I arrived to my new residence and met Christy Page at about 9:30am. I left with Christy at about 9:31am to go with her to pick up 13 children. These beautiful African children were coming over for a pool party. Most of them share a tiny apartment(if you can call it that) with 2 or more other families. The women are breed to make babies but have no real way to provide for them. It broke my heart, but the children filled that broken heart with all the love they could muster from their lives of pain. Their smiles brightened the sky brighter than the hot African sun and their laughter was like a cool breeze in the midst of that warm sunny day.
We took them home and Christy, CJ (her son), Chae(her daughter), Alex (a 14 year old white South African with a verbally abusive home), and myself went to a youth leaders meeting. It was a long meeting combined with jet lag, but about 5pm we headed to drop Alex off at home.
Now HERE'S where it gets interesting.
It is summer here in Africa and it is also the rainy season. Thunderstorms come brilliantly in the afternoon, sometimes multiple times a day, cooling down the air and leaving the ground soaked.
Alex lives down a dirt road.
I am sure you can see where this is going.
We drove down in our 15 passenger van and Alex got out. We proceeded to back down the dirt drive way when the inevitable happened.
We got stuck in the mud.
At first CJ got out to inspect the damage. It didn't look promising. I followed, taking of my shoes and being very aware of my nice white tank top. We tried pushing, but to no avail. We called Alex and tried pushing. Still not even a budge. We place car mats under the tires so it could gain some traction. Nothing. Eventually, CJ, Alex, Alex's grumpy stepfather, Alex's passive mother, and myself were all digging and pushing and adjusting everything we could.
It is now 6pm and the rain is coming. We could hear the thunder in the distance and we knew if it hit us we would never get out.
Slightly panicked, we continued to dig and spin tires. Burning rubber and squishing mud between our toes. 6:30pm came and passed and 7pm was 5 minutes away. The rain was even closer and Christy had called her husband John to come pull us out with the other 15 passenger van.
He arrived and pulled down the driveway but had to be cautious that he too didn't end up in the mud. Attaching a rope to the car he pulled, we pushed and we made some progress. He got in the van and thought he could maneuver his way out.
and Praise the Lord, just as the first rain drop hit my cheek, he had rocked the van enough to pull out of the ditch and onto dry, soild ground!
On top of that all, my white tank top stayed white (which can not be said about Christy's)
The rain came and washed away any sign that their had been a struggle and we went on our way.
Since then, my adventures have been a little less muddy, but have included moving into a loft with 5 wonderfully loud and crazy South African girls of which I am the discipler and authority figure! AH a lot of changes and responsibilty but Praise God He knows what He is doing!
This week is kind of the adjusting week as we welcomed our 5 guys and 5 girls who are living with us to attend a local Bible Insitute. Next week, I will start my new job as the director of Born Again!!
Please continue to pray as I feel overwhelmed with my duties and underqualified. I guess this is a good place to be in huh? 2 Corinthians 12:9
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