Have Life Abundantly

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

John 10:10

After our month in Lesotho, L Squad had a weeklong debrief in Mbombela, South Africa. For debriefs, our coaches and mentor usually fly out to meet up with us and help us rest and process the past few months. They usually consist of teachings, worship sessions, time for one-on-ones, and plenty of free time. For our South African debrief, Amy, our mentor, wasn’t able to come, but our coaches, Mike and Char, flew out to meet us. Our former squad leader, Kayla, surprised us by also flying out, which was absolutely amazing!

As I mentioned in my last blog, the Lord had been talking to me a lot about abundance during my time in Lesotho. Coming into this week, I had no idea that He was going to show me what it looks like to live abundantly. Every single day He opened my eyes to this simple truth: I was made to have life and have it abundantly. Abundance doesn’t mean not working hard, putting effort into relationships, or spreading the gospel wherever you go. In fact, it means doing all of that but also taking time to enjoy the life that you’ve been given. We don’t always need to suffer for Christ; He wants us to enjoy all that He’s blessed us with.

Day 1: Taking it Back to the Garden

Our first day of debrief technically started at 4:00am. That’s when our van pulled into the hostel driveway and we all piled out, grabbed our giant packs, and hurried off to bed. The beds were by far one of the most comfortable we’ve had on the Race and get this… we had AIR CONDITIONING. It was truly an answered prayer. We all passed out for a few hours and then got up for a brief logistical meeting in the morning. After that, we had our first session which was all about stillness. We took time to just sit, be still, and meditate on the Word, which was so refreshing. Despite only getting a short nap instead of a good night’s rest, I felt awake and ready for an adventure. Thankfully, Claire felt the same way.

The two of us hopped in a taxi and went to the Botanical Gardens. We had no service or data on our phones, barely any money, and no plans yet none of that bothered us. The gardens were incredible! We walked along winding paths past enormous trees. We stopped for milkshakes at their Tea Gardens and saw a bunch of monkeys swinging from branches and chasing one another around. We explored the Medicinal Garden and made our way to a network of bridges and elevated wooden platforms. The signs informed us that the walkways were elevated to make room for the hippos that came through at night – that absolutely blew our minds. A gentle drizzle began to fall as we crossed the final bridge and were stunned by an incredible view of a huge waterfall. On the ride back to the hostel, we couldn’t stop talking about how beautifully breathtaking everything was. The Lord is just so unbelievably present in nature. His power, majesty, and wonder are impossible to ignore when you’re staring at enormous waterfalls.

That evening Dana led our first worship session of the week. She felt convicted to spend the whole week doing worship without music and instead focus on silence and Scripture. That was exactly what I had been exploring in Lesotho, so I was excited to keep that momentum going.

Day 2: A Chimp Named Cozy

After some of the best sleep I’d had in months, I was ready for Day 2! I started the morning by reading my Bible with one of the hostel cats. She was so snuggly and loved to stay close while I read and journaled. By the end of the week, we were best friends. Our morning session was another great one. We talked about perspective and spent more time in silence.

After that, a group of us headed off to Chimp Eden, the Jane Goodall Institute of South Africa. I went with Claire, A-Stew, Morgan Corrigan, and Claire Bauer and what a blast we had! As we were driving through the property to get to the reception, we saw four giraffes just chilling next to the road. It was incredible!

When it was time for our tour of the chimps, we were beyond excited. We had to stay masked the entire time because chimps can actually catch human diseases and we didn’t want them to possibly get COVID. The staff at the institute is absolutely amazing. They stay on the premises for months at a time to ensure that they don’t bring COVID with them by visiting friends and family. They’ve sacrificed a lot for these animals and our guide was so knowledgeable! He could tell each of the chimps apart and told us all about their background and personality. For example, Jessica, the surrogate mother of the first family we saw, really loves to look at people’s shoes and gets excited when she sees shoes she hasn’t seen before. Unfortunately, we only had our chacos to show her.

Chimp Eden acts as a sanctuary for chimps who had been abused by humans, trapped in circuses, and used as attractions. One of the chimps actually came to the institute addicted to alcohol and cigarettes because he had been chained outside of a nightclub in Europe. Chimp Eden provides a safe space for the chimps to retire and live out the rest of their lives peacefully. I loved learning about these fascinating creatures, and it was so beautiful to see the staff’s heart for these animals. Most people can’t even be bothered to care for other people with this much love and compassion, much less animals. It was amazing to see God’s heart for all living creatures and all of creation. As humans, we are given the authority and right to rule over the planet, but that means caring for the planet and stewarding the gift of the earth well.

