Our team has learned to adjust quickly right away, having had to switch from Uganda to South Africa a week before Boot Camp. Because of that, we decided that our team call before we count off would be:

Woot Woot! We have learned all of our construction skills and are now focusing on evangelism skills such as puppets, balloons, drama, Sunday school lessons and advanced evangelism.

Greetings from South Africa . Both teams have arrived at the base they traveled good and are in good heath. They are now sleeping.
Robert and Dorah Yoder
Is 41:10

Our team project has changed, as the South Africa president closed travel between provinces. That means we can’t go to the school, but that we will be serving alongside the other South Africa team at the Teen Missions South Africa base. The kids adjusted well to that news, as they’ve had plenty of practice adjusting to changes in plans.

Our team has been knocking out the work projects here on the base! We’ve almost finished painting the large guest house, so we’ve begun painting several other buildings on the base. They are painting the concrete a maroon color and the bricks grey. We are waiting on supplies to finish construction on the building we took the roof off of, but it is prepped and ready to go. The ladders we use here are different than the ones we use in the USA, so some of the team members, like Abby S., are a little nervous to go up the ladders to paint. They are all conquering their fears though.

Painting, painting, and more painting! Whether it’s a small brush painting the cracks between bricks, or the roller covering a large space on a wall, our team has been diligently painting day after day.

There is plenty of painting waiting for us to tackle today. They did, however, make progress on their memory verse strategies! Caleb H. and Faith P. made it a point to memorize not only the verse and reference, but the number on the cards so that they can keep track what numbers the quiz master hasn’t used when we practice quizzing. Simon S. memorized over 20 verses in the book of Ecclesiastes to share for his turn on night devotions. Seth D. is very into his library reading book and has a hard time putting it down!

Coming to you today healthy and strong! Everyone is feeling great and working hard on the job site. While we are (you guessed it) still painting away at all the buildings on the base, we’ve also had a few side projects to break up the painting. A big tree was presenting a problem with where it was growing, so some professionals came and cut it mostly down. We had a fun time watching them take the tree down!

The ban on large groups is still in effect here in South Africa and our team has been itching to get out and evangelize

The excitement was tangible first thing Tuesday morning as the kids tried to keep themselves focused on working. They knew that after lunch, we were immediately leaving to have our sight-seeing adventure!

Friday morning, our team stopped painting and began replacing the roof we took off the first week we were here. Each team member took a turn screwing in the metal sheets. They worked hard and finished the entire roof project in one day! They were so excited to get to do something different and to try out new construction skills.

We were blessed with the wonderful opportunity to go on a Sunday School Circuit on Tuesday! Now that the president has opened the country, Teen Missions in South Africa has resumed their outreach programs.