Hunting Art

Well, Vox is holding an art auction in Holland towards the end of April, so we've been spending some time on and off for the past couple of months working to compile some pieces to sell. We've been able to get around 30 pieces donated so far and we're still going. We're making a final push this week so that we can send all of the stuff home with the team coming in from Central Wesleyan in two weeks. I'll be spending a good chunk of tomorrow and Thursday going around to galleries around Joburg and asking people to donate to help us raise money for projects here. I don't particularly enjoy asking people for giveaways, but so far people have been unbelievably willing, so I'm hoping that spirit keeps showing up.

Mom's Home

I talked to my Mom yesterday night as she arrived in the airport. It was awesome having her here and letting her get a chance to see what's going on and what the heck I'm talking about most of the time. It was helpful for her to be able to piece some things together and hopefully if anybody reading this has any questions, she can help you out with those. Anyway, I spent today with the couple of people we had in from a church in Washington D.C. called Crosscurrent. We went to the Soweto Vineyard Church and we had the chance to interact after the message with most everybody in the church because it was cold (around 50) and rainy outside, so everybody was a little reluctant to leave. It was awesome to get to hang around and chat even longer than usual.

Some Good News and Some Bad News

I'm really starting to get bad at posting here regularly. I'm going to do my best to get a handle on that soon. First of all, it's been great having my Mom here. We've been tagging along with the team and checking out some of the things Vox is involved in, but we also took a day to go to Kruger National Park and we saw some cool animals. So, that's the good news.
However, the bad news is this: the Youth United event we had scheduled for today fell through. The students are spending this week taking midterms before their month-long break starts. So, unfortunately, the team in here didn't get a chance to see what these events are like. I'm definitely disappointed about that, but we were able to reschedule, so it's not like the school is missing out on an event, but we won't have this team around to help out and they won't get the chance to see one.

Student's Perspective

Laura and I had a meeting this afternoon with a girl named Rifiloe. She's a student at Progress High School in Soweto - the location of our last Youth United event. She's an incredibly sharp girl who wants to figure out a way to get involved with what we're doing and she took some time this afternoon to sit down with us and let us know what the event was like from a student's perspective. She had a lot of great things to say, but two of the points she made really jumped out at me. First of all, she said that around half of the kids didn't understand what was being said. Despite the fact that all classes are taught in English and all textbooks are in English, some students feel that learning English makes them "snobby". Others are not strong in English despite their efforts, so it's hard for them to keep up with a message in real time. So, for the next event, we're looking to find a translator so that kids can hear the message in either Zulu or Sotho (the two main languages around Joburg). The second point she made was about having music and giveaways at the beginning of the event. For us, it makes sense to put that stuff at the beginning because it's designed to be attention-getting and to allow kids to get involved in the program. However, Rifiloe said that once the kids get all riled up or after they receive a giveaway, their attention is actually lost. So, we were trying to get their attention with games, music and giveaways, but she's saying that we're actually setting ourselves up for failure by doing that. We're planning to switch things up for the next event and see if what she's saying will put us on the right track. The next event in Wednesday the 12th, so I'll let you know then.

Great News!

Yesterday, Laura and I visited three high schools in a township called Tsakane with a friend of ours who pastors in that area. All three want us to come and do something with them! One event is scheduled for next Wednesday. One is scheduled for April and one in May. I'm really excited to see how God will use those events and would appreciate your prayers in anticipation of the events for the lives that will be touched. We're also working on follow-up from our previous two high school events. Tomorrow, we'll be visiting one of the schools and inviting kids to get involved in small groups.