First, I want to say Thank You - It's been a joy and a comfort to have our friends and family praying for us and supporting us from home; thank you for following our blog, reading our stories, and keeping us in your prayers.
I had the opportunity to spend our last full week working in Living Hope's health care centre. It's a Christian based facility and they have pastoral staff come in each day and church services on Sundays, as well as volunteers who come in daily to love the patients and pray with them. As a nursing student, this was an amazing opportunity for me. The health care centre is entirely free and treats patients with chronic illnesses. While most patients have HIV/AIDS and its associated complications; some have cancer, dementia, and other long term illnesses. They also have hospice type care and are the only free hospice in all of South Africa. It's a 22 bed facility and is pretty much always full. When the clinic first opened, they lost about 80% of the patients and only about 20% survived. Now that has changed, they are saving 85% of the patients and only losing about 15%. In just one week I have seen so much improvement in the patients. I met a patient named Xolani on my first day at the clinic. He was pretty sick and his body was so thin that you could see his skeleton as he laid in bed. On the second day I spent with him he began to get really cold and his blood pressure dropped to 50/30 (which is incredibly low). The doctor and the nurse expressed that he may not make it too much longer, despite their care. However the remainder of the week as I came into the health care centre, he seemed to be improving - still not looking strong but he was able to smile at me and chat a little bit. As a group we went to the health care centre today to sing to the patients, and as we walked in Xolani walked past me. I was amazed and God's healing power was so clear to me. He smiled and sang along with us and just looked so joyful. The nurses at the health care centre were able to tell me countless stories of incredible healing and how God's power is clearly present among the patients.
This is our last night in Cape Town. We are spending it among our teammates and the other volunteers we live with, who have become part of our team and our family. (Yes, we are going to get to watch the superbowl.)Tomorrow we are debreifing our trip as a team, spending the afternoon at kid's club with the children with whom we have fallen in love, having dinner at the home of one of the staff whom we refer to as Papa Gordon, then heading home to you.
As our time here comes to a close, we are feeling a mixture of excitement in coming home to share this experience with you and a deep sadness to leave the friends and family we have made here. It is also hard to leave when we still see so much that we could continue to be doing here to help and to love the people of Cape Town. Simply because we are leaving, don't allow Cape Town to leave your thoughts and your hearts. Keep it in your prayers. You can specifically pray for Living Hope and it's ministries (which you can check out at http://www.livinghope.co.za/), the township of Capricorn, the Life Skill Educators, and the ACTS staff. Each of us have seen God work in amazing ways, don't forget to ask us about it personally when we get home and please don't stop praying for South Africa and Cape Town. God is doing big things in this city and there are greater things to still be done.
Emily
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Day I was Ruined!
Cape Town is a beautiful city. It is really not that different than a city in the States. The Waterfront in Cape Town is a beautiful attraction with nice restaurants, lots of stores, ice cream, sailing excursions, outdoor concerts and shows, and the lone musician here and there blessing the air and nearby ears with a wonderful melody. It reminds me of Baltimore’s waterfront. They both even have aquariums.
Surrounding the city is a scattering of beautiful little towns with nice suburban houses complete with pools and wrap around decks to over look the beautiful beaches. The towns have small tourist shops, nice restaurants, surf schools, and scenic drives. However scattered in-between these small towns are the poor townships. These townships tend to be separated by race, either black or colored. There are 3 main races; black (native African), white (from Europe), and colored (mix of white and black). You don’t find many white people in most of these townships. The townships usually consist of several thousand inhabitants; some can be up to 12,000. Each township is a little bit different. Some are worse than others. A better name for these townships would be “Shanty towns”. Most of the houses are a conglomerate of concrete, tin, and wire. They look like a field of forts that would be a 5th graders only club house. But they are houses that families live in, sometimes families of 10 or 12 in a little house. There is also a scattering of converted shipping containers turned into a hair salon or a home for 6+. Every township is full of alcohol, drugs, broken families, gangs, starvation, HIV, etc. They are hurting townships.
We have only visited 4 or 5 of these townships, but there are many more. Most of them are next to or are surrounded by a nice neighborhood. They only thing that separates the two neighborhoods is a wall. The only thing that separates poverty and wealth is a wall. The only thing that separates starvation and too much food is a wall. It is like people didn’t want to look at these ugly shanty towns so they put up a wall and forgot about them.
