Adaptability is a Must.

Sunday, June 27, 2010, 11:41PM

Pneumatix, Somerset West, South Africa

The past couple days have been… crazy!  Yesterday took the phrase “be flexible” to a whole new level for me.  Before I explain, I’ll just recap Friday.  I went to Kayamandi again to hang out with the kids and help with the morning program.  We did the usual ice-breaker, drama, and debrief before splitting them up to do their game rotations.  I went with the same two guys that I did the relays with to play “steal the bacon” (right).  It was a fun game for the kids to play and sometime even more fun for us to watch, as they often got very intense with it.  From where we were playing our game, I could see the soccer field and saw that they had all the kids paired up, one was blind-folded, the other not (right).  It looked very interesting as kids were trying to lead blindfolded kids to dribble and score goals.  It was extremely entertaining to watch!  As the kids ate their lunch (below), I got to play a little soccer and eventually ate mine with all the other leaders.  While I was eating, I was on a mission to find some Americans to watch the soccer game with the next day.  I was also really hoping to climb Table Mountain as well, since the forecast called for a beautiful day.  Pasqual, one of the students from the Stellenbosch University who has been serving with us, asked what my plans were for Saturday.  “Funny you should ask…” I said.  And by the end of the conversation I had a group to hike Table Mountain and some Americans to watch the USA game with!  Before Saturday happened though, I watched the Brazil vs Portugal game with the 13^th Floor team, expecting a fantastic game.  The 0-0 match was far from fantastic…

Then Saturday came, the plan for the day was to drive from SU with Pasqual to Table Mountain, following the bus full of students.  From there we would hike to the top, soak in the view, take the trolley back down and watch the rugby match at a pub in Cape Town.  Then we were going to meet back up with Pasqual and others to watch the USA vs Ghana game at the public viewing park in CT called FanFest, and all hop in her car to drive home.  Then I would catch a ride back to Pneumatix to sleep away America’s victory.  Well, starting very early at 7AM, my plans changed approximately every 20 minutes.  Good thing one of my strengths is adaptability…

Lourens dropped me off at the Stellenbosch University where I met up with Pasqual.  She introduced me to four Americans, one guy three girls, and one South African student teacher and said I was going to ride in the bus with them since some seats cleared up and she would meet us later [plan change #1].  From SU, we drove to Table Mountain.  It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky.  As we approached TM, we saw the top was pretty much covered by a cloud (right).  We
hoped for the best, assuming the sun would burn the moisture off.  When we got to where the trolley station was, we took a bathroom pit stop and found out that the trolleys were not running due to high wind conditions.  We weren’t too worried so we just decided to hike up and back down as well [plan change #2].  The gorgeous weather encouraged us up the mountain (right).  It was quite an intense hike, making the quads burn and the sweat glands open up.  Man do I sweat…  We took little water breaks on the way up, one of which brought us news that the others that were going to meet us at the top were no longer coming since the trolleys were on lock down.  Pasqual said she would just meet us in Cape Town somewhere [plan change #3].  After about an hour of hiking, we entered the cloud that never actually burned off.  As we kept on, the wind picked up, the temperature dropped, and the fog thickened, making it very difficult to hike at all.  After a couple more minutes we decided it wasn’t safe anymore so we would have to hike to the top another day [plan change #4].  We had a much quicker walk down the mountain and enjoyed the view along the way (below).

(The white stuff behind my head is actually the fog that jumped in the picture right before it was taken.)

