What To Expect On A Mission Trip To South Africa
You have decided to take part in a life-changing experience, and we want to equip you, an Amor Mission Trip participant, with the tools necessary to succeed in this mission trip as much as possible. The times before, during, and after your Amor Mission Trip will bring new challenges, growth opportunities, and eye opening moments. One thing is for sure, you will return with a new perspective on poverty and God’s love.
Each Amor Mission Trip group has a slightly different timeline but we hope that the timeline outlined below will touch on what you should expect while participating in an Amor Mission Trip in South Africa.
Once you arrive at the Johannesburg International Airport (JNB) in South Africa, we will meet you and the other group participants and transport you all to our group accommodation facility, the Ebenezer Farm Conference Center, which is located just one hour east of the city in the community of Delmas.
On Sunday (the day after you arrive) your group will be attending a local church service in the community you will be serving in throughout the week. An invitation has been extended to us by the Pastors we are serving with to all of our participants to attend their local churches. This is a great way to experience and understand the connection and partnership Amor has with all of the local churches we serve with throughout the world.
After the initial acclimation, you will begin to prepare for the days of building ahead of you.
Day One: Today you will meet the family that your group will build a home for. There is an excitement about what you are about to do and certainly some reservation as to how you will communicate (especially if you don't speak Afrikaans or any of the other eleven official languages) across cultural boundaries or build a house in such a short period of time. Your group leader will assess the worksite and will build a strategy for the days ahead. Soon you will be digging, leveling, mixing cement, and taking part in some pretty tough manual labor. (Remember, no power tools are allowed.) You will be able to start playing with kids from the neighborhood and making connections with the family. By the end of today, your group will hopefully finish the foundation for the house. You will start thinking about what poverty means to you and those you know that are truly poor.
Day Two: Today you will wake up a bit sore, thanks to the manual labor you took part in yesterday. There was a lot of mixing cement by hand the day before! When you arrive at the worksite, the cement slabs has hardened and your group can now continue in the building process. Today you will begin assembling walls. You will have the opportunity to continue building on the relationships you started yesterday. You may even pick up some Afrikaans. By the end of this day, most of the walls and the roof will be framed and may be ready to secure to the foundation. The work site will start to look like a house and the reality of providing the family with this gift of hope will start to sink in.
Day Three: As the week comes to its mid-point you will realize how acclimated you have become to your surroundings. The once intimidating poverty has become a part of daily expectations, and it’s now been week without TV, Video Games, computers, and life’s other distractions. With the walls of the house standing and prepared for stucco, the roof completed, and the door and windows installed, the final day will be left for two coats of stucco inside and out. The once empty work site is really taking on the form of a home that will keep a family together.
Day Four: Today is filled with much emotion. Your group knows it is the last day that you will be with the family they are building a home for, and you will soon have to re-enter life back home. Your will go to the worksite excited to finish up the two coats of stucco and give the gift of a completed home to the family.
This is an incredible moment!
Your group will gather with the family to express their love, but more importantly, the great love and grace of God. The key to the home, a symbol of safety and stability, is presented to them.
Throughout the course of the past few days, you have come to a place where you have adjusted to seeing poverty and, instead of being threatened, have started to question why poverty exists. You will also begin to see change happening within you and your group. You will gain the understanding that you can make a difference, you have something to offer the world, and that you have a role to play.
By taking part in providing the gift of a simple home, you have experienced a glimpse of the joy that comes when we give rather than receive. This is just the beginning of your life being shaped by not only building into the lives of a family in need, but making a difference in the lives of each person you will encounter upon returning home from the Amor Mission Trip.