I had a conversation with one of the local people here in Cape Town. He's a younger Christian guy just out of college. He was saying that even a lot of Christian Churches here on the Cape have this build a wall and forget it syndrome. We were talking about how people can live like this and not feel guilty. He said that he thinks people need to step into these communities and have their hearts broken. He called it being ruined. With broken hearts then people will begin to see these hurting communities and feel compelled to have compassion and love for those who are on the other side of the wall. Then they might just start to take action to do something about it and make it part of their lifestyle to give back to these hurting communities.
I prayed for our team to be ruined. I prayed for our team’s hearts to be broken and for them to be compelled to have compassion and love for these hurting communities. And I prayed for our team to develop a lifestyle of giving back and loving those in need.
It is happening. Our team is being ruined. They want to spend all day with the kids. They want to help kids pay for cloths and school dues. They want to take kids home with them. They want to do so much. This is the first step.
Please pray for our team as we begin to process and talk more about how we will develop lifestyles of loving, caring, and giving back to those in need around us.
- Captin Ryan
Surrounding the city is a scattering of beautiful little towns with nice suburban houses complete with pools and wrap around decks to over look the beautiful beaches. The towns have small tourist shops, nice restaurants, surf schools, and scenic drives. However scattered in-between these small towns are the poor townships. These townships tend to be separated by race, either black or colored. There are 3 main races; black (native African), white (from Europe), and colored (mix of white and black). You don’t find many white people in most of these townships. The townships usually consist of several thousand inhabitants; some can be up to 12,000. Each township is a little bit different. Some are worse than others. A better name for these townships would be “Shanty towns”. Most of the houses are a conglomerate of concrete, tin, and wire. They look like a field of forts that would be a 5th graders only club house. But they are houses that families live in, sometimes families of 10 or 12 in a little house. There is also a scattering of converted shipping containers turned into a hair salon or a home for 6+. Every township is full of alcohol, drugs, broken families, gangs, starvation, HIV, etc. They are hurting townships.
We have only visited 4 or 5 of these townships, but there are many more. Most of them are next to or are surrounded by a nice neighborhood. They only thing that separates the two neighborhoods is a wall. The only thing that separates poverty and wealth is a wall. The only thing that separates starvation and too much food is a wall. It is like people didn’t want to look at these ugly shanty towns so they put up a wall and forgot about them.
I had a conversation with one of the local people here in Cape Town. He's a younger Christian guy just out of college. He was saying that even a lot of Christian Churches here on the Cape have this build a wall and forget it syndrome. We were talking about how people can live like this and not feel guilty. He said that he thinks people need to step into these communities and have their hearts broken. He called it being ruined. With broken hearts then people will begin to see these hurting communities and feel compelled to have compassion and love for those who are on the other side of the wall. Then they might just start to take action to do something about it and make it part of their lifestyle to give back to these hurting communities.
I prayed for our team to be ruined. I prayed for our team’s hearts to be broken and for them to be compelled to have compassion and love for these hurting communities. And I prayed for our team to develop a lifestyle of giving back and loving those in need.
It is happening. Our team is being ruined. They want to spend all day with the kids. They want to help kids pay for cloths and school dues. They want to take kids home with them. They want to do so much. This is the first step.
Please pray for our team as we begin to process and talk more about how we will develop lifestyles of loving, caring, and giving back to those in need around us.
- Captin Ryan
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Power of God is Movin Around the WORLD (Can you feel it?)
Hello Friends and Family!!!
We have been having an incredible time here and I can not believe how quickly time has flown by.Thinking about leaving here in a week and a half is heartbreaking because of how much we have grown attachedto the Capricorn kids. Our whole team has connected with different kids so well and gotten the amazing opportunity to hear their life stories and share in their laughter and struggles. I personally have gotto spend a lot of my time with a young teenage girl named Viveline, and I absolutely LOVE her! She isso sweet and beautiful, and opening up with her and sharing stories has been so encouraging to me. She hassuch a hard life, but her persistance and faith in God through hard times is awesome. She has been a Christianfor a year now and really has a heart for God. Keep her in your prayers!! Pray for her future!
