After spending 4 weeks in London I have to ask myself: "Was the London experience a trial or a blessing?" To be honest, I still don't know the answer. I do know that London was a challenge on more than one level: spiritually and emotionally.
We arrived early on a cold and wet Friday morning (nothing new for England!) and headed to the SA Congregation's Festival grounds. After pitching our tents we made a team effort and soon pitched all the tents that was needed for the festival. After spending the very wet and stormy night in the tent, we were ready to face all the activities and our fellow South Africans the following day...and of course the mud pools! Through working at different stations, playing touch rugby in the mud, enjoying South African food and music and hearing Afrikaans all over, my heart was longing for South Africa! I have one question that I really want an answer for: "Why are there so many South Africans in London?" After experiencing so many little things that are as close to home as can be, I really want to know what is keeping so many South Africans in the UK.
We spent a about a week with different families and young adults from South Africa. We were blessed during this time with good food, sight seeing tours, a home with a touch of South Africa and many more! We made good friends and I enjoyed visiting different home groups to share our experiences from this year.
I had another two weeks to go in London. It was two weeks that I truly wanted to take up the challenge and to wait upon the Lord. To seek God's heart and will and to wait for answers and guidance about many different things. One of the major issues for me was to know what I have to do next year. I have a list of things that I want to do, but I want to know for sure that it is in God's will before I do it. Sadly, I did not spend as much time in the Word and waiting upon Him as I would've liked to. We are serving a great God and although I didn't give it my all, He still made the effort to show me some of the things that I wanted to know.
The last week in London was a week of blessings. I was blessed with a visit by my mother and we had the opportunity of travelling a bit throught the country. I was blessed by seeing England from another angle and the country side was magnificent!
Was London a trial or a blessing? There was definitely trials and challenges, but there was also blessings. I saw that through the trials and difficult times, if we seek God for guidance, we will have blessings waiting for us.