June 20-24 ^Eisley, Everleigh, and Shammah looking in a hole on the ouskirts of Masi
Monday.
Outreach seems to be falling on to our shoulders to put together. Some of the leadership from the DTS Department are helping but there doesn’t seem to be much fruit coming from it. If we were to just wait on them to put it together we’d still be waiting and wouldn’t have even started yet. So far we have a week completed and have started our second week today.
One of the requirements to complete the Outreach phase is to have a minimum of 3 hours of Worship/Intercession. So, we went to Calvary Chapel Cape Town Sunday for their weekly worship service. We got to see a family we knew from our time here in 2010 that we originally met at the Calvary Chapel Pastors Conference and who I also spent a week with in Lesotho. Some other people that we maybe only briefly met at the Conference 6 years ago remembered us from back then too. We also go to Base worship for all of YWAM on Thursday nights. Both of those services will count towards our 3 hour requirement.
Today we met with a local pastor named Pastor Ivan. He and his wife run a ministry in an area called Lavender Hill. Our friend that directs the organization called PACT made the introduction for us. Emily, the kids, and I will be going in to Lavender Hill on Thursdays to minister along side Pastor Ivan and his wife to kids in the neighborhood. There is an after school program and neighborhood feeding programs that we will assist with. We are pretty excited and Pastor Ivan and his wife seem like really good and genuine people.
Also, It’s freezing here. Not literally but the homes here are made of cinder block, concrete, and tile and are not equipped with heat. The house we are in till August is too big and open inside to even consider a space heater. It gets down to about 45 inside in the evenings, nights, and mornings. If the sun doesn’t come out, which it doesn’t a lot in the winter here, it doesn’t warm up much during the day either. It’s humbling in light of the fact of how many people around us live in informal settlements and have corrugated metal for walls and are anything but air tight.
On a more positive note, we are excited about our opportunities with Pastor Ivan and Fridays we will be serving along side a church in a Coloured Community with their Awana Program and youth outreach. I am hoping for some regular/weekly opportunities to serve in a Township called Masimphumelele on the other side of the mountain from Muizenberg. I don’t know why but i’ve loved being there when we have visitied. I even asked Emily if she would want to move in but the answer was a quick “NO” haha.
Tuesday.
The majority of our class leave tomorrow so today was sort of a day off while everyone gets ready to leave. We spent it finalizing some of or our outreach details and I think we’re getting close to having a full blown schedule! I had coffee this morning with a friend for a couple hours. I shared some things that I believe the Holy Spirit put on my heart to talk to him about. It was all well received and was an encouraging time. I’m excited to see what God has in store for him!
We also had our monthly appointment with our Midwife today in an area called Plumstead. It’s about a 20 minute drive. It was sunny and warmer today and the kids and I played games and chased each other in the well kept yard at the Midwife Office. Emily is about 25 weeks along so far and is doing great. The midwife said the baby is currently sitting breach but for how young he/she is there is zero reason for concern right now. So, all good too report on the baby’s health and Emily’s.
Tonight we had the entire class and leaders over at our house to spend some time with everyone before they leave. Some of them we won’t see again due to visa issues and re-entry in to South Africa. Everyone we are close to is basically leaving and i’m a little fearful of the next couple months being cold and alone. Haha, that sounds SO depressing. Maybe, only take about half of that intensity and apply it to the next couple months.
Even though we sort of had a day off it’s been pretty busy and it’s late so I’m going to bed now. we are spending the day tomorrow in a Township on the other side of the mountain. So I’m going to try and sleep now.
Wednesday.
Masimphumelele! Try and say that out loud around your friends! Masi is one of my favorite Townships in Cape Town. There are pretty much zero drug dealers in the entire neighborhood. They have rallied together as a community and have forcibly removed such people. Not only drug dealers but they as a community, and by community i mean the people, have zero tolerance for rape, child sexual abuse, etc. The means in which they deal with such criminals isn’t what we as a Americans would consider a right to a fair trail but they are making progress none-the-less. The community is not with out its hardships or short comings but they are being intentional and deliberate about change.
Nceba, a friend of ours who grew up in Masi, was our host for the day. This is the same Township I have gone to with Nceba a few times on the weekends at night just to walk around and see the culture and meet the people. It’s basically what we did today. We walked around with our little group and talked with people and even ate lunch in a garage that sold raw meats then they “braai” (grill) it for you right there.
We met the principle of the pre-school that Emily, the kids, and I will be at Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, till the end of Outreach. She was a very nice lady and I think it will be a good fit for our kids to be there while Emily and I help with the teachers. Our first day will be this coming Monday and it’s going to be “Safety Day”. I’m hoping for the opportunity to be able to teach the kids some exploitation/trafficking prevention education before out time there is over.
