How do I even find the words to tell you about the most amazing 10 days of my life?!?
"Be Joyful in HOPE
Patient in AFFLICTION
and faithful in PRAYER" ~Romans 12:12
Well first off I am home, safe and sound. I was greeted at the airport by my brother in-law Josh, cousin Cindy and her 3 sweet kiddos. They made the cutest sign and gave some amazing hugs!! My momma picked me up form the airport and then proceeded to help me with laundry, clean and take me out to lunch. I came home to beautiful flowers from Chad and lots of kisses from Hunter, I am such a lucky girl!!
The traveling was long; 5hrs on a bus from Swaziland to Johannesburg, 17hr flight from J-burg to Atlanta, 2hr layover with customs and then a 2 1/2 hr flight back home to MN. I slept a good 10 hrs on the long flight, and watched a few movies. Besides being grouchy about leaving Africa, and then transitioning to being so ready to be home, the traveling went well.
There were so many amazing moments that I experienced that I am going to have to give you some bullet points, pictures and a brief summery and then I'll blog on each day to give you a more detailed summery!! I don't want to leave any detail out, but I understand that not everyone wants to read a 20page post on my trip to Africa...
SO here it goes:
Day 1 & 2:
-Left MN at 11am day 1, landed in Atlanta, 3hr layover, left for Africa around 6pm(if I remember right...) flew 15hrs
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| Group Shot MSP Airport 2/19/2013 |
Day 3:
Left Jo-burg for a 5 hr bus ride to Swaziland.
Dropped off our bags at Emefini (our lodging for the week) and then headed to the River Valley Church-Swazi location.
We were greeting by the GLA interns (more on them later), tears, laughter and JOY!
We worked on getting the church ready for the big weekend, and played with some amazing kiddos!
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| Team 1, missionaries and lead team at RVC-Swazi 2/21/2013 |
Day 4:
We did a community walk with the GLA interns to invite familes in the community to the RVC open house and bless them with donated clothes, shoes and hats. In the evening we had a service for the youth in the community. Pastor Darrin spoke as well as the youth pastor Lizwi. Many kids and teens gave their lives to Christ that afternoon.
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| Alter Call at One Student Service 2/22/2013 |
Open house at RVC Swazi:
*Eye Clinic with Dr. John-Saw over 150 people, gave away glasses and medication.
*Activites for kids and teens-soccer, volley ball and jumping castles.
*Food for everyone
Team 2 arrives in Swazi- great to have them join us!!
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| Swazi kiddos at RVC open house 2/23/2013 |
RVC Swaziland Launch!!!!
AMAZING day, more to come on this event but here are a few photos...
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| RVC Swaziland Team-Launch Day 2/24/2013 |
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| Pastor Mduduzi and Pastor Rob with translator 2/24/2013 |
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| Me and my friend Nowanda on Launch Sunday |
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| Launch of RVC-Swazi (photo courtesy of Children's Cup) |
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| Lulu, TJ and Precious leading amazing worship! 2/24/2013 |
Shopping and evening Safari!!
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| Emily (my roomie) and I at our shopping location-beautiful right? |
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| Such an amazing experience to see God's creations~2/25/2013 |
Day 8:
~Sunrise Safari, GLA, Sponsor Child Lunch- Getting to meat Nompelo (Best part of my day!!!)
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| GLA, RVC-Swazi compund |
Goodbyes, Shopping, bus ride to Jo-burg, leave Africa
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| Getting ready for devos, apparently me and Avery were the only ones ready... |
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| Me and the amazing Prine girls!!! 2/27/2013 |
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| Sad to be leaving!! |
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| Shopping stop before we cross the boarder to South Africa |
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| Emily and I sad to be leaving Swaziland |
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| Many reasons to be sad!!! 17hr flight is one of those |
As I'm sure you can tell I took a lot of pictures and had an AMAZING time!!! God was so present throughout this entire trip, I can't even put it into words yet...
As I attempt to process this trip, please give me GRACE and I promise I will post sooo many more details as the next days/weeks go on.
Love, Hugs and God's ABUNDANT Blessings!!
~Gretch
Loved the overview... Looks like an amazing trip! Can't wait to hear some stories about how God worked through y'all! So glad you made it home safely and had a great time!! I remember that transition back to "real life" after big adventures with God (although mine were not international so I skipped the jet lag lol) and will be praying for you as well as for the Spirit to continue to grow the seeds you planted on your trip! Hugs!!
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