Jeffreys Bay (JBay) South Africa which happens to be the surf capital of the world was my next destination on the race. We took a van and a bus ride from Lesotho to JBay and for 2 weeks I was at a ministry host called Global Leadership Academy (GLA).
My main ministry was going to a woodworking shop called TIMON! They made equipment for people who have cerebral palsy. This was one of my favorite ministries I did on the race! We were shown what each room was responsible for and shown how to do specific steps to assemble the equipment. We did jobs like cutting foam pads for cushions, sanding, gluing pieces together, staining the wood, and pushing out the smaller 3D printer pieces and sanding them to make them smooth. We also dusted off the final product, printed and placed the information packet on the equipment. Finally, we would package them up in boxes ready to be delivered to schools or homes.
Another part of ministry was making the donkeys tame. That's right; donkey ministry! TIMON has two locations just a few minutes away from each other. The people that sold them the property had donkeys that they didn't want; so they left them. The goal for the donkeys is to make them comfortable for customers to be able to interact with them. So we feed them and brushed them so they could get used to people.
Another aspect of TIMON was gardening. On the same property as the donkeys, they have a fenced-in garden where we rotated weeding, planting, harvesting, and putting together orders for people. A lot of the produce goes to people in need and customers who are getting the cerebral palsy equipment.
One out of many things that I loved about working with TIMON was the worship mornings! All the staff would come together on certain days during the week to worship the Lord before their work day started. The staff was so welcoming and treated us with so much love and intentionality for only being there for 2 weeks. It was a precious time that I will never forget!
JBay was filled with many memories and friendships, but next on the list was my final debrief at Cape Town, South Africa.
Final Debrief:
What a bittersweet week in Cape Town. It was filled with sessions but also free time to enjoy the country and hang out with friends. I shopped, went to the beach, played games, ate amazing food, attended Hillsong church, worshiped at the hostel, and continued to grow and learn how to adjust back to America. I found myself not knowing how to balance my sadness to leave such an amazing group of people and being excited to go home and see my family/friends. But somehow debrief was over, the World Race was over, and we were flying back to America.
Read the next blog about what it was like coming home!
