South Africa November 2025

 by Cammy Brantzeg I love mission trips for the stories.  It is through the stories that I get to know the people.  The fact that they trust me enough to share their stories with me is humbling.   The "Dance Inside Me God" story is Tony's story and it gives me joy to share it.  On our last Friday, we went to the Mosaic afterschool program.  I brought some crafts from the US for the kids to make.  Ornaments for all the kids and then beaded candy canes for the younger kids and beads to make bracelets for the older kids.  They don't have access to the fun crafts that we have in the US so I try to bring something new down for them when I visit with mission trip teams. The bracelet making was a fun time of singing, dancing and the kids being creative making unique one of a kind bracelets. Tony noticed the teen boy with the bracelet pictured above.  "Dance Inside Me God".  What a joyful creative phrase!  This boy dances with the gumb...

by Joan Kaiser We have returned from South Africa and I'm still having difficulty writing a blog. It was an amazing and eye-opening journey filled with many emotions. It was truly overwhelming at times, and I still feel like I'm processing so much. Some of the things that struck me the most were: The People The people who work and volunteer at Mosaic, Ma's vir Wellington, Avodah, and in the community, are truly awe inspiring! Their level of warmth and selflessness is beyond compare. They're definitely making a difference in the lives of the people they serve. When we were at Cornel's home there was a chalkboard on the wall with this quote, "The little things matter. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. What is in your hands." These wonderful people are certainly doing something and are amazing role models for us all! The Poverty It is really difficult to wrap your head around the poverty and seeing it firsthand. There were moments that ...

by Cammy Brantzeg At church in South Africa on November 9th, the title of the sermon was A Beautiful Mess: The Man/Women, The Mess, The Mission .  The phrase A Beautiful Mess has stuck with me since that sermon.  We made bracelets at the afterschool program on Friday with the older kids and I was given a visual representation of what A Beautiful Mess looked like.   .    After the kids and staff made their bracelets, I spoke to Sazi, the manager of the Mosaic afterschool program.  I noticed that he didn't have time to make a bracelet for himself so I asked him what colors he would like and he said rainbow.  My first thought after he said rainbow was all the leftover beads from when the kids made their bracelets.  We gathered all the leftover beads when the kids were done and they ended up in the Ziploc bag pictured.   A Beautiful Mess came to mind after I made Sazi his bracelet.  It turned a mess of leftover beads into somethin...