Peace Like A River.

It's Thursday evening and I'm relaxing at home as it is finally the beginning of spring break. All I've felt today is an incredible sense of peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding. Sometimes I wonder what that actually means, "surpassing all understanding." The ironic thing is when we try to explain it; after all, it does surpass all understanding. However, in my current situation I find it to surpass understanding because it did not come from me. It came through prayer, reflection, and receiving the wisdom of others. You're probably wondering what I'm talking about and for that reason I'll back up a bit.

Last weekend was crazy as I didn't have much time for homework; I had a variety of commitments that made the weekend busy. On Saturday morning I went to a men's breakfast at my church and then spent that evening and night volunteering for a non-profit at a concert. Sunday was busy with church in the morning and a Men's Chorale concert that had me gone for most of the day. And then the week began.

I'm currently taking my writing intensive requirement, which requires a research paper that we work on in pieces throughout the semester. All my research was due by midnight on Tuesday so I spent some of Monday evening (the only time I had to work on it that day) and all of Tuesday (literally... all of it) working on it. I submitted the assignment at 11:57 p.m. and breathed a sigh of relief as I felt like I had just run a mental marathon.

Yesterday was crazy for numerous reasons. Another Men's Chorale performance required a good portion of the day, followed by class, followed by the first grief support event held on campus that I had the privilege of being on the panel for. And then there was the fact that it was "Decision Day." For those of you that do not know what that is, essentially it is a day when all decisions are announced regarding most of the leadership positions on campus. It's a great and awful day all at the same time; great because many rejoice over getting positions that they applied and interviewed for, but difficult because many others are let down that they did not get the position they applied for. I will admit that not getting a position you applied for can be difficult; I myself have been denied numerous positions on campus, most of which would have taken place this year. The first significant instance happened my sophomore year and I must admit that at first I didn't take it very well. If you aren't careful it's easy to let a position define your worth or status and not getting that position left me feeling like I was inadequate in some way. Of course that is not true and I have come far since then.

This year I applied and interviewed to be a Resident Advisor, which I did not get. What made it difficult was not so much not getting the position (though I was disappointed I didn't get it) but rather the implications of what it meant for the future: all of a sudden I had myriad things to figure out, including my living situation, classes, and other school involvement for next year. Being future minded can be beneficial in many ways, but when you are someone like me who can let that affect being present and in the moment it tends not to be a good thing.

I called a couple of my closest family members and talked with my roommates to get their input on things. I only did this because there were a couple of decisions I had to make regarding one position I was given the option to be an alternate for and another I was offered but had to decide whether or not to accept it, both by Friday. By the end of last night I more or less came to a conclusion of what decisions I needed to make and decided that sleeping on it would be best, especially considering by the time those conversations had happened it was almost midnight and I had barely started on my homework.

I woke up this morning having gotten about six hours of sleep, six hours being my nightly average for the past week or so. Of course this general lack of sleep was concerning as it makes you more prone to sickness, among other things. It also concerned me because I am going to Mexico on Saturday for a week-long mission trip and I would not want to go into the trip sick and/or tired.

I woke up today feeling an incredible sense of peace. Despite the grogginess and hours I had to spend on homework this morning it permeated my thoughts and my entire sense of being. By the time my day ended, which was around 5 p.m., I reflected on my day and thought, "It's been a really good day." Reflecting on what happened today it did not make much sense; I was sleep-deprived, had classes all day, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. When I realized this it made that peace all the more significant as I knew it had not come from me. All I could think of was how it must have been that peace from God that surpasses all understanding, the peace we are promised if we are not anxious about anything and give all our requests to God through prayer and thanksgiving. God followed through on that promise and it has given me much strength and joy.

As I go to Mexico this weekend I trust that God has prepared me for such a time as this. I trust that God has a plan, God is in control, and it is my hope that I will stay open to God's leading and the things God wants to do while 300 others and I are down there. In the least I can say that I am beyond excited for the trip; I anticipate that being detached for a while from technology, homework, life on this side of the border, and anything else familiar will be refreshing and exciting. Other than that I do not have any expectations, but even then I probably should not have the expectation that I will come back refreshed. For all I know the week may be challenging and draining. Regardless of how things go, what I am sure of is that the peace of God is going before us, with us, and after us. It is that peace that I pray we all come to know, not just on a mission trip or during times of trial but each and every day of our lives as we strive to live for a purpose that goes far beyond ourselves.

The End of an Unexpected Journey

It is now Wednesday, May 22nd, and I've been home for just over a week now. It's crazy how fast the semester flew by, including my extra time in Cape Town!

The remaining week or so in Cape Town included miscellaneous adventures, including visiting a Muslim shrine, visiting Muizenburg (a small surf town that was deserted when we visited due to poor weather), another "final" dinner (most of our group left on the 9th), standing outside of Cape Town Stadium and listening to the Justin Bieber concert (my friend Jessica's idea!), and even more hanging out and relaxing.

The last two days in Cape Town were probably my favorite. On the 9th, Luke, Jessica, and I (the three of us remaining) went to a couple markets to finish up our souvenir shopping. We then spent the rest of the day at the waterfront, getting dinner and seeing "Iron Man 3", which we really enjoyed!

On a sunset sailboat cruise in Table Bay

On Friday, May 10th, we spent a good chunk of the day at Camps Bay, an internationally-recognized beach on the side of Table Mountain (a little ways out of the city). The weather was perfect and could not have been any better! That evening Jess and I went on a sunset sailboat cruise, which was so beautiful! Definitely the perfect ending to our stay in Cape Town. That night we had our last "final dinner" at a restaurant called Mama Africa; to be honest, I think the name explains it all! Think African music, African decorations, and delicious, quality African food. Overall... great experience.

Camps Bay, with Lion's Head in the background

Jessica flew home on Saturday and that's when Luke and I caught a taxi and a train to Fish Hoek, our former home when the program was still going on. My former home stay family picked us up from the train station and we stayed with them for our last two days in South Africa. As it was for our home stays during the program, we watched TV, visited other home stay families, and played soccer with my family's 11-year-old son, Xavier. It was a nice, relaxing ending to an incredible four months spent in South Africa.

Four boarding passes = lots of flying!

We flew out of Cape Town on Monday, May 13th, getting home about 24 hours later (according to the clock; we gained nine hours coming back). I totaled 33 hours of travel and 25 hours of flying; I was so over flying by the time I got home! Coming home was great though as I had family and friends awaiting my arrival at the airport. That night we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, which was just what I'd been craving all semester! Mexican food is non-existent in Africa and was dearly missed by myself and everyone else on my team.

Mmmm... Mexican food

Being home has been great so far; in fact, it's been a lot better than I expected. I expected it to be pretty rough as we'd had a reorientation the last day of the program and several emails from the study abroad office, all telling us of the hardships we may go through once we got home. Since being home I've been hanging out, spending a lot of time with friends and family--just what I've needed and missed so much!

My and my friend's families

There's much more to the experience and the things we went through, but for that, I'm afraid we'll have to talk in person. Hopefully these updates have been thorough enough, giving you a good glimpse of South Africa! Ideally, it's given you the desire to go and visit South Africa, or even Africa itself!--a continent rich in culture, languages, people, and much, much more! I know I will take my experiences with me for the rest of my life and I can only hope that others will experience the same!

Thanks again for your prayers and support--it's you that have made this experience possible!

The Best Is Yet to Come, Pt. 1

It's a truth we have to remind ourselves of on a regular basis. It's not to say that things are necessarily unpleasant as they currently are; it simply means that there are always better things to look forward to. When we quit believing this, we get caught in a state of hopelessness and apathy; a place where we quit giving life all we've got and get stuck in a rut.

I must admit that I have been awful at blogging lately. Much has happened in the last several weeks since I blogged last. I guess I'm getting to a place where I want to be fully present and save the reflection for later, which is not usual for me considering how much I tend to self-reflect and externally process things. I'm coming to realize too though that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've learned that there are a lot of things about my time here in South Africa (experiences, ways in which I'm challenged or changed, etc.) that I won't be able to process until I get home. And that's okay.

Finals two weeks ago went splendidly well; I got good grades in each of my classes, which was quite a relief. It's extremely difficult to try and do school work when you are surrounded by waterfalls, hiking trails, a game reserve, animals you don't get to see often (or at all) back home, and a 53-person community where something is always going on (i.e. soccer, rugby, movie nights). So finals ended about two weeks ago and we were all so stoked to be done (well, the nurses and Zulu students weren't done, but most of us were). Our sort of "spring break" was the rest of that week, which was a total blast!

