The Finish Line

My mother and I feel like it was all a dream. On Friday, June 13^th, we held the Princess Shine event that I’ve been planning for the past five weeks. Princess Shine was the special event for the 13 and 14 year olds that I’ve been working with for the past five months. The theme was Psalm 139:14, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made”. The morning of the event, I had this overwhelming sense of peace, which covered my nervousness. Everything needed to fall into place… somehow. All my ducks were in a row, now we just needed fare weather for them to happily float along.

 I awoke at 3:30am that day, and stayed totally awake. Clearly, I had been anticipating this day for some time. We went into CATCH at 10am and began the preparations! I was completely taken aback by all of the volunteers that streamed in and through CATCH to help. Three women showed up in the morning with fresh flowers, table center pieces, wall décor, candles, gift baggies, and pure joy. They just went to work, and I stood amazed. Girls were arriving all day to find their perfect gown. I felt like we dressed 28 girls for their wedding. They would try on several dresses and then with the “chosen one”, their faces light up and they couldn’t hide their smiles. It was a true miracle that each one of these girls found the “perfect dress”. There were 70 dress donations! All day, people were dropping off donations like lotion for the gift baggies. The Beauty Academy showed up on time and we started the makeup process. Really, I just had to “check up” on everything, but it all ran smoothly on its own. 

HOW CUTE ARE THEY? With the leading gentleman - Nkuli

The girls loved taking photos, and the photographer had picture-perfect setting sunlight for the backdrop. Another staff member, which recently got hired again after being laid off, took the four boys in the group under his wing and taught them how to treat the girls like true Princesses. The boys were so proud to fulfill this role. Bowties and sunglasses, they escorted each girl to her seat and served them with a purposeful smile. The DJ arrived and played music that really kicked off the party. They loved dancing, and a few of them came to the front and the rest of the group cheered them on. Before we ate, I got the chance to pray over the girls for their future and being strong courageous women of God. I didn’t even cry, not once! It was such a happy time to spend my last night at CATCH with this group. They’ve taught me a lot over the past five months and I think they’ve challenged me more than I challenged them. At the close of the night, we sang a few South African songs (which they all had perfectly choreographed) and then Taxi’s brought them home individually. The amount of joy I felt overpowered how exhausted I really was.

Icing cuppy cakes for Princess Shine!

The next morning, I went on another 5k Park Run and then packed up and departed for Morgan Bay with Mom. We are staying at a gorgeous resort on the ocean. We made it to Morgan Bay, ate lunch, walked along the beach and then I crashed for two hours. I awoke with a fever and a sick flu-ish feeling. My body suddenly realized how exhausted it was and decided to take over and force me to recuperate. I stayed in bed until supper at 7pm. However, my view overlooked the ocean so besides feeling sick, the laying in bed wasn’t too bad!

I awoke the next morning feeling so refreshed and chilled, the fever and ache was gone. Thank God! This place is a lot “classier” than we thought it would be… each meal place setting includes more knives, forks and spoons than we could actually find use for. I feel like I need to sit up straighter and converse in a British accent. That evening, I finally got to go rock climbing for my first time in South Africa! Today is Father’s Day! Mom and I wrote “Happy Father’s Day” in the sand for Dad. It’s going to be wonderful to see him again in a couples days.