Good News on the Car Front

Today was one of those non-descript days where you still accomplish things, but at the end of the day, there's not really anything to talk about. I worked on some communication stuff and getting budgets figured out. The highlight of the day was when I talked to Deon (our contact at the VW dealer) and he told me that he found a car in my price range. It's being fine-tuned in preparation for me to come check it out, which will hopefully happen tomorrow. We all feel like whatever he comes up with will be our best bet, so the fact that he has already found something is a huge answer to prayer.

More Time at Oleiven

This morning at 11, I had a meeting at King's Hope in Oleivenhoutbosh, which is right at one hour away from our house. I left with Brian, Ethan, and Jaden at 10 and we got back around 4. The meeting was great. I met with a group of youth workers and pastors from the community while Brian and the boys interviewed some of the King's Hope workers. My meeting went really well and we have a few events planned in the community. The first will be held over the course of September 26-28. A group will come in and do abstinance promotion / HIV prevention awareness programs twice a day for these three days. We're hoping to have around 200 kids per event, which would be awesome. Then, as a kind of follow up to this program, there is an organization called Moral Regeneration that is working to organize three events that will allow youth to hear from drama clubs, community youth workers, and area pastors on different topics. We had a good meeting, but it was three hours long, so I was feeling for Brian and the boys. When we got done, I headed out to find the boys dozing in the car. They were glad I was finally out of my meeting so we could head home. On the way back, we did a little looking for a car and followed up on a car I had seen the other day for sale at a cheap price. I saw it Monday and didn't stop and today it's gone. That was disappointing. It was actually a BMW, but it was a really good price. It was right at R30,000 (which is roughly $4,000). We've struggled with the thought of buying a BMW here because they're actually not exotic cars here in any sense of the word. They're all over and they're really affordable. Unfortunately, we know the perception in the States is that a BMW is a luxury car and we aren't sure it would fly for us to be driving on of them when we had teams coming in from the states. Unfortunately, I will probably end up spending more on a car that isn't of the same quality simply for appearance's sake. It's a bit of a predicament, but it's all good. After following up on that lead, we drove to the dealership where we bought the Polo and we were (finally) able to pick up the license plates and registration for the vehicle. That's been a bit of a headache because of the fact that we live overseas. On the bright side, the license plates are plastic, so they just told us to throw away the temporary dealer plates we currently have, but we're keeping them for souvenirs.

I'm Behind Again

Sorry about that. I was doing pretty well there for a while. Since Sunday, we've taken Jason to the airport after having him with us for a week and a half. It was great seeing him again (since he was one of my small group leaders in high school) and we even got to play nine holes of golf on Monday. I'm in the process of looking for a car because when Laura and Paul get here, we'll need a way to get around. Right now, I'll usually ride along with some of the other guys and they will sometimes have to go sit through some of my meetings just so we all have a way to get around. I talked with our contact at the dealership and he said to give him a week to look for a car around $4,000. That's about what Paul, Laura, and I can afford with all of our budgets conbined and he said that I'd be surprised at what kind of car that would get me. Since Sunday, I've spent time working on some planning for upcoming leadership training and other things like that. I've been staying busy - and that's the excuse I'll give for not posting the past couple of days...

House Visits

This morning at Soweto Vineyard, we did door to door evangelism during the service time. First of all, I think this is a brilliant idea because it gets your congregation out into the community and allows people a chance to get to know the church. I went with a group of five into the first house and other than the question, "Do you speak Souto?", which was followed by the command, "Learn the language!", everything else that was discussed was in Souto. Since I only understand a few words, I didn't really know what was going on, so I spent the twenty or so minutes praying for God to open the hearts of the people we were visiting with. After we left, I found that they had been receptive of the message and at the end, we prayed for them before assuring them that people from the church would come and visit again.
The next house was similar, but everything was in Zulu this time. Different language, but the same result for me - I prayed. The man in this house was open to attending church when his work schedule permitted, so we got his number and will follow up. After his house, the time limit was up and we headed back to the church to compare notes with other groups. The response was overwhelmingly positive and we all left encouraged that God was at work in the surrounding community.