Because it's somewhat difficult to take 53 students on a safari all at the same time, we were split into two groups where one would go on safari and the other would do other stuff back home, and then we would switch. I was on safari group #2 and am very grateful that it was so. My group had all the nursing students in it; a pretty rad bunch of people. They're a few years older than most of us so they are kind of like big sisters (and a big brother for the one male nursing major) to us.

On Tuesday night of that week something pretty radical happened to me. I attend a small group every Tuesday night with a bunch of college students, both from APU and from one of the churches that a lot of us go to. The message preached on was about destiny and God's plan for our lives, and in explaining how we can sometimes be disobedient to the things that God is calling us to do, the guy sharing gave the example of how he had felt led to pray for my foot (as I'd sprained it the week before and was on crutches) but ended up not doing it. When home group ended I was approached by a girl who asked to pray for my foot; I told her yes, and she did so, but nothing happened. A while later someone else approached me, asking if he could pray for my foot. I told him he could, and initially, nothing happened. The third time he prayed for my foot, however, I was overcome by the Holy Spirit and my foot started to tingle. I stood up, walked around, and even jumped on my foot with next-to-no pain! I was shaking, I was freaking out so much. I must admit, I've never been a direct part of a healing (whether praying for someone or being prayed for), so that only added to my freaking out. I ended up leaving home group that night without the need for crutches and haven't used them since. What a good God we serve!

On Wednesday, March 6, we went on the Karkloof Canopy Tour (zip-lining), which was lots of fun. One section of zipline had you going up to 50 mph; another was a straight drop and another took you over the entire canopy, giving you a view of the entire surrounding area. There were plenty of beautiful sights to be seen, that's for sure. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and had a movie night that night. We have a lot of those here, which I enjoy; I don't normally watch this many movies when I am home in the States.

On Thursday we went to Midmar Dam and spent the day playing volleyball, swimming, and had a brie (barbeque) dinner. It reminded me a lot of home, which is always refreshing.

Friday through Sunday of that week my group went on safari, meeting the other safari group only to swap places with them. We went on a drive that afternoon before dinner, though it was somewhat unpleasant due to the excessive heat and humidity. The vehicle I was in ran into a breeding herd of elephants and even got charged by one of them. They're very protective over their young, which makes sense considering they're in the womb for 22 months! We also saw many rhinos, giraffes, buffalo, impalas, and other creatures. To my surprise we ended up staying in luxurious tents, for lack of a better description. I didn't sleep much that first night due to the heat and humidity.

We drove around nearly the whole day Saturday, running into another breeding herd (getting charged again) and even ran into an elephant short of 10 feet away from us on our way to lunch. We turned a corner, I heard a gasp behind me, and next thing I knew to my left was an elephant right by us, charging our vehicle! Our driver, Reg (the director of our program), slowed down thinking that we saw something (which we definitely did!), but we shouted at him to keep driving and he sped off quickly, just in time for the elephant to miss us. It was a pretty traumatic experience. Hah. That same day we also saw a lioness (see the above picture), though she was a ways away. We were glad to have seen her though, 'cause we could have not seen her at all, and a safari without a lion sighting would just be tragic!

I slept much better the second night, considering the fact that that day (and night) it was cold, windy, and rainy. We drove around some more on Sunday, though not nearly as much as we had the previous days. We drove to a sort of lodge on the reserve where we had a delicious breakfast; I must say, we are pretty blessed in the things they do for us! All-in-all, safari was a great experience. Rhinos, giraffes, baboons, impalas, lions, elephants, and much more made the experience what it was. Check that one off the bucket list!


Last week we had our Community Engagement class from 8am to 4pm, Monday through Wednesday. The class itself was great but the length made it pretty difficult to sit through. I was really tired all last week too, having not slept on safari and staying up late for no good reason almost every night. Thursday we started at our service sites, which was the day we'd all been waiting for. I'm at a non-profit called RivLife (short for "River of Life") with 15 others from my team. We were split into four groups of four and would be alternating what we would be doing each day. But for that... I'll continue in the following post. :)


To be continued...