Impact Africa
I have been wanting to get into missionary work and volunteering in general in the build-up to joining Impact Africa. On a cycling tour up in Limpopo I chatted to a few people who suggested a few places to go and explore. Impact baby Rescue was one along with working alongside social workers and many other places. During these convocations, I got inspired to follow my passion. Before I even left Limpopo, I had started conversations with a large group of individuals and companies to start the converstions.
A few days after returning to Pretoria, Rich from Impact Africa asked if I could meet to discuss a few things. After the meeting, I was invited to join the next mission team which was from Itown USA in August.
On arrival, I was greeted by the an incredible team. Rich told me to show him my skills behind the lens the next couple of days. I was over the moon by this opportunity as I had been making these kinds of videos from a young age.
Day 1
The day started at one of the primary school’s Impact had built for the community. There wasn’t much time to look around as we were going to walk in groups into the Diepsloot community to spread the love of Christ and spend time in the community. After a few interactions with people from the community and playing games with some of the kids, we came across one specific family. This interaction with the family left me asking so many questions. Here we were 2 South Africans and 2 Americans with a family of 3. The gentleman who was around my age confronted me, “Why are you South Africans so lazy to learn your own languages and so aggressive towards foreigners” This question was asked as we sat down before he knew anything about us besides that we were there because of God. I kept thinking but do you think I’m one of those people you described I’m here am I not and rather than saying we are lazy as a country see it as a good thing because you’re the one a step ahead. We continued to chat with the family asking what Church they are a part of and where they were on their spiritual path to try to get everyone’s eyes off the Flesh of man and focused on the Holy Spirit. Throughout the day I had so many questions as to what hurt this young man and why did it he react like that. So, I waited till later in the day to ask one of the more experienced missionaries later in the day.
It was then time for some games at JFK in the afternoon where we were able to dance and play games with the kids from the community and just enjoy being around local South Africans. All ages came to join the festivities where we danced to throwbacks such as Waka Waka and played a few other games throughout the afternoon.
At the debrief that evening Chelsea the missions group leader asked me how I found the day. I told her about my encounter with this gentleman that morning. Chelsea gave me hope for that encounter by explaining I planted the seed even though you couldn’t say or do anything maybe God just wanted you to be there in that situation.
Day 2
Today the plan for the day was simular to yesterday. I was with the Interns . Straight off the bat, we met an amazing young lady just so happy for what she had and how God had already blessed her. This day was probably the best day for me because i got to meet so many joyful individuals following God. Just based on the people we met and how it really felt like the interns were making big breakthroughs. I really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit today and everyone looked motivated. One of the things we had on the cards for the day was going to one of the local schools deep in the community. A small shack probably smaller than most single bedrooms, to drop off some books and writing paper. Upon arriving at the school seeing the excitement of the kids when we walked in, brought so much joy to my heart.
It was afternoon again and was time to head back to JFK for some games. I had some good practice the day before in capturing some of the moments so today I was more than ready to take this on. I brought out the drone but had technical issues so brought it back within minutes and joined the team again.
At the evening debrief it was incredible to share in the things that had happened over the last couple of days from Healings to the pure enjoyment to be in our country South Africa despite all the challenges they had on the way.
Day 3
Today was a short day for me I had to return to Pretoria to work. The plan was for us to go to the high school near the start of the Dieplsoot area and then head to Impact Baby rescue to hand out flyers about the baby boxes Impact had built in the community. The mission team had planned a play, along with a few dances and a sermon for the children. Again seeing how God was using the team as his vessel showed how supernally powerful God is.
On creating the final reel for Impact, for Rich to see I had to go through all the content over the last couple of days. Seeing just how happy everyone was when carrying out God work and manifesting in his presence kick me into gear to make those hard decisions I had been battling with the last couple of years.
The trip with Impact was truly a moving experience for me both on the media creation side and my path with God. On the media side, it showed me what I could do and what I needed to work on before the next opportunity I might get with other mission groups and NPOS. While on the faith side, to just step out and stop doubting and waiting for the perfect moment but rather step out in faith and let Holy Spirit guide me and not worry and trust God to do the rest. Thank you to Rich and everyone who was involved in making this possible! This was by far one of the big stepping stones on my path with God. I have found myself using some of the situations and conversations I had on the trip even at the time of writing this and gained a lot of wisdom over the couple of days with Impact and Itown.
