by Jackie Haas, 6-month Africa IMMERSION team member
To say that my experience in South Africa was good would be way too much of an understatement. The past six weeks here have far exceeded my expectations and I found myself thinking that I'd be perfectly content staying here for the entire six months. My prayer for this trip was that I would experience God in new ways. Through the love of my host family, the mentors and teachers at the school, and the kids I was with every day, God became more real to me as each day His all consuming love and grace became more apparent.
There were times that I wondered if we were doing more harm than good in building these connections with the people there, earning their trust, and then leaving them without a promise of when we'll see them again. Since we started in January we've been discussing that relationships are the only key to making any kind of impact and therefore these should be our focus. And just as the doubtful thoughts of if we were doing it right began to creep into my mind, God overwhelmed me with instance after instance of where He has worked through the relationships built in the past 6 weeks here both through us and for us. I am reminded that He is a relational God and because of that, love has to be at the center of my goals. When that happens, relationships are formed and He works.
After loving and being loved so fully for that long, goodbyes are guaranteed to be difficult. But God has this all planned out and has placed certain people into our lives at intentional times to complete their roles of leading us closer to Him. Some people are meant to be in our lives for a lifetime and some only a month and a half before they're gone. But we rest in the confidence that we are loved by an eternal, powerful God who isn't restricted by time limits. If His love is flowing out of us, He's at work and doing immeasurably more than we can even imagine. I am so thankful for the people He put in my path on this trip so far to guide me, care about me, welcome me, serve me, teach me, and show me who God is and how He loves in such tangible, obvious ways.
Here are some of the people and things I will miss most about South Africa:
1. This girl. My host sister, Tirzah. From day one, we clicked immediately so much so that it's very obvious that God put me in this host family for a reason. I mean, what are the chances I'd be in the same house with a girl who also loves dance, hates moths, and enjoys all things sparkly? Every afternoon for the past six weeks has been spent with her, lying on my bed and chatting for hours about school, dance, life, boys, and everything in between. It's almost impossible to be in a bad mood when around her fun and bubbly personality. I'm really going to miss baking together, dancing, watching movies, eating, swimming, doing yoga, making music videos, and laughing with this sweet girl. God is so good to give me the perfect "little" sister (who is almost as tall as me).
2. Chutney, a delicious jelly-ish/jam-ish beautiful invention that you can eat with almost anything, and is so delicious on meat. America is missing out.
3. Being called ma'am all of the time.
4. Getting a daily snuggle from Kat, a spunky, sassy, first grader who likes to make crazy faces as much as I do and has become one of my best little friends here.
5. Spending an hour and a half each day worshiping and diving into the God's word with my teammates and the mentors that run the after-school program. I have learned so much each day and have felt God speak to me the strongest through those around me during these times.
6. Listening to my host dad's jokes.
7. Feeling completely overwhelmed with love as I walk into the classroom each morning and am greeted by my precious grade zero students. Each day their excitement to see me is as if I haven't seen them in months.
8. Helping in the kitchen and serving food at lunch as little Quinten, the cook's 1-year-old, toddles around by our feet eating apples that he's covered in handfuls of dirt or flashing his giant cheesy grin as we chase after him.
9. Worship time at the school every Wednesday. It's an unexplainable joy seeing being surrounded by mentors and students who are full of energy, praising Jesus with all they've got. It's a joy unlike any other that overflows out of me until my cheeks hurt from smiling and my eyes start to fill with tears.
10. Tiny Kosinati, in his oversized peacoat and baggy pants wrapping his little arms around my legs and looking up at me with a huge toothy grin or feeling his little hand reach up to grab and hold on to my pinky as I'm walking.
11. All of the spontaneous dance parties.
12. Sneak attacks by Brrrrooooody (the only way we ever say his name), one of my favorite grade 1 kids. The off the wall comments, fancy feet dance moves, the intense way he shouts everything he says, and the way his eyes get wide whenever he sees me across the room make me laugh harder than anything else.
13. Mischievous, confident little Angeline who struts her way across the classroom stopping to give me a little wave or a wink as she passes by my chair on the way to her seat. I will miss hearing, "Ma'am, let's go" as she grabs my hand at break everyday and bosses me around to sit so that she can plop in my lap. I'll even miss the way she scrunches up her perfect little nose and gives me a naughty smile that's irresistible when she knows she's in trouble.
14. Having little hands play with my hair on days I wear it down saying, "Ma'am your hair is so nice, so fresh."
15. Catching the eye of little energy-filled Amanda who then comes sprinting full force from all the way across the field, jumping into my arms religiously every day at break time.
16. Holding a teeny tiny baby with down syndrome at the disabilities center until he falls asleep.
17. Having 16 pairs of little eyes staring up into me with wonder as I read them a story with which they gasp so dramatically at the end and say, "WOW ma'am! What a BEAUTIFUL story! Another story?"
18. The robotic greetings the students give us, "Good morning, ma'am, how are you Ma'am?" I'm fine Ma'am, thank you. How are you Ma'am?" (They're still learning on when to cut it off so they're not just greeting me over and over all day.)
19. Chatting with Ma'am Deliverance, the teacher I work with, while cutting and pasting papers into the kids journals as they color.
20. The friendship of the mentors who run the after-school program, being around them to watch and learn from their passion and selfless, unrelenting love that they have for the kids and the crazy amount of energy that flows out of them because of their love.
21. Washing dishes with the help of two little grade 2 girls who work alongside us until we are done, they bring along with them cheerful giggles and the attitude of women 5 times their age as they bark at students older than them, "finish your food fast!" or "scrape off your plates better because they're disgusting!"
22. Spending the evening after dinner with my host family talking and laughing over and tea and chocolate.
Tomorrow we move on to our next community, Lesotho, where we will be working with an organization called, "Growing Nations." This program picks people from the community to mentor and teach how to farm in a practical, successful way that they can then bring back to their own villages to implement. We will spend our time learning to farm alongside of these students as well as learning from them by going to their homes and living as they live for a little over 2 weeks. Through it is tough to leave here because of the incredible experience we had, I look to these next six weeks with eager anticipation of seeing God work and finding out what it is that He has to teach me in the beautiful mountains of Lesotho.
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