Week Seven

Stolen from www.erinsummerlin.blogspot.com:

So as an attempt to keep my promise of more meaningful posts, I have a lovely Friday night here at the base in Muizenberg that is SO boring, that it might be the longest most meaningful post in the history of blogging. :)

It's been yet another week here in South Africa. I'm sure you all know by now that our schedules are basically the same each week, give or take 10 minutes here or there for us to wait on our lovely guys (jk I love you Minsoo and Mikkel), but our biggest struggle here lately has been to fight the monotony. We have had some issues with worrying that our team is too 'humanitarian' (working at orphanage, doing human trafficking awareness, etc.) and not enough "God" (street evangelism, door to door ministry, all the things that scare the mess out of us!) : ) We have this motto that we don't want to be 'weird', because after all Jesus wasn't. He might have made some folks angry from time to time, but he certainly wasn't outright strange and creepy about it.

In the midst of this battle, we really have had a good week, and are remembering that the most important part of this trip is to see more Jesus in the world; to see this place look more like heaven. It's also so important for us to remember that while we are doing his work here, he still is here too and is at work even when we are not. It's hard to not have the common missionary discouraging thoughts of overwhelming feelings; the world's so bad off how much are we really helping?; they go on for days...but I'm learning (and will have to continue learning) I'm not Superman, and I'm certainly not Jesus alone. We are to be a body and help each other out for the betterment of every situation.

It's little tokens of revelation like these that I'm thankful for. While there might not be a crazy healing story, or somebody getting 'saved' to our knowledge, it doesn't matter. God is good no matter our circumstances, and we just have to rest in that.

At this point, we have 3 more weeks of ministry. With that being said, I know our team is so expectant of everything we know God can do, and are excited to see what he has in store for us in those 15 days. In the meanwhile, we will keep on keeping on, and as our leader always reminds us, we will 'dream big', because God's dreaming even bigger.

Week Six

This week followed a very similar pattern to that of the others: tutoring in Masi, Sibongile, human trafficking demonstrations, Living Grace, practical stuff at Sibongile, Soccer, Girls Group. Not that it’s the same each time we go though.

And then suddenly (remember when they taught you that in school?)…

…we took a few days off.

Due to a few housing issues in the girls room (too many people and not enough sleep) we spent a few days away from the base. We spent most of our time doing nothing much and returned to Muizenberg feeling relaxed and refreshed. Good times.

Week Five

I'm guessing you're wondering why there's two entries for week five. I'm gonna blame not-enough-sleep - I got confused. Anyway, heres's the second week five entry:

This week's entry has been stolen from Elise:

This week has been the best week yet.   Monday afternoon we went to the Masiphumelele Library. This library is partnering with a program called Ikamva Youth.  Ikamva Youth is a non-profit organization focused on the empowerment of youth through education, e-literacy training and career guidance.

http://ikamvayouth.org/

Most of my team is helping tutoring high school kids. I decided against the tutoring because it has been many years since I graduated from college and I felt like I would need a refresher course before I tutored anyone. Thankfully there is a girls group at the Library which needed volunteers. Rachel and I will be helping with that every Monday.

Tuesday morning the SBS (YWAM School of Biblical Studies) invited us to their worship session. After worship, I felt really refreshed and ready to do ministry.  We went to Sibongile and then did Trafficking awareness that afternoon on a busy street.  For the most part we received good responses except one guy wanted to buy some of my team that was tied up for the demonstration.

Wednesday morning I shared a devotion at Living Grace and our team helped in serving/preparing and sorting out the food for the week.

On Thursday I celebrated my birthday with a special breakfast. After that we painted fence posts at Sibongile.   My team surprised me with a vegan chocolate cake, a serenade, and then they prayed for me.  Later that afternoon we went Mfuleni for the girls club.  It went really well.   The girls already want to plan something special before we leave so we can spend more time together.

Friday morning we did Human Trafficking awareness on the train to and from Cape Town. We hopped from train car to train car handing out flyers and talking to people.  For me it is always a little challenging starting the first conversation with someone but it gets easier the more people I talk too.  I have to remind myself this is helping save people’s lives by bringing awareness.  Then we had a surprise lunch at Mzoli’s.  Mzoli’s is a restaurant located in the Gugulethu township where you pick out the meat you want and they braai it for you. The word braai is Afrikaans for what Americans would call a “barbecue” or “grill”.  When I first arrived in South Africa I was warned not to call the braai a barbecue because it is an insult to South Africans because they think their braii is so much better.   The food was delicious.  The meat was served in huge bowl that was filled with beef, lamb, and pork which everyone at our table shared.

For our day off on Saturday we went to a National Park called the Cape of Good Hope.  There were a lot of beautiful sights and we saw baboons and ostriches.  Although the baboons look cute they are dangerous.  There are signs up at the park with warnings not to feed them or get close to them

Week 5

Hello my name is Mikkel, and I will be filling in for Rachel this week.  So what does that mean for you, our beloved readers of this blog:

Mainly that If you’re reading this blog with any hope of just the slightest hint of something that resembles any kind of information about what we actually did week 5, you should probably leave this blog at this point (honestly how new and interesting could it be, I promise you I would tell you all if we cured poverty,  saved Africa or prayed for any “confused” penguins). 

