselor asked our group to look for opportunities to share with the kids about sexual purity. Our group began brainstorming of ways we could incorporate this important issue into the programs we had planned for the students. We did not expect, though, that the topic would come up so naturally in conversation.

As many of the girls on our team do, I wear a purity ring on my left ring finger to symbolize my commitment to maintaining sexual purity. I have worn this ring since I was thirteen and I cannot recall someone ever asking me what it meant. However, today, I was asked about its meaning twice! As I was sitting at lunch with three of the academy students, one of the oldest boys randomly asked me, "Ellyn, why do you wear that ring on your finger? What is it for?" My jaw almost hit the floor. I was absolutely shocked that I did not have to do anything to bring up the issue of maintaining sexual purity! From there, I was able to share the reason behind my ring and my heart behind it - I have made a commitment to the Lord to stay sexually pure until marriage. The same thing happened at dinner - this time I was sitting at a table with five girls. Although the rules at the Academy encourage the kids to stay pure, I could tell that they were touched by my commitment and I pray that it would motivate them even more to refrain from sex before marriage. This is just a sampling of how we have seen God working through us here. If this is day one, just imagine what He is going to be doing by our last day in country!

Also during our devotion time, the counselor shared with us how all of the students ended up there. Every student at the Academy is considered an "orphan or vulnerable child", meaning both of their parents have passed away or they were abandoned by their parents. She also told us that every single child here has been a victim of some sort of abuse. Obviously, hearing this broke our hearts and opened our eyes to how important our time in South Africa had the potential to be. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would give us the words to say as we help these children cope and listen to their stories. Because of the focus on academics and limited staff at the Academy, the staff shared how difficult it can be to program fun activities for the kids. As a result, many of the students have complained that they don't have enough fun. So, as a team that loves to have fun, this has been a great way for us to support the staff and students. Oh, the fun we have had so far with these kids!!!

Last night and today we have had such a great time connecting with the students at the academy. Thank you for your prayers in that area and please continue to pray for those relationships to grow! We quickly bonded over Justin Bieber, celebrities, and imitating each other's accents. We started our first day of after school programming with the kids today and had a blast. Rachel taught a Zumba class (I wasn't there, but I heard that the kids were MUCH better than us leaders, surprise surprise), Karissa led the kids in a craft, Kate helped the kids decorate their own personal frames, and I was in charge of field games. One of the highlights of the day for everyone at the field game station (but not me), was watching me run around when I was "it" during link tag. I could not catch anyone for 5+ minutes and one of the girls even told me that I should wake up and run laps tomorrow because I was so slow (embarrassing!!). Needless to say, it was so much fun getting to know a little bit about these kids' lives and loving on them for the day.

Tomorrow, we start VBS in Sweet Home, a township in Cape Town. This will be the first time most of the kids will ever hear the Gospel, so pray for the Holy Spirit to move supernaturally in that place!

Please comment on our post - show some love!! We would love to hear how you are praying for us and what the Lord is doing in your heart as you support and pray for our team. Also, most of the girls (and Taylor) are dying to hear about what happened on the Bachelorette tonight.  :)

We love South Africa!!

Classic "girls picture"

Jumping for joy!