Another little girl I've grown to love is named Linette. The first time I met her I was playing hand games with all the other girls, and she came up behind me to play too. I was so impressed with her becauseshe was sooo small and cute, but took the game so seriously and caught on faster than everyone else. I askedher how old she was, because I thought she could be no much older than 5, but she is 8 years old! I was inSHOCK and it broke my heart. I think she might have HIV, and when you have it at such a young age, along withmalnutrition, it can seriously stunt your growth. Its a big possibility, because its not normal for her to beso small at her age. I can easily hold her in my arms and she is sooo tiny and light. I wish you could meether too, you would fall in love with her and her size would break your heart. Pray for Linette, and all theother kids in club that will face the terrible side effects of HIV and other diseases. Sadly, 1 in 3 willhave to deal with it.
Tuesday night was definitely a memorable and defining moment for everyone on our team. We had anintense discussion about all of our experiences with the kids and how it has been effecting us. Its a veryweird feeling spending all day with kids who are living in real poverty, and then coming home to such anice place with a beautiful beach and every comfort we need. I think understanding and seeing poverty has been changing allof our hearts, I know its changing mine. I think Jesus has been using these kids and their stories to convict me of my carefree and selfish lifestyle back at home. God's heart is with "the least of these" andhas made it our responsibility as Christians to love people as he would love them. I have been so blessedand priveledged my whole life with everything I need: food, shelter, education, support, loving family and friends.I feel like now Jesus is saying to me since I have blessed you, use these blessings to serve my people. Afterknowing God's heart, our whole team knows that our lives have to change. It is time for all of us to useare blessings to benefit God's kingdom, and respond by reaching out and caring for all those people whoare hurting and need love and care. Our team was definitely broken, crying, and just praying to God to breakour hearts and change our lives. This is not just a phase, but a permanent change of our attitudes and lifestyles.
This week during the mornings we have been renovating a property that will be used to equip thesurrounding community with skills they can use to make money and break their cycle of poverty. Its an exciting project, and will provide people with new opportunity and fresh starts. It has not been easybecause we have been doing a lot of menial and tedious tasks. I have spent my days washing windows, scrapinggum off the bottom of desks, and washing paint off floors. I've never cleaned so much in my entire life!Other team members have been painting, weeding, lifting heavy things, and helping in anyway they can. Thecool part about it, besides the vision of the buildings, is that we get to work alongside 12 local peoplefrom the community. They are soo awesome and fun to get to know. 10% of the money we paid to go herewill go to pay these workers, so THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT! It has gone a long way!
Keep us all in your prayers as we continue on! On Friday we will be leading youth group, so pray that God gives us the words to say and uses us to speak to the youth of Capricorn. Next week we will spend sometime in the clinics talking to people and maybe walk around Capricorn and pray for the people of the neighborhood. Pray that God uses all these opportunities for his glory!
To all family and friends I miss you ALL (love u 6 and Michelle!!!!!!) HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLORY! Keep reading :)
LOVE,
Denise
We have been having an incredible time here and I can not believe how quickly time has flown by.Thinking about leaving here in a week and a half is heartbreaking because of how much we have grown attachedto the Capricorn kids. Our whole team has connected with different kids so well and gotten the amazing opportunity to hear their life stories and share in their laughter and struggles. I personally have gotto spend a lot of my time with a young teenage girl named Viveline, and I absolutely LOVE her! She isso sweet and beautiful, and opening up with her and sharing stories has been so encouraging to me. She hassuch a hard life, but her persistance and faith in God through hard times is awesome. She has been a Christianfor a year now and really has a heart for God. Keep her in your prayers!! Pray for her future!
Another little girl I've grown to love is named Linette. The first time I met her I was playing hand games with all the other girls, and she came up behind me to play too. I was so impressed with her becauseshe was sooo small and cute, but took the game so seriously and caught on faster than everyone else. I askedher how old she was, because I thought she could be no much older than 5, but she is 8 years old! I was inSHOCK and it broke my heart. I think she might have HIV, and when you have it at such a young age, along withmalnutrition, it can seriously stunt your growth. Its a big possibility, because its not normal for her to beso small at her age. I can easily hold her in my arms and she is sooo tiny and light. I wish you could meether too, you would fall in love with her and her size would break your heart. Pray for Linette, and all theother kids in club that will face the terrible side effects of HIV and other diseases. Sadly, 1 in 3 willhave to deal with it.