Once we got to the bus, we found out the other people we were going to meet were at Canal Walk, so we met them there for some lunch [plan change #5].  Then we drove into CT, looking for a place to watch the Rugby game.  We ended up getting very lost and gave up, so instead drove past the Canal Walk again to go to a very nice overlook of the sea [plan change #6].  There we had a very good view of Cape Town and Table Mountain (right top) and an amazing view of the sunset (right middle and bottom).  I had a great time just hanging out, indulging in fun conversation.  It was very nice to relax and talk to some American people.  Let me say that in a foreign country, an American accent is one of the most comforting sounds ever.  From there, we drove back into CT, expecting to be dropped off at the Fanfest where we would wait for Pasqual and the others, who, since their numbers grew, ended up taking the train instead of a car [plan change #7].  Unfortunately, our driver was a little worried she would get lost again, so she told us she would drop us off a couple blocks from the Fanfest [plan change #8].  On the way there, I was getting less and less comfortable with the coming night.  It was dark and I was just starting to get a little worried.  I committed to praying for the remainder of the ride.  The girls were tired from the day, so they were just going back to SU and Alex (the guy student) and I walked together to Fanfest.  We soon found out it was not just a couple blocks away and I just prayed a little harder [plan change #8].  I was quickly comforted by a huge presence of police and traffic cops, directing people and traffic through the city.  We asked a couple cops where the Fanfest was and they pointed us in the direction.  When we got to a fork in the road, we asked another couple cops and found ourselves with an escort to the park!  God answered some prayers last night as we felt very comfortable getting a guided tour of the city center.  Once we were close, we decided to get some dinner.  I never thought I would ever find comfort in the glowing yellow arches of McDonald’s, but that night I definitely did.  We had a gross, but satisfying meal and met up with the others.  We traveled as a herd, following Pasqual since we were all from the US and she was the only South African.  The lack of noise made us worry slightly and soon we found out that Fanfest was closed due to high wind conditions [plan change #9] (and they really were! I still have dust in my eyes from the wind).  Since the park was closed, we had to quickly find a place to watch the game.  We got a taxi ride over to Long Street (probably equivalent to Bourbon Street) and squeezed into a bar to watch the lone tv with 30 others.  Then we heard there was an empty tapas restaurant next door with a tv so we filed out [plan change #10].  We sat down across the small venue and I was greeted by a friendly American accent.  The restaurant owner was from LA and PA, owning two restaurants in SA and living and traveling around the world.  As a recent Big Mac eater and a US soccer fan, all I wanted to do was watch the game, but I had to buy food and drink if I was going to be able to stay.  As I slowly watched the US get defeated, I ate some small, delicious seafood- grilled oysters, grilled clams, and sautéed mussels.  When the depressing match came to an end, the street erupted with joy since all of SA was supporting the last African team in the tournament.  We all piled in one taxi and headed for the train station.  On the way, some of the girls made the executive decision to take the taxi all the way back to Stellenbosch since everyone along our path said how dangerous the train was at night- I did not object at all [plan change #11].  And by the end of our ride, my plans to get a ride back to Pneumatix were replaced with an overnight stay at Stellenbosch University [plan change #12].  It is probably quite believable that within an hour I was asleep in a bed- it had been quite the day.  And the 12 changes in plans is definitely a conservative summary.

Now today, I was picked up to go to More Wine with Lourens and Elsa, meeting about eight others at a restaurant where we got a back room and had church.  Then I got a chance to take a breath and a shower!  It was definitely one of the best showers I’ve had in a long time.  I walked outside and was pretty much face to face with a peacock!  A peacock!  I was so shocked.  I ran inside to get my camera.  I had a sandwich in hand as well and the peacock walked right up to me, staring at the bread the whole time.  I gave it some bread and just stared as it walked away.  I was still shocked.

By sun down, I found my second wind and went with some new friends to a fellow American’s house.  This guy, Tom, has been living here for over four years now, being fully involved with Adventures in Missions, and specifically the World Race.  The World Race is a program that takes individuals on a life-changing, missional experience in 11 countries in 11 months.  Tom is a coach for teams that are on this adventure.  We simply hung out at his house and watched soccer and played poker- really a fun time with some guys.  I was also blessed by the conversation I had with Tom, really just because he simply said, “be blessed,” when he greeted me and said good-bye.  Then when I got home I received an email and was extremely blessed by the combination of words and scripture.  Aaand I just unconsciously called this place home… wow… that’s scary…

Sheep or McDonald's

Thursday, June 24, 2010, 8:00PM

Pneumatix, Somerset West, South Africa

It’s been a couple days since I’ve written, so hopefully I will remember everything:

On Tuesday, we went to Kayamandi again, but this time we set up to show the South Africa vs France game on a projector screen.  The plan was to do the usual show after the game- good thing we’re used to staying flexible!  The set up went smoothly, as usual.  When it came time for the game to start, that’s when things got a bit hectic.

