Kruger National Park

This past weekend.. 4:30 in the morning.. we loaded up three cars to head to Kruger National Park, cameras and snacks in hand and with high hopes of seeing elephants, leopards, giraffes and maybe even a lion ;) The drive there was filled with much anticipation and expectation believing and praying that we would see some pretty crazy things :) I watched the pinks and oranges of the sunrise slowly peak over the horizon as the beauty around us began to light up. We pulled in, checked in, got our maps and we were off! The park is three times the size of Switzerland and takes about 17 hours to cross the entire thing. Its a massive region filled with animals, buffalo grass, waterholes, and rest-stops. We decided to split up and go our own way so we could cover more land. It felt like a giant treasure hunt :) You have your map and you just drive looking for animals. Our eyes were glued to the windows searching amongst the buffalo grass for any movement.. my dear teammate sarah hooked us up with some African tunes on her Ipod to provide a lovely soundtrack for the day..and our driver, my teammate Melissa, was certain that we could see the big cats haha.. I don't think she would leave until she did :) 

We first spotted Impalas which were EVERYWHERE and they were exciting but then they just became annoying because the grass would rustle, getting you all excited, just to see yet another Impala jump out haha. Some of the main roads you could drive were paved and others were dirt roads taking you back into waterholes or through the trees and across rivers. I think my two most exciting parts of the day were seeing a lion and elephant. At first I could care less wether I left seeing a lion but it was probably one of the coolest things ever :D :D We were driving down the road and saw a pile of of cars, knowing there must be a pretty cool animal spotted. We maneuvered our car into the group and asked some kids in front of us with binoculars what they saw. They said there was a female, male and lion cubs!! We freaked out and stretched ourselves as far out the window as we could. We saw the cubs little ears sticking up through the grass and playfully fighting each other. The Lioness then stood up and looked us right in the eyes. It was the coolest thing she was so fierce haha. The car in front of us had a better view of the male.. or as I like to call him.. Mufasa ;) and they wanted to see the female better, so we switched spots with their car. You could see his mane sticking up a little but everyone was waiting for when he would stand up. Then the moment came. Oh my goodness I can't even express how cool it was. He was so huge! and he just sat up starred us down for a few seconds.. our cameras clicking away.. and then he got up and walked back into the wilderness. It was the COOLEST thing ever! I was shaking in excitement afterwards :) :) My pictures turned out crappy but the memory was more worth it :) My second favorite thing was seeing the elephants! They are so massive and so powerful yet so chill. Seeing the herds walking through the tall grass down along the river was so beautiful. One time we got pretty close to one and I pushed my self out the window, sitting on the door trying to capture his magnificent beauty. All the while thinking any minute he could come and charge at me haha.

God's beauty reigned over that place that day. His creativity in the perfectly stripped zebras, his strength and power in the lions. The country holds incredible amounts of beauty. My friend Dawn said it well, we are so amazed and in awe by the magestic beauty being portrayed in these powerful wild animals. How much more more do we, being created in the same family as them, in the same image as Him, have that ability in US. But..do we portray that kind of beauty. Does the spirit and image of God manifest in us in such a way that people cant help but notice and see it. 

  


Our car spotted countless animals that day including rhinos, 
monkeys, a baboon, elephants, lions, impalas, Pumba warthogs, wildebeest, zebras, hippos, water buffalo, turtles and a croc or alligator. The other cars saw some neat things that we didn't get to see like leopards, cheetahs, giraffes :) We talked to people here who have been to the park many times and never spotted lions. I think between the three of our cars God blessed us and we were able to find lots of sweet animals :) We all enjoyed the day so much and left the park watching the South African sun slowly sink behind the horizon leaving a beautiful glow over the plains. 

Jesus you are so good :) your creation, astounding...