“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me,I was sick and you looked after me.”
Matthew 25: 35-36
There are no better words to describe my “coloured” homestay. We pulled up to the Strandfontein Methodist Church in our huge bus with 35 people looking for a place to stay for a week. There were about 20 families there waiting to take complete strangers into their home, feed them, and take care of them. We went in and Rodney, our country partner, started reading off names and sending people off with their new families, it was exciting waiting to be called, and even more exciting when I was paired with Melissa for the week.
My “parents” happened to only be 8 years older than Melissa and I but it still felt like family life again. We had two sisters, a nine-year old, Caitlin and a two month old Morgan. Caitlin would drag us outside to play with her friends, and there were a lot and introduce us as her Canadian sisters. Melissa definitely said it best when she said we’d never been so popular in our lives. Being back in a home and sharing a room with only one other person was definitely a bit shocking (imagine putting something down and it still being in the same place two hours later! It’s a new concept!) but it felt so good. At a time when I miss my family so incredibly much it was awesome, and so God sent to have the 20 or so families take complete strangers in and make us feel like we’re at home again.
At the end of the week, saying goodbye to our families was January 13th at the Winnipeg airport all over again. The only difference was that even though these new people are family, the chances of seeing them again are pretty small. I’ll never forget my week with my second parents and my two sisters. It felt like home again, and for God to give these people the hearts and spirits to make it ‘home’ is truly amazing.
Tonya Rempel
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Robben Island
Robben Island was an eye-opening experience for me. We had been to a prison before, but it was a completely different experience with a tour guide that had actually stayed in this prison. Instead of telling us stories of inmates and forgotten prisoners, he talked from experience, told stories out of his own life. It made the horrors of the prison and also the incredible structure of the prison, seem much more alive.
Joshua McGraw
Joshua McGraw
Table Mountain
We had an opportunity to hike up Table Mountain during our adventure week in Cape Town. I had been really excited for this since I had heard it would be happening. I love pushing my limits physically. But I soon found out what type of shape I was in…I swear it was about a billion degrees, and there was no wind. But it was pretty amazing because every time I felt I could go on any longer the path would flatten out, I would find a bit of shade, or more commonly one of the people on their way down would push me on. At least four to five times random strangers on their descend would say “don’t stop now” “your nearly there” “you can make it brother.” It was a pretty incredible experience. Oh, and the view from the top is breathtaking.
Ricky
Ricky
Shark Diving
What an interesting day...we woke up crazy early, drove across the city and got to the ocean. We got onto a boat and we really didn’t know what at that point what we were getting into. It was such a windy day and therefore the water was insanely choppy. We all sat down and got comfortable, quickly we realized this was was going to consist of PUKING PEOPLE! I was dubbed 2nd to puke out of about 10 people in our site. The icing on the cake? We didn’t even get to dive in the water because sharks weren’t showing up. LAME. Okay I make me making this sound a bit negative. We did end up with 5 brief shark sightings…although most of us were too busy puking to see them…
Abby
To give you both sides of Shark diving, I was one of the few people that didn’t get seasick. I loved being out on the ocean and hitting the ways and sitting on the boat waiting for the sharks to come. For me the experience was very relaxing. And it was very exciting when the sharks did come around, and it made all the waiting worth it. Though they didn’t stay around very long like Abby said we did get to see 5 sharks. Also there were 20 of us that got to put wet suits on and even though we didn’t go in the water, you felt really hardcore wearing the wet suit. We had a fish head for the bait, to bring in the sharks and one time the shark surprised us and came up and destroyed the fish head and eat it whole! That was a pretty amazing site, it all happened so fast and seeing the sharks, teeth…I’m just glad I wasn’t in the water with him. So for some of us shark “watching” was not what we expected but we still had fun.
Melissa Kennedy
Abby
To give you both sides of Shark diving, I was one of the few people that didn’t get seasick. I loved being out on the ocean and hitting the ways and sitting on the boat waiting for the sharks to come. For me the experience was very relaxing. And it was very exciting when the sharks did come around, and it made all the waiting worth it. Though they didn’t stay around very long like Abby said we did get to see 5 sharks. Also there were 20 of us that got to put wet suits on and even though we didn’t go in the water, you felt really hardcore wearing the wet suit. We had a fish head for the bait, to bring in the sharks and one time the shark surprised us and came up and destroyed the fish head and eat it whole! That was a pretty amazing site, it all happened so fast and seeing the sharks, teeth…I’m just glad I wasn’t in the water with him. So for some of us shark “watching” was not what we expected but we still had fun.
Melissa Kennedy
Paragliding
“When I say run, run as fast as you can! Don’t stop until we’re in the air, and even the keep running!”
That was the speech I got just moments before taking flight into the most amazing experience of my life. Who ever thought the feeling of weightlessness and wind blowing in your face could be so fun. That’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to soaring on wings like eagles, and man was the birds eye view spectacular. Taking in Gods creation from so high in the sky in a parachute is probably the best experience one could ever have. To my left was Table Mountain in its amazingness, below me lay Cape Town and straight ahead and to my right the Pacific Ocean stretches on for miles. I was so in awe of my surroundings that I almost forgot to take pictures! It wasn’t until my pilot reminded me my camera was in my hand, that I started taking pictures and even then I was sure I was going to drop it and most definitely wouldn’t have survived the fall.
After a way to fast 10 minutes we began our twirling descent which was by far the most fun. The pressure compresses you and you twirl and twirl down towards the ocean and then swing back over the ground for landing. Before you know it your feet touch solid ground marking the end of your flying adventure.
Kelsey Marchard
That was the speech I got just moments before taking flight into the most amazing experience of my life. Who ever thought the feeling of weightlessness and wind blowing in your face could be so fun. That’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to soaring on wings like eagles, and man was the birds eye view spectacular. Taking in Gods creation from so high in the sky in a parachute is probably the best experience one could ever have. To my left was Table Mountain in its amazingness, below me lay Cape Town and straight ahead and to my right the Pacific Ocean stretches on for miles. I was so in awe of my surroundings that I almost forgot to take pictures! It wasn’t until my pilot reminded me my camera was in my hand, that I started taking pictures and even then I was sure I was going to drop it and most definitely wouldn’t have survived the fall.
After a way to fast 10 minutes we began our twirling descent which was by far the most fun. The pressure compresses you and you twirl and twirl down towards the ocean and then swing back over the ground for landing. Before you know it your feet touch solid ground marking the end of your flying adventure.
Kelsey Marchard
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
