South Africa :: 2017 Travel
It’s been over a year since I went to Africa for an internship at a children’s home.
This place holds so much of my heart and trying to express how much I love it there and how much I learned there still isn’t completely possible. I was in South Africa for two months and the different things I did through my internship was so varied. Many different things happened in the time I was there and I’ve never actually shared the images from my internship, so here’s just a few things God taught me, along with some pictures, of course!
God always comes through when you ask for his strength.
I remember ones specific day when I got a call in the morning asking me to teach Grade R – which is like kindergarten. I had been a teaching major for 1.5 years before I changed majors, so I had a little background in teaching, but really very little. Teaching the little one’s was mentally exhausting because many of them did not speak english with me. I made my coffee, and begged God for some of his strength and wisdom, and headed off to teach.
Another teacher helped me think through the day and helped clarify different projects we needed to accomplish and I was SO thankful for that! Because of Jesus, we all made it through the day and Jesus provided all the strength and courage for it.
That day ended up being one of my favorites mostly because I saw Jesus in so many ways! It was the first day of summer and the children and I spent the rest of the day celebrating by having a HUGE water war. I arrived home later than usual – completely soaked, and completely filled with joy.
We are all orphans until adopted by God and brought into his family.
This is one thing I had never given much though about while in America. But this was talked about and emphasized over and over again while I was there and is quite true. I came to a new understanding of how God views believers as his children and how he loves us FAR more than we can ever comprehend.
God’s knowledge and understanding incredible.
I remember one Sunday morning in church where they had a “time of intercession.” During this time, everyone prayed in their heart language – there were multiple languages being spoken, all at the same time. It was incredible to know that God heard all of their voices, in all of the different languages, all at the same time, AND he understood them! It’s easy to imagine God listening to one prayer, then going to the next one, and so on and so forth, but no! He is all knowing and can hear everything at the same time and understand it.
Some days, you need to rest, and that’s ok.
I’ve always been an on-the-go kind of person. Having a full schedule with lots to fill my time is something that I like, but I found that if I didn’t take time to just BE with God then I would be exhausted and burnt out. Living in a different culture, surrounded by other languages is more mentally tiring than I would have imagine. I loved going to different churches, but the service wasn’t always in English, and on days like that, I HAD to dig deep into God’s word and get my soul restored like Psalm 23 says. Sometimes when I had a day off, I would spend the majority of it in my quarters, reading my Bible, writing, and doing laundry…. and that’s necessary – especially the laundry part.
This is only a tiny glimpse into some of the things I learned. If you have questions about exactly what I did there, please message me and I would LOVE to tell you all about it over coffee!
xoxo, Anna
