NAM

The past couple of days have been travel days, which means not knowing what day of the week it is or where we are. We spent the past couple of weeks in Windhoek, Namibia working with an organization called Beautiful Kidz (BKZ). It’s a private Christian preschool for kids who live in poverty and who have lost their parents. They also host a youth group and a kids club every week, giving the message of the love of Jesus to kids from 7-19. The people at BKZ work so hard for the kids. The days start at 7:20 am and end anywhere from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm. And some days there aren’t any breaks. Somehow they keep the kids of all ages engaged and striving to strengthen their relationship with God.

The amazing thing about this preschool is that the fees for sending a kid to school is $48 Namibian per year. That is the equivalent of $7 USD. $7 to send a kid to a preschool for a year. $7 that gets them 4 meals per day for a year. Meals that they often times don’t get at home. $7 a year gets them a foundation of believing in Jesus. That’s 2 drinks at Starbucks. That’s less than what most people pay when they go out for one meal. The school has 80 kids, which makes it $560 per year for all the kids. I am blown away by this. That is so little money considering the work that BKZ does. And they employ several Namibians, which is great that they are also providing work for people that really need it. They have also started a needlework program where women from the community hand embroider placemats, aprons, potholders, etc. and sell them. This is an incredible organization that is really giving back to the community they are in.

Windhoek is a beautiful city, one that I will miss very much. We stayed in the outskirts, so there was a ton of walking and hiking to be had. It was sunny, hot and dry most of the time. When it rained there were incredible thunderstorms. You haven’t truly experienced a thunderstorm until you’ve experienced them in Southern Africa. I’ve been privy to experience thunderstorms in 4 Southern African countries and each time I am blown away by how powerful and majestic our God is. The thunder and lightening are an amazing display of how grand He is. I will never get tired of them. Although they are a bit painful when in Swaziland because the power goes out every time it rains. The last time the power went out it was out for about 36 hours.

I head home in a little under 3 weeks. I am looking forward to familiar surroundings and familiar people. But it will be incredibly weird to stop being around people that I have been living with for the past 4 months. I’ve seen most of these people every day for that time. How weird to have them suddenly not a part of my life anymore. I can’t imagine what that will be like and I am sure it will take some time to adjust. But I long to see those that I left at home and long to finally meet the nephew that came into this world a couple weeks after I left. I long to not be on bus rides that take 24 hours. I long to cook whatever I want to cook and eat what I want to eat, not what’s on the menu. And I long for clarity of what the next step in my journey with God will entail.