The First Week

Today marks my ninth day of being back in this incredible city, and I am loving every minute of it. I feel like I’m truly starting to settle in and get into the swing of things. My first week of work went very well! It’s always a little overwhelming being the “new” one, but everyone has been so welcoming and has helped make me feel right at home.

My first big task will be mapping out a media communications strategy for the Foundation. They haven’t ever had anyone on staff to focus primarily on communications. There are many aspects of that area that they have been wanting to do for a while, but they haven’t been able to because of a lack of time and resources. Although many people from the church communications team help out when they can, the Foundation has been in need of someone to put a lot of effort into that area. I’m SO excited to be here to help! I’ll also be getting out of the office from time to time and participating in the many projects the Foundation has started in and around the city. I did some of that this week and am already blown away by the incredible things that God is doing here.

Everyone in this church is so passionate and on fire for the Lord. It is such an encouraging environment to be in, and I am continuously being inspired by stories I hear and conversations I have with people about the ways God is working in and through their lives. 

I haven’t had the chance to do very much exploring yet, but I went the Old Biscuit Mill with several other Foundation interns on Saturday. I would describe it as a large, vibrant outdoor market with a wide variety of goods including food, crafts, clothes, instruments, and so much more. I had been told by multiple people to go check it out, and I’m very glad I did! It was fantastic experience. To the right are a couple of pictures from the day!

Sundays are a full day of work for us, so we have Mondays and Saturdays off. This week, healing evangelist Andrew Kabala was the guest pastor at church. He held several healing services throughout the week and at each of the five services on Sunday. Having grown up in a very traditional church, I’ll be honest that attending those was a very new and different experience. I hadn’t ever witnessed God work through someone with the spiritual gift of healing before. An incredible amount of people were touched by God, and it was a very powerful and moving week in the church.

He also took some time to preach on the topic of healing, and one particular question he asked really caused me to do a lot of personal reflection. “Where do you go with your problems? Is He the first one you take them to?”

Psalms 121 says: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

I think, without really realizing it, it can be easy to look many places for answers before we go to God. We’re used to going to doctors, teachers, counselors, parents, friends, etc., for the various types of problems that we are having in our lives. We think we need to be doing or seeing something tangible in order to solve those problems and get results. However, the first thing we should do with our problems is take them to Him. We should allow Him to work and do something about it.

During one of the services Andrew said, “Don’t forget He’s real. You can’t believe in healing unless you really believe in Him. He is real. He is big. He has the ability to do what is required in your life.”

I’m challenging myself to truly go to Him and 

make Him a priority in every struggle or challenge that I might come to face, including those that I generally try to fight on my own.

Side note: To all of my fellow KU fans out there, I am still mourning the loss against Wichita State on Sunday. That would have been a great one to win. Interestingly, I actually watched it with someone I had just met the day before who also is a KU fan and is originally from Kansas. What are the odds of that? 

Settling In

My first few days here in Cape Town have flown by so quickly! I wish the two days it took to get here would have gone by just as fast. I had a quick flight from Wichita to Chicago, a six hour layover there, an eight hour flight to London, another six hour layover there and then finally a 12 hour flight to Cape Town. Both long ones were overnight flights. Everything went very smoothly, and the flights were all on time. I don't have any complaints in that area. However, me + attempting to sleep + planes = bad news. I probably got about three hours of sleep total on all flights combined and was pretty exhausted and thankful to be there when I arrived.

My host was there to pick me up when I got in! For at least the first month I'm here, I'm staying with a young family from church - Keilah and Stefan and their little baby boy Hunter. They are so awesome! Keilah showed me around the neighborhood, drove me home, and then I was able to get a few hours of sleep. I was very thankful for that!

Later that afternoon, Marcy (who works both at Epiventure and Hillsong) came to pick me up for my orientation and tour of the neighborhood. I'm staying in Sunset Beach, which is located outside of the main city area and only a two minute walk from the water! Being from Kansas, the ocean isn't something I see too much of, and I am so excited for what I'm sure will be many evening walks along the beach. This is such a beautiful place! Here's a photo I just took this evening. 

Yesterday (Sunday) was full of more exploring, learning my way around the city and meeting new faces! I attended a service at Hillsong in the evening, and I can't even explain how amazing it felt to be back. I know God is everywhere, but for some reason, I feel so close to Him here. Although everything is still new and a little overwhelming, I felt such a sense of peace and comfort and knew that this is exactly where He wants me to be right now. :)

Today I slept in and then went to explore the main mall and Century City area with Keilah. The mall is located right across the street from church. It is about a 20 minute bus ride from where I'm staying. For now, I'll be using the bus (the safest and most reliable form of public transportation here) to get around. However, I am considering renting a car to free myself up more while I'm here. That would involve leaning to drive on the opposite side of the car and road, so we'll see if I decide I'm both brave and talented enough to make that happen! 