I'm a Little Behind

And I apologize for not getting a post up last night about my day yesterday. In the morning, I met with the District Youth Leader of the Wesleyan Church and 5 of the youth leaders under her. We all talked about the vision for Vox Youth Initiatives and we talked extensively about the idea of holding rallies to reach youth with the message of HIV prevention combined with the hope that is available through Christ in the face of HIV/AIDS. Because Penny is over all of these churches and because she liked this idea, she even signed up the churches that weren't at the meeting for a rally. I think that we committed to something around 8 rallies yesterday! And we planned two training weekends and the date for the first rally will be October 27. It was a very, very productive meeting and it was a huge answer to prayer.
Later in the afternoon, the Kings, Jason Pierce, and I went to a township to have dinner with one of the ladies who is a care worker at Zenzele. We really didn't know what to expect as we drove over there - we expected to be eating in a tin shack with little to no concern for the cleanliness of the dishes and things like that. However, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that they had started in a shack and had saved up until they could add a room onto an actual house. Now the house is around 5 rooms with electricity and running water. We brought chili along with us and we hung out and enjoyed the night. We found out throughout the course of the discussion that it was a really big deal in the neighborhood that Rhoda was having white people come over to her house. We were glad we could spend some time with Rhoda and her family and we talked with them about doing it again.

Lotcha

This morning Mike, Jason Pierce, and I met with Danny and Wessie at Uniting Reformed. This meeting was more about continuing to build the relationship and checking to see if there was anything that we could do to help these guys in their ministry. We had a great time and we walked away very encouraged with the things that are being planned in the church.
In the afternoon, we went to Lotcha to work on developing an orphan and vulnerable children sponsorship program. We photographed and gathered information on just under 60 kids. We spent time finding out the needs of these kids as well as their home situations and their hobbies. Despite the fact that this could have turned out to be an all-business type of event, we took the time to make sure that these people didn't feel like they were being "checked off" our list as soon as we had their information. We had a great time and we all walked away very encouraged with the progress that was made today.

A Great Day

Today was awesome. First of all, I woke up feeling healthy, which was an answer to prayer. I headed to a Vineyard Church regional meeting with Brian, Jason Kehrer, and Jason Pierce. We went with the guys from Soweto Vineyard Church and we got to meet a bunch of really great pastors who were full of wisdom and insight. This was their monthly get-together to worship together and to talk about what's going on ministry wise. This meeting went from 9-Noon and from there, we broke off and met with Mpho and David from the Soweto Vineyard. We talked for almost two hours about the teams we had coming in and the expertise they brought with them and Mpho came up with ways to effectively use them in ministry that corresponded with the church. David and I are going to be working together to set up a camp that will essentially be one of the rallies that teach HIV prevention. I'm excited about the possibilities and I'm looking forward to actually holding a rally. It's going to be great when all of this talking and planning pays off with some results!

False Alarm!

At least, so far. I woke up this morning to get ready for a (probably) day-long meeting and I'm feeling great. Thanks for your prayers, I firmly believe that they are what's keeping me going. I'll keep you posted on how today goes.

Oleivenhoutbosh and Company

Today, I went with Brian to a meeting with the youth leaders in the township of Oleivenhoutbosh. We met at King's Hope where we have begun a relationship and we are working to get some things on the calendar. Today was a time of listening to the dreams of the leaders in the community and then brainstorming about how all of us could work together. There were some really great ideas addressed today, but we're waiting unti next Wednesday to come to any solid conclusions. I enjoyed the spirit of the meeting and it was great having 4 or 5 different churches or organizations working together. From there, we drove to Zandspruit because Jason Pierce is with us this week and we wanted to show him how things are going there. He really enjoyed it and it was helpful for him to see a place that was doing such a great job ministering to the community in the face of such a big need.
Tomorrow is a meeting with Soweto Vineyard, the church I attended camp with, and I'm really looking forward to getting together with the people I've been building a relationship with. However, tonight, my face is a little flush and I'm feeling a bit warm. I'm not sure if I'm just being paranoid or if I'm actually getting sick. That's part of why this post is so brief - I'm laying in bed (and it's only 8!). I'm hoping and praying that I'll wake up tomorrow and be feeling great and it's encouraging for me to know that when I post this, people will be praying. Thanks.

