Skip to main content

The Dress Rehearsal (Tuesday)


by Karyn Ross

My time here in South Africa is blessed by spending time with Avodah, a group of young adults with special abilities. The unconditional love, joy, light, and love of life they possess is truly inspiring!  

Thursday we will be celebrating them at Reach for the Stars, an event where they will be dress up, walk the red carpet, dance and dine together with friends and family! We want them to feel beautiful and special just the way we all see them! Well today we had a dress rehearsal for this event. We got them dressed in their clothes complete with glitter body spray for the girls and cologne for the boys. They looked amazing as they glittered and sparkled, and we announced each one of them as they walked across an empty room and bare floor where a red carpet and close to 100 guests will be in two days. We wanted to practice, to get it right on the big day. As I watched them twirl and smile and laugh together, I realized that to them this was not a dress rehearsal. They didn’t realize or care that in two days it would be the “real thing“. They live each day with joy, they love with wild abandon, expecting nothing in return. It got me thinking, life is not a dress rehearsal. We only get one run through and we need to make it our best. We need to live each day as if it were our last. We need to love each other, forgive each other, be kind and live in the moment! It was truly a magical day and although I am sure when Thursday arrives, I have no doubt it will be amazing, I cannot imagine that room being filled with more love and sparkle than it was today!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Last Day (Monday)

 by Cammy Brantzeg Monday, November 18th was our last day in South Africa.  Our team stopped by the Mosaic house to take pictures with the workers, Mosaic staff and Mosaic mothers before we started our reflection time.  As you can see the roof is on but windows and doors still need to be added.  The inside of the house still needs to be finished but a lot was accomplished in a little over a week. After saying goodbye to everyone, our team headed to the Andrew Murray Center for Spirituality to spend a little time reflecting about our time spent in South Africa and affirming each other.  Meyer and Louise shared some of the history of the center and who Andrew Murray was with the group before taking our team to the donkey bush to pray for us. Our group then had 20-30 minutes to quietly reflect before heading to the chapel for a short 15 minute service.  I headed to the labyrinth to walk a portion of it before our time was up. The chapel is the white building i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Star Power (Thursday)

by Karyn Ross One of the highlights of our trip has been our Reach for the Stars celebration on Thursday.  We gathered along with members of the community, ninety guests in total, to celebrate our Avodah members and their guests.  Avodah is a group of young adults with special abilities.   We spent the days prior to the event practicing songs, trying on their formal clothes and walking the red carpet. On the day of the big event it was all hands on deck, with volunteers and the members themselves all pitching in to help move furniture, decorate the hall, set up tables, media equipment etc. We transformed a simple room with wooden tables and chairs into an enchanted fairy land!  There was a velvet couch with sparkling lights and silver balloons as a backdrop for pictures. There were beautiful centerpieces and table settings and the entryway was flanked with the members’ pictures dressed in their new clothes. There were hundreds of sparkling silver stars and white fair...
Post a Comment
Read more