What an amazing last week we had in South Africa! From goodbyes with the children at the CYCC, to a surprise dinner with the SFCS staff to incredible leadership training at the Global Leadership Summit, we ended our two and a half months feeling loved and inspired! Following the GLS we met up with Paul and Cathy Scholten from CMC to do a little debriefing and hear more about their mission for the next six weeks in South Africa. It was really nice to connect with them and see some familiar faces.
We made our way to the airport on Sunday evening and had extremely easy travels; everything was on time and our luggage came with us all the way home. :) We had a very warm greeting from our families when we arrived to Grand Rapids!
So the running question asked by many has been... what have you learned? What stands out the most from your two and a half months away?
This can be difficult to answer! Where to begin...
What stands out is just how great the need is to make a contribution. Then we ask, where do you start? How do you make the most sustainable impact that is going to EMPOWER the people you're helping to continue the momentum when you need to go home? Our prayer is that we were able to do this throughout each trip. By providing communities with clean water and teaching them the importance of hygiene and sanitation while also teaching the importance of keeping up with the well. In South Africa, we worked closely with the staff to implement a new reporting structure to capture all the work they do to a comprehensive database.
We've learned people are people everywhere. We all have the same needs. Needs for longing to feel loved, respected, and accepted the way we are, needs to feel like we're contributing and being apart of something in the world GREATER than ourselves. Most of all we want to feel that love.
We feel we have experienced a tremendous amount of growth in the last three months. It is our prayer that we have been able to help (and will continue to) inspire others to either begin or continue living the best version of themselves wherever they are. Every. Single. Day. Don't kid yourself, you're never too old, it's never to later, you don't NEED to travel anywhere to make a difference. We've learned that this can certainly be done abroad; there is a huge need all over the world! But we also know this can be done in any community. You can start today. Find your passions, identify your God given gifts and pursue them. When you choose to live the life that God intended for you; you feel fulfilled AND you're also a gift to others. It's a win-win!
Just remember, however you look at it, life is too short (or too long) to be sitting on the sidelines just going through the motions. Our encouragement for you is to identify what it is that makes you tick and make one step forward to pursue that!
If you are interested in international experiences; especially through EPIC or getting involved with SFCS, we would be more than happy to talk with you more about our experiences and ways to get involved. Just get in touch with either one of us!
Lastly, we want to express a massive amount of gratitude to each and every one of you for following along with us each step of our journey. We're very grateful for all of your prayers and support! We don't anticipate this being the last of our blogs, photography or mission outreach so stay tuned in the future.
Thanks again-- prayers and blessing to each of you!
With Love,
Ty + Michelle
Spending some time with our family at the CYCC.
Talking with the kids and sharing with them how they taught US so much!
The bubbles were a hit :)
Our coworkers at SFCS planned a surprise dinner for us on our last night in Bloemfontein-- we were SHOCKED!
Spreading the be nice. message to our favorite guy, Joseph!
We LOVED the GLS. We felt this was the perfect way to end our journey.
Our amazing welcoming crew (plus Anna!) when we arrived to Grand Rapids. We are so thankful to have loving families!!!
