Welcome to this week’s edition of the Five Minute Friday writing prompt link-up!
If you’re new here, you can learn more about the link-up and how it works here.
Also: Be sure to join the FMF email list here so you don’t miss out on any fun announcements or resources for writers!
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: TWENTY
Setting a timer for five minutes, and . . . GO.Â
This past week marked twenty years since my initial arrival in Cape Town, South Africa. TWENTY YEARS! I posted the following on Instagram to mark the occasion:
Two decades ago, I left my home in West Michigan to travel alone across the Atlantic for what I thought would be a semester overseas.
I was fresh out of Bible college a month away from my 21st birthday, and I thought I was going to teach students in Africa about the Bible. Instead, the country of South Africa and her people taught me more than I ever thought possible and left an indelible mark on my soul.
In the 10+ years I lived in Cape Town I laughed hard, cried hard, climbed mountains, passed through valleys, and everything in between.
I made countless mistakes and have just as many regrets, but I also received countless expressions of grace, love, welcome, and forgiveness.
I thought I was going there to give, but instead I was given more than my heart can hold.
And if you don’t believe me that it’s been twenty years, yes, that is an actual camcorder in my hand in the next photo. As you can see, I thought I was the coolest.
STOP.Â
+++
Don’t miss these
TWO FREE CLASSES
TikTok 101: How to Make the Most of the Powerful Social Media Platform
Tuesday, July 12th at 11am EST
Affiliate links used in this post
+++
with Writing Coach Ann Kroeker
Wednesday, July 20th at 11am EST
Recording available afterwards to those who register
+++
Join the link-up with your own five-minute freewrite, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment:Â
I recognized The Table instantly. Thanks for that memory!
Twenty years have come and gone
since the day we said I Do,
but it doesn’t seem so long
even with all we’ve been through.
Illness and a bankruptcy,
car wreck like a NASCAR tweet,
people who say they can’t see
why we’d marry, even meet!
But the Lord God has a plan,
and it’s far worse than we had feared,
to match a woman to a man
in union that is just plain weird,
improbable and strange conjunctions
but for the fact, that yeah, it functions.
When God interrupts our plans things always exceed anything that we could have thought or dreamed.
How wonderful! I’m sure you made a difference to the community you live in!
Love the photos and the story of you in your twenties! Fond memories of those years for me too! Probably the best decade of my life thus far. I peaked then I think! 🙂 Happy Friday! Have a good weekend Kate.
Love,
Jennifer K Cook
Jennifer, your Granaries of the Canyon video is really cool!
Couldn’t find a way to like or comment, so I’ll do it here. Hope no-one minds.
I stood at the Canyon Grand,
a sight one shouldn’t miss,
and there I came to understand,
“Someone’s fired for this.”
Sometimes with a backhoe
you can go too far,
and voila!, before you know
it, there’s a giant scar
when more than the overburden
has been scraped away,
and I am thus quite really certain
that what we see today
shows that diligence, as such,
can sometimes be just too darn much.
Thanks for sharing your pictures! I’ve enjoyed reading “A Place to Land,” and this was a fun reminder of your wonderful God story!
Lovely to see the photos of what sounds like a real adventure. Thank you for sharing them.
I love seeing these photos! Your smile full of hope and adventure. You were so brave! I’m guessing you still are! God took me to WV to meet my husband. Pretty sure I’d still be single if mine awaited me in South Africa! (I am not brave!😉)
Love this Kate.