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Friends, family and loved ones reading…

WE MADE IT! Apologize for just now getting an update to you. We are now coming to the end of our 3rd day together and have arrived safely in Port St. John’s, South Africa. Our first few days have been a whirlwind to say the least so bear with me. I’m on dial-up internet in our resort’s office (THANK YOU SPOTTED GRUNTER!). And pardon any typos as I will likely not proof this entry.

Our flights all went well. Long, but well. When we arrived in Johannesburg, after 15 hours in air, we were welcomed with the news that a large portion of our luggage had been left in DC…never making it on our plane to Johannesburg! Most of these luggage pieces were team member’s personal bags (including my own). For some of us, tomorrow will mark day 4 in the clothes we left home in. We have now come to find that almost humerous and TIA (This is Africa). Thankfully, most of the bags containing donations made it, and that’s the most important thing, really.

We now hope that our luggage will be delivered to Port St. John’s at some point tomorrow. We hope!

Our first day in Port Elizabeth was spent visiting the Motherwell Cemetary (est. 10 years ago and already holding some 200,000 graves). This is truly an AIDS cemetary. Most of the buried there died as a result of AIDS. Many, if not most of the buried are under the age of 2 or between 25-60 years old. An entire generation of people, wiped out because of the incredible preventable disease.

We are authentic South African meat pies for lunch… and at the beautiful beach along the Indian Ocean.

From there we visited 2 of Motherwell’s soup kitchens where around 150 children had their one meal a day. The team instantly fell in love with the women and children. The Community Care Workers and their patients put on a skit for us, that was both impressive and powerful. It was a skit about the day in the life of a Community Care Worker. The patients in the skit were HIV Positive in real life that were near death before they were helped my their own Community Care Workers. It is truly a testament to the work of these remarkable women!

When we left Port Elizabeth this morning, we were greeted upon exit by giraffes, rhinos, water buffolo, warthogs and zebras. If we didn’t know we were South Africa before then, we all knew after that!

During our 10-hour drive to The Transkei today, one our vans broke down due to transmission trouble. Thankfully we were all able to consolidate into the 2 remaining vans and one of our team members, Dan Fair, who lives and works in SA (and has been an incredible guide to this point)… stayed back for the replacement van to be delivered.

Like I said, we all made it. We’re all safe. And now, I believe I can update nightly. Here’s hoping!

Thank you for your prayers and your love. We appreciated your continued support and prayers for us as we continue to be the hands and feet of what God wants us to do.

Crystal

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