Oh the Places You'll Go: There's No Place Like Home

Hello again blog family.

Here's a bittersweet thought-- my South Africa experience is coming to a close. In ten days time I will be on a plane back to U.S. and so much of my time here will feel like a dream.

This past week was spent in Fishoek (as I mentioned in my last blog), and we had some interesting adventures, but mostly we just went to bed early, hung out at the bed and breakfast a lot of the time and went to Cape Town to explore down by the waterfront.

This week I am at homestays. During homestays, we have the opportunity to stay with a family and live life with them for the week. The township we stay in is called Ocean View. It’s about fifteen minutes from Fishoek and made up of almost 30,000 people. My homestay family is amazing. Tanya and Jeremy Koeries are a coloured husband and wife with three children—Phoebe is 10, Carl is 7, and Sarah Michelle is 4. Jeremy is the pastor of a charismatic Baptist church in the township, and both he and his wife have lived in Ocean View their entire lives. Most of their family has left at this point, but they feel called to stay here as part of their life’s ministry.

Lindsey (my roommate) and I arrived here yesterday afternoon and immediately fell in love with the family. We will be here all week (in class during the day), and we leave on Sunday afternoon to go back to the bed and breakfast for a final wrap up before the whole group departs from the Cape Town airport on Wednesday afternoon.

Even though I’ve so enjoyed being in Cape Town, it’s been quite a rough week. We’re all ready to go home, and as wonderful as South Africa is, there’s no place like home. I’m really missing everyone a lot. To my APU friends, I’ll see you in five weeks (it’ll go by fast—I hope)!! To Mom, Dad, and Tennessee friends, I’ll see you in ten days!! I literally cannot wait, but until then, I’m trying to take life moment by moment, knowing that each day is a gift not to be taken for granted.

Thank you Lord for South Africa. Thank you for APU. Thank you for my home. Thank you for my friends there. Thank you for my Mom and my Dad. Thank you for your son, Jesus.

Amen.

“I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live (in every season of the soul).”

Ps. 116:1-2