If you have been watching any of the World Cup games on tv, you will here the constant sound of horns.  They call them “vuvuzelas” here and literally every soccer match sounds like the ones we’ve been experiencing here.  (As a side note, SA actually has a national Vuvuzela group that puts on concerts, check it out here) So, naturally, all the people that came into the tent brought their vuvuzelas.  With the hype of the match and being in an enclosed space, I thought my head would burst with the noise.  Some of the team had to step out for a bit due to the noise, but the majority of us toughed it out.  Personally, I was a bit excited to be experiencing the true nature of the soccer fan in SA so I still had a good time, despite the headache.  By the end of the game, the tent was packed with people, all cheering in unison and as loud as possible- such a cool experience.  And SA won the game! -But not by enough.  They needed to score at least four goals to make it through to the next round.  They had tons of shots on goal, but only two went in.

After the game, we made sure the kids stuck around and we did a little dance competition instead of the play.  Unfortunately, we realized that there was not going to be deep enough attention span for the hour that was needed.  As the team packed up all the gear, I stood off to the side and talked with some of the local boys.  We had a very interesting and somewhat sickening conversation.  They are all between 12 and 15 and the conversation actually started out very fun, talking about the U.S., Obama, how he has two daughters (yes they knew who Obama was and his kids), Zuma, how he has five wives and 23 kids (Zuma is the president of SA), different soccer teams, and soccer players.  They told me that Zidane came to visit their school!  You know, the guy who got a red card last World Cup for head-butting the Italian player!  Yeah, apparently he isn’t so bad after all!  Anyways, in the middle of all that, they were telling me, “Hey that girl there, yeah she’s good for you.”  They were pointing to one of the girls on the 13^th floor team.  “Nooo,” I said, “I have a girlfriend back home!”  They asked about her for a couple seconds and then went back to say, “So what!  That girl, there, she good for you.”  As I shook my head they asked, “So you don’t cheat?”  I was actually very surprised at the question and went on to say that there was no way I would ever cheat.  I asked if they had girlfriends and all three of them buffed up and smiled, nodding with pride.  Then I asked them the same question they asked me, “So do you guys cheat on them?”  I was actually asking it as a rhetorical question, expecting them to laugh, “Yah!” They said, “I have three.”  I was shocked.  “Yeah we like Zuma because he likes sex!  That’s why he has many wives and many kids.”  I was still shocked, and I had to ask, “Wait, so you guys have sex?”  “Yes!  We like sex, that’s why we like Zuma and we cheat.  Obama doesn’t like sex.”  I was still very shocked, and sadly had to keep from laughing at the last statement about Obama.  I asked if they wanted to have kids like Zuma at their age and they said, “No we use condemns.”  I continued to try to ask them questions and make them see how wrong all of it was, but I realized to do that, I needed to rewrite their culture, their entire society.  I needed to remove the sexually explicit media, redo their parenting, reestablish (or establish) ethical values, and teach them about love- true love.  It was an extremely tragic moment for me.  I really did not know, and still don’t know what to do.  And honestly, there probably is not much I can do at all, except to love on them.  Only by God’s grace will huge social changes like that occur.  Please join me in praying for this change.  Some change actually has started to happen.  Deep inside the Keep Them Safe motive is the slow process of establishing some of those key values and characteristics.

