Africa Outreach

   I'm back to civilization! Thank you JESUS! These past 9 weeks have been the craziest, hardest, most life changing 9 weeks this 18-year old girl has ever experienced. Regardless of various sicknesses and whatnot,  I absolutely don't regret a minute of outreach. I'll try my best to explain with words how my time was- but my words aren't good enough to really tell you how Africa was for me.
   So the first 4 weeks of outreach were spent in Yei, South Sudan. It was awesome spending Christmas and New Years there, because it was South Sudan's first ever Christmas and New Years, seeing as they're a brand new country and all. We stayed at the YWAM base, which might sound luxurious, but it was a very African ywam base- meaning we pumped our own water for showers, showered out of a bucket, had a hole in the ground for a toilet, and were greeted by lots of lovely spiders and other various wildlife in our cement rooms. Good stuff.
   The main ministries I did in Yei were orphanage ministry in the morning, and village ministry in the afternoons. I absolutely loved the orphanage. Immediately I made friends with a brother and a sister named Daniel (7) and Grace (9). They were seriously the cutest kids I have ever seen! It was great to just go there and love on all of those kids, and watch their faces light up when I showed them a picture I took of them. Village ministry was extremely hot (in the afternoons it was around 110 degrees and humid) but so rad. I would sometimes have to just stop and remind myself that I was walking in a village in Africa, walking between huts and naked children, telling people about the goodness of God- and I might not ever have an opportunity like this again. I also did ministry one Sunday at the prison, where I got to give my brother Jason's testimony of how God radically changed his life. That was definitely a highlight of the whole trip for me.
   The last 4 weeks of outreach were spent in Arua, Uganda. There was also a village ministry here, and it was mainly in a Muslim village. That was really cool to experience. We would seriously just walk through the village, and TONS of kids would end up following us, yelling "Mizungu Mizungu!" (white people). It was so cute. But the main thing I did in Arua was work in the kitchen and get to know the people at the base. It was so great to get to know people like Milka, the main cook who was 24, and Rose, her friend who was 22 and had the cutest baby EVER named Gift. They were such a blessing to me. I also learned how to make some awesome African food, (like chapattis!!) AND I learned how to cut onions and tomatoes, a huge accomplishment for me. :)
   There are some great stories of how God moved in Africa, and I can't wait to tell you once I get home. Thank you so much for all of your prayers! xoxo- Hannah