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!