A Beautiful Journey
Untold’s newest region in Johannesburg, South Africa hosted their very first Impact Trip, and it was truly a special one. It was the last Impact Trip hosted by Justin Miller as Untold’s CEO and the first Impact Trip for Experience Coordinator, Abby Armstrong. Read along to share in their reflections and underlying desire for the same thing— a life beyond AIDS for our clients.
This recent trip to South Africa was my last Impact Trip as CEO of Untold. I led my first group of partners to Kenya in June of 2008 — and now, 18 years and roughly 75 trips later, something is ending — a graduation of sorts.
The graduation at the Zandspruit center was the culmination of our trip. When we started Untold — still CARE for AIDS, eyes fixed on a handful of communities in Kenya — South Africa wasn't even part of the vision. And yet there we were.
In some ways, the ceremony felt exactly like every graduation before it: the same mixture of grief and gratitude I first witnessed with our 1,000th graduate, then our 5,000th, and now as we approach 60,000. It looked like every graduation I'd attended. It felt like none of them.
But whatever I was carrying into that room, the day wasn't about me. It was about 77 people who finished — who showed up, month after month, and completed the program. And it was about three others who didn't make it to the stage, who passed away in the course of those nine months. Every one of them a reminder of why this work exists: so that people can experience a flourishing life beyond AIDS.
I found myself identifying with our clients in a new way. The program they've trusted, the community that has held them — it doesn't disappear, but it does change form. The rhythms shift. Some relationships won't carry forward the same way. But you know what's possible ahead, so you joyfully step into it.
One of the clients shared her testimony, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about what she said: "It's been a beautiful journey. I'm very, very sad that it actually has to come to an end, but I believe that it's not coming to an end, but it's just going forward from here onward.”
She said it better than I could.
Justin Miller, Co-Founder and CEO
Impact Trip Count: 75+
If I could summarize my first Untold graduation experience in two words, it would be these: undignified joy!
Having gotten to spend the previous day befriending our beneficiaries and hearing the stories of these unsung heroes in their homes and throughout the community of Zandspruit made the whole celebration come to life. We had learned about their passions, met their families, sat at their tables and ate off of their plates, and listened to them testify of God’s faithfulness in their life. Because they had so generously shared a piece of their life with us, celebrating them was the easiest thing in the world.
My favorite part of the ceremony was, after the graduates had received their certificates, they started flooding the aisles and dancing around the whole room. A woman, mom, sister, and now my friend — KB — grabbed my hand and paraded me around the room with her as joy leaked out of her from all sides. As I sat (and stood and sang and danced!) in that room, I reflected on the fact that, for these graduates, this ceremony isn’t the end – it’s the beginning. This is their launching pad – into new friendships, new businesses, new senses of confidence, new relationships with Jesus for some, new church communities, new hope, new life for their family, etc.
My hope for each of the men and women who graduated that day is that because they had the courage to step into the Untold program, their community would begin to experience healing, wholeness, and restoration – that heaven would touch earth in Zandspruit because of the faithfulness of the community of courageous, driven, joyous men and women we got to come around and celebrate that day.
Abby Armstrong, Experience Coordinator
Impact Trip Count: 1