 

And that brings us to Wednesday- Compassion Day.  Every Wednesday in Kayamandi and Enkhanini (I have been spelling it “Kanini” this entire time… oops) Serve the City hosts Compassion Day.  I started the day (right) in Kayamandi with the 13^th Floor crew.  Our mission was to organize the kids to clean up a park and plant several trees (below left).  The stress was on having the local teenagers and children do the work because it would give them a sense of ownership.  It is also a very cool thing to watch a tree grow that you planted.  The park had some serious issues.  Broken glass was everywhere, old chip bags, used bottles, and burnt logs; I mean any type of trash imaginable was there.  We filled ten black bags full of trash and still did not clean everything up.  As many of the kids helped pick up the trash, others were busy digging holes for the trees.  They all did a great job, really making the park look much better than it was before (below right).  We marched back to the home base in victory after the long morning’s battle with the park.  The kids ate lunch and I played some more soccer- much worse than I did on Monday.  (Actually, so much so that they didn’t ask me to play today! Ouch!!) (below bottom)

From Kayamandi, we walked to Enkhanini.  It was a very interesting walk, actually, seeing the different parts of the township and stopping for a picturesque photo (right).  Once there, we split up to conquer an epic task- to build a bridge!  When it rains in Enkhanini, the hills become very slick and people often fall on them.  In the ravine, water collects and creates a sometimes-impassable river.  So, over the past couple months, on Compassion Day, teams have been building stairs in a heavily trafficked area of the township.  The final touch is the bridge.  The manly men started digging and mixing and moving and talking and planning the structure.  For some reason, I was left out of that group, so I was given the task of bread-man, which I actually preferred!  The same slices of bread we had last week with the verses written on them, we got again on Wednesday.  I talked to my group, explaining the goal of our intentions with the bread.  We wanted to completely avoid the close-ended questions so that we could produce the purposeful conversations.  And I think we did!  We went to the same houses we had last week, trying to continue to grow those relationships.  The neat difference this time was that most of the verses on the bread were actually written in Xhosa (as opposed to English last week).  Since the people here speak Xhosa, they were able to get a lot more out of it (so we assume).  And, since I obviously cannot speak or read Xhosa, I asked the English-speaking people to translate the verses for me.  This lead to some cool conversations, working over the verses, trying to both figure out with the exact translation was.  Overall, it was an awesome experience of doing a micro-Bible study with some of the people in Enkhanini.  After our escapades, we had a traditional Xhosa dinner, which was an adventure in itself.  On the menu for the night: sheep stomach (below left).  To answer your questions: yes, I ate one bite; no, it was not good; well almost, I gagged and muscled it down.  Since a majority of us didn’t eat dinner that night, we stopped off at McDonald’s on the way back.  By the end of the night my stomach was feeling really weird.  I’m not sure if it was from the sheep or the McD’s…

And now we’re at today, Thursday.  Lourens picked me up early this morning to take me to Kayamandi for the day.  Africa time was at its best today since it was a painful 40 degrees this morning, making everyone fairly late.  By ten oclock we had the program rolling.  Loud music brings children in droves, and gives everyone something to dance to and sing along with.  A team from SCAS (Sport for Christ Action South Africa) runs the morning program, so a couple of them jumped up front to lead us in a fun dance and aerobic icebreaker.  The genius aerobics ended in calming stretches and a final sit-down stance.  [Let me take a second to explain how terribly hard it is to 1) try to organize kids 2) try to organize kids in Africa and 3) try to simply get the kids to sit down.  In Cameroon, half of our struggle was in trying to settle the kids down.  This amazing aerobic beginning brought the kids to an even more amazing focused seat.]  Once the kids were settled, another group from the SCAS team hopped up to perform a great skit that depicted Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation.  They had a nice discussion after the skit with everyone and dismissed the kids to their assigned age groups.  From there the kids went through rotations of several different games.  I got on board with the relay races.  With each set of kids, we had them do several different relays.  They started with a normal run, then the classic wheel barrel, and ended with “last person in the line crawls between everyone’s legs to stand in the front of the line” race which ends when the whole line reaches the finish (not sure if you visualized that correctly, hopefully the picture helps, below).  A brief discussion afterwards lead us to talking about how teamwork was vital in the family and how we could all be better players in the family team.  At the end of the rotations, kids were dismissed for lunch, and we got a break.  The leaders were eventually fed and then were released back into the wild to defend ourselves from little children.  Well, it wasn’t that bad, but at times it felt like it.  As the little kids did their thing, the older teenagers, who had been helping us translate the entire morning, were in different workshops, all geared towards building the quality character.  I sat in on a poetry workshop that encouraged us to express our feelings through artistic poems, building the creativity in all of us.  Then I was picked up and met the 13^th Floor team at the beach where we watched the sun set before eating dinner.  It was quite an amazing day.