Tuesday night was definitely a memorable and defining moment for everyone on our team. We had anintense discussion about all of our experiences with the kids and how it has been effecting us. Its a veryweird feeling spending all day with kids who are living in real poverty, and then coming home to such anice place with a beautiful beach and every comfort we need. I think understanding and seeing poverty has been changing allof our hearts, I know its changing mine. I think Jesus has been using these kids and their stories to convict me of my carefree and selfish lifestyle back at home. God's heart is with "the least of these" andhas made it our responsibility as Christians to love people as he would love them. I have been so blessedand priveledged my whole life with everything I need: food, shelter, education, support, loving family and friends.I feel like now Jesus is saying to me since I have blessed you, use these blessings to serve my people. Afterknowing God's heart, our whole team knows that our lives have to change. It is time for all of us to useare blessings to benefit God's kingdom, and respond by reaching out and caring for all those people whoare hurting and need love and care. Our team was definitely broken, crying, and just praying to God to breakour hearts and change our lives. This is not just a phase, but a permanent change of our attitudes and lifestyles.
This week during the mornings we have been renovating a property that will be used to equip thesurrounding community with skills they can use to make money and break their cycle of poverty. Its an exciting project, and will provide people with new opportunity and fresh starts. It has not been easybecause we have been doing a lot of menial and tedious tasks. I have spent my days washing windows, scrapinggum off the bottom of desks, and washing paint off floors. I've never cleaned so much in my entire life!Other team members have been painting, weeding, lifting heavy things, and helping in anyway they can. Thecool part about it, besides the vision of the buildings, is that we get to work alongside 12 local peoplefrom the community. They are soo awesome and fun to get to know. 10% of the money we paid to go herewill go to pay these workers, so THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT! It has gone a long way!
Keep us all in your prayers as we continue on! On Friday we will be leading youth group, so pray that God gives us the words to say and uses us to speak to the youth of Capricorn. Next week we will spend sometime in the clinics talking to people and maybe walk around Capricorn and pray for the people of the neighborhood. Pray that God uses all these opportunities for his glory!
To all family and friends I miss you ALL (love u 6 and Michelle!!!!!!) HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLORY! Keep reading :)
LOVE,
Denise
Monday, January 19, 2009
Ja Bulani America!
Sorry for the delay in posting, the week has flown by! Last week we went to the Capricorn township every morning for Holiday Club, which is the sameas Vacation Bible School. Our part was to support the Life Skill Educators, who are alwaysworking with these kids. It was a blessing to have such little responsibility (we only did oneskit and helped brainstorm a few games) because it freed us up to really build relationshipswith the children. Capricorn township looks like many other townships here-there are shacks approximately half thesize of a shed at home, stacked next to each other in what looks more like chaos than order.The families don't have much, and drugs and alcohol are incredibly prevalent, but the childrenare excited to come to Living Hope every day to learn more about the Bible, and most were open in sharing about their homelife and family ties to hardships like disease and addiction.After playing with kids all morning, we'd have a short lunch break and then head back to thecontainers at Capricorn for Kid's Club. (Sidenote: we actually meet in shipping containers, so the rooms are narrow and long, and the main room is a concrete slab surrounded by containerswith a roof built over it. It took us a few days to stop giggling at the thought of sendingkids into a container for their crafts :D)
I got close to an 8 year old named Faith. She's been in a wheel chair her whole life, all we knowis she was "born like that." I have no idea what disease or muscular problems she has, but Faithis incredibly strong. I was able to take her out of her wheel chair one day so she could "dance"around the room on my hip. But on the second day, I heard she was strong enough to stand, so Ihelped her walk and jump and dance like the other kids. It was such a blessing to be with her, to seethe fear she had that she wouldn't be strong enough, that she wouldn't be able to jump every time I encouraged her to. But she trusted that I wouldn't let her fall. It gave me a vivid picture of how life shouldbe with God. Sometimes we need him to pick us up and carry us when we're not able, and sometimes weneed to have faith that He knows what we're capable of. Even though we can't walk on our own strength,God will give us all we need to accomplish his will.
Kid's Club is just for the older kids (over 12) and we played a game with them each day, thenapplied it to the Christian walk-- like obstacles in our lives, the need for community,how different problems affect our relationship with others, etc. Between the 9 leaders here andthe 13 of us, we could meet one-on-one with the same child every week. This week, the kids go back toschool, so more ages were allowed at the afternoon club, and it was less structured. Club always startswith singing "make a circle" ("mahk ah crun" is what it sounds like in Afrikaans) so we can do fun worshipsongs. Our favorite is "Ja Bulani, Africa" Which means "Sing for joy, Africa"--the team ends up humming itall day every day, so it's great that we finally know all the words =)
This past weekend, we planned on going to Robben Island, but the water was too high and the boat trip got cancelled. Instead, we hung around the water front and got to visit Hoak Bay to see the seals (yay!), grabbedsome dinner, and drove up to Chapman's Peak and ate as we looked out over Capetown. Sunday we had a barbeque (braae, as they say here) and invited people we met from Y-WAM as well as all the LifeSkill Educators we work with. It was amazing to have two large groups of people over--Y-Wam we'd met once at church,and the LSE's we'd known about a week--and to know so little about each other, but to be so open and comfortableto talk. We had a surprise guest, Lucas, who the team met when hiking Table Mountain last week. He's not a Christian,and recently graduated from college, so he's in South Africa trying to figure out "what life is about." Steve got to sit down and share the gospel with him, so keep Lucas in your prayers!!
For the next 2 weeks, we're spending mornings fixing up an old campus to become a place for volunteer teams tostay as well as a space for the community to use to learn skills like starting businesses, culinary skills,sewing, and so forth, so they can be empowered and play a key role in changing townships for the better. This is so exciting because these skills will allow people to finally escape the cycle of poverty and find a purpose for their lives...and hear aboutJesus! Completely Free!!
Keep our team in your prayers. Pray for patience as we do menial tasks such as clean out gutters and mow lawns. These things seemtrivial but are necessary to provide the community these awesome services they need. Pray for the kids from Capricorn. Pray thattheir hearts will be open to us, but more importantly open to the love of Jesus. Pray that we will not grow weary, but continuouslygive God our all throughout our long, trying days. Pray that we will see God in new ways and have FUN!
Much LOVEKJ and crew
I got close to an 8 year old named Faith. She's been in a wheel chair her whole life, all we knowis she was "born like that." I have no idea what disease or muscular problems she has, but Faithis incredibly strong. I was able to take her out of her wheel chair one day so she could "dance"around the room on my hip. But on the second day, I heard she was strong enough to stand, so Ihelped her walk and jump and dance like the other kids. It was such a blessing to be with her, to seethe fear she had that she wouldn't be strong enough, that she wouldn't be able to jump every time I encouraged her to. But she trusted that I wouldn't let her fall. It gave me a vivid picture of how life shouldbe with God. Sometimes we need him to pick us up and carry us when we're not able, and sometimes weneed to have faith that He knows what we're capable of. Even though we can't walk on our own strength,God will give us all we need to accomplish his will.
Kid's Club is just for the older kids (over 12) and we played a game with them each day, thenapplied it to the Christian walk-- like obstacles in our lives, the need for community,how different problems affect our relationship with others, etc. Between the 9 leaders here andthe 13 of us, we could meet one-on-one with the same child every week. This week, the kids go back toschool, so more ages were allowed at the afternoon club, and it was less structured. Club always startswith singing "make a circle" ("mahk ah crun" is what it sounds like in Afrikaans) so we can do fun worshipsongs. Our favorite is "Ja Bulani, Africa" Which means "Sing for joy, Africa"--the team ends up humming itall day every day, so it's great that we finally know all the words =)
This past weekend, we planned on going to Robben Island, but the water was too high and the boat trip got cancelled. Instead, we hung around the water front and got to visit Hoak Bay to see the seals (yay!), grabbedsome dinner, and drove up to Chapman's Peak and ate as we looked out over Capetown. Sunday we had a barbeque (braae, as they say here) and invited people we met from Y-WAM as well as all the LifeSkill Educators we work with. It was amazing to have two large groups of people over--Y-Wam we'd met once at church,and the LSE's we'd known about a week--and to know so little about each other, but to be so open and comfortableto talk. We had a surprise guest, Lucas, who the team met when hiking Table Mountain last week. He's not a Christian,and recently graduated from college, so he's in South Africa trying to figure out "what life is about." Steve got to sit down and share the gospel with him, so keep Lucas in your prayers!!
For the next 2 weeks, we're spending mornings fixing up an old campus to become a place for volunteer teams tostay as well as a space for the community to use to learn skills like starting businesses, culinary skills,sewing, and so forth, so they can be empowered and play a key role in changing townships for the better. This is so exciting because these skills will allow people to finally escape the cycle of poverty and find a purpose for their lives...and hear aboutJesus! Completely Free!!
