Can You Feel the Mountains Tremble, Can You Hear the Ocean's Roar?

Have faith, have courage, for my eyes have been made to see many wonders. Take a Breath. Creation is longing for the day it is healed. My eyes need to see for my heart to begin to comprehend. I have been made this way—to appreciate and to wonder at what is hidden behind the mountains. Praise God.

Cape Town, South Africa is the most beautiful place in my world. This is saying quite a lot, because I have seen the sunrise on Australian beaches, the stars shine over secluded lakes in the bush, and I live in the green heart of Eden itself. Still, I have to say that South Africa really is the most beautiful place my eyes have seen—yet. I step out the front door of the YWAM base and all I can see is enormous mountains and acres of vineyards. The sky is twice as big as it is in Montana and the clouds- oh man, the clouds! We drove by the beach yesterday, the sand rolling white like snow. Ah man—it was amazing.

I apologize for the informality and vagueness of this post, but I am beginning to accept that there is no possible way to describe these experiences in words of any language. Nonetheless, I will try- bear with.

The only thing that has proven itself to be more beautiful than the countryside is the children. During my time here I have been spending nearly every day working in the streets, cooking and feeding meals to the kids on the streets or teaching lessons and doing programs in schools. Let me tell you I have never experienced a love and acceptance like these kids show us. I don’t know if it’s because we are white, have a smile on our face, or if they can discern something different about us, but the second we walk into the communities we are swarmed by children wanting to hug us, hold our hands and touch us.

They speak a mix of languages, and English is often thrown in, nonetheless I’ve learned to sing several songs and say some phrases in their tongue—which the love and laugh at when we sing with them. This is a singing and dancing culture! Oh man, we will put on some music and it will be one giant dance party on the African plains (and quite frankly the little one’s put us white folks to shame with their dance moves!) Much to my…delight…*cough*… we discovered early on that the school children here LOVE High School Musical, and when they find out we’re from America, they always want to know if we’ve met the cast. Well, my team and I figured “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” So we learned the High School Musical dance and we perform and teach it at the beginnings of our program. Who knew I would be using High School Musical to minister in Africa?!

We stay on a YWAM base with 36 nationalities represented. Other than our team, there are only 2 North Americans amongst the 200 people living on base. Talk about beautiful diversity. When we have base gatherings there are so many different languages being spoken at once, it’s overwhelming! All 8 of the girls on my team room together along with the girls from a Switzerland outreach team, who is serving with us. We have been getting along great with the Swiss team, they are a lovely group of people, and I enjoy getting to know and performing with them. I can also say I’ve never eaten so much chocolate in my life. (P.S. The USA has by far the worst selection of candy and chocolate I have come across. South Africa has delicious chocolate!)

Yesterday we drove 2 hours into the peaks of the mountains to run a 3 hour program at a vineyard school. The building was too small to fit us, so we all moved outdoors to the light sprinkle of rain and danced in the mud. (I was wearing my brand new shoes, so I left them in the car and worked in the mud barefoot—have I mentioned that my feet are ALWAYS dirty?!?!) We brought shoes, socks and snacks for the kids and they were so greatful to receive cheese and crackers while stylin in their brand new converse kicks! There was a language barrier, for the kids were too young to have learned any English yet, but my fellow Young Life leaders back home will smile to hear that the skit ‘People With Shirts Over Their Heads’ breaks ANY language barrier! We were singing a song that says “One day, we’ll all be in heaven together. Praise God, Praise God, for He makes me happy forever” in Affrikans, and I just had to stop and breathe. I was standing in the middle of the mountains in Africa, surrounded my smiling, shivering African children, singing silly songs in a different language and watching a mother Baboon carry her baby on her back a few meters down the road. I am living in a season of blessing—and I want to soak in every minute of it.

As we were leaving, a 6 year old boy ran up to me, took my hand and kissed my cheek. He felt my hands were cold so he covered my fingers with his tiny palms and rubbed back ‘n forth to try and warm them. Meanwhile a little girl noticed I had a cut on my foot, so she ran and got a wet cloth and cleaned it for me—despite my insistence of her not to. As we drove away under the double rainbow in the sky, the children chasing us down the road in their new shiny shoes, I had to wonder: Who felt more loved today, the kids, or me?

My head is still swimming with questions—this exchange of affirmation shouldn’t have made sense today—yet it was the most natural thing in the world. Like breathing air after holding my breath and wondering why I haven’t been doing it all along.

--You can find weekly updates on my South Africa team at ywamnow.com