Camp

Camp was an awesome experience. I had a blast. The camp was for the entire church and it was good for me to see a camp with whole families instead of just youth or just kids. I think that doing family camp brings an added bonus because different genverations are interacting and learning from each other.
We arrived at the camp late on Friday night (around 11), so it was time for dinner and then bed. The plan was that group devotions would start at 6 AM the next day, so I wanted to get some sleep. Thankfully, I woke up on my own around 7 and devotions weren't as early as I feared. We spent most of the morning in a rally and heard a great message about having an undivided heart toward God. After lunch, we played soccer for probably an hour and a half or two hours and we dominated some white kids from a camp down the road (I was the only white person at our camp). We had a good time playing a releasing a little energy before dinner and the evening rally. After dinner, we had a bonfire and I spent most of the rest of the night in my room hanging out with the guys that I was staying with. I spent a couple of hours talking with three guys who gave me some English names rather than their real names because they knew that their real names would be too hard to pronounce (they didn't even tell me thier real names). Their "names" were Johnson, Morgan, and Louis. We spent time talking about their plans and dreams for the future and they tried to teach me some Zulu and Souto words before we drifted off to sleep.
Sunday morning was the same as Saturday with breakfast right before the morning rally. But this had more of a church service feel to it because it was Sunday morning. After the service, we had lunch and packed up to head home. I rode home with the pastor and his family and ended up hanging out at their house for around two hours in the afternoon. I had a great time with them and I really enjoy being around them because they all have a gentle spirit and they love to laugh. We get along great and I would say that the two hours I spent with them actually sum up the camp very nicely. I built relationships and I got along great with everybody. It was an awesome (and tiring) weekend.

Off to Camp

I'm leaving for the weekend in about 45 minutes. I don't know fully what to expect this weekend, but I'm looking forward to having a great time. I was told that we'd be playing a lot of soccer, so I'm prepared to be laughed at and mocked for my "skills". I'm excited to have a weekend to just hang out with the people and the leadership at Soweto Vineyard. I'll let you know some of the details when I get back on Sunday.

God Was at Work Today

This morning, I confirmed with Pastor Ron that it woudn't work out for us to head out to visit with him today. The Spring Arbor team was still down with some sickness today. Two of them were still sick this morning, and then a third started to feel bad this afternoon (there are four total in the team). But, even though we didn't get to go to Dundee, that didn't mean that we missed out on doing ministry altogether. I took the two healthy team members to a nearby AIDS hospice and we spent the entire morning praying with people in various stages of decline as a result of AIDS. We prayed for and anointed with oil the women in the not-so-sick wing and then moved on to the critical wing. We spent time in both of these rooms reading Scripture, singing songs, and praying over everybody in the room. We did the same in the men's wing, but there was only one room there.
Right before all of the patients went to get their lunch, the pastor we were with gave a short message to around 85-100 of the more able-bodied men who were milling about outside. He did this in Zulu, so when a number of people came forward to have us pray for them, I didn't really know why they were coming forward. We laid hands on them and prayed for these people one-by-one. I would estimate that somewhere between 15-20 people came forward. I asked about what had happened as we were walking away and I was told that all of those people had just made a decision to follow Christ! How awesome is that!! That was an incredible surprise because I thought that they were coming forward to receive prayer for a physical ailment. God was at work in a major way this morning as we prayed over the patients and it was exciting to see Him work. This experience was amazing and I would love to go back to the hospice sometime soon, but it was an incredibly emotionally experience. I found myself simply overwhelmed as we walked among all of these sick men and women. I was hit with a sense of helplessness because there is nothing that can be done to prevent death once HIV is contracted. It's a devestating disease, and I had a chance to see the end results up close and personal today. However, as draining and overwhelmingly devestating this experience was, it was a great reminder for me of what I'm doing here. God has called me to be here now to minister to anyone and everyone with the message that hope is available through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. What a high calling we have as Christians! I'm glad I had that reminder today.

