Action-packed

Well, the past couple weeks have been action packed. As I said before youth camps were awesome and went really well, but I guess I failed to leave out something else that was going on at the same time. During the week of and the week before camps, Thrive hosted what is called Family Days, which is a time when some of the interns’ parents came out and stayed with us for either one or two weeks. My roommate and close friend Hannah’s parents and grandma came out for two weeks. It was cool to meet everyone’s parents and I really enjoyed getting to know them. Anyways, here is a picture of me with Hannah and her parents….
After camps ended, the parents left and we had a couple days to recover from camps before we headed to Joburg for the weekend. We had the opportunity to volunteer at the Global Leadership Summitt put on by the Willow Creek Association. Basically we did whatever needed to be done…greet people, set up chairs and tables, serve tea and coffee, stuff thousands of lunch bags and welcome bags, and set up and break down the resource center. I really enjoyed being able to talk with the other volunteers and interacting with the Afrikaans community. It was cool to be able to experience another culture. While in Joburg we had the opportunity to go to the movies and the mall which was a real treat. Although I didn’t buy anything at the mall, I really enjoyed being able to hang out with friends. Here is a picture of Josh and I trying on hats in one of the stores…
After Joburg we returned to our weekly classes and responsibilities for a couple days and then we packed our bags again and left for Durban. In Durban we had the opportunity to attend the Global Leadership Summit. I learned so much from this conference, and I think I will be processing all that I learned for weeks to come. Our accommodations were actually in a little beach town called Ballito and were right on the beach so we had many opportunities to enjoy the beautiful Indian Ocean. I woke up every morning to watch the sunrise and was even blessed to be able to see dolphins and whales surfacing in beautiful morning light. It was definitely a relaxing weekend and a productive one as well. Here are a couple pictures from sunny Ballito…




One of the sunrises…
A nighttime walk along the beach…
So there was a Subway in Ballito which was super exciting but the one opportunity we had to go, they were closed.
Hannah and I had the opportunity to go bowling at the mall in Durban. I even won a free game for getting the ‘ladies high score’ of the day. Here’s a pic of me bowling…