If you however, like me and sane people in general, are interested in changing the English language once and for all, well please come closer, and take a seat here by the fireplace on Uncle Mikkel’s lap:

Here’s the deal: Why the heck does the English language insist on using the word dictionary? I know, I know, it borders on psychosis, using such a ridiculous sounding French word for something that clearly should rather be called:…wait for it….deep breath………..: “Wordbook”………. Please take a brief moment and let the sheer brilliance of “Wordbook” sink in.

However before I go into further discussion of the Wordbook, let’s go back in time and see why this poor excuse for a few letters in a row making up a word “dictionary” came into the English language.

The word itself actually stems from the French verb to dicitae’ which literally means: “the rabbit may be fast, but the hand that moves the rabbit upon a full moon is faster, and such”. This again of course points back to the famous French baroquian leisure activity of the time, informally called: Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir…an activity which of course again has it’s origin in the even more famous French variety show: los baguettos de Montmartres. It was at during rehearsals at this stage in a heated debate between Gaston, the handsome but slightly to hairy and animalish protagonist of the play, and his muse the beautiful but trouble minded, Belle (from which the American TV-show Saved the belle also originates from), Gaston cried out: ”Ah, woman, howt can I loveth thy when thou canneth loveth thyself, howt can I understand thou when thou cant understandeth thyself?  It is impossibleth. I cannot, thee dicitae… woman thy name is fragile,  thou, should cometh with a (Gaston takes a long, slightly overcooked and dramatic pause) dicitae….tionary.” As soon as Gaston had said this fatal word, the rooster crowed and Napoleon finally defeated the English at Waterloo. The English were once and for all beaten by the French and you would forever need a dictionary to look up a word….

Until now….

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of the English-speaking world, it’s time to unite (note to reader: I advise you all to now put on some fitting music to the following paragraph: God save the queen, the national anthem of USA or Theme from Rocky are all valid suggestions):

There comes a time in every man’s life, where each one of us needs to take stand. A stand for justice, a stand for what’s right… but most of all, a stand for what’s not French (…crowd cheering)! The day has come, my friends. Break free I say, break free from all that has been holding you back, and once and for all do what every American teenage movie the last to centuries tells you to do: Find and be true to who you really are (free tip for those who don’t quite know: usually the answer is: inspiring artist or singer/songwriter who writes music and sings a final gripping freedom anthem, with a key change, about who you really are).

But after that (note to reader again: turn up the volume to theme from Rocky again) get back to the take a stand thing again. Hear, hear the sirens of revolution are calling again. Can’t you all hear the Jerusalem bells are ringing and the Roman Cavalry choirs that are singing… And if you listen very carefully: you can hear them singing:

“Be my mirror, my sword and shield

My missionaries in a foreign field”

The war is here: It’s gonna be a fight. But we shall never surrender, until the last breath leaves our bodies, we shall tear out every single page of the dictionaries of the world. Not a single ABC shall be left, until we have painted the world in the letters of the one true hero, the one final source for looking up our beloved words. The words that we all base our sole existence on.

Ladies and gentleman: the rule of the dictionary is soon to be gone. Elvis did leave the building eventually. There is a new ruler in town. His name is Wordbook.

Long live king Wordbook!

Week 4

Hello, my name is Minsoo and I will be filling in for Rachel for this week. As you can tell, this entry is a week late. Now you can experience African Time first hand without actually going to Africa. What a deal. I do sincerely apologize for the delay on behalf of my unusually late self – it only happens every morning from Monday through Friday (okay. In all seriousness, it IS a character flaw and I AM trying to fix it). But enough about me, myself, and I. Without further ado, let me walk you through events that transpired during week four.

On Monday, we finally finalized (+1 for word choice) our schedule for the outreach. Week four into outreach sounds a bit late, but considering all the circumstances beyond our control, we reacted quite well. Only best is expected from the best outreach team ever! (You can quote me on that)

On Tuesday, we did something different and special. At Gabriel’s invitation, we had the privilege of visiting the National Parliament of South Africa (Note to Americans: it’s like the Congress). We visited various rooms (board rooms, assembly, Speaker’s office, etc) and prayed for South Africa and the African continent. As South Africa is one of the most influential countries in Africa, whatever happens in its government usually sets a precedent for the entire continent. So to be able to pray in/for the seat of power was amazing.

On Wednesday, we also had a special event on top of our regular schedule. We met in Gabriel’s house (Doesn’t Gabriel sound like such a nice guy? I hope he reads this) and had a prophecy session. To put it bluntly, the results left our group with mixed feelings, but it was a refreshing/interesting experience overall.

On Thursday, the girls of the outreach team started a Girl’s Club in a township called Mfuleni. Though they reported it to be awkward at first (by the way, I am a guy), the girls (whom we are reaching out to) opened up. Because we sought to disciple people during outreach, we believe that there is a great potential for this ministry.

