Special Guest Blog Post from Jenna!!

Below is a special guest blog post from our friend, Jenna who has spent the last few weeks with us here at Impact Africa and who also joined us on our recent village trip out to Loskop, a place we try to visit at least once a year! Enjoy!

"They say honesty is the best policy. Well honestly, I've been avoiding writing this blog all morning. While at first I was excited for the opportunity, the longer the assignment sat there, the more I started to dread it. 

The things I attempted to write never seemed to do it justice. 

I still don't know what would. I don't know how to explain a trip like this. 

How do you explain the tension between...a trip that seemed so familiar and was so real and easy, but at the same time express how emotionally exhausting it was. I don't know how to make it real...can't paint the right colors on the page for everyone else to understand how every one of us took it in a stride, but will always hold this trip in our hearts. 

I CAN tell you how the air was clear, the stars were beautiful, how I saw the moon for the first time since I'd been here. I can tell you we went to schools, that we did dramas, talked about their flag, and how it's colors not only tell about their country, but also tell the story of Jesus. I can tell you how we gave them inflatable soccer balls, and how we spent an afternoon with the kids of a disabled school, giving them flip flops, stickers, bubbles, and more importantly, our attention. 

What I can't tell you is what happens in your heart when you look into the eyes ...

of this beautiful angel. I can't explain how it feels to be surrounded by kids who want so badly just to talk to you, or touch you, when you have to get into the car long before they have gotten the attention they deserve because there is another school to go to. 

Or how it feels when an entire school chants 'Shine, Jenna, Shine, you shine like a star, shine on, Juice!' and proceeds to greet each of us with this mantra. 
I can tell you how when asked to sing us a song, one person would start, and the whole school would break into a beautiful song, and everyone knew instinctively where and when and how to harmonize. But I can't truly express the awe that the impromptu deserves. 
I can tell you how we walked through a grave yard, how was saw fresh graves and those of ones whose life was ripped away far too early. How there was a prom across the street, and the roar of life sounded off by teenagers, shed a light on the circle of life and death.
But I can't explain to you the full weight of that understanding. 
I can't show you how my face breaks into a grin when I see this picture.

I can tell you that the children we got the pleasure of visiting absolutely astounded me. 

I can't tell you how much we affected them. 

But I can tell you that God did."