saying goodbye

This past week has been busy. We’ve been at the college so there’s been more free time, but a lot of final exploring to get done. We turned in our final group presentations this week and our final papers and are officially done with school. We got to go on a peninsula tour and see the most southwesterly tip of Africa and the penguins, which are adorable. On Thursday we hit some of the major museums in Cape Town like the Slave Lodge and the District 6 Museum, which was a great taste of how Apartheid impacted communities and families. On Friday we went back into down and did some final shopping and looking around. Saturday we got up at 4am and went shark cage diving. It was a 2-hour drive to get to Dyer Island where we dove, but it was all worth it. We were on the boat for about 4 hours and took turns getting into the 7-person cage and watching the sharks under water. The great things about the diving is that you have a terrific view on the boat as well because they chum the water and bait the sharks in with fish heads. So the people in the boat are able to see the sharks breech and jump and bite the bait while the people in the water are able to be a couple of feet away from huge great white sharks. It was a great experience and we got to be so close to some huge and completely incredible sharks. Sunday morning I went to a local church and the service was a Christmas pageant put on by the children of the congregation, which was adorable. After church a few girls and I went to the beach and hung out for a few hours. Today we had our final class session for debriefing and discussing the reentry process and the difficulties we might face. And right now we’re all frantically packing and trying to understand that our time here is done. In so many ways it feels like we just got here, but I am thankful to be going home and for the upcoming Christmas season and the opportunity to rest. I have so much to think about and process about my time here, but I know that we have been so outrageously blessed by God. We have learned so much and have experienced so much of God’s goodness. When I see you at home ask me about my experience or any specific questions you might have. I would love to talk more about my time here and would love to be able to bless other people with this huge blessing I have received. Thank you for going on this journey with me!

This was the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
Psalm 118:23