On Friday, we continued with our anti-trafficking presentations by going on trains and handing out flyers. It was very awkward at first, but most people were keen to listen to a bunch of foreigners (especially the “Chinaman” – by the way, I am actually Korean) talk. Because the trains are crowded and people cannot go anywhere to avoid our presentations, we found it a quite effective way to raise awareness on the issue of human trafficking.

On Saturday, we rested.

On Sunday, we went to an African church and danced. The atmosphere was very thick with heat, moisture and God stuff. Our beloved member Mikkel also gave a short sermon with translation. We also led part of the worship time. It was our first time leading/assisting a service, so we were quite nervous (and there were some technical difficulties), but overall it went very well. We ended our week (let’s pretend for a moment that week ends on Sundays) with beach soccer ministry (a.k.a Sunday Soccer Service, a.k.a. Triple S)

I apologize if this entry was boring. You know, it is extremely hard to follow up on the quick-wittedness of my British counterpart. I tried. I hope you (the reader) have a wonderful week and keep us in your prayers!

My name is Minsoo Kim and I approve this message.
 

Week Three

This week we officially became Youth With A Meeting.

We started out Monday with a team meeting to discuss our fairly flexible schedule. After some desperate pleading in the heavenward direction for the right opportunities and all that jazz, we had times and dates set for meetings and orientations. This happened about 10 minutes after our prayer sess – you do the math.

So we spent a couple of hours Tuesday night working out what to do and when. We went from a few set things to a million possibilities in one day – literally, we counted them all.

One thing we started this week was our human trafficking awareness demonstrations. Three people (from the team, not random passersby - we’re not that strange. Yet) had ropes tied around their wrists and ankles, duct tape put over their mouths and a large barcode taped to their chests. The rest of the team handed out flyers and talked to people about human trafficking: if they know anything about it, ways to protect their community and details of a helpline number. Some people walk past and ignore us but the majority wants to know what’s going on. We’ve met people who have never heard of human trafficking, people who can’t believe that it still happens, people who are concerned about the children in their communities and people who may have had family members trafficked. One of the most interesting responses – one woman who thought that we were trying to “shut all the women up for the new year” (or something like that – it was hard to tell, she shouted alot). Lesson learned – tie up a guy aswell.

Something else we started this week was going to Mfuleni (a nearby township). Half the team helped out at a soccer clinic and the other half did some door-to-door ministry. Fear not, we didn’t just rock up to Mfuleni and start kicking around a few footballs and knocking on people’s doors – we went with a local Pastor called Gabriel. He guided us around the area getting us to jump out the van when he saw a house he thought we should visit. He gave a brief intro on who we were and what we were doing and then gave us the opportunity to speak to the people there. We then prayed with them before we left. We visited about four homes and spoke to about 25 people in total which was cool.   

Sunday afternoon we hit the beach to test drive our Sunday Soccer Service àfurther details shall be forthcoming.

Week Three – over before we knew it.

Week Two - God Speaks Korean Too

Another varied week, including: helping at Living Grace, football, face painting, dinner with some Koreans, worship & intercession moving to the YWAM base, hiking Table Mountain and hanging out with the kids at Sibongile.

Living Grace is a ministry for the homeless in Muizenberg. Every day they provide breakfast and lunch for around 30-40 people from the community.The food is served after a short time of singing and a devotional. While everyone is eating we've been able to talk with some of the people who attend which has been great. A few members of the team have also been able to give devotionals. We've also been able to brush up on our veggie prep skills helping prepare the food they have delivered. The singing is always fun, especially a couple of verses of 'Give me oil for my lamp' --> 'give me petrol for my Ford, keep me driving for the Lord' and 'Give me wax for my board keep me surfing for the Lord' The downside is that these verses have been stuck in our heads for most of the week (so annoying when you've managed to forget it but someone else starts to sing it).  


A couple of times during the week we were able to hang out at the beach and the park playing football, face painting and getting to know some of the community. A few of the guys who played football even came back intentional to see if the team was there which has been really encouraging. Face painting started slowly (and a bit weirdly - five 'white' girls sitting on a beach drawing on each other)but eventually picked up and we were surrounded by kids.  Shooting stars turned out to be a Big Hit. 


On Tuesday we had a big dinner (read: FEAST) with the other YWAM team we were sharing the hostel with  - a group of Koreans on outreach. It was a great time of food, translation and (of course) Korean style prayer.


On Thursday we moved down the road (literally) to the YWAM base. Thursday night was Base Worship (worshiping God, not the base) which kicked off with all the different nations one-by-one coming up the front to dance. The team did good - we got mad dance skillz (maybe from watching Step Up 3 - Minsoo's favourite movie of all time. Forever).   


We finally got a van last week and so some of the team were able to Sibongile. Sibongile is a day and night care centre for children with Cerebral Palsy in Khayelitsha (one of the nearby townships). We were able to take some of the kids for a walk  - something they were SO excited about. We will be going to Sibongile two afternoons a week. 


On Saturday we climbed up Table Mountain. The fitter (read crazier) contingent of the team took a guide and went on a 8 hour hike. The less fit/crazy half took the 'tourist' trail up to the top (and then the cable car down). Ten points to whoever can correctly guess who did what.