I start work tomorrow! I can't wait to meet everyone and start figuring out exactly what kinds of things I'll be doing as part of the team. :) 

I'm here!!!

Hey everyone!!

I just wanted to write a quick post to say that I have FINALLY arrived in Cape Town and am already falling in love all over again. 

After two very long days of travel, I got here Saturday morning around 7 a.m. Cape Town is seven hours ahead of U.S. central time, so that would have been midnight in Kansas. I had this absolutely beautiful sunrise welcome!!

More will come soon! I just wanted to quickly let everyone know that I have arrived and thank you all again for your prayers and support. :)

Further Delays

Hey everyone, 

I wish I was writing this from Cape Town to tell you I made it and have started to settle in. Unfortunately, I am still in Kansas. God sure works in mysterious ways! 

I woke up on Thursday morning with a red rash on my face and decided to get it checked out before heading to the airport to catch my flight. I actually had been struggling with it for a few days and had already been to the doctor to have them look at it. Thursday morning was about the worst it had been. After running several tests, they diagnosed me with a skin infection they think was caused out of a sinus infection that I have also been dealing with for the last month or so. It is not contagious, but they advised me to wait for three days to a week to travel in order to make sure it clears up before I go. 

I've never had anything like this before and honestly didn't even know it could happen! It is frustrating, and I am definitely anxious to be on my way. But I think God must have been watching over me with my flights being canceled Wednesday. If they hadn't been, this would have happened while I was on my way to Cape Town instead of at home. And that would have been much worse. 

Amazingly, after being on hold for hours with American Airlines, I was able to connect with an incredible international agent that helped me reschedule my flights for next Thursday and waived ALL change fees. Normally, you have to go through the process of canceling your initial reservation, booking a new one for full price, and then trying to send in a doctor's note and fill out a refund request with the refund department. Even then, you usually only get refunded the price of the initial ticket and still have to pay any extra fees for the difference in ticket prices. With how much ticket prices had gone up and because I was would have been booking a trip only a week in advance, a new trip would have been almost twice as much as my initial reservation. That means, even with a refund, I would have had to pay the initial price all over again. I've gone through the process before, and it is not fun! I have no idea why that agent decided to waive all change fees without even seeing a doctor's note, but I am so, so thankful. If any of you are ever connected with Carrie from American Airlines, you lucked out! 

Now all that is left is to get better. My doctor is pretty confident that I'll be well enough to fly out on Thursday. With how everything worked out with rescheduling my flight, I am pretty confident as well. Although it is super disappointing not to be there already, I do want to be healthy when I arrive. And, for some reason, God wants me to wait a little bit longer. Prayers for a quick recovery would be much appreciated! 

Thank you all, so much!

If anyone is interested, this is an aerial view of the Century City area of Cape Town. The red oval I drew is approximately where the Hillsong Africa Foundation is located and where I'll be working. :) 

Photo courtesy of: http://centurycity.co.za/

Canceled Flights

I woke up this morning to a voice message informing me that my flight to Dallas had been canceled due to weather and that I had been given a completely new itinerary and re-booked on a flight leaving tomorrow. That was not exactly what I wanted to hear on the morning I am supposed to leave! After being on hold with American Airlines for about an hour and a half, I finally was able to speak to a representative. They weren't able to guarantee that I would be able to get a flight out today and still catch my connecting flight in London, so I decided to stick with the re-booked flights for tomorrow. It was a bit of a stressful morning!

I'm now scheduled to leave Wichita around 2 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, and I'll be flying to London from Chicago instead of Dallas. My total travel time will be about the same, and I'll now arrive in Cape Town around 7 a.m. on Saturday.

This is a slight hiccup in travel plans, but hey, I'll still get there!!

It Starts Tomorrow!

I can't believe I'll be on my way to Cape Town tomorrow! These couple of months since graduation have flown by, and I am so excited for this journey to begin!

The most difficult part of preparing to leave during this last week has been packing. Even though I'll have plenty of access to things I'll need while I'm there, I still found myself having a hard time eliminating things. I probably re-packed and switched suitcases about five times over the course of three days. With a lot of much-appreciated help from my mother, I was finally able to fit six months worth of things into two bags that are both under 50 lbs., which is the baggage weight limit on most airlines. Success!

My first flight leaves Wichita tomorrow afternoon around 3 p.m. I have a quick flight to Dallas, an overnight to London and then another overnight to Cape Town. That will be about 22 hours of flight time and 35 hours of total travel time including layovers in airports. I'm not exactly looking forward to that, but I'm hoping I'll find a way to get some sleep on the planes. (Based on past experience, that probably won't go so well. But one can hope, right?) 

I'll officially arrive in Cape Town on Friday at 10 a.m. local time. They're about 7 hours ahead of U.S. central time, so that will be about 3 a.m. here. 

