The story behind how I found myself traveling to South Africa...

Well, I guess it all started with a friendship. For those who didn't know, I lived my last two years of high school in Doha, Qatar. This overseas experience opened up my eyes to a whole new world and set in me a passion for different cultures. I met many wonderful people who were from all over the world. One of these persons was my good friend Calvin. He is South African and grew up in Cape Town until his family moved to Doha during his high school years. I wasn't in the best place in my life when I got to know him but he boldly shared with me that I wasn't headed in the right direction and that God had a better plan for me. I was taken aback but after having felt empty for so long, his words were so refreshing.

 I saw a light in him and wanted to know more. He taught me a lot and had a significant impact on my faith but as soon as I came back to the States and started college at UT, I fell into old patterns. By the grace of God, I somehow ended up at a college ministry called Texas Wesley. I had not really planned on seeking out a faith community and I still partied and was headed in the wrong direction when I first attended the Wesley but it was a start to something incredible. I couldn't believe how loving everyone was and later in the fall I went on a retreat with them and the speaker was Iranian which was really special because I had lived in the Middle East and felt connected to him. He spoke to us about his college years and how he had neighbors who had really gone out of their way to show him love and serve him and he was amazed at how selflessly they lived their life. He saw a light in them and he wanted to know what they knew that he didn't. Then one day they told him about Jesus and how He is what it's all about. Jesus gave his life so that we could be reconciled with God. The speaker said that as his neighbors talked about their savior, he realized that he had seen Christ through them the whole time and decided to give his life to Jesus. Now for those of us who have grown up in church or even America and have some idea of who Jesus is, it can be easy to pass him off as some fictional character. But as the speaker shared his story, I knew of this light that he talked about-I had seen it in Calvin. I was tired of living a double life and still feeling so empty and I so desired to be a light. It was then that I put two and two together and decided to start my walk with Christ. Little did I know  how drastically I would change in such a short period of time. God broke me down and has been rebuilding me ever since with Him as my foundation. I have had a tugging on my heart for international missions ever since I let God in my life and sometimes I try to suppress it but it always comes back up.

 Through  all this Calvin was my biggest supporter and skype is definetely the best invention ever. He was able to get connected with the Wesley and we both had the opportunity to go on a mission trip with them to India last August. We worked with Truthseekers International which is big on fighting social injustice, promoting equality and has a phenomenal footwashing ministry. We went into lower caste villages and washed the feet of people who are seen as the scum of the Earth by the rest of society. This was a very humbling experience and powerful for the villagers and us alike. These footwashings are modeled after Jesus washing his disciples feet and teaching them about serving others.  This trip was inspiring and left us all changed.

A few months after the India trip, Calvin and I began talking about the possibility of me coming to South Africa to visit. It was just a passing thought at first but then it wouldn't leave my mind. I finally decided I wanted to go for a month and by December I had  booked my ticket. I have really awesome parents who probably knew I was going to end up going before I even knew but this has been a leap of faith for them to support me in this crazy adventure. So thank you Mom and Dad :). Calvin and I didn't want this trip to be pure vacation and wanted to do something for people. So Calvin then began looking into possibilities for a community project. It wasn't but a couple months later when Calvin got connected with a lady named Sharon from his church.

 She is very passionate about serving communities, sports and fighting human trafficking. We decided that working with her would be a great opportunity to get involved, especially with someone as experienced as her. She will be providing all the sports equipment and connections and Calvin and I will be co-leading a sports camp for an impoverished community for the first week. (We thought it was going to be around 30 kids but its actually closer to 300 :)) So Calvin is having fun finding more volunteers on his end. We will also help Sharon organize a fundraising event that goes towards fighting human trafficking. I've also been raising money so that we can provide lunches for the kids at the sports camp and we have almost reached our goal of $1500! It has been incredible seeing God provide and thank you all so much for your donations and prayers! It is two weeks before I leave and I'm getting more and more excited. I will hopefully be able to update this blog fairly often while I'm there so you can follow my journey :) 

So there is my long story of how I found myself traveling to South Africa....