White Boy Just Scored?!

Monday, June 21, 2010, 10:47AM

Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch, South Africa

On Saturday we went to the beach!  It was very beautiful but a little cold.  Definitely not swimming weather!

Yesterday, I went to an expression of church called More Wine (http://www.morewine.org/faith.php), a church that Lourens started as a response to a growing movement in church culture.  This movement is calling people to look at the Bible and find the true definition of the church.  It is also a movement that many intelligent people have written books and blogs about which I have yet to read, so I will stop there.  Either way, it was cool to see a close-knit group of people meeting on a Sunday morning instead of going to a large, sometimes impersonal, institution.

Afterwards, I met up with the team and traveled with them to the Canal Walk.  No it’s not a hiking trail, as I thought it was; it’s actually a mall!  This mall was huge!  The food court put many American malls to shame (right).  I actually felt very odd supporting the exploitative consumer culture when the township I was at on Friday was just a couple miles away.  I did it anyway and left from there to go to the Hillsong church again.  This week they had the guest worship leader.  I realized once he got up front that this was the same guy that led worship at the Hillsong concert I went to over the summer at Merriweather Post Pavilion- crazy! (below)

Today the 13^th Floor team is performing at a venue in Stellenbosch.  It is called the Sustainability Institute.  As I was sitting at the table eating breakfast, a lady sat down at the other end (she was obviously on staff) with a man.  From what I gathered in my eavesdropping, he is a farmer who uses the services provided here at the institute.  They have a café on site which sells some of the products produced by their registered farmers.  It is an excellent resource for these farmers that may just be starting or that need help or guidance.  It was really encouraging to hear their conversation and see the available resources.  I bought some extra food to support the cause (and maybe I was a little hungry…) and it was delicious!  The bread was made fresh and the coffee was great as well.

This time spent at the institute has been good because I have had a chance to debrief myself on some of the week’s events.  I got to spend a good deal of time in the Word and was very encouraged.  I am also preparing myself for going into Kayamandi later today.  Another girl and I will be going to hang out with the kids and play some fun games.  Hopefully we will be creative enough to keep them occupied!

Monday, June 21, 2010, 9:04PM

Pneumatix, Somerset West, South Africa

Well, like I said before, it’s good to stay flexible!  When we got into Kayamandi, there were not many kids there and the most of the staff were eating lunch.  I found out today that when it rains, or even looks like it might rain, the kids usually don’t come out to the program, so there wasn’t too many of them today since the rain was off and on.  However, for the time I was on site, the rain seemed to stop, so I was able to hang out with some of the older kids.  I decided today was the day I was going to try my best to play soccer with them, all of which are around 15 to 16 years old.  Let me just say they have some serious skills.  Their ball handling is great and the pace is extremely fast.  And some how I was able to put up a fight!  One of the games came down to penalty kicks.  My team wanted me to kick the first one for some reason and I managed to make it in.  Then a back and forth battle went on as it cycled through the team members and ended up with me- I make it, we win; I miss, we keep shooting.  And again, somehow I managed to make it!  Let me tell you, I definitely surprised myself, and I’m sure Sean would agree haha.  Eventually my team lost and we got kicked off but not before I scored another goal in game.  I must boast for a second and say it was extremely nice- two touch rip right between the goalie’s legs.  It got everyone that was watching laughing and yelling since the white kid just nutmeg-ed the goalie.

The time that I wasn’t playing, I was able to talk with some of the other leaders that are involved with Keep Them Safe.  It’s really cool to get different people’s stories with why they are involved.  It has shown me a part of where God’s heart is.  So many of these leaders and volunteers come from totally random parts of South Africa, and literally the world.  I’m serving next to a group from Brazil, a guy from Germany, a couple of friends from the U.S., a loan Englishman, a wealthy guy from South Africa, and many Kayamandi local leaders.  I am very excited for what God has in store for my relationships with them

Bread of Life! Literally.

