Animal Kingdom

Monday, July 5, 2010

Elsa’s Parent’s Home, Pretoria, South Africa

Wow what a weekend!  I’m in Pretoria now, after an extremely exciting weekend spent in the Kruger National Park. First let me explain that around the world there’s a group of animals called “The Big Five,” consisting of the leopard, lion, rhinoceros, buffalo, and elephant (respectively listed in order of scarcity).  The Kruger contains all five, so people always try to find them (I’ll count for us).  On Friday we drove (you must be in a car at all times) into the Kruger Park around 11am.  We didn’t expect to see much since the best time is in the early morning and before sunset.  But, man were we lucky!  Within 10 minutes, we saw a buffalo (1/5; picture 1 below)!  It was pretty far off, but we could still see the huge horns rocking as it ate grass.  As we started to leave, Lourens stopped.  Leopard (2/5; picture 2 below)!  The cat came walking right out onto the road.  Lourens said he has been visiting the Kruger his whole life and never saw a leopard on the road before.  Then someone told us where we might see some lions.  On our way there, we saw a bunch of elephants (3/5; picture 3 below)!  There was a mom with a fairly small (still taller than me) elephant.  We came around a turn to a wide-open area, surrounded on one side by cars.  They were all stopped, looking at three male lions (4/5; picture 4 below)!  We had only been in the park for an hour and seen four out of the five “Big Five.”  Lourens and his whole family said they have never experienced this.  Someone must have told the wild kingdom I was coming!  Now we were determined to see a rhino before the day was over.  We spent the next two hours searching, driving past warthogs, giraffes, elephants, and wildebeests.  While we were looking at the wildebeests, Lourens, with his amazing eyes, saw something in the bushes.  It looked like another leopard!  We realized it was headed for the road and drove towards it.  Then three cheetahs popped out (picture 5 below)!  They were on the hunt and it was so cool to watch.  We headed back to camp and on the way we finally saw the rhino (5/5; picture 6 below)!  In three hours we had seen all five plus more- so cool!

The rest of the day and weekend we relaxed, eating way more food than I needed to!  They have been treating me so well here.  I really am extremely blessed.  And it’s fun too!  I got to experience a true South African braai (right).  It’s basically grilling but is held at a much higher place in the SA culture.  We had huge steaks and salad and potatoes- making me feel a bit closer to home.  I also got to drive around the park a bit (picture 1 below).  Man was that weird!  If you didn’t know already, South Africa drives on the wrong- I mean left- side of the road (it’s been really hard to try to get used to; I’ve freaked out a couple times, thinking the driver was crazy).  The rest of our drives were not as fruitful as the first, but we still saw a lot of wildlife and some really cool birds (picture 2 below).

On Sunday, we drove back to our friend, Nikita’s, house in Nelspruit, where I continued to feel even closer to home.  The family was loving, the house was warm with memories, and the food was delicious- all the things I love about my own home.  It definitely made me miss my parents and brothers but at the same time made me a lot more relaxed.  This morning, Nikita made us a delicious breakfast and sent us on our way.  And as a background for those who don’t know: Nikita was one of the people I met in Brussels last year when I met Lourens, so this was a very cool and exciting experience to meet up a year later in her home country (left).  I am always amazed when I look back on the past year and see how God has brought me to this point.  It’s awesome.

God Uses Ghost

Thursday, July 1, 2010, 7:02PM

In the Car, Mgodwana, South Africa

I am currently in the back seat of a Toyota Yaris, driven by Lourens.  We have been driving for the past ten hours today, after driving eight hours yesterday, headed to Nelspruit.  We will spend tonight in Nelspruit with a friend and then drive another hour tomorrow into Kruger National Park!  For the next three days, we will be hanging out and searching for lions, rhinos, elephants, leopards, buffalo… basically it will be the Discovery channel, but in real life.  Nonetheless, this past week was filled with some great experiences.

