Trip Updates
January 27th, 2009
Praise the Lord! Our trip to Lesotho was successful, and we returned home safely! Here are details about the trip:
Travel to Lesotho went smoothly. After spending one wonderfully restful night in Johannesburg, we were given our first introduction to our taxi, The Super Nova. The Super Nova is a 15 passenger van– the little kind you hardly see here in the states. This particular one, unbeknown to us, is famous. The Super Nova is one of the few taxis in Lesotho and South Africa that is named and decorated. The Super Nova had it’s name in glittery letters all over, slightly scandalous pictures of women in the back window, fake luggage racks, LOTS of speakers and four, HUGE sub woofers, tiny little lights in the ceiling that blink….. Imagine. We piled in that day and spent a long 5 1/2 hour drive from South Africa to Maseru, Lesotho.
We arrived that evening at our lodging- Durham Link. This retreat center/hostel is located waterfront on the Maqalika Reservoir, which provided us with amazing views of the city of Maseru. The heat, the loud music, and the bugs kept us all awake those first few nights– but we eventually got fairly used to it all. We were divided by men and women into rooms with bunks. The bathrooms - with flushing toilets and running showers (Praise God) - were only about 50 feet away from our rooms. The center provided us with a small kitchen, and fed us nightly in a large dining room. The dining room doubled as our DO-ALL room, where we served food to tons of kids, worshiped together, stored blankets and gifts, and laughed a lot.
The four teams were divided daily between work sites. The first orphanage team was located at Ndate Vincent’s (Ndate=Father). The team built relationships through lots of songs– Thea learned to play the ukulele specifically for this trip! We were able to take the kids out in canoes on the reservoir at Durham Link some days. We even had a New Year’s party– and all the kids came to Durham Link! We had a puppet show, did a drama, played with bubbles, sang songs together, served lunch, and gave them all goody bags and teddy bears!
The second orphanage team was located at Me Neo’s (Me=Mother). The team played with the kids everyday, all the while working on making blankets to leave with them. The kids learned to help tie the two pieces of material together to make the colorful blankets. The material was donated to us- and we were so grateful for all of it, which made over 150 blankets by the time we finished! The kids at this orphanage also were able to canoe and come to the New Year’s party. This group of 24 or so kids were the ones we were finishing the new orphanage for.
The third team was the construction team. This team worked so hard trying to get this new building completed for the kids to move into. The structure itself was already standing– roof and all– when we arrived. It is made of cinder blocks and mortar and a cement floor- already a step up from their current situation. We painted the 3000 square foot building three different colors- girls’ side was green, boys’ side was blue, and the common area in the middle was yellow. We were also able to install vinyl tiles for a floor– and still had money to hire locals to install toilets and a well! The toilets and well were quite a miracle for our team- and we prayed hard and rejoiced at the installation of these important things! The beds were donated by a Dutch group in Lesotho, so we were able to use the money to provide paint, flooring, toilets, and a well. We found out that the kids moved into their new home on Thursday, January 22nd! Praise God!
The last team was the drama team. The team learned a wordless drama about God redeeming man from sin. This timeless, cross-cultural message was going to be performed many times while we were there, but unfortunately due to our timing and the fact that school was out and it during the New Year’s holiday, many of our performances were canceled. The drama team was able to join the construction team on most days to help get more done that we imagined! The drama was performed at a detention center, a church, for the kids, and finally– for Lesotho National TV!!! The television station invited us to their studio to record the drama and then gave us each the opportunity to share our testimonies on national TV! Our message aired on Friday, January 16th! Praise God that the message was heard by more than we could have prayed for or imagined!
Each day we had boiled eggs, yogurt, and toast for breakfast, mystery meat sandwiches for lunch at our respective sites, and delicious, mostly mild dinners. Our taxi, the Super Nova, was driven by Sam, our new friend! Sam drove us to and from our sites everyday, and when he wasn’t driving, he was helping us. When we would load up each day, filling the taxi with a bunch of white Americans, we would go thumping down the road with our LOUD music, with people constantly yelling at us as we would drive by- “SUPA NOVA!!”
We gathered each night for worship and a de-briefing time when we got to share experiences from the day, things we learned, and ways God was working on us. There were hilarious nights, exhausted nights, and some very touching, emotional nights when God moved powerfully among us. We learned to lean on each other, and lean on God. We saw God provide lots of supplies for the new orphanage- the day after we would pray, God would provide. We saw kids’ lives touched– and we were touched by theirs. We learned that sometimes, the things we do for others can be, at times, a self serving event, as we gain from the satisfaction of giving . . . a hard lesson to learn in this type of setting.
We learned the value of asking God for our needs, and trusting Him for them. We were reminded in a powerful way of the importance of quiet time with Him, which was of course, much easier to do in Africa than here. The speed of life is slower there, and our responsibilities were less in that situation than back at home. However, God continues to work on us and show us His desire to have an intimate, personal, daily relationship with us– even in our hectic American lives.
We’ll not soon forget God’s power displayed in Africa, the relationships we made, and our beloved Super Nova! Thank you for your prayers and support! We couldn’t have served without you!