Bread of Life! Literally.

Friday, June 18, 2010, 1:33AM

Pneumatix Campus, Somerset West, South Africa

So two days ago (Wednesday) we spent the majority of our day in a township called Enkhanini.  It is still in Stellenbosch, it is just a smaller, worse off township than Kayamandi.  This township is where Lourens has been investing time almost weekly with a large group of volunteers.  The group has helped build stairs in the heavily traveled areas as the clay ground gets very slick when its wet, and has raised enough fuss to the government that they finally installed a trash removal system.  This township has one of the most beautiful views in all of Stellenbosch, if you can look past the disparity that’s in the way (right).

One of Lourens’ main contacts here in Enkhanini invited us into his home and showed us around some (right).  He has one of the nicer homes in the township and actually has electricity- stolen from a nearby school.  He also has a small garden and chickens that he keeps to get eggs and to eventually sell the chicken for income.  Then he gave us a tour of the entire region of Enkhanini.  It holds about 3,000 people in a very congested area with only 3 working toilets, 5 working water spouts, and 1 area for dumping trash for waste management to pick up.

Then Thursday the 13^th floor crew had their first performance here in Stellenbosch.  It was at a church not too far from the main city center in a major wine farm area.  Yet another gorgeous view, this time not blocked by physical disparity.  They did their play, called Ghost, and left the audience with a deep, penetrating question of the types of choices they have been making.  It was rather convicting as no matter what we often choose the option that doesn’t include God.

At the end of the performance I got to talking with Lourens about their religious relationship with the people in Enkhanini, finding out that that conversation had never been talked about before.  It is assumed that the community has a somewhat Christian background since there is a Baptist church at the center, but most time the township communities (usually 100% black) include some of their ancestral practices, possibly bending the truth.  Nonetheless we don’t know for certain since it hasn’t been talked about before.  Until now!

An organization donated a large amount of bread to the Keep Them Safe program.  Each slice of bread has a Bible verse written on it.  So, tomorrow we will go into Enkhanini and pursue personal relationships with a slice of bread in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.  The current plan is to simply ask how the verse is taken and whether they believe it as truth.  I say current plan because 1) this is Africa- things tend to not go according to plan, and 2) God may have something different in mind!

Until then, that’s all for now.  I must be getting off to bed now, and am quite chilled as it tends to get pretty cold here at night and the rooms are not heated…  Please pray for those conversations and the after-math of what might come of them!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Pneumatix Campus, Somerset West, South Africa

Today was an amazing day!  In the morning, we went to Enkhanini.  Before we entered the township, Lourens had me lead our group in a time of prayer.  Since Philippians 4:6-7 has been such a blessing to me over the past couple weeks, I wanted to encourage the team with this verse as well, focusing on verse 7.  Since the township is generally accepted as a dangerous place and is where we are all the least comfortable, only God’s grace could get us through the day.  Verse 7 says, “and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.”  This idea of God’s peace was something we specifically asked for as we walked into the township.  And God provided!

We split up into groups of three and walked to the homes of the people we met when we were in Enkhanini earlier in the week.  It was so cool to already have a personal relationship with some of the people there that we could build off of and not need to start from scratch.  The most amazing part about what we did today was the gift we were bringing with us to the homes.  The bread I talked about earlier came on time and we were able to hand it out!  Each slice of bread had a different Bible verse on it, and most of them had verses printed on both sides.  We decided that the verses aren’t printed as much as they are probably toasted onto the slice without making the entire piece of bread into toast- however they do it, its really awesome (below).

So with the bread, me and two other girls set out to talk to the people we had met on Wednesday.  We sat and ate bread in four different houses.  Every person said that they believed in God and believed what the passage said.  Every printed verse held the basic idea of the gospel- Jesus being the only way to eternal life.  I was a little disappointed in some ways because the language barrier did not allow us to have very deep, personal conversations.  And since we made the rule of three for safety, that rule also hindered some of our possibilities for those one-on-one conversations.  Nonetheless, I definitely felt like God was using us… and bread… to spread the truth.  As we left each household, we asked the people if we could pray for them- something I felt was where we were really bringing God in for the more personal touch.