I forgot to mention this in earlier posts, but this email address - emilyjuhnke@gmail.com - probably will be the best way to contact me while I'm there. 

I absolutely cannot wait to arrive and meet the people I'll be living and working with! Thank you all, again, for your prayers, support and encouragement. :)

Eleven Words

A reflection on where I've been, where I'm at, and where I hope to go

Ephesians 2:4-5 says: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

My spiritual life used to consist of checking things off a list. Go to church every Sunday? Check. Participate in service trips with my youth group? Check. Pray for someone? Check. Help out with Vacation Bible School? Check. I enjoyed doing those things, but I also had a sense of having to do them in order to be a ‘good Christian.’

I was, very much, just going through the motions. When someone would ask me about my faith, my answer was rehearsed and memorized. I had it down. I said what I thought they probably wanted to hear. How could I be honest with others about the way I was feeling when I didn’t even want to admit it to myself? I knew something was missing. A lot was missing. Christianity couldn’t possibly just be about fighting to have the most checked boxes and acting as though you have it all together. But I didn’t know where to turn.

I continued that way for a very long time. I hid all of my doubts, fears, and shame from everyone, including myself. Every time I attempted to get out of that place or just push all those thoughts aside, I would come right back to the same general conclusion – keep doing, keep trying – you’ll get there eventually. I thought that, perhaps, if I did enough ‘good’ then maybe someday I would finally feel like God loved and accepted me.

Perhaps this mindset partly came from the fact that many of the things that hold a certain value in my life have been earned through hard work and following a set of standards. These include my grades, acknowledgement from professors and colleagues, scholarships, my college degree, previous jobs, and various academic and professional awards. I had to prove myself. Perseverance and hard work = achievement. Right?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I accepted Christ about two years ago at Hillsong Church in Cape Town. When Pastor Phil Dooley was sharing the message of the gospel in his sermon that morning, 11 simple words he said changed everything for me.

“Stop trying so hard. You don’t have to be good enough.”

In that moment, it finally made sense. I was trying to earn a love that doesn’t need to be earned.

I’m not saying that living a life driven by the gospel is easy and won’t come with its own set of hard work and challenges. Sometimes it will. You’ll probably have to get uncomfortable. But God’s love, mercy, and grace don’t have to be earned. They are gifts from God given to us through Christ. Our sins were forgiven and our slates wiped clean when Christ suffered and died on the cross in our place.  

Psalm 103:12 - “…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

J.D. Greear writes in his book, "Gospel," “The gospel turns religion upside down. The gospel assures us of God’s acceptance, given to us as a gift earned by Christ’s worthiness, not ours” (36). He later continues, “Jesus’ death paid for every ounce of your sin; His perfect life has now been credited to you.” … “Christ’s obedience is so spectacular there is nothing we could do to add to it; His death so final that nothing could take away from it” (48).  

When I truly stop to let all of that sink in, the weight of it is overwhelming. It’s hard to even begin to comprehend that kind of everlasting and unconditional love, and I probably won't ever fully be able to. But out of the realization of what Christ has done for me has grown a passion to offer and live my life for Him.

The idea of ‘failure’ and needing to be ‘good enough’ is an aspect of my faith that I still struggle with. I think my tendency to worry about and overthink so many things in my life plays a large part in that.  At times, when I fall short and make mistakes, I find myself pulling away from God when I should be doing the exact opposite. It’s like I’m still worried that someday I’ll slip up just enough for Him to draw the line. But His grace is bigger than all of my sins, weaknesses, and failures. He’s bigger than yours, too. He is bigger than all of it. I know that there isn’t anything I can do that will ever weaken or strengthen His love, and if I want to live a life dedicated to Christ, I can’t be unsure or doubtful of that.

A life dedicated to Christ.

What exactly does that mean? What does it look like? This has been another topic of reflection as I’m preparing to go South Africa.

Written in large letters across one of the walls of the church I attend in Topeka is - “We exist to make Jesus real to the world.”

Mark 16:15 – “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”

When it comes down to it, we are here to love God, love one another with Christ-like love, and seek the ways God wants to use us to further His Kingdom here on Earth. We are to be His disciples. We each have been blessed with unique talents, spiritual gifts, and life situations, so this probably looks differently for each and every one of us. But ultimately, I think, that’s what we’re here to do.

It is far too easy for to me to lose sight of this, become “too busy,” or get sidetracked by various distractions, temptations, and my own selfish wants and desires. I don’t always chase after Him and His plans for my life as much as I should or as much as I want to. This is something I will strive to keep at the forefront of my mind during my time in South Africa and beyond. I know He has plans for me there, and I hope I’m both open and brave enough to go after them.

We all have a purpose. We all have a place. In Him we will find it.  

Matthew 16:24-25  – “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

John 13:34 - “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

A photo I took before the service at Hillsong on Good Friday.