I arrived at the airport two hours before take off, my heart pounding, bags packed, but with no ticket. I assumed I could approach the counter and tell the airline attendant I wanted the next flight available. I had seen it done in the movies and on TV shows all the time and thought I’d give it a try. I learned the hard way that in reality that’s not actually how it works.
I had been praying for a miracle, I had no money and the flight I was meant to catch was leaving in a couple hours. Phone call after phone call, finally God answered my prayers and before I knew it I was boarding a flight to Cape Town, South Africa.
Landing at the international gate, tears filled my eyes as I was getting ready to see my sister for the first time in a year and a half. Expecting to be greeted with screams of excitement, I watched as others embraced and walked away, leaving me to wait alone.
After wandering around in confusion, it clicked. It’s my sister we’re talking about, here. So I smiled and headed to the domestic gate.
There I saw the back of her dirty blonde, accidentally dreaded hair, the blonde curls of her boyfriend, the beautiful brunette waves of her best friend and a sign that said,
Welcome to Cape Town, Courtney.
We finally saw each other. We screamed. We hugged. We cried. We were in Cape Town.
We were together.
The next seven days were a whirlwind.
Waking up with the sunrise, morning prayer times facing the mountains, cruising the coast, wine tasting in Stellenbosch, hiking Lion’s Head, popping champagne at the summit, surfing for the first time in Muizenberg, market after market after market, making sandwiches for the homeless, assessing students in primary school, attending fundraisers at a salon to raise finances for a safe home, sitting on the Jammy steps with a bottle of red.
Life was full and these memories we made I will never forget.
Cape Town reawakened my heart. It birthed something new within me.
As I reflect back on where I’ve lived and traveled, I begin to see how these places have shaped me. They’ve shown me more of what life is meant to be like. I realize more and more that receiving is a blessing, but giving is where greater joy is found. Full life is a balance of exploring, discovering, and sharing.
No matter my background, culture, or experiences, life is most beautiful when it’s shared. Seeing people’s faces, meeting their gaze, exchanging smiles – whether it’s in the crowds on Long Street, looking across the garden at the Backyard Cafe, greeting the car guards with a kind hello, praying over Cape Town from Chapman’s Peak… we are all people, put on this earth by our Creator, to seek full life and to share it with others.
South Africa took hold of my heart and I have been wearing a ring of that beautiful nation on my right hand to remember the beauty I found there. I knew someday I would be back.
That someday is sooner that I expected.
In a few short weeks I will be traveling back to Cape Town.
That city and culture filled my heart to overflowing and this time I have the blessing to give back. To serve, to volunteer, to love – I will be co-leading a team of ten students, coming together to bring the reality and the truth of full life to the people we have the privilege of meeting.
For five weeks our focus will be on those in communities who are impoverished, trapped in prostitution, and affected by human trafficking. For so many, their reality isn’t beautiful, it has become shattered and broken. In a place where beauty is so prevalent, the statistics seem to say otherwise. Poverty, unemployment, inequality, rape, violence, disease, division are all too real for several South Africans.
We will sit with the homeless on street corners, we will climb mountains and walk miles to raise awareness of the evils of injustice, we will speak to schools and students to educate and advocate, we will keep our eyes and hearts open to every opportunity, every person placed before us. We will explore the culture together, discover the depths of beauty and brokenness together, and share the hope of full life and freedom with others, together.
This story began as a miracle and as I go back, I’m trusting for more.
Together we will overcome.
Cape Town, here we come.
a candle in my carry-on 