The second family of chimps we saw included one named Cozy. Cozy had suffered a lot of abuse throughout his life and therefore never learned how to express his feelings correctly. Because of this, he shows affection by throwing things. Our guide knows Cozy very well, so he knew exactly when to tell us to duck behind the railing as Cozy chucked a rock with lots of love. Once Cozy realized that he could make Claire and Morgan scream and hide by just pretending to throw things, that was all he did. It was such a funny encounter, and he was truly a sweet chimp. We all walked away in love with Cozy and his funny way of showing love. Claire even bought a pin with his face on it.

Day 3: Holding Out for A Hero

Day 3 was movie day! The morning started like all the others. I read my Bible with my friend the cat and then went off to a session which was about truth. After that, the whole squad headed off to the local mall. The mall was incredible – ice cream shops and bookstores and a café, but most importantly, a movie theater. A-Stew and I had been talking about going to see Spiderman in South Africa since the beginning of the Race and now we were living out our dreams with enormous slushies and boxes of popcorn. The movie was amazing, and I could probably write a whole blog just reviewing it, but I won’t do that to you. We came out of the theater crying and freaking out and so excited. We got some ice cream and shopped around for a while.

That night, Claudia, Steph, and Dana had an awesome treat planned for us. Dana led us in a “honey roast.” Each one of us took turns sitting in the middle of the room while the others spoke encouraging words, Scripture, fond memories, and prophecies over them. It was such an encouraging time! It was so beautiful to get to pray over each of my sisters and tell them a truth from God. Getting my 5 minutes was also such a treat and filled me up in so many ways. Afterwards, Steph and Claudia had a spa night planned for us. We soaked our feet and painted our nails and put cucumbers on our eyes. It was one of the best nights I’ve ever had.

Day 4: Real Life Lion King

Day 4 was SAFARI DAY! Not only were we doing a safari in Africa, but we were doing one of the best, most well-known safaris in the world: Kruger National Park. Our guides came to pick us up at 5:00am and boy were we ready to go. Everyone dressed in their best safari outfits, and we all got a window seat in the car.

The first animal we saw was a rhino and it was enormous! Our guide explained that the park had to cut off all the rhinos’ horns to discourage poaching.

For the next few hours, we saw a bunch of beautiful birds, tiny rodents, giraffes in the distance, and lots and lots of impalas. Then we took a break at one of the rest stops. I bought some French fries and milkshake and before we knew it, we were off again. We had so many laughs and took so many photos.

Soon after our break, we came across our first elephant. It’s currently marula season, which are elephants’ favorite fruit. I could have sat there all day just watching our elephant eat the little fruits by picking them up with his trunk.

We spent more time driving around through the beautiful scenery. We saw lots more elephants and giraffes and even got to see several more rhinos, one of which was with her baby. Our guide was blown away because usually rhinos are one of the hardest animals to find on the safari.

We stopped one more time at a different rest stop. I bought a cute sticker, and our team shared some snacks. One of the other teams, Rooted, lost a sandwich and a granola bar to some thieving monkeys but we guarded our food very carefully.

Soon after we took off again, we saw the lions. Lions were my top animal that I wanted to see on the safari, and it was an absolute miracle that we spotted them. God is so good!

While we were in front of the lions, the other car that Team Spice was in got a flat tire. We were dying laughing as our guides slowly moved the cars as far from the lions as possible, loaded the other girls into the other two cars, and started changing the tire as fast as possible. It was an insane time.

As we were leaving Kruger, we stopped on a bridge to take a bunch of cute photos and spot some hippos and crocodiles in the river below. This was by far one of the most surreal, incredible days of my life. I can’t believe that this is the life that the Lord has allowed me to live!

Dana also made an adorable video documenting the whole day!

Day 5: Sabbath, Silence, and Solitude

On the last day of debrief, I decided to slow down and just have a day of rest and blogging. I had a lot of stuff to catch up on since I struggled with blogging in South Africa and had no Wi-Fi in Lesotho. I also wanted to make sure that I was coming into our month in eSwatini fully rested and ready to serve. After my morning routine, we had our team debrief which went really, really well! As a team, we didn’t have a lot of issues to work through so we just spent most of the time reflecting on what we did well and how we can keep growing. I spent the rest of the day battling the slow internet connection, swimming in the pool, and just taking it slow. It was just what I needed to end the week well and start the next one off strong.

This is the view when you’re floating in the pool; what?!?!

Debrief was such an incredible week! It was amazing to be able to do all these adventures in AFRICA and still have a kingdom mindset. No matter where we went, we always made sure to share our faith and talk about the World Race with our drivers and guides. The Lord wants us to enjoy His creation and see the world He made. We can be missionaries and still have an incredible time. That was such a valuable lesson to learn. Following Jesus means receiving life and receiving it abundantly.