The past four weeks have been some of the busiest of my life. Not only were we trying to finish up school, and get prepared to leave for Zimbabwe, but we also had the amazing blessing of getting the EXV dance crew sponsored over here to Canada!
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| Arriving at the airport |
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Welcome to Canada!!
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The five guys traveled here with our mom, our brother, and their choreographer/co-founder of LGTH, Adonis. They were here for just under three weeks, and got more done than I could have imagined. Those guys worked so incredibly hard, danced with such passion and skill, and touched the heart of every single person they came across. The trip was busy and stressful (and had a lot of young screaming & crying girls... who knew a dance team from the ghettos of Zimbabwe would turn out to be as popular as One Direction?), but it was so rewarding, and the guys literally had the time of their lives.
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| Erin with the team at White Rock: (L-R) Trickstar, Brendon, Spyro; Treasure & Manu |
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| Performing at Pacific Academy |
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-18 degree temperature at the top of Whistler, and still laughing :)
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Not only did EXV get to share their skill and stories with hundreds of people, but they also experienced several firsts, including flying in a plane, seeing the ocean, and playing in snow (not to mention the fact that none of them had ever left Africa before). Despite the barely organized chaos, I feel so blessed to be a part of this ministry, and to have come to know these five guys better over the past couple of weeks.
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| Seeing the ocean for the first time |
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| Lots of snow in Whistler!! |
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| On the Peak to Peak, and a little nervous |
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| EXV's last performance in Canada (for now!) |
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| Sending us off at church |
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They weren't excited to go, but they were excited that it snowed on their last morning in Canada!
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The guys and our family have left now (on Monday night), and Megan and I are following them tonight. Probably one of the hardest things I experienced during their trip (and hearing the guys' stories multiple times is heartbreaking; none of them come from remotely good backgrounds) was seeing their faces on the last day in Canada. Apart from some excitement at the fact that it snowed overnight, the mood was very low. I came downstairs in the morning to find one of the guys sitting by the window, staring at the snow, and crying; he didn't want to "leave this beautiful country" and all the people he had met here.
For these guys it isn't merely going home after a fun holiday; they experienced things here that they had never seen before, and stayed in beautiful homes beyond anything they've ever dreamt of. One of the guys on the team said that the thing he noticed the most was how clean everything was, saying that it felt as if they were "living in a movie," because these things just don't happen to them in real life. So after all of this, all of the cleanliness, and food, and love that was showered down on them, to go back to life in the ghetto must just seem unfathomable. My heart breaks for them. But we all agreed when they were leaving at the airport: Now that they've been here, they're going to work even harder than ever to come back. So life goes on, and Extreme Vision Dance Group will continue to pursue their vision, and dance their way out of the cycle of poverty that so much of their country is stuck in.
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| EXV for life! |
And on that note, I have to go to buy a toothbrush now, because we're leaving for the airport in an hour and my toothbrush is nowhere to be found.
Please pray for the team and our mom & Josh as they finish their extremely long journey with a 16 hour drive. And please pray for Megan and I as we begin our 30+ hour trip, and are reunited as a family again in the beautiful country of Zimbabwe!
