New Life in the Cape

Hey everyone!

 

It's finally time for another blog post! Most of you probably know from Facebook and talking to me that I am finally in Cape Town, Africa! We have been here for about a month now and we've got just 2 more to go. Only 2 more. That's really weird for me to think about. I came out on this trip thinking nine months is going to last forever. Well now I'm down to under 9 weeks. It's definitely bittersweet to think about. 

 

Anyway just to keep you all updated, I'm doing just great here. This is easily my favorite country out of the three to be living in. I love our balance of ministry and free time and I just love what I'm getting to experience here and how much there is to do. 

 

I'm living with my same team from Thailand (led by Kev) and Elliot's team as well. We're squishing 12 of us into a tiny 2 room house. We finally have bunk beds which is nice, but living quarters are very tight. Needless to say, we're learning a lot about living in community. As for ministry, we're all serving at a Christian school/church doing different jobs according to our skill and Jesus' will. I work with Elliot, Kevin, and Brian on maintenance around the property. Just so you get an idea of what that looks like, imagine an actual walled-in dump, cleaned out (for the most part), with office spaces and storage containers turned into classrooms. That's pretty much exactly what the school is. So we have quite a bit of work on our hands. We've already done jobs from making benches for the cafeteria to fixing doors to fixing electrical fixtures. And those are just a couple things to give you an idea. Besides that, once a week I get to hang out and help out with the 1-3 year old kids at the Crèche which is on the property as well. Before a couple of weeks ago when that started I had NO IDEA how much I love kids. Now, I'm already thinking about how I'm going to be able to volunteer to do something like this at my church or anywhere else as soon as I get home.

 

So that all happens Monday-Thursday from 8-3pm. We actually have a secondary  ministry in terms of time that is to completely run our own friday night youth group for the kids at the school, church, and local communities. I lead a band for it with all guys and girls from mine and Elliot's team as well as my own small group with the 12-14 year old guys.  It's so much fun, but it's very tough emotionally and spiritually! The kids we're working with at this school and church generally come from very poor families with backgrounds of lots of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. It's definitely not easy getting through to them. We're trying so hard to establish genuine relationships with them inside and outside of school and youth group, but there seems to be this general block in the way that is the kids thinking there's no way we really care and no way we can really relate to them. It's what they've come to know and experience and I really can't blame them. However the idea of this youth group and our general interaction with these kids is to tear down the block and help reach them any way we can. Please pray for us and these kids. This would be completely useless on our own.

 

That's about it for ministry! Besides that, we have most of Fridays and Saturdays off and I'm getting to experience things I never would've imagined. Most Saturdays I go surfing at a huge beach in muizenberg here. A couple weeks ago I got to go to hillsong united's opening show for their new cd, Zion. And next weekend I have plans to go cage diving to see some sharks and then later at night I'm airing on CCFM radio with a couple people on my team to tell of our experiences following Jesus and traveling the world. Life's getting unreal. Who ever said following Jesus is boring?