Keep our team in your prayers. Pray for patience as we do menial tasks such as clean out gutters and mow lawns. These things seemtrivial but are necessary to provide the community these awesome services they need. Pray for the kids from Capricorn. Pray thattheir hearts will be open to us, but more importantly open to the love of Jesus. Pray that we will not grow weary, but continuouslygive God our all throughout our long, trying days. Pray that we will see God in new ways and have FUN!
Much LOVEKJ and crew
Monday, January 12, 2009
First Weekend and Kids Club!!
Well we just finished our first weekend here in SA. So basically, this place is awesome. In think we are all in love. From the people, to the staff, to the kids in youth group we met friday night and again today, we are constantly thanking God for the work he has established here already. Saturday, Gordon (our awesome driver guy and new best friend) took us to cape town for some sights. We got to go to the market in capetown, each of us with our rand's in hand, and spend at least a few hundred bargaining with the people in the market for some sweet african stuff. Also, a few hundred rand is about $30, and that goes a long way, esp at the market. We spent the night together, ate some crocodile, warthog (molly's fav new word..), ostrich, and whatever else isnt normal we ate it. Sweet day, and a great time gettin closer to one another.
Sunday we went to King of Kings chruch and heard a great service. Afterwards we made the climb up table mountain, which was supposed to take about an hour and a half but since were such good climbers only took 3 and a half hours. It was sweet. We met a guy named lucas on the way up and he insisted that we go ahead of him (he was strugglin) but we stayed with him, talked to him, made a new friend and pushed him to the top. Go us! More than anything though, we got the chance to expirience Gods creation. As we talked to lucas and among ourselves, we could only think of the scripture which says "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." and in Romans chapter one, which basically says.. Creation shouts out GOD! We definately saw the reality of that sunday.
Today (Monday) was a very powerful day for the team. We had our first kids club in the morning, and wow.. these kids know how to sing and praise God. I think i burned like 600 calories just during the 20 minute praise and worship time. Singing in africa is a full body workout, and you can just feel the love and joy of the Lord in the presence of these children. Its really a moving expirence. What we found so great was that the lyrics were so spot on with the gospel of Christ, that we are lost sinners in a lost world, helpless and apart from God, but God still loves us and gave himself up for us when Jesus died on the cross and rose again, and is able now to call us his Children! Wow, still cant get over that one. One moving expirience that drove us into a long conversation tonight was driving through the small village of Capricorn. Complete poverty. Seems as if its almost a forgotten village, right inbetween a wealthy beach town and cape town. This is where our kids club and afternoon club is. A high percentage (about 75%) of the kids we are who attend the club and live in the village have aids, live in total poverty, and seem to be pretty much on their own. Living Hope is such a light in this small place, but theres still much to be done. As we drove through, with the people staring at us and while we were thinking about the amazing beautiful kids we just had at the club, knowing that this is thier reality, something changed within us. After that time we spent the rest of the day talking and searching the scripture about the issues of poverty, our salvation, Gods soverinty, how thankful we are, and pretty much everything else too. The harvest is great but the workers are few. We have a long way to go still, but we really need your prayers that we can show this community the love of God, who is the creator of everything, who loves and died for everyone of us, including the people of this town, and that we can serve them in every way we possibly can. Thanks for the support! Peace out!
-Steve B aka Jaape
Sunday we went to King of Kings chruch and heard a great service. Afterwards we made the climb up table mountain, which was supposed to take about an hour and a half but since were such good climbers only took 3 and a half hours. It was sweet. We met a guy named lucas on the way up and he insisted that we go ahead of him (he was strugglin) but we stayed with him, talked to him, made a new friend and pushed him to the top. Go us! More than anything though, we got the chance to expirience Gods creation. As we talked to lucas and among ourselves, we could only think of the scripture which says "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." and in Romans chapter one, which basically says.. Creation shouts out GOD! We definately saw the reality of that sunday.
