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arrival in Cape Town

After departing from JFK at 10:40 am on Friday morning November 18, we finally arrived in Cape Town at 1:30 pm local time (which was 6:30 am New York time, exactly 24 hours since we had hopped in our Super Shuttle and left my apartment the day before) on Saturday November 19. This was my first experience traveling such a long distance + across time zones. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Shortly after we took off in New York, it was lights out and windows closed on the plane. They fed us lunch (which was more like dinner) and then immediately tried to get us on South African time...which meant I was trying to sleep for the night at 1 pm in the afternoon. I watched a few movies (The Help, Tree of Life - which I don't recommend, especially for a flight) and then slept on and off most of the way. 14 hours later we arrived in Johannesburg to catch our flight to Cape Town.

It can always be challenging to get 16 people headed in the same direction at the same time, but when you add an airport in there the difficulty seems to grow exponentially! We made it...but it was a close call and our flight was cancelled so that gave us a little extra time.

Around 11 am local time, we hopped aboard a short 2 hour flight to Cape Town. When I stepped off the plane, I knew it was worth it!

We were greeted by these wonderful faces & wonderful signs!


(barely holding my eyes open here...can you tell!?)










































[Believe me, so much more to come...I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. Stick around.]

what jacques thought

Jacques was the pastor at the church (Point Community Church) that we were paired with and went to help serve. I hope he's getting some good rest this week, because I think our group of 16 Americans wore him out!

Nonetheless, he posted on Point's website some wonderful thoughts regarding our time there. If you would like to see some of his photos and his perspective from the week, check out his write up

HERE !


25 days of christmas in the city

It's another daily photo project! Since coming back from Africa and being immediately thrown into the New York City Christmas scene, I have been overwhelmed and overjoyed by the most wonderful time of the year. It is beautiful everywhere: Christmas trees, wreaths, lights...and I've decided to capture that beauty and share it. For the next 25 days in December, I'll post my favorite Christmas scene from the city.

Today's photo will be coming later tonight, check back!

the flight

If there was one thing that I was most nervous about before the trip, it was the flight. And, I was nervous about a lot of things as the trip approached, but the 18 hour flight took the cake. Thankfully, I was completely wrong about the flight and spent a lot of time worrying for no reason (no surprise there). In some ways it was one of the most enjoyable parts, especially on the way back to America. I had time to think and process and rest after being on the go the whole week. I can't promise that I looked fresh at the end of it, but I made it and won't be scared to embark on a long flight again. Dinner, breakfast, endless refreshments, and more movies than I knew what to do with...

South African Airways!

South African Coke. Calories measured in joules of energy.

More good movies than I had time to watch! And, Harry Potter 7 Part II. Ahh.

We stocked up on People and US Weekly.

Our team all sat together which  made the flight more bearable, too.








































































































More to come!

point community church

To give some context of my trip and the people we were working with, I should start with Point Community Church since they are the reason we went in the first place. We were paired with them to serve Cape Town (their pastor, Jacques, requested Redeemer to send a group), and if this had been the only group we worked with it would have been enough. They were the most gracious hosts, wonderfully fun people and truly a family. Since the church was only started in January 2010, it is still in the growing stages but has a terrific foundation of about 20 to 30 people.






















I found this picture on Point Community's facebook page. You can easily tell from this picture what a fun group we had to work with. They made our time in Cape Town feel like home.

thoughts on cape town























I'm back in New York and exhausted and completely jet lagged, but my heart is full and encouraged. My time there was better than time well spent. It was refreshing, invigorating, eye-opening, sobering and life changing. And now, I'm back in the daily grind and missing my team of 16 that I spent every waking moment with over the past 10 days, the people of South Africa, summer (!), and the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.

One thing I hadn't completely anticipated was how difficult it would be to tell people about my trip. In so many ways, words won't do it justice. I've decided that since I took over 1,000 pictures, and since apparently a picture is worth a thousand words, that I'm going to post short, small posts over the next several weeks, so bear with me as I slowly get all of my thoughts up. Consider yourself warned, there is more beauty to behold than you can possibly imagine!

back in the us of a

Our team arrived safely back in New York this morning around 7 am, but I'm currently still operating on Cape Town time which means it's about 3:15 in the morning for me. I'm getting ready to call it a night, but I couldn't stand not posting at least one picture before I went to bed. Many more to come!






















[I took this picture from Robben Island looking over to Cape Town and Table Mountain. Paradise!]

i'm coming!

I've been away in South Africa for 10 days....but I'm coming back! I'm hopping on a plane tonight to bring me back to my homeland. Don't worry, I'm coming!































[photo credit & thanks to Brendan]