The Day I Met Crystal Paine in South Africa!

I know a number of my readers follow Money Saving Mom and were super-excited to hear that I would be traveling with Crystal Paine in South Africa. You have shown me so much love and support, and flooded me with wonderful questions about what it was like to meet Crystal.

I love sharing my stories with you, and so today I wanted to take a few minutes to share a little about my experience with Crystal — both for those of you who are eager to know what she’s like in person, and for my readers who have never heard of Crystal’s blog, Money Saving Mom, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to her.

Why Crystal’s Compassion Meant the World To Me

The day I met Crystal, we were both in South Africa. The first thing I noticed about meeting Crystal, was her genuine interest in others and care for them.

Crystal knew the sacrifice that I had to make in going on this trip—not just leaving my family for 10 days, but the sacrifice of missing my grandmother’s funeral.

You see, my grandma had dementia and went to be with Jesus just two days before I left on the trip.

Crystal approached me immediately to ask me how I was doing. She cared for me and she hadn’t even officially met me yet.

She took the time to ask the hard questions, like a true friend. She showed biblical love and genuine sympathy. She was God’s hands and feet.

If you ever get a chance to meet Crystal in person, you will see exactly what I mean.

Her genuine love and compassion just flows out of her quiet spirit and personality.

But don’t let me fool you, she knows how to have fun, and joke, and laugh too! She knows how to enjoy life to the fullest, and how a good laugh keeps you healthy.

I think Crystal and I are a lot alike in certain ways—and this is one small fun reason why: at the end of the trip, when everyone else was souvenir shopping—where do you think you find Crystal and I?

In a grocery store, of course! 😉

My South Africa Experience

Today, Crystal shared my South Africa story on her blog. She asked if any of us who went on the trip wanted to write about our experiences in South Africa and I jumped at the chance to share about why I went and how the trip impacted me.

I would love for you to read about it here.