1,000 packages of the “special” bread, or “Jesus” bread as some people were calling it, will be delivered every Friday for people to distribute to the township.  Hopefully by next week, God will show us how we can improve on our conversations and really use the words on the bread to help people see the truth in them.

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  -John 6:35

First Experience with Keep Them Safe

Tuesday, June 15, 2010, 8:53PM

Pneumatix Campus, Somerset West, South Africa

Today was my first day serving in the township of Kayamandi.  The program Keep Them Safe starts each day at 9AM, Africa time, which means people may or may not show up between 9 and 11 but definitely not exactly at 9.  This idea of Africa time drives most American’s crazy.  Good thing I’ve already experienced this once!  Anyways, the leaders, or “teachers” as the children called us throughout the day, finally came together and discussed the game plan for the day.  We departed from the meeting place to see that 25 kids had already shown up for the day’s program.

The entire Keep Them Safe program is held in 13 satellite locations around Stellenbosch.  The one I served at today was at a venue called Apex, right next to the township.  From this building complex, the 20 or so leaders and the now 35 or so kids walked through the township making as much noise as possible to draw the attention of the other children (left).  By the time we returned to the complex, we were at least 200 strong (which means about 10 kids per leader)!  The funny thing to me is that the organizers for the project are expecting that number to grow exponentially into next week to reach at least 3,000.  Yes, you read that correctly- three thousand.  That right there is a serious prayer request!  Please pray for God’s guidance to come quickly and easily to the leaders as we try to maintain order and produce something meaningful for these children.

So after we had our 200 kids, we split them up by age group and proceeded on with the day.  We had some large speakers set up with a microphone and music.  A group of leaders jumped up front (right) and lead all of us in a fun ice-breaker song of silly hand motions, loud noises, and lots of jumping- great way to get them all excited for the day.  Then another group of leaders went up front and performed a silent drama, depicting the scene and character of Matthew, the tax collector who Jesus confronted about his actions.  Some of the children had hear the story before but for some it was the first time.  Then, yet another team took control and taught us a memory verse- in Xhosa (it is the language that most of the people speak in the township and is often recognized by the “clicks” that are imbedded in it).  After the memory verse was game time.  During this time, we tried to play a set of games.  For the most part we were successful in playing them through, but the 12:30 lunchtime didn’t happen until 1:15 so we kind of ran out of ideas to keep them occupied.

(this are the lines for the kids to get food)

As the children were fed, I was picked up by Lourens and taken into the city of Stellenbosch.  We had a delicious lunch with some of his friends, one of which has a passion for community building, so we hit it off talking about the grand idea of community development and the two-sided problem of the rich and the poor.  It is so encouraging to hear the same conversation on the flip side of the globe.  From there we pretty much headed back to the campus where I was finally able to talk to Clancy on the phone.

Tomorrow is an early start so I must be going to sleep now.  As a side note- the internet in South Africa is fairly underdeveloped, so they actually charge you by the amount of data you use, not just the amount of time- something I have never thought about.  So right now, I am actually writing to my Microsoft Word Document until I get access to the internet sometime later.  It’s rather unfortunate, but oh well!  The things we take for granted… haha

And here's a fun one:

The First Full Day in SA

Monday, June 14, 2010, 2:38PM

Pneumatix Campus, Somerset West, South Africa

Yesterday I arrived in Cape Town! I was in transit for a total of 40 hours!  I got through security with no problem and saw Lourens and his wife Elsa as soon as I walked out the doors- it was such a relief!  They took me on a grand tour of Cape Town, stopping at a neat Fishers Wharf (picture 1), driving all around Table Top Mountain (picture 2), over to Signal Hill (picture 3), and finally to the water front where I met the other team members(picture 4).  From there we traveled to a Hillsong church plant!  It was a neat experience to see a similar style worship as Grace Community in CT.  Unfortunately, since I was so exhausted, I slept right through the sermon… it was a little embarrassing actually.

