Week 2 – Training Camp/Travel Day

Training Camp = COMPLETED. Absolutely crazy how fast time has passed. It’s unbelieveable that I am done with training camp. This past week has been crazy and it has definitely been a love hate relationship. During the second week of training camp we got to experience “scenarios” and got to leave training camp and do some adventures.

On Saturday all the women got to participate in a women’s fitness activity. I was nervous going into it because I had no clue what to expect. We all gathered in the pavilion and all of the squads were there. They said we have to complete 8 tasks in 90 minutes. Some of the tasks we had to do was wheelbarrow with a partner, flip a tire 5 times, had to pass a cup filled with water down a line and the last person got dumped with the water, each person had to get piggybacked 4 times, put together a tent blindfolded, etc. The challenges were a little hard but everyone was so encouraging that is made all of us want to work harder. We ended up getting all of our challenges down with 10 minutes to spare!
Photos from the women challenge:

On Tuesday we were able to leave training camp and do some street evangelism! This is something I was definitely nervous about because I have only ever taught the gospel to kids so shifting to do it to adults was nerve-racking. We left camp and went to a shopping plaza. We realized that we did not have enough time to share the whole gospel so we asked people if there was any way we could pray for them. Some people said no thanks, or ignored us and it was a little discouraging but we had to keep going and not let it get to us. There were some people who said yes which was so amazing. I had 4 people ask for prayer and they asked for help with grief (had 4 deaths in the family in just the month of September), safety at school for their kids with all the school shootings, an easy school year (she was a 5th grade teacher) and she had a wedding in 2 weeks, and safe travels for her husband who was going on a mission trip to Scotland. It was such a cool experience that we were able to ask people how we can pray for them. After evangelizing we were able to go to Chick-Fil-A and have dinner!! 

Photos from evangelism and Chick-Fil-A: 

Wednesday = HIKE DAY 

This was definitely the day I was not looking forward too. We had to hike up Mountain Yonah with our big packs that include tents and things we would need for the night. The hike was mainly lots of going up with lots of rocks so I knew it would be a challenge for me. It was also very very hot. Even though it was a very hard hike everyone was still so encouraging and even though in the moment I absolutely hated the hike, I am so glad that I did it. Also the view was sooo worth it. Once we got up the mountain we set out our tents, ate hotdogs and put them over the fire and sang songs around the campfire. The next morning we got up at 6am packed up our stuff and went back down the mountain. 

Photos from the hike: 

Travel Days:

YAYAY we are on our way to Jefferys Bay. We have about 3 days of travel day ahead of us but we are all so so excited.

We left training camp around 9 am on Saturday and headed to the Atlanta airport. It was about an hour and a half drive and on the way we listened to Disney music and talked about how we can’t wait to get some good snacks and candy at the airport. We had our first flight that night at 9pm to Istanbul. Even though we were at the airport so early because the other squad had their flight at lunch time our leaders created a scavenger hunt to keep us busy as the time passed. Not only did we do the scavenger hunt to pass the time but the Lord definitely worked in the Atlanta airport. There was a man who was sitting by where we “camped” out for the day and we decided to go up to him and just talk. We then talked about Jesus and he wanted to rededicate his life to Christ and the boys took him to the bathroom and they baptized him!! After a couple hours it was time for us to board our 11 flight to Istanbul. This was my first flight internationally and I was so excited. They also fed us real meals on the plane…like what??? No little pretzels or granola bars haha. Another cool thing is we got to fly over the ALPS!!! SO GORGEOUS. 

Once we got to Istanbul we had a 7 hour layover so we got to explore around the airport. This airport was MASSIVE! We all got to try McDonalds for the first time in a different country, it was very good but we learned quickly that things in Turkey were expensive! After McDonalds we got to try a Turkish delight and I thought they were really good. Then we all went to try some pistachio baklava which was AMAZING. I also learned what a squatty potty was and let’s say that was an experience. At 1 am it was time for our flight which was 9 hours to Johanesburg(YAY AFRICA). They also fed us dinner on the plane at 3 am….crazy!

AFRICA!!!!

We made it to Johannesburg!! We had 1 more flight to Port Elizabeth, but we had a 5 hour layover first. We had to go through customs, and security again but….I got my FIRST PASSPORT STAMP! It was definitely a long 2 days but all the excitement was definitely keeping up awake. 

On Monday we got on one last flight to Port Elizabeth! Once we arrived at the airport one of the volunteers came and picked us up. We had a 1 hour drive to Jefferys Bay which is where we will be staying for the next month. It was so crazy that I am in finally in Africa after a long 3 days of traveling. It was crazy seeing that people here drive on the opposite sides of the road. I definitely thought we were going to get in an accident or two when I looked up and forgot that we drive on the opposite sides. However I am so excited to see how God is going to move here in Jefferys Bay this next month! Here is a picture of my new home for the month!