On Monday we put down the concrete foundation/floor of a shack that Serve the City built last week (Lourens pictured right).  It was some pretty intense labor, leveling the ground, compressing it, and mixing sand, cement, and water together to create the proper mixture for concrete.  We had some help from some of the local boys who brought us the water.  It was neat to get them involved in the process. After a couple hours, we completed the task.  The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, spending some time together as a team in what they call “face-to-face.”  It is church for the 13^th Floor groups.  Once a week, they come together in fellowship (Matthew 18:20).  This week, we focused on forgiveness- that everyone has people in their life that they have not forgiven, whether it was the kid who stole your lollipop in first grade or something more serious.  It was a very neat experience, opening up to some of the other people and having an intimate conversation about our pasts.

Then Tuesday rolled around.  Well, more like epically crashed into us.  We went to a juvenile detention center.  On the ride there everyone was talking about how uncomfortable they were with the idea and all of the precautions we were going to take.  Once we got there, we unpacked the truck so we could set up to show the Japan vs Paraguay game and so the 13^th Floor crew could perform their show.  While we were setting up, we slowly realized how wrong it was for us to be so worked up about being in a detention center (below).  These were just kids.  No older than 16 years old.  And they were human.  Just like us.  But trapped, barricaded, removed from society because they didn’t fit the institutionalized norms.  And they were the best audience the 13^th Floor crew ever had.  It was as if God had been prepping the group for this moment.  To understand completely, let me describe the play, titled "Ghost," to you that they have been performing all week:

A soccer star from a township gets caught up in selling drugs.  He made the choice to try to take the easy way to making money.  That choice led him to a party where acid was accidently poured in his eyes.  The soccer star was instantly blind, no longer able to play his beloved sport and pursue his dream of winning the world cup.  His mom spoke some words of wisdom to him, encouraging him to coach the team he was once a part of.  His coaching skills lead the team to victory, bringing them to the world cup.  The ending scene has him looking into a mirror, reflecting on the choices that he has made.

This play sets the stage for one of the 13^th floor guys to come up and do ministry.  Pieter spoke straight truth into the boys’ lives, summarizing the play and making it relate to them a bit more personally.  I got extremely excited as I watched God take over, leading Pieter in his talk and convicting some of the boys.  Afterwards, there was one boy that was really touched by it; two of our team members were talking with him and praying with him.  It was awesome- in the true sense of the word.

On Wednesday (Compassion Day), we took the kids from Kayamandi to paint the same park that we cleaned the week before.  The kids had a great time, almost fighting over whose turn it was to paint next (right).  Then the team drove over to Enkhanini where we finished the bridge that we had started the week before.  It turned out great and we took some time to debrief ourselves, sharing what we liked and any cool stories that connected us more with the locals.  Then it was time for me to say bye to the 13^th Floor team.  It was really hard!  The past two weeks had brought us very close.  Driving all around the greater Cape Town area, loving on kids, and serving in a township quickly solidified many friendships.  We all hugged and said our goodbyes, taking a final photo of us all (below).  As we were leaving (Lourens, Elsa, and I were leaving for our roadtrip), one of the locals that we are good friends with asked when we were coming back next.  We told him it would be about ten days until we were back again and he said, “No, no, that’s no good.  You must say one and a half days and that is good!”  We felt extremely encouraged at this statement, realizing we really have good relationships there.  It put us in a great mood for the drive up north towards Pretoria.

Adaptability is a Must.

Sunday, June 27, 2010, 11:41PM

Pneumatix, Somerset West, South Africa

The past couple days have been… crazy!  Yesterday took the phrase “be flexible” to a whole new level for me.  Before I explain, I’ll just recap Friday.  I went to Kayamandi again to hang out with the kids and help with the morning program.  We did the usual ice-breaker, drama, and debrief before splitting them up to do their game rotations.  I went with the same two guys that I did the relays with to play “steal the bacon” