South Africa was the first country that Leslie traveled to for missions work and is where God opened her heart to missions as a calling. Her first trip in 2007 was as a short-term mission trip with her church for two weeks. Later she returned to South Africa for three months, and upon returning home, the pastor of the church in South Africa asked her to return and continue working with them. She stayed for two years.

During her time there, she worked on a variety of projects in an HIV/AIDS hospice, children’s home, and disabled children’s center. While her time in the hospice and disabled center was focused on nutrition, she spent most of her time helping in the children’s home.

For the hospice and disabled center, she wrote meal plans and educated the staff on nutrition to support the health needs of the population. She also educated HIV/AIDS patients on nutrition to support their immune system. She went on home visits with the nursing staff for outpatient care, which included not only nutrition education but also emotional and physical care of patients. Through the health work of the hospice and community health events, Leslie also taught the community on broad nutrition topics.

In the children’s home, Leslie spent her time building relationships with the children. She helped out as any household member would, with taking children to their many appointments throughout the week, arranging special outings and social events for the children, connecting the children’s home with donors and short-term trip goers, helping kids with homework, and playing with the children.

These were very formative years for Leslie on her journey to become a professional in international community development and mission work. She learned a lot through these years: navigating cultural differences, community development principles of contextualizing programs, working with communities on projects rather than doing it for them, and the pain that can come with building dependency instead of giving leverage.

Leslie looks back on her time in South Africa as one with as much importance to her learning experience as both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Without her time there, she would not have developed the heart for cross-cultural work that she has today.