The Unbelievable Adventure To TLC!

Well.. what can I say? The past three months have been the most rewarding, challenging and craziest times of my life! When I arrived home from helping out in a township in Johannesburg in 2016 I was immediately looking for somewhere else to volunteer, but knew that I probably wouldn't be able to go anywhere abroad until I was 18 so being a teenager I gave up and stopped looking.
I have grown up in a large family so knew I always wanted children but felt a massive pull in my heart for adoption so I began looking up adoption videos on youtube when I came across this wonderful Lady's story! I rewatched her story around 7 times before I felt a connection to what she was really saying, so I found her on Facebook and messaged her asking where about's she had volunteered in Africa. Her answer was totally unexpected! Johannesburg?! Well... I was shocked this is where my heart has been pulled towards since a mission trip in 2012. Then she mentioned that it was The Love of Christ  Children's home where she volunteered. I have grown up in a christian family since I was a baby so this made me extremely happy. I instantly did my research and that evening I began sending emails to TLC asking if I could volunteer in January 2019 as I would then be 18 and would have finished my college eduction.

So I carried on with normal day to day activities in the uk and booked up my next mission trip in 2018. I then started college doing health and social care in September but unfortunately only 6 days in to it my teacher quit so I began looking for different courses and jobs. One evening I was sat in my lounge when a friend came round and mentioned an email so I thought I should check when my job interview was booked for, for the next day when an email came through from TLC. This was the most amazing email I have ever received! "would you like to come and volunteer at our Children's home as we are extremely short of volunteers for over the christmas period" I jumped up and ran round the house excited, emotional but mostly overwhelmed by the offer. So I messaged them back straight away explaining that I only just turned 17 not expecting them to actually let me help. After three days of constantly checking my phone and emails being passed back and forth they sent the final email saying they would love for me to travel and volunteer. So from the first email to the day I arrived at TLC it was only a short 21 days to get vaccinations, affidavits, flights and pack!

So after an 11 hours flight with my Dad (as I'm too young to travel to Africa on my own) we sorted out the hire car and started driving towards TLC. There were small miscommunications about not knowing exactly where it was but we finally started to get closer. We knew we were close because of the sat nav on Dad's phone. Suddenly we both went silent whilst taking in the surroundings, we looked at each other and realised exactly where we where! We where at Jacksons..... The preschool in the township that we had painted in 2012 with the mission team from our church in the UK! I was completely overwhelmed as this was less than 2 mins away from TLC the place I had no information about and the place I thought was in the middle of nowhere was actually only 2 minutes away from where I was volunteering in 2012!

This was only the beginning of my unbelievable adventure in Johannesburg....