With a new year comes a new round of outreach teams at Beautiful Gate Lesotho. 2020 is quickly shaping up to be our busiest and most engaging year of outreach service that we have ever experienced. With nearly every month of this year already booked, we are looking forward to meeting new friends, welcoming back old ones, and building up long-lasting relationships with our extended Beautiful Gate family around the world.
As we moved into January we didn’t waste any time. Our first outreach team of 2020 arrived in the second week of the year, and what a team it was! We welcomed a group of students from Grand Rapids Christian High School (GRCHS) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA who chose to spend their Winterim (their school’s January term) serving with us. Between the students, chaperones, driver, and a couple other visitors traveling with the group, we had 22 extra faces around campus for the week. Furthermore, this was our first collaboration with the GRCHS community. We welcomed back out long-time friends, Mike Verkaik and Tim & Patty Spykstra, who served as chaperones and introduced this new group to Beautiful Gate and Lesotho at large.
The team was only with us for one, short week, but they made every moment count. As with most every team we host, the GRCHS group spent much of their time serving alongside our care staff and interacting with our children. They learned firsthand how hard our staff works to provide the best quality care we possibly can for the 70 children we currently have in our care. At any given moment you could find one of the students washing dishes, hanging laundry, sweeping out a room, changing a nappy, feeding a child, or helping out in playgroup. Additionally, each day part of the group also helped with our ongoing construction project of our new playgroup facility, Abba’s Playhouse. Within just a few days, the team had the entire exterior of the building painted, and then they helped clear away some construction rubble and began installing ceilings in the verandas.
Another highlight from this group’s time in Lesotho came as a result of a great deal of rain we received. Many people may have felt disappointed to experience such rainy weather, especially after having traveled halfway around the world to a new place for the first time. Not this team, though. They rolled with the punches! One day, during afternoon playgroup, the children (who remain inside during rainy weather) were entertained as several members of the group found joy in treating the quickly flooding playground as a makeshift water park. Many of the students (and even their teacher chaperone) jumped, splashed, and even slipped n’ slid in all of the puddles new temporary ponds. It was the very definition of fun.
All in all, we had a wonderful time hosting the GRCHS team. It was a great group to kick off the new year, and we are so excited to have made a connection with a new community. Thank you to each and every member of the GRCHS outreach team. We are so grateful for the marks you left on campus and on our hearts. We are excited to see how God continues to build our newfound relationship in the years to come.