Trip 4 (July 2012)

This trip came be known as the “orphan trip”.  God put it on our hearts to not only see what the orphan crisis looked like in Africa but to experience it as well – and I can tell you all of our eyes were opened to things we had never seen before.  We were gone for 14 days and spent long chunks of time traveling and hours upon hours in the car.

By the end of the trip our minds were full with everything we witnessed, our trust upon God was at a whole new level, and we couldn’t stop thinking about all of those innocent faces that never chose to become orphans.

We traveled with our two older boys and the Tucker’s again.  Jim had been corresponding with another organization that was doing some work in Swaziland (which is where our sponsored child lives) so with a bit of planning, we were able to travel to Swaziland to see another example of their efforts made at taking care of their orphans.

But by far, the highlight of the trip was to meet our sponsored child!!  It will go down in the books as one of the best days EVER for us!!

Prior to our two-hour bumpy truck ride to his village, we were able to go to the store and buy the family food.  We also grabbed some gifts for the kids.  Balloons were the BIGGEST hit by far, they had never seen anything like it.

One of the most heart breaking things for me to witness, was the day we were able to feed some children at one of the care points in Swaziland.  The dust was flying in the air when we pulled in, and it wasn’t from our cars, it was from all of the kids running to get in line for food.

As you can see in the picture below – each child was given a small container with 1 orange and 1 piece of chicken, some greens, and some rice.  They kept me busy peeling oranges, but what shocked me was that the kids had me peel their orange and then they closed their containers.  I thought at first maybe, (just maybe) the orange would have filled them up and they were keeping the food for later.  After asking one of the helpers at this care point, I found out these young orphans closed their containers to take the remaining food to the rest of their siblings and whatever “family” they would return home to after we left.  My heart broke knowing this was a “special meal” for them (they would only receive a meal like this once every few months) and they were saving most of it for others.

After our time was up in Swaziland we got directions from a local to Durban, South Africa.  We were planning to meet up with John & Lorna and their kids for a few days on the East coast.  What we didn’t know was that we were traveling in the complete opposite direction of Durban.  After we passed all the landmarks that we were told we should pass, we approached the border.

For some reason, it just seemed like this wasn’t going to be an easy border to cross, but no one had given us any indication that this border would be difficult.  First, they questioned us about our car, asked for documentation we had never heard of and then told us we would have to wait for a while.  After hours of trying to obtain documentation for our car, and a guy named “Jon” telling us we wouldn’t want to cross this border, we began to wonder what was really going on.  Second, it seemed every person we came in contact with was telling us something different, and most were speaking a different language.  Third, we were also asked to pay even more money to get across this border then expected.

But finally after thinking we had finally made it, and we approached the border, we realized we were crossing the border to Mozambique, not South Africa.  We did a fast circle and drove right back into Swaziland and pulled our car to the side.  We went back into the border patrol office.  At this point we had gotten the attention of so many people, we were beginning to feel very uncomfortable.  As we approached the office again, with our kids and our passports an older gentlemen, (who had been rude to us earlier about the documentation for the car) said he wanted to see Rob out back behind the building.  I didn’t even have enough time to react and we were all back in the border patrol office, while Rob was nowhere to be seen.   After trying to explain our plan to them, they took us all outside.  Rob appeared from around the back of the building and told us the older gentleman had gotten a map and showed him we were not anywhere close to where we were suppose to be.  We eagerly climbed back into the car, and started our journey back to Swaziland.  We found a hotel to stay in for the night, regrouped and hopped back in the car the next morning with correct directions.

Towards the end of the trip we spent a few days on the East coast, in Durban – South Africa.  We met some J-life staff and also saw these furry, cute creatures, which are vervet monkeys.

Even though this monkeys looks cute (and innocent), they are a huge nuisance to the people of Durban.  You should never feed them and if you do they will start hanging out around your house.  When you aren’t home they will enter your home through a window and eat everything in the kitchen….but boy are they cute!!

We also went to an alligator farm…yikes!!

Managed to get a flat tire (and Tommy wasn’t even with us).

And swim in the Indian Ocean (which was the most beautiful ocean we had ever seen).

A few pictures and some rambling words can’t begin to bring to life, what this trip was like for us.  I know we were all stretched in ways that are almost indescribable, and yet we know God orchestrated the details according to His plan.  Our hearts were growing even bigger for Africa.  We didn’t know how that would play out for each of us but we knew God would use all of these experiences for His glory.