Orientation and Travel Updates

What comes to mind when you think of Chicago in August? Sweltering? Swimming in Lake Michigan? Dashed hopes of a NL Central title? I’ve had a chance to spend a great deal of time over the last week thinking, reflecting, and building community with my fellow YAGM during orientation.  We have discussed our individual roads that led us to volunteer, what it means to foster interfaith relationships, how cultures can and often do collide, and what it will mean to walk hand in hand with the people who will be our hosts for the next year. 

Watching my friends and fellow YAGM volunteers depart throughout the day on Wednesday was a humbling and mind stretching process.  50 people, each supported by hundreds of friends and family, boarded airplanes headed for seven countries on five continents.  Since the South Africa group didn’t head to the airport until 6 pm, I had plenty of time to say goodbye to new friends and get excited for the 36 hours of traveling ahead of me. 

My excitement has only been compounded by seeing the size and magnificence of the airplanes we will be traveling on to South Africa.  Like this journey to Mapumulo, riding on an Airbus A380 is new, exciting, and will be like nothing I have yet experienced.  Again, the only thing that comes to mind is that I can’t wait.  

It’s been difficult saying so many goodbyes.  I am blessed to have so many people that are interested in this journey, and I look forward to sharing it with them.  As hard as leaving friends, family, and loved ones behind may be, I can’t wait for the new relationships and countless hellos (or should I say sawubonas?) that are in the very near future. 

The Beginning

When I was a freshman in college, I had a sneaking suspicion that the new world I had stepped into would challenge me in new and incredible ways.  I never predicted that four years later I would be writing about my experiences in a place I have never been for all the internet to see.  God works in mysterious ways...

Starting August 24th, I will begin a year of work, learning, and service in the town of Mapumulo, South Africa.  Mapumulo is a small, rural municipality in southern KwaZulu-Natal, about 130 km from Durban.  I'm incredibly excited about this adventure, despite the fact that I know very little about what life will be like during the coming year.  That uncertainty is almost as new to me as life in Mapumulo will be.  I have spent my life making plans: trying to see around the next corner, predicting where I will be, how I will react, and how everything will fit together.  In about a week, I'll be immersed in a new culture, surrounded by a language I can barely begin to understand, and searching for a purpose that I haven't even begun to outline.  I have a feeling it will give the word "challenge"an entirely new meaning.  I can't wait.

Although I have spent the summer preparing for this journey, it still seems like time has flown by.  I have been floored and humbled by the outpouring of support from friends, family, and church members; I can't thank them enough.  I hope and pray that this next step in my life will be more fulfilling, enriching, and challenging than I ever could have imagined, and I look forward to sharing it with you.