Update #8 Southern Africa

It’s been another fabulous day here in Africa! Holly, Liv, and Noah have joined forces to write today’s update. We hope you enjoy!! 🙂 

I’d like to recap on our day at the lion park. We met a 200 year old tortoise named Tommy. He literally has a sign on his shell saying “Please do not sit on Tommy”. Another great experience what getting to hold chameleons. One was named SpongeBob which I can’t get over. It was hilarious. 

Now back to today, June 2nd. It was our first day of our 2nd week of camp. Teagan and I ran the team Sharks this week and we have 3 girls with the same name on our team. Also to recap…. Last night we found a STICK BUG!!! We named him Gibby and he was awesome. The local leaders were absolutely disgusted by Gibby but we thought it was great. What’s cool is he didn’t move and was in the exact same spot 24 hours later so we got to say “Hi” to Gibby again tonight. Today was a fabulous day and it’s a lot easier for us to connect with the kids this week with experience up our sleeves now. 

That’s it for me Holly! 

This morning we woke up and did our usual routine of serving the kids breakfast and eating all together. All the leaders gathered for a wonderful devotional led by Stuart, one of the local staff members, on Philippians 3. 

We prepped for some of the day’s activities and headed to morning praise and Bible story. Singing and dancing with the kids was definitely the highlight of my (Liv) day! The joy of the Lord has been so evident during our time here. 

Eva and Farnum led the Bible story on the Parable of the Sower and taught Psalm 119:11 as the memory verse. It’s amazing seeing the kids devote themselves to learning Scripture. 

Today’s craft was making flower seed art! It was cool to see each kids unique personality and character show through their art. Recreation games were musical chairs and water balloon hot potato. These kids seem to be much more mellow than our last group, so rallying them up for games really helps them open up. 

We ended the morning with a delicious lunch all together and prepared to have an amazing afternoon! Thats all for me, Liv, on to Noah! 

In the afternoon, we played water games with the kids, then went to the other side of the camp to play a new game (it’s worth mentioning here that with roles getting moved around after some of last weeks leaders left, Alyssa has stepped into a position where she leads most of the Camp, and I have shifted to help lead activities). The new game we played was a tire stacking game, where 5 numbered tires have to be moved from one of three poles to another. The catch is that you can’t put a larger number on top of a smaller number. It was a really fun mind game to watch everyone play!

When the evening came around, me and some of the team told the story of Jonah to the kids (in skit fashion, to make it more entertaining). After they went to bed, us leaders met and talked about our first day of this week. Then, I sat down to play solitaire, and decided to write today’s blog with Holly and Liv! Overall, it was a really good day. 

Please pray against homesickness or any anxiety or other sickness that could hinder our ministry to these kids. Besides that, we’re thankful that we started the week on a high note! 

That’s all from us! God bless!

Holly, Liv, and Noah