Friday, June 18, 2010, 1:33AM

Pneumatix Campus, Somerset West, South Africa

So two days ago (Wednesday) we spent the majority of our day in a township called Enkhanini.  It is still in Stellenbosch, it is just a smaller, worse off township than Kayamandi.  This township is where Lourens has been investing time almost weekly with a large group of volunteers.  The group has helped build stairs in the heavily traveled areas as the clay ground gets very slick when its wet, and has raised enough fuss to the government that they finally installed a trash removal system.  This township has one of the most beautiful views in all of Stellenbosch, if you can look past the disparity that’s in the way (right).

One of Lourens’ main contacts here in Enkhanini invited us into his home and showed us around some (right).  He has one of the nicer homes in the township and actually has electricity- stolen from a nearby school.  He also has a small garden and chickens that he keeps to get eggs and to eventually sell the chicken for income.  Then he gave us a tour of the entire region of Enkhanini.  It holds about 3,000 people in a very congested area with only 3 working toilets, 5 working water spouts, and 1 area for dumping trash for waste management to pick up.

Then Thursday the 13^th floor crew had their first performance here in Stellenbosch.  It was at a church not too far from the main city center in a major wine farm area.  Yet another gorgeous view, this time not blocked by physical disparity.  They did their play, called Ghost, and left the audience with a deep, penetrating question of the types of choices they have been making.  It was rather convicting as no matter what we often choose the option that doesn’t include God.

At the end of the performance I got to talking with Lourens about their religious relationship with the people in Enkhanini, finding out that that conversation had never been talked about before.  It is assumed that the community has a somewhat Christian background since there is a Baptist church at the center, but most time the township communities (usually 100% black) include some of their ancestral practices, possibly bending the truth.  Nonetheless we don’t know for certain since it hasn’t been talked about before.  Until now!

An organization donated a large amount of bread to the Keep Them Safe program.  Each slice of bread has a Bible verse written on it.  So, tomorrow we will go into Enkhanini and pursue personal relationships with a slice of bread in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.  The current plan is to simply ask how the verse is taken and whether they believe it as truth.  I say current plan because 1) this is Africa- things tend to not go according to plan, and 2) God may have something different in mind!

Until then, that’s all for now.  I must be getting off to bed now, and am quite chilled as it tends to get pretty cold here at night and the rooms are not heated…  Please pray for those conversations and the after-math of what might come of them!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Pneumatix Campus, Somerset West, South Africa

Today was an amazing day!  In the morning, we went to Enkhanini.  Before we entered the township, Lourens had me lead our group in a time of prayer.  Since Philippians 4:6-7 has been such a blessing to me over the past couple weeks, I wanted to encourage the team with this verse as well, focusing on verse 7.  Since the township is generally accepted as a dangerous place and is where we are all the least comfortable, only God’s grace could get us through the day.  Verse 7 says, “and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.”  This idea of God’s peace was something we specifically asked for as we walked into the township.  And God provided!

We split up into groups of three and walked to the homes of the people we met when we were in Enkhanini earlier in the week.  It was so cool to already have a personal relationship with some of the people there that we could build off of and not need to start from scratch.  The most amazing part about what we did today was the gift we were bringing with us to the homes.  The bread I talked about earlier came on time and we were able to hand it out!  Each slice of bread had a different Bible verse on it, and most of them had verses printed on both sides.  We decided that the verses aren’t printed as much as they are probably toasted onto the slice without making the entire piece of bread into toast- however they do it, its really awesome (below).

So with the bread, me and two other girls set out to talk to the people we had met on Wednesday.  We sat and ate bread in four different houses.  Every person said that they believed in God and believed what the passage said.  Every printed verse held the basic idea of the gospel- Jesus being the only way to eternal life.  I was a little disappointed in some ways because the language barrier did not allow us to have very deep, personal conversations.  And since we made the rule of three for safety, that rule also hindered some of our possibilities for those one-on-one conversations.  Nonetheless, I definitely felt like God was using us… and bread… to spread the truth.  As we left each household, we asked the people if we could pray for them- something I felt was where we were really bringing God in for the more personal touch.