Also, this morning most of the class left for their perspective countries of Outreach…Germany and Thailand. With the exception of the three Kenyan siblings. Shamma, Don, and Wendy. They will leave on Friday morning. I will be taking them to the airport at 4am 🙁 Not looking forward to that commitment! haha, I’m mostly not looking forward to saying goodbye to them. We have become quite close with most of our class and it was hard to see them all go. Most of them will be back to graduate the DTS. However, the Kenyans were not able to get a visa to return for graduation so it was really hard to say goodbye since we don’t know when we will see each other again. It’s funny how someone can become such big a part of your life out of nowhere and trying to imagine life without ever knowing them is near impossible. We hope and pray the Lord brings us back together for longer seasons at a time.
Thursday.
I had coffee with the director and intern of PACT this morning in Kalk Bay at a trendy little spot called Bootlegger. I’ve been filling extra time in between our Outreach schedule with PACT helping to organize, plan, and produce some material for exploitation/trafficking prevention stuff for children. I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store with this relationship!
At 2:30 every Thursday now we are in a Township called Lavender Hill. Salome, the director from PACT, introduced us to a local pastor named Ivan. Pastor Ivan has started an awesome ministry after school in Lavender Hill where he also has a church established. The property is massive and beautiful. Kids show up as early as 230 and we split up in to groups and play cricket, rugby, soccer, or children’s games with the smaller ones. I played soccer with a big group of boys
and Emily did face painting for an un-ending line of children. Another cool thing they do every week is Pastor Ivan’s wife, Bronwen, picks a different girl, sometimes two, and gives them a sort of make-over. The little girl that was picked this week was so shy yet pleased with her new hair-do it was really cute. Paster Bronwen said another reason they do this for the girls is as a ministry to the mothers. It’s something the mama’s don’t have to worry about that weekend or feel bad for not doing. I think it’s such an awesome, unique, and needed, idea. After the games the kids are gathered and a message of Christ’s love and acceptance was shared with the kids from Pastor Ivan and then the kids get fed. It was a great time and we are excited to be a part of what Pastor Ivan has built there in Lavender Hill.
It wasn’t quite the quiet finish to the day that we had planned. Eisley and I went to the Base to pick of Shamma, one of the Kenyans, to spend the evening with him at our house before he leaves for Thailand. While we were at Base we noticed a giant smoke stack rolling up into the sky and over the neighboring houses in Muizenberg, just above a small artsy section called The Village. So Eisley, Sean(a friend and YWAM staff), Wendy(a member of the Kenyan trinity), and I went rubber necking. There was a house that had caught fire but the oddest part of it was there was not one emergency vehicle. By the time we had walked up to the scene the fire had been burning for quite some time. It was beginning now to burn through the ceramic tile roof and we could hear the heavy tiles caving in and sliding off. Nobo
dy was inside and the owner was on a neighboring roof with a garden hose. The Fire Brigade had been called quite sometime before our arrival but no emergency crew had even made it yet, not even the police. We ended up leaving earlier from the blaze of destruction than I wanted because Eisley was starting to get a fright. So we went back to Base and picked up Shamma and returned to our house where he and I made stupid YWAM memes and then watched Life of Pi. It was a nice evening with a friend that became a brother in three months and is leaving in the morning with no idea when we will see each other again.
<Saying Goodbye to the Kenyans.
Friday.
Yo! I’ll tell you what Awana, I really really wana
So tell me what you wana, what you really really wana
Awana, Awana, Awana, Awana, Awana, really, really want, zigzag ha.
OK, maybe with out the Spice Girls reference. . . Awana. Tonight we helped out with an Awana program in a Township called Capricorn. It wasn’t quite what we had expected. They have some big area wide Awana Olympics competition coming up that the kids are practicing for. So that was the focus as opposed to the usual games and relationship building with an emphasis on bible lessons and a teaching time. It was fun but I think with the Awana Olympics preparation there isn’t much need for us to be there. We are going to talk with Pastor Ivan from Lavender Hill on Monday and see about doing stuff with the neighborhood kids there on Fridays instead.
For dinner tonight we went to a neighborhood market that everyone just calls “The Friday Market”. Lots of local vendors selling all kinds of hot foods. It’s a fun little community thing that happens weekly on Fridays year-round rain or shine! With the completion of today we now only have 6 weeks of Outreach left to meet the required 8 weeks to graduate. We are excited about our new routine and encouraged that it’s basically the same thing every week. Since we are taking the whole family with us and having to plan lunches, dinners, breakfasts, homeschool work, nap times, and parenting around our Outreaches commitments having a consistent schedule that we can fall in to a rhythm with is such a blessing!