As we left the service, we were given free passes to view the Germany vs Australia game on big screens in a convention center below us.  Even though I was ready for rest, I didn’t want to miss this experience.  A huge hall, about the size of the Baltimore Convention Center, was set up with six giant projector screens, all showing the game (picture below).  Our group has about 20 and there were maybe 40 other people in this room (a Sunday evening game didn’t draw much of a crowd), so cheering with 60 people was rather exciting.  Germany scored four goals to Australia’s zero- giving us quite a bit to cheer about (even if the score was flipped we would have still be cheering, it was just the idea of the games and scoring goals that got us all excited).  We left the center to go back to the campus where we’re staying.

It is a very nice place, just off a highway.  It is not the place I originally was going to stay at because this place is where my team is actually staying.  It’s called Pneumatix (pronounced new-matix), and is more or less like a summer camp that we might attend in the States.  Each room has four bunk beds and one bathroom.  Somehow I got lucky (or unlucky- not sure which yet) and have a room to myself.  When we arrived here last night, I quickly unpacked and took a wonderfully hot shower.  It felt so good since the last time I showered was over three days before.  After, I made my bed and fell asleep.

I didn’t wake up until noon today, just in time to catch lunch.  All day today the team is preparing for the next two weeks of programs in Kayamandi.  Everyone but me is from a group called 13^th Floor- a traveling visual arts performance organization that uses the power of drama and dance to reach the hearts of the youth worldwide in an effort to plant, water, and sow the seeds of the gift of Jesus Christ.  The 13^th Floor crew is split up in several groups, one group is creating workshops on drama where they will teach the bare essentials of preparation for performing (warm-ups, tongue twisters, the power of pauses, etc).  Another group is doing a workshop on dance where they will teach some of the basics of jazz and hip-hop.  In between these workshops will be a drama performance and a dance performance.

And from what I’ve learned over many of the other programs and service trips, I will be sure to stay flexible.  These performances and workshops are going to have an amazing impact on the kids they are targeting.  I will keep you posted on whether they change or not!  Thanks for praying.

En Route to Cape Town

The prayers really helped over the past day...s... hours?... I've lost track since I left Dulles on Friday, June 11. I am currently in Singapore on Sunday, June 13 at 1:40am. Just an hour ago, I was thinking about how I was going to tell this story, and whether I wanted to share or not as my parents would not be very happy to hear it:

There a several "Free Internet" locations in the Changi airport. I stopped at the first one I saw, put my black pouch containing my passport, boarding passes, and cash on the counter and tried to email my parents. The internet didn't work well so I decided to just leave and check-in early. After walking to the other end of the airport, I found the gate was not open yet. I left and sat down at the complemetary foot massage station where a machine gently pushed the travel pains out. I got bored and decided to get my seat changed. On the way I stopped at Starbucks to buy an esspresso, and realized my black pouch was not with me. Panic struck.

I ran to the internet station where I last saw it- not there.  I ran back to the foot massage station- not there either.  By this time I broke out in a cold sweat and slightly wanted to throw up.  Philippians 4:6-7 kept playing over in my head so I thanked God for getting me to Singapore safely with no problems and then kept praying that the passport would show up.  After running around to different locations, a lady that I had spoken to several times finally said, "Sir your passport- is it in a black pouch?"  YES! Some random person had found it and turned it in, leaving everything in there untouched.  God totally answers prayers.  He also reminded me that I cannot do this on my own and must be walking (or running) in prayer at all times.

The Beginning of an Epic Adventure

Friday, June 11, 2010, 11:54AM

Dulles International Airport, Virginia, USA

Today is the first day of an epic journey to the other side of the world… literally actually- I refuel in Singapore on my way to South Africa, which is exactly 12 hours different than comfortable Glenwood, Maryland, USA.  Nonetheless, in about 20 minutes, I will be boarding the plane headed to Cape Town, South Africa.  Once I land there, Lourens Maritz will pick me up and we will drive to Stellenbosch, a city about 20min away from Cape Town.  For the next two weeks we will be investing our time in producing a sustainable leadership development program, aimed at giving the youth of this community a better sense of well-being, entrepreneurship mindsets, and cultural awareness.