1,000 packages of the “special” bread, or “Jesus” bread as some people were calling it, will be delivered every Friday for people to distribute to the township.  Hopefully by next week, God will show us how we can improve on our conversations and really use the words on the bread to help people see the truth in them.

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  -John 6:35

First Experience with Keep Them Safe

Tuesday, June 15, 2010, 8:53PM

Pneumatix Campus, Somerset West, South Africa

Today was my first day serving in the township of Kayamandi.  The program Keep Them Safe starts each day at 9AM, Africa time, which means people may or may not show up between 9 and 11 but definitely not exactly at 9.  This idea of Africa time drives most American’s crazy.  Good thing I’ve already experienced this once!  Anyways, the leaders, or “teachers” as the children called us throughout the day, finally came together and discussed the game plan for the day.  We departed from the meeting place to see that 25 kids had already shown up for the day’s program.

The entire Keep Them Safe program is held in 13 satellite locations around Stellenbosch.  The one I served at today was at a venue called Apex, right next to the township.  From this building complex, the 20 or so leaders and the now 35 or so kids walked through the township making as much noise as possible to draw the attention of the other children (left).  By the time we returned to the complex, we were at least 200 strong (which means about 10 kids per leader)!  The funny thing to me is that the organizers for the project are expecting that number to grow exponentially into next week to reach at least 3,000.  Yes, you read that correctly- three thousand.  That right there is a serious prayer request!  Please pray for God’s guidance to come quickly and easily to the leaders as we try to maintain order and produce something meaningful for these children.

So after we had our 200 kids, we split them up by age group and proceeded on with the day.  We had some large speakers set up with a microphone and music.  A group of leaders jumped up front (right) and lead all of us in a fun ice-breaker song of silly hand motions, loud noises, and lots of jumping- great way to get them all excited for the day.  Then another group of leaders went up front and performed a silent drama, depicting the scene and character of Matthew, the tax collector who Jesus confronted about his actions.  Some of the children had hear the story before but for some it was the first time.  Then, yet another team took control and taught us a memory verse- in Xhosa (it is the language that most of the people speak in the township and is often recognized by the “clicks” that are imbedded in it).  After the memory verse was game time.  During this time, we tried to play a set of games.  For the most part we were successful in playing them through, but the 12:30 lunchtime didn’t happen until 1:15 so we kind of ran out of ideas to keep them occupied.

(this are the lines for the kids to get food)

As the children were fed, I was picked up by Lourens and taken into the city of Stellenbosch.  We had a delicious lunch with some of his friends, one of which has a passion for community building, so we hit it off talking about the grand idea of community development and the two-sided problem of the rich and the poor.  It is so encouraging to hear the same conversation on the flip side of the globe.  From there we pretty much headed back to the campus where I was finally able to talk to Clancy on the phone.

Tomorrow is an early start so I must be going to sleep now.  As a side note- the internet in South Africa is fairly underdeveloped, so they actually charge you by the amount of data you use, not just the amount of time- something I have never thought about.  So right now, I am actually writing to my Microsoft Word Document until I get access to the internet sometime later.  It’s rather unfortunate, but oh well!  The things we take for granted… haha

And here's a fun one:

The First Full Day in SA

Monday, June 14, 2010, 2:38PM

Pneumatix Campus, Somerset West, South Africa

Yesterday I arrived in Cape Town! I was in transit for a total of 40 hours!  I got through security with no problem and saw Lourens and his wife Elsa as soon as I walked out the doors- it was such a relief!  They took me on a grand tour of Cape Town, stopping at a neat Fishers Wharf (picture 1), driving all around Table Top Mountain (picture 2), over to Signal Hill (picture 3), and finally to the water front where I met the other team members(picture 4).  From there we traveled to a Hillsong church plant!  It was a neat experience to see a similar style worship as Grace Community in CT.  Unfortunately, since I was so exhausted, I slept right through the sermon… it was a little embarrassing actually.

