Gearing up for South Africa...

My weeks at home have flown by, wonderful time spent with friends and family in North Carolina, Connecticut, and Tennessee. Now the countdown is on: 4 days until I fly to Boston to meet the team that I will be a part of to go to South Africa. After spending Sunday night and part of the day Monday getting acquainted, meeting in our small groups, discussing the tutoring, and praying for the trip, we will head to the aiport on Monday night and set off on our adventure.

I am thoroughly settled in my nervous excitement phase as I look ahead to the next month. I'm excited to meet, get to know, work with, support, grow with, and love the team I'm lucky enough to be a part of. I'm excited to go to a country and culture that I have never experienced and have my mind opened by what I witness there. I'm excited to meet the university students that we will be partnering with to develop the tutoring program. I'm excited to meet the children and youth (and their families, I hope) in the township where we will be working and loving. I'm excited to worship with believers in a new part of the world and to learn from them. I'm excited about the opportunity to tutor and see if I have gifts to offer in that area in the future. And, of course, about all of these things I am nervous as well :)

I know very little about South Africa in general, so I've been trying to learn what I can in the short time I have. A family friend gave me an issue of Alive Now that is completely about South Africa - its spirit described by South Africans and those who love it - that has been wonderful to read with devotions. I am planning on watching the movie Invictus before I leave. Most informative, though, has been a book recommended by one of the team leaders: "Bring Me My Machine Gun: The Battle for the Soul of South Africa from Mandela to Zuma" by Alec Russell. Russell is a journalist who has spent a significant amount of time in South Africa over the past 15+ years, covering the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela's presidency, and the political environment since. I'm only a quarter of the way through the book, but I already have a much greater understanding of the political and racial atmosphere since the official end of apartheid. I am very interested to see how what the media presents measures up to what we witness in our time there.

For the most part, I feel like I have no idea what to expect from this trip - and I'm fine with it. I doubt that any expectations I could come up with could get close to doing justice to what is coming - both the trials and the blessings - so I will rest in hopes and wonderings and utter lack of assumptions, haha. Prayers for my preparation - physical, mental, and spiritual - and the preparation of my team would be greatly appreciated!