Service Week

Going into this week, I was apprehensive about everything that we were going to be seeing and experiencing in the township. We had just gotten back from our Adventure week and a fun weekend in Stellenbosch, so I doubted that a Service Week would be able to compare to anything like that. I was definitely wrong. I’ve loved every part of this week, but my favorite part was definitely the time we spend each day with the family that we were pared with.

We started off the week by going into the township, Sir Lowry’s Pass, to meet the kids and our “soup mom’s”. These soup mom’s are amazing ladies in the community who make soup for the kids every day to make sure that they have at least one hot meal a day. These ladies sacrifice even their own meals sometime to allow for a few extra kids to get soup. So in groups of about five Global LEAD students, we had dinner with them Monday night and got to know the rest of their family. My “soup mom” is Mrs. Elsie, and she is an adorable lady who has four girls and a boy, which is the same number of boys and girls in our group that goes to visits her. One of the first things Mrs. Elsie said to us was that God blessed her with four girls and a boy as her children, and now he has sent her four girls and a boy again to become part of her family. She has told us so many times that God knows what he’s doing and was thinking about her when he sent us to Sir Lowry’s Pass. Even after just one week, this family has completely accepted us into their lives and seems so excited to see us everyday.

It’s amazing for me to see how strong Mrs. Elsie is in her faith and gratitude towards us, even when they have so little. Most days this week we have spent packing ten or fifteen people into their twelve by twelve foot living room and singing and dancing together. Her son is in a band and plays the guitar so we sing anything from church songs to American pop songs with him leading us all. They ask us questions about our families, goals, and things we do for fun, and we ask them about their culture and traditions also. Their sincerity and kindness is overwhelming to me. They have expressed multiple times how they feel so lucky to accept us all to their family, and each day ends with hugs from everyone present. These people have so much life, joy and love in their hearts. I have learned from this family how much happiness can come from kindness, family, and supporting the people you love. I have learned from this week that reaching out to a stranger to show them that you care can change lives; it certainly has changed mine. I hope that one day, everyone can experience a bond like the one we have been blessed enough to form in this past week.

Sarah Bissell