Today (Monday) was a very powerful day for the team. We had our first kids club in the morning, and wow.. these kids know how to sing and praise God. I think i burned like 600 calories just during the 20 minute praise and worship time. Singing in africa is a full body workout, and you can just feel the love and joy of the Lord in the presence of these children. Its really a moving expirence. What we found so great was that the lyrics were so spot on with the gospel of Christ, that we are lost sinners in a lost world, helpless and apart from God, but God still loves us and gave himself up for us when Jesus died on the cross and rose again, and is able now to call us his Children! Wow, still cant get over that one. One moving expirience that drove us into a long conversation tonight was driving through the small village of Capricorn. Complete poverty. Seems as if its almost a forgotten village, right inbetween a wealthy beach town and cape town. This is where our kids club and afternoon club is. A high percentage (about 75%) of the kids we are who attend the club and live in the village have aids, live in total poverty, and seem to be pretty much on their own. Living Hope is such a light in this small place, but theres still much to be done. As we drove through, with the people staring at us and while we were thinking about the amazing beautiful kids we just had at the club, knowing that this is thier reality, something changed within us. After that time we spent the rest of the day talking and searching the scripture about the issues of poverty, our salvation, Gods soverinty, how thankful we are, and pretty much everything else too. The harvest is great but the workers are few. We have a long way to go still, but we really need your prayers that we can show this community the love of God, who is the creator of everything, who loves and died for everyone of us, including the people of this town, and that we can serve them in every way we possibly can. Thanks for the support! Peace out!
-Steve B aka Jaape
Thursday, January 8, 2009
SAFE and SOUND!
Hello Friends and Family!
I (Amy Whitlock) am writing on behalf of our team to update you on us. Our flights all went very well with no problems at all. There were several times of turbulence, but for the most part it was good. The first flight to Detroit went by quickly, as it was only a several hour flight and then we waited at the airport for a short period of time until our next flight to Amsterdam. We had a little bit of a delay on leaving because someone that was supposed to catch that flight was missing. But they finally came and off we went on our 8 hour flight, which surprisingly to most of us was not that bad. Once we waited around we caught our flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town which took 12 hours so that was really long. At first it didn't seem to bad, but then it got to the point where we just wanted to get off that plane. At last we arrived and had to go through customs and then grab our bags. Everyone managed to get there bags, yet I was left waiting for a bag that never showed up. So I had to make a file with the airport and they said it was delivered so there guess was that it got picked up accidentally. Praise God my suitcase was delivered to where we are staying on Thursday. Everyone who is a host here was shocked and said no one has ever gotten a lost suitcase so quickly. So thank God!! So we arrived to the living hope house around 1 am or so on Jan 6.
Most of us got to bed around 2am because we all felt grubby and wanted showers and then had to be up and ready for breakfast by 9am the next morning. So yes we were quite tired and we still are, but this place is awesome. God is so AWESOME! The beauty of this country just takes my breath away. We have an absolutely gorgeous ocean and mountain view here. We are staying at the Team House which is right on the ocen. So everywhere around us we are surrounded by mountains and God's glorious creation. He is the most marvelous artist. I just can't possibly describe the beauty of it all. Wed was a very chill day for us. We had individual and team devotions, meals, time to walk the beach, time to do a little planning, and then we had worship on top of this gigantic rock down on the beach at night. Today (thurs) we got a tour of a health clinic and different towns that we would be working in. It was insane that in one town there would be really nice places to live and then 5 minutes away people living in little shacks made of alluminum. It was very humbling and a good reminder of how much we take for granted. These people, well some of them, virtually have nothing, yet they are so very joyful. It's like they have everything by not having anything. Quite amazing and I think we could all learn something from that.
Breakfast and lunch are pretty normal here at the team house. Dinner is a cooked meal which had been good. We've had chicken seasoned with rosemary, red peppers, mushrooms, and then rice and salad with that. Tonight we had ribs with rice and salad. And for dessert we had this awesome Lemon Merengue Raspberry thing which was sooo good.
Our team has quickly bonded and we are having a blast together and sharing our love for Christ together. We are all very eager to start doing the Lord's work and get busy loving on the people of this country, especially the children. We begin doing the kid's club on monday. So for the rest of the week we will be doing a lot of planning and then doing some site seeing.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. We all are very blessed to have wonderful supporters and we love you very much! Thanks!