It Didn't Happen

Since I'm posting again today, we obviously didn't make the trip to Dundee this morning. I'm disappointed for a couple of reasons. One, I really want to talk with Pastor Ron and get his take on the rally idea. And two, this is the second time I've had to call him and cancel, which I absolutely hate doing. But there's only so much that can be done when people get sick, and today, another member of the Spring Arbor team came down with something, so three of the four either are currently sick or have been sick at one point. Not a lot of fun. Since my plans changed today, I went with Brian to meet with Pastor Johnathan Goosen, a former rugby player who is now a pastor of Burdell Wesleyan Church. We talked with him about getting as many pastors as possible to attend the Willow Creek Leadership Conference broadcast the first weekend in October. He was all about this idea and had already invited all of the leadership in his church to come. The meeting went great and we came up with a gameplan for making this happen. Brian and I left this meeting very encouraged. Then, we went to many various places working to get the car that we bought a couple of weeks ago registered in our name. This is being taken care of through the dealership, but since we're not from around here, the process gets a bit complicated. We spent a good portion of time working to get everything settled for that and dropped all of our info off at the dealership, so hopefully everything will be taken care of. From there, we went to a local sports shop and I bought myself a bike. It's actually the community bike until the rest of these people have had enough and decide to spring for one. I really haven't gotten much (read, any) exercise since we've gotten here, so I took the bike out for a spin today. Even though it was pretty cold (I'm guessing in the ballpark of mid-50's), I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Tomorrow, I'm taking the team to a hospice with one of the ladies who lives at the seminary.

Final Thoughts

Well, at least until I get home again on Sunday night. Today was a good day. I spent the morning gathering my questions for Pastor Ron about the rally we did with him last year (about cost, advertising, finding a location, yada yada...) and working a little bit more on the short message ideas that I will be sharing in the youth settings that he has prepared for us. After spending the morning doing that, I ran out after lunch to get all of the last minute things that I will need over this coming week. Things like toothpaste and batteries for my alarm clock, you know, boring stuff. After that, Brian and I had a meeting with Mpho, the pastor of the Soweto Vineyard Church whose camp I will be attending this week. We talked with him for a while about how we could partner with thier church and he gave us some really valuable information on how we go about getting the status of a Non-Profit Orginization here in South Africa. He used to work in government and still has many friends there, so he knows the system in and out. That information was incredibly helpful and I think he saved us a ton of time with some of his tips. From there, we headed home and learned that one of the members of the Spring Arbor team went to the doctor today and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and another one was feeling sick, too. This obviously calls into question whether or not we will get a chance to leave tomorrow at 8 for a long three day trip. I've notified Pastor Ron that we will be playing it by ear tomorrow, but we may not be able to leave until Thursday. I hate having to do that at the last minute, but that's really the only option. If half of the team is sick, it's just not smart to go. I'll keep you posted, but if you don't hear anything from me tomorrow, then we left and you'll get the condensed version of my week on Sunday. In the meantime, here's an excerpt from my blog from my initial experience in Dundee last August:

...we headed to the location of the “Reach 4 Life” program kickoff with Pastor Ron's church. This program was designed to encourage young men and women to practice sexual purity and talks about how to overcome the overwhelming pandemic of HIV and AIDS that is destroying the country. The program is essentially a "read through the Bible program" with verses highlighted that have to do with temptation and that can be related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
We drove to a field with a tent and a volleyball net set up in the middle of it with about 100 people milling about. We climbed out of the van and we were immediately told that there were people waiting for us to play volleyball with them. Everybody was extremely excited to get a chance to play volleyball against "the American team." There were only six of us on the team who were really excited (read, willing) to play volleyball, so the other three people played with the kids and talked with the people there at the kickoff. After a few games (we won all of them) Pastor Ron called us all over for the official kickoff of the program. We sang some songs, prayed, and praised God for this event and giving safety to everyone who had traveled to it. After this portion of the program, Michael Berens and I gave a fifteen minute challenge to those in attendance. Reach 4 Life is a program designed to encourage youth and young adults to practice abstinence and make wise decisions with their lives, especially concerning the issue of HIV and AIDS.
After the challenge time, it was right back to volleyball. These games went well, but we played volleyball from 12:30 until around 4:00 with maybe a half hour break for lunch. I enjoyed playing volleyball, but I kind of felt like we were just messing around while we could have been using these three and a half hours to minister and interact with people. This theory was proved to be incredibly wrong immediately when we stopped playing. Right as we stopped, a 22 year old young man named Xenepaie (spelling?) came up to me and started to tell me about his life. Xenepaie told me that his name translates “Blessing from the Lord” and that could not have been more accurate. He told me that he had been living a life filled with alcohol, drugs, and women. He was chasing after what he thought would make him happy, but he only found emptiness. He told me that he felt God tugging on his heart and that about three months ago he began attending church. He told me about the life change that God had worked in him and he never stopped smiling the whole fifteen minutes that we talked. He said that he was so encouraged that our team had sacrificed money and time to come to South Africa because we cared about HIM enough to do that. He was pumped about what God had done in his life and he was looking forward to what God was going to continue to do.
After my conversation with Xenepaie, I started to walk to the van because almost the whole rest of the team was ready to go. On my way to the van, I was stopped by a guy named Páni who we had played volleyball with for most of the time. I had assumed that he was a believer, but as we got into the conversation, it became clear that he was not. He talked about spiritual things, but he talked about the fact that he believed there was not God up in heaven, but each one of us were partly gods. Paul Hontz and I told him that Chirst had come as a man and He was God, but that nobody on earth was a god. We challenged him to read the Bible that we had passed out at the program and he said that he would. He said he would probably have questions, so we told him to speak to Pastor Ron about it.
These two conversations convinced me that the endless hours of volleyball had not been in vain. Actually, Jason reminded me that if we had flown the whole way to South Africa to have only those two conversations and encourage two young men to follow after Jesus Christ, then the entire trip was worth it. I walked away from the program kickoff quite encouraged and amazed at the way that our God works.

Getting Geared Up for a Big Week

Today was all about getting ready for the visit to see Pastor Ron. He has a few youth events lined up for us while we're there, so I spent time today working on what I wanted to share in these different settings. I also ran out and bought a sleeping bag because I need one for the camp that starts on Friday. I'm getting ready for things to start getting really busy, and so far I'm healthy, so I'm thanking God for providing His strength thus far.

Weekend Update

This weekend has been mostly about dealing with sickness. It's been a sort of revolving door around here. You never know who's going to be sick when you wake up in the morning, but you can rest assured that somebody will be. I've been laying low trying to stay well-rested and stay away from the sick people because I've got a busy week ahead of me. The Spring Arbor University team arrived on Saturday night and on Wednesday, I'll be leaving with them to meet with the Regional Youth Director of the Wesleyan Church. That meeting is about 5 hours away, so we will be staying until Friday. We'll be helping him out and he's got a youth event planned each day that we will be there and he's got everything set up for us to give all of the messages and everything, too. I'm excited about that and I'm really looking forward to it. Upon arriving home Friday from there, I'm going to be attending a youth camp with Soweto Vineyard Church from Friday evening until Sunday evening. I thoroughly enjoy the people from this church, so I feel that I sort of know what to expect. But all of these plans hinge on whether or not I stay healthy, so please pray for good health for me this week. From past experiences, I've learned that when I know I can't get sick, I stay healthy despite the circumstances, but as soon as I have a day or two to take it easy, then I'll get sick. That's why most of my Spring Breaks really aren't that great...
Anyway, this morning we attended Soweto Vineyard Church and I found out some more details on the camp I'm going to. I was told it was in the bush and I need to bring my own blankets. Other than the fact that night will be obscenely cold, this camp will be an absolute riot! Thanks for your prayers.

An Interesting Start to the Day

Today started with two meetings. One wasn't bad and one was great. The first meeting was with a pastor in an area that we often work who was looking to plant a church in the area. I say this wasn't the best meeting because he already pastors a church in an area about 25 minutes from where he lives and he's looking to plant another without really having anybody to take his place at his other church. He wants to pastor at both churches and he's already working full-time at a nearby hospital. He was very bold (condsidering this was the first time we had met him) in asking how we were going to help and get involved by providing resources. While we believe that his heart is in the right place, this just didn't feel like a good fit to Mike and I.
From there, we went to see Danny at Uniting Reformed Church and things went incredibly well. Since our last meeting, he had set up a meeting with 7 other churches in the area in order to discuss youth ministry. They have a date on the calendar for a youth event that will be run by all of these churches together. Then, he told us that they were going to work to set up a youth leadership team made up of young people from each church. Basically everything that he said today was in line with the vision of Vox Youth Initiatives. When we discussed the idea of an abstinence / HIV prevention rally coming about as a result of this partnership of churches, he was on board with that idea. It was a greatly encouraging meeting and it was definitely an answer to prayer. Then, for the rest of the afternoon, I worked on how to present the message at the rally.

Reading and Retrospection

Today, I spent all day working to read some material that we got from Pastor Vessie about HIV/AIDS. There were tons of helpful facts and a few good ideas of how to approach this topic with young people. I would say that I read through maybe one fifth of all of the material he gave us, so I still have a long way to go over the next week. It's sort of tedious work, but I will gain a really useful fact or idea every once in a while, so it is definitely worth doing. Also, I wrote before that I would work to get some of my initial thoughts from my last visit here, so here are some of my initial impressions from August 2006:
Our first day, Doctor Galela gave us a tour of what we were seeing. We drove through the shantytown of Alexandra, which housed, according to Doctor, over 400,000 people in an area that I would guess would be probably about 10 square miles. Driving through Alexandra was an experience unlike any that I have had before. We saw people living just about on top of one another and there were community toilets and only a few locations to get running water throughout this whole informal settlement. People built “houses” out of discarded siding, bricks, scrap metal, and anything else that was solid and could be used as a shelter from the elements. Doctor told us that most of the women living in these informal settlements were involved in prostitution in order to make some money. He went on to tell us that “women” were girls that were 13 or 14 years of age. Makeshift fruit stands, barber shops, and used clothing piles were set up everywhere by people simply trying to make ends meet.
We drove from the informal setting of Alexandra to downtown Johannesburg. Downtown Joburg was the absolute opposite of everything that we had seen in Alexandra. In downtown Joburg, we were in the midst of a city that reminded me a lot of a larger version of Grand Rapids. There were skyscrapers for Coca-Cola and Vodacom. We passed Jaguar and BMW dealerships. We stopped and had lunch at a mall, which stood in sharp contrast in our minds to the shantytowns that we had just driven through.
That's a little snippet of my initial experience and reaction.

Lotcha

This morning was divided between working on the message for the rallies and going with Brian and Mike to pick up our freshly printed business cards. Working on the message went great, but the business cards were another story. We picked them up and found that the ink from the back had bled to the front around the edges, the ink was smeared in places, and the coloring wasn't consistent from one card to another (and sometimes not even on the same card!). While this was a disappointment, we didn't let it ruin our trip out. Because, you see, we had ulterior motives when we volunteered to pick up the cards. We all wanted to go shopping for bicycles because we are all craving exercise. However, our bike shopping experience was not a great one with every bike that we saw costing at least $250. I was disappointed.
In the afternoon, we went to visit a ministry called Lotcha (pronounced launch-uh), which in English is "daybreak". This ministry combines orphan care with feeding programs, home based care (for those who are bed-ridden in the community), and group counseling sessions. Doctor took us to this ministry and we met up with his protege, Vusi. Vusi is an employee of World Hope South Africa and he is an extremely personable guy. He caught on to the humor of the group right away and within minutes, he was joking right along with us. Anyway, we went with Doctor and Vusi to visit Lotcha. Vusi had previously been involved with Lotcha and had gotten his church involved, too. Doctor had been previously involved as well. We sat down with the director of the minstry and found that their feeding programs had stopped because they had run out of money. They have their eye on a piece of property and the government is willing to lease it to them for five years with an option to buy (if the government likes what they see). There are 23 employees and 15 volunteers. However, the employees are not paid, so they are actually volunteers too, but they work employee hours. After hearing about what this ministry could become with the right resources, our team left very encouraged and with a lot to think about. There are so many ministries that we would love to partner with and right now, the only way we can know where God is leading us is through prayer.
Upon our return home from Lotcha, we found that there was a power outage in our neighborhood, which from what we can gather is a fairly common thing. Nobody was really surprised and nobody acted like this was out of the ordinary. So because we had no power, we ate out tonight. Not a big deal, but random power outages for no reason are going to take a few months to get used to.

Working Away

I spent most of the day on Monday working gathering information that I will be using in the message for the rallies. I'm researching how others have approached abstainance for young people and I'm looking at ways that I can help make things as clear as possible and how I can advocate life change through the power of Christ in their lives. I spent from noon to five working on gathering information for the message of the rally. In the morning, I met with Brian, Jason, and Mike and we talked about how everything was coming along so far and we all weighed in on which direction we should take in a variety of areas. I'm really looking forward to this month because I'll be attending a youth camp from the 17th to the 19th and I have no information beyond that, so I'm excited for an adventure. This weekend, I am tentatively planning to make the five hour trip that I posted about a few weeks ago with a team of four from Spring Arbor. I will meet with the Regional Youth Director of the Wesleyan Church to talk with him about the rallies. I also have a couple of other meetings scheduled that I think will be really productive and will help to make September even busier than August will be. I'll keep you posted.

Word and Life

That's the name of the church that we went to on Sunday and we all really enjoyed it. It was primarily an Afrikaans church (white people of Dutch heritage) so the main service was in Afrikaans. We went to the English service that took place in the chapel. The sermon was all about casting vision for the church and it was spot on. The church really wants to get involved in the community and they will be hosting the Willow Creek Leadership Conference in October, which we will work to get some of the area pastors to attend. After service, we came home and I spent a few hours working on gathering information for the message I am preparing for the rallies.

Thursday and Friday

On Thursday, I went with Brian, Mike, and Jason to Oleivenhoutbosh to visit with a woman who volunteers there when she's not working as a youth pastor at her church. We had a meeting with her and got some dates on the calendar for me to come and help out with some youth events in the community. I found this time really helpful because she shared some different ways that she had used to reach youth in the community and i shared some of my ideas. it was good to gain a greater understanding of what works and what doesn't work and to be able to share some of my own ideas. From that meeting, we headed back home and on the way we picked up the new car. It's a silver Polo and we're happy to have enough vehicles to go in three different directions now (at least until we lose the ability to rent one of them in a month). After picking up the car, we headed home and i worked on putting some of the ideas we had discussed together with some of the ideas i had already been working out in my head. it was a productive day and i enjoyed getting a lot done. then, in the evening, we were planning to play Risk, but that fell through, which really disappointed me. I've been wanting to play again since we played the first week we were here, but so far, no luck. maybe tomorrow...
On Friday, i was tentatively/possibly planning to go to a youth rally, but i never heard back about that, so it didn't end up happening. my contact there was actually one of Molly's friends from YWAM that she hadn't seen since they were together in Perth, Australia. So that was kind of a crazy connection, but things didn't end up working out, but i do have a good many more youth events that i'm planning to attend, so it's not a devestating loss.
it's 6 now and still no mention of Risk tonight...

tuesday and wednesday

I spent all day tuesday at home reading through an HIV prevention curriculum that i was borrowing from pastor Vessie at the church nearby Zenzele. we went to visit him on wednesday, so i was working to get through everything before i had to return the material. it was a week-long course, so it was obviously too long for what we were hoping to use it for, but i did get some great ideas on topics to cover and how to approach them. I took a few pages of notes and that i planned to use on wednesday as i worked on getting those ideas meshed into what i was already planning on doing. on tuesday night, almost all of us took off to the movie theatre and saw Transformers. Similar to the rugby game, the movie was cheap - about $2.25. I don't understand why some entertainment is so cheap, because the cost of living is otherwise very comparable to what we're used to in the States (but gas is more expensive here - right around $4/gallon).
In the morning on wednesday, Jason, Brian, Mike, and I went to see pastor Vessie and the youth pastor, Danny. We talked in detail about Vessie's experiences with Zenzele and what he thought would be the best course of action if we were going to make an effort to develop a partnership with them. he encouraged as much structure as possible coming from our end and he warned us about some of the things that we needed to watch out for. Overall, it was a very helpful conversation and i also enjoy Vessie's company because he's a genuinely nice person. From there, we headed home and i spent the rest of the day working on rally ideas and doing some more work on the message for the rallies.