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