I (Amy Whitlock) am writing on behalf of our team to update you on us. Our flights all went very well with no problems at all. There were several times of turbulence, but for the most part it was good. The first flight to Detroit went by quickly, as it was only a several hour flight and then we waited at the airport for a short period of time until our next flight to Amsterdam. We had a little bit of a delay on leaving because someone that was supposed to catch that flight was missing. But they finally came and off we went on our 8 hour flight, which surprisingly to most of us was not that bad. Once we waited around we caught our flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town which took 12 hours so that was really long. At first it didn't seem to bad, but then it got to the point where we just wanted to get off that plane. At last we arrived and had to go through customs and then grab our bags. Everyone managed to get there bags, yet I was left waiting for a bag that never showed up. So I had to make a file with the airport and they said it was delivered so there guess was that it got picked up accidentally. Praise God my suitcase was delivered to where we are staying on Thursday. Everyone who is a host here was shocked and said no one has ever gotten a lost suitcase so quickly. So thank God!! So we arrived to the living hope house around 1 am or so on Jan 6.
Most of us got to bed around 2am because we all felt grubby and wanted showers and then had to be up and ready for breakfast by 9am the next morning. So yes we were quite tired and we still are, but this place is awesome. God is so AWESOME! The beauty of this country just takes my breath away. We have an absolutely gorgeous ocean and mountain view here. We are staying at the Team House which is right on the ocen. So everywhere around us we are surrounded by mountains and God's glorious creation. He is the most marvelous artist. I just can't possibly describe the beauty of it all. Wed was a very chill day for us. We had individual and team devotions, meals, time to walk the beach, time to do a little planning, and then we had worship on top of this gigantic rock down on the beach at night. Today (thurs) we got a tour of a health clinic and different towns that we would be working in. It was insane that in one town there would be really nice places to live and then 5 minutes away people living in little shacks made of alluminum. It was very humbling and a good reminder of how much we take for granted. These people, well some of them, virtually have nothing, yet they are so very joyful. It's like they have everything by not having anything. Quite amazing and I think we could all learn something from that.
Breakfast and lunch are pretty normal here at the team house. Dinner is a cooked meal which had been good. We've had chicken seasoned with rosemary, red peppers, mushrooms, and then rice and salad with that. Tonight we had ribs with rice and salad. And for dessert we had this awesome Lemon Merengue Raspberry thing which was sooo good.
Our team has quickly bonded and we are having a blast together and sharing our love for Christ together. We are all very eager to start doing the Lord's work and get busy loving on the people of this country, especially the children. We begin doing the kid's club on monday. So for the rest of the week we will be doing a lot of planning and then doing some site seeing.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. We all are very blessed to have wonderful supporters and we love you very much! Thanks!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Only 2 more days!
Hi all! Or Sawubona (apparently a Zulu greeting!)
So how excited am I that the day is almost here! Truthfully it hasn't even hit me yet! I just got home today from a week in Tennesee, and with Christmas and school before that, I haven't gotten the chance to really think about what we are about to do! We are going to South Africa- a dream of mine for such a long time!
Ever since I read the book, "The Power or One", an amazing novel describing the people and cultures of apartheid South Africa, I have longed to go and learn about it in person!
Not saying that America is perfect by any means, but South Africa is a broken country, torn apart by poverty, disease, and prejudices. I have had so many blessings in my life, especially the family and friends that God has given me. My main reason for going to South Africa is to share the love that God has given me with others, translated into actions. The Bible says you cannot have one without the other, love and actions.
I don't want to ramble on for too long, I have a lot of packing to do :D But I am so excited for this opportunity and I know that God is already doing great things in each member of our team.
To anyone reading this, thank you for all of your prayers and support! We could not have done it without you!
Cheri
So how excited am I that the day is almost here! Truthfully it hasn't even hit me yet! I just got home today from a week in Tennesee, and with Christmas and school before that, I haven't gotten the chance to really think about what we are about to do! We are going to South Africa- a dream of mine for such a long time!
Ever since I read the book, "The Power or One", an amazing novel describing the people and cultures of apartheid South Africa, I have longed to go and learn about it in person!
Not saying that America is perfect by any means, but South Africa is a broken country, torn apart by poverty, disease, and prejudices. I have had so many blessings in my life, especially the family and friends that God has given me. My main reason for going to South Africa is to share the love that God has given me with others, translated into actions. The Bible says you cannot have one without the other, love and actions.
I don't want to ramble on for too long, I have a lot of packing to do :D But I am so excited for this opportunity and I know that God is already doing great things in each member of our team.
To anyone reading this, thank you for all of your prayers and support! We could not have done it without you!
Cheri
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