Kwaggas!

(Apologies to the regular readers of this blog. You may note that it has been a whole year since the last blog posting. Lisa Poll has not been in a coma after falling off a zipline, nor suffered from amnesia from brain eating parasites, nor did she adopt 10 special needs children who leave her no time to write. However she does have a medical/ethical justification. She needed to quit cold turkey an addiction to approval on social media. It never occurred to her that people might notice she wasn’t writing and become worried…)

What a year it has been! Partnered with 8 schools to host 4 PLAY camps with over 220 kids attending and 120 children choosing to be baptised, hosted 4 groups of visitors from 4 different churches, was offered a permanent home for PLAY and mission teams planned to come develop the property, then dream died and mission teams cancelled when it turned out the generous property owner lied about actually owning the property, and finally found myself in a less than favorable living situation due to that fall out. It has been a roller coaster of a year but with God at the control panel and my safety bar firmly in place, I can keep my hands in the air and just woo hoo at the thrill of the ride. It’s all part of the plan.

I woke up one morning a couple weeks ago with this strange word in my head. Kwaggas. I couldn’t stop saying it but I didn’t know what it meant, why it was in my head, or even what language it was. I had never heard it before so where did this word come from?  A Google search revealed a place called Kwagga’s Pride – a guest house in a game reserve 45 minutes outside Pretoria, further out the same road I currently live on. I felt God wanted me to go check it out, but why? Was it a possible camp venue, mission team lodging, a place for me to live?  I needed all of the above!

On my drive to Kwagga’s Pride, I passed zebra, wildebeest, impala, gemsbok, ostrich, to get to the guesthouse. It was definitely not a camp venue – no adventure activities or lodging for 60 kids. It would make nice lodging for a mission team but why would I put them up so far away from me? I asked the manager, “Do you have a long term rental for me to live in?” He said no, but the lady next door might. “Is that still within Kwaggas?” I asked. Kwaggasdrift is the private game reserve that we were inside of. He said yes, so off I went.

When I pulled up, an older lady walked outside and peered at me suspiciously.  “Can I help you?”

“Do you have a place to rent?”

“Why yes, I do. But how did you hear about it? I gave up on finding a tenant and stopped advertising 9 months ago.”

"God told me to come check it out."

Turns out Kwagga means zebra in Afrikaans, I had no idea

So I am moving!  I am renting a one bedroom cottage behind the lovely home of a lovely lady in a game reserve. The place is quieter, safer, cheaper, and actually has screens on a window or two! It is walking distance to the guest house so there is somewhere for mission teams to stay when they come. There is room to store all the PLAY camp supplies. And did I mention I wake up in the morning, look out my window, and see giraffes?  When you put yourself in His hands, what an adventure you shall have!

Monday is moving day and I am blessed with friends to help me. When I was giving directions to the new place, my friend asked if it was before or after the spot in the road where the baboons always cross. Gotta love living in a place where the landmarks are animal migration patterns!

I never dreamed I'd be living in a game reserve in Africa but God knew the desires of my heart. This has become my new battle cry, my call to faith, my reminder of prayers answered. Like Kathy Bates would yell Towanda… I say Kwaggas!