Computer Training

This afternoon I took Paul to the church in Katlehong where he is doing his computer training. It was the fifth class today, so the students woked on typing up a letter. They worked on things like changing text to bold, italicized, underlined, and double spaced. By the end of the course, they will be trained in word processing programs as well as spreadsheets. It was fun for me to see the class today because it's such a practical way to do training and it's easy to see how being trained in these skills could lead to a job in the future. The five people going through the class right now will actually be the ones teaching it in the future, so it will be fully self-sustaining.

Deja Vu

Our meeting today took us out past the spot on the highway where we broke down last week. I'll admit that even thought it's irrational, I felt a lot better about the state of the car after we passed the location of the breakdown. Despite the concerns about the car, the meeting went really well. We drove into town and had some posters printed up in order to advertise the event on December 8. Laura and I are headed back there two days next week to do some door-to-door advertising with flyers. We really want to pack the place out and let as many people hear this message as possible. Pray that God would prepare the hearts of those He wants to change.

Power Outage

Our power came on tonight around 6 PM. It's been off since yesterday around 3 PM. So, obviously it's been a little rough getting anything done around here. This morning, everybody living at the house went over to a nearby coffee shop in order to charge our computers and use the internet. It was quite a sight to see with all of the laptops and the kids hanging out with us as we tried to get as much done as possible. After hanging out there for four or so hours, Paul and I decided that we'd try one last time to work on the car before going into a mechanic. It was just a bolt that was at a weird angle, so we gave it a shot. About fifteen minutes into it, we got it! We were so proud of ourselves because we're clueless when it comes to mechanics of any kind and we managed to avoid paying an arm and a leg at some garage for tightening a bolt. Some of you may read this and not be too impressed, but let me tell you, you really should be. So now the car is completely fixed and the power is back on. Life is good.

A Bit of Car Trouble

Wednesday was when it all started. Laura and I were traveling home from a meeting and the car lurched on the highway. We were going 120 kph (~75 mph), so I figured I should pull over and see what the deal was. It wasn't until we had come to a stop that I realized that the car had actually shut off. So, here we are on the side of the road, 45 minutes away from home. The car would start, but it would only run for a few seconds before it would die again. So I called home to see if there were any suggestions from people who actually know about cars (I have no clue). They threw out some ideas and said that they'd come our way if we couldn't get it going. So, we walked about a quarter mile up the road to a gas station to see if they had anything to treat bad gas (just in case that was the issue). They didn't have much selection, so we walked back out to the car. By this time, Mike and Brian were about to head out to rescue us. All in all, Laura and I sat on the side of the road with a broken down car for about an hour and a half. In that time, around 20 police cars passed us and not one of them gave us a second glance. After what seemed like an eternity, Brian and Mike showed up. They tinkered around for a bit and then we decided to head to Midas. The mechanic at Midas was itching for an adventure, so he followed us out to the car and he was able to get it to start up and stay running! I was pumped. Until we got 10 miles down the road - the car died again on the highway. We mimicked what the mechanic did and got it started again. Then, about five minutes from home, it died again. By this time, we had figured out that the mechanic found a quick fix, but he hadn't addressed the actual problem. Eventually, we figured out that the issue was a loose fuel pump. Then we found out that a bolt was missing and the whole pump had been rattling around for who knows how long.
So, today, Brian and I went out to run a few errands and we picked up a new pump from a spare shop. We spent the afternoon installing it and changing the oil. There's one screw that we can't get in (the same one that caused this problem by being absent), so we're working on finding somebody with the right tool to get it in. We ran by a few garages around 5:30, but everything was closed, so it will have to wait. In the meantime, the car is running just fine, but we're looking to get things figured out for the long run instead of another quick fix that leaves me stranded on the side of the highway. I learned a good bit about what's under the hood on a car today. It's pitiful how little I knew before, but I'm getting there.

Planning

Today was filled with it. I started off by working on agreements and checklists to use for future Youth United events so that both the host church and our team know what to expect from one another. These documents will be huge as we move forward on the dates we have set aside for rallies. I took a break from this planning and had a meeting with a pastor right down the road from us. He was so excited to think about how we could work together and when I mentioned the idea of doing a rally, he was all about it. He's already got some of the plans going in his mind and it's really exciting for me to see how passionate he is and how much he truly loves the youth that he works with. I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into the joy that he had as he worked to lead people into an intimate relationship with Christ. He's the kind of guy that I love working with and I'm really looking forward to what God will do through him.

