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. 

Week One - It Smells Like Seabreeze

Happy New Year from Team South Africa. We went to the waterfront in Cape Town and hungout with a few thousand other people and saw some fireworks. But I’m guessing you want to know what else we’ve been up to.

We did a whole range of things this week: explore Muizenberg, orientation type stuff, find internet connections, celebrate New Year, celebrate Chelsea’s birthday, climb Mount Muizenberg, worship & intercession, grocery shopping, football, ultimate Frisbee, play Bananagrams, get sunburnt and recover from jet lag. 

First impressions of Muizenberg: sun, sand, beach, seabreeze and security.

Muizenberg is a small beach suburb of Cape Town. It used to be a wealthy Jewish area until after Apartheid when in an effort to integrate the different races in South Africa the government moved a whole bunch of people in. The wealthy people soon left and the area became a bit ghetto. But since then wealthier people have begun to move back and Muizenberg now has a hippy surfer vibe: think surf schools, art galleries, vegan cafes and people intentionally walking around with no shoes on. Although it looks nice and shiny the patrolling security guards and barred windows tell a different story.

Muizenberg is pretty small and we’re easily identified as YWAMers. It's a bit creepy. I’m not sure what it is that gives us away as not being local – it might be our foreign dress sense, mix of nationalities and the fact they we walk everywhere in a group but maybe the people here are just psychic.

We’ve been staying in a hostel about three minutes from the beach front. For the first few days we had the place to ourselves so it felt like our house. But since then a group of Korean YWAMers from Canada has joined us so we had to learn how to share again.  

Monday was our first full team day. Tuesday we explored Muizenberg. Wednesday we headed for the park by the beach to hang out and play football and Ultimate Frisbee with whoever was around. We were joined by a couple of families which was cool.

Thursday we climbed Mount Muizenberg, where the Norwegian contingent more than proved that they are the fittest nation among the team. Not only did they lead the hike at a pretty speedy pace but they also managed to talk the entire way up the mountain. While most of us were struggling to breathe they practically ran up the trail. The view from the top was totally worth it though. Even if we were afraid that we were gonna get blown away – I’m talking gale force winds and the temptation to open an umbrella and jump.  

Thursday afternoon we were joined by our school leader Josie. She stayed for a few days and gave us the low down on what the team did here last year and on the local area. She also managed to win most rounds of Bananagrams. Now that she’s left to rejoin her team we’re all competing for the anointing of the ‘Spirit of Josie’ to lead us into Bananagram victory.

New Year’s Day was our day off so we walked along the coast to Kalk’s Bay and had some seriously good Fish and Chips. We also saw some seals that swam into the harbour to eat fish scraps from the fish market. The train back to Muizenberg was an interesting experience – we witnessed a bit of the racial tension that divides South Africa.    

There you have it: Week One over and out.