As we left the service, we were given free passes to view the Germany vs Australia game on big screens in a convention center below us.  Even though I was ready for rest, I didn’t want to miss this experience.  A huge hall, about the size of the Baltimore Convention Center, was set up with six giant projector screens, all showing the game (picture below).  Our group has about 20 and there were maybe 40 other people in this room (a Sunday evening game didn’t draw much of a crowd), so cheering with 60 people was rather exciting.  Germany scored four goals to Australia’s zero- giving us quite a bit to cheer about (even if the score was flipped we would have still be cheering, it was just the idea of the games and scoring goals that got us all excited).  We left the center to go back to the campus where we’re staying.

It is a very nice place, just off a highway.  It is not the place I originally was going to stay at because this place is where my team is actually staying.  It’s called Pneumatix (pronounced new-matix), and is more or less like a summer camp that we might attend in the States.  Each room has four bunk beds and one bathroom.  Somehow I got lucky (or unlucky- not sure which yet) and have a room to myself.  When we arrived here last night, I quickly unpacked and took a wonderfully hot shower.  It felt so good since the last time I showered was over three days before.  After, I made my bed and fell asleep.

I didn’t wake up until noon today, just in time to catch lunch.  All day today the team is preparing for the next two weeks of programs in Kayamandi.  Everyone but me is from a group called 13^th Floor- a traveling visual arts performance organization that uses the power of drama and dance to reach the hearts of the youth worldwide in an effort to plant, water, and sow the seeds of the gift of Jesus Christ.  The 13^th Floor crew is split up in several groups, one group is creating workshops on drama where they will teach the bare essentials of preparation for performing (warm-ups, tongue twisters, the power of pauses, etc).  Another group is doing a workshop on dance where they will teach some of the basics of jazz and hip-hop.  In between these workshops will be a drama performance and a dance performance.

And from what I’ve learned over many of the other programs and service trips, I will be sure to stay flexible.  These performances and workshops are going to have an amazing impact on the kids they are targeting.  I will keep you posted on whether they change or not!  Thanks for praying.

En Route to Cape Town

The prayers really helped over the past day...s... hours?... I've lost track since I left Dulles on Friday, June 11. I am currently in Singapore on Sunday, June 13 at 1:40am. Just an hour ago, I was thinking about how I was going to tell this story, and whether I wanted to share or not as my parents would not be very happy to hear it:

There a several "Free Internet" locations in the Changi airport. I stopped at the first one I saw, put my black pouch containing my passport, boarding passes, and cash on the counter and tried to email my parents. The internet didn't work well so I decided to just leave and check-in early. After walking to the other end of the airport, I found the gate was not open yet. I left and sat down at the complemetary foot massage station where a machine gently pushed the travel pains out. I got bored and decided to get my seat changed. On the way I stopped at Starbucks to buy an esspresso, and realized my black pouch was not with me. Panic struck.

I ran to the internet station where I last saw it- not there.  I ran back to the foot massage station- not there either.  By this time I broke out in a cold sweat and slightly wanted to throw up.  Philippians 4:6-7 kept playing over in my head so I thanked God for getting me to Singapore safely with no problems and then kept praying that the passport would show up.  After running around to different locations, a lady that I had spoken to several times finally said, "Sir your passport- is it in a black pouch?"  YES! Some random person had found it and turned it in, leaving everything in there untouched.  God totally answers prayers.  He also reminded me that I cannot do this on my own and must be walking (or running) in prayer at all times.

The Beginning of an Epic Adventure

Friday, June 11, 2010, 11:54AM

Dulles International Airport, Virginia, USA

Today is the first day of an epic journey to the other side of the world… literally actually- I refuel in Singapore on my way to South Africa, which is exactly 12 hours different than comfortable Glenwood, Maryland, USA.  Nonetheless, in about 20 minutes, I will be boarding the plane headed to Cape Town, South Africa.  Once I land there, Lourens Maritz will pick me up and we will drive to Stellenbosch, a city about 20min away from Cape Town.  For the next two weeks we will be investing our time in producing a sustainable leadership development program, aimed at giving the youth of this community a better sense of well-being, entrepreneurship mindsets, and cultural awareness.