Home Again

Well, we made it back from Swaziland tonight. I made the decision that instead of calling it Swaziland, I only refer to it as "The Kingdom". As crazy as this may sound, that's the first country that I've ever been in that is ruled by an absolute monarch. He's a good king (and the source of countless jokes coming from our team - most of the "Coming to America" variety). We had a great time and we got to experience a much different living situation. Living near Joburg is like living near any big city in the States - Chicago, Detroit, etc. But life in The Kingdom is much different. It's a very spread out country of around 1.3 million people, most of them living on farms. There are plenty of dirt roads, people are much more likely to live in huts, and it was around 100 degrees the first day we got there. We hung out with the Cox family. Rick Cox is the director of most of Africa for Global Partners, so it was really great to meet him and spend some time with him and with his family. We spent most of the time going around getting a feel for the country, but we also got to swim twice since it was so hot. This trip was more relaxing than work-related, but at the same time, we saw a lot and learned a lot in preparation for Vox to have missionaries in every country in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Better Meeting

This morning, I was a part of a follow-up meeting to a conversation that got started last week. At the time, the start of the conversation did not go very well, so I wasn't looking forward to today because I was afraid it would be more of the same. However, things went much better than I ever would have anticipated. I was expecting the tension in the room to be fairly high, but things really couldn't have gone much better. We talked about where to go from here and i think the partnership agreement will really go a long way in making any and all future partnerships a success.
Then, I spent the afternoon working to finish up little things here and there because we will be in Swaziland for the rest of the week. There is a conversation going on with our team about whether or not to go further north into Mozambique in order to get all the way up the the Indian Ocean. I think that would be a riot, but it costs something like $70 per car to get across the border (both ways), so it's a little pricey. If we don't go, that will be what stops us. I'll let you know what we did when we get back since I won't be bringing my computer with me to Swaziland.

I'm Here

I apologize for the lack of posting recently. There just hasn't been much noteworthy going on recently. I've spent the past week working on a number of office-related things. After the meetings I posted about last Wednesday, I've been working on drafting up a partnership agreement for future endeavors in order to clearly lay out expectations and (hopefully) to help avoid snags and roadblocks along the way. I've also been working on some timelines and basic overviews of the Youth United events so that everybody knows exactly what the goal is. All this to say, sorry I didn't post for nearly a week, I'll get on that shortly. Ironically, our whole team is leaving tomorrow for Swaziland (the country just northeast of us) and we'll be gone until Friday. So, I won't be posting for a few days, but now I actually have a reasonable explanation...

Follow Up

This morning was filled with office work, but this afternoon was a follow up meeting with the leaders of the Moral Regeneration event a couple of Saturdays ago. We got some things worked out with the budget and how finances were allocated. We also talked in depth about advertising and about how to get the people there that we were hoping to reach. We're going to be going into the schools, working with a pastor who works with at-risk youth, and doing some door to door advertising to get things rolling. We're maxed out at around 80-90 people, so I'm figuring this advertising strategy will reach at least that many. We're praying that God would bring people in. The event's not for a couple of weeks, so we have some time to get on things.

Youth United Numbers

We just finalized the numbers from the Youth United event on Saturday. Here they are:

31 made either first time commitments or re-commitments (the wording was awkward, we're fixing is so that next time it isn't confusing)
27 committed to abstinence
14 want to join a small group

These numbers were really encouraging to me when I found them out, so I thought I'd throw them up here for everybody to see.

Office

Today and yesterday was spent debriefing on our time on Saturday and planning on how to improve. Brian, Laura, and I came up with a ton of good stuff that we'd like to implement in the future, so I spent some of today working on that. Also, we're working to get some momentum going Stateside for Vox, so I sent out a bunch of emails to youth pastors and leaders in our team's sphere of influence. I'm excited to see how we can get different youth groups working together with us and see how God will use those partnerships!

Update

Since getting sick last Sunday night, I've spent most of my time in bed trying to get rested up in hopes of feeling better. On Friday, I was starting to feel a little better, but there was some stuff that had to be done last minute in preparation for a youth event on Saturday morning. Unwise as it may have been, I was out driving all over the place on Friday getting some stuff finalized. Then on Saturday, I went to the event, but I wasn't feeling well the entire time. I spent some of the time laying down (exciting, huh?) and I just didn't have energy in general.
Overall, this event was pretty well-planned, but the advertising left something to be desired again. Since I was sick the whole week leading up to it, there wasn't much at all I could do to help out with that, but next time, that's one of my priorities. Anyway, we had around 90 people show up and at the end of the event, somebody came forward to give their life to Christ. So that was awesome!
Now, it's Sunday afternoon and I'm back in bed trying to get fully recovered. It's so frustrating because I've been sick so long I feel like I need to be back at it, but when I try, I just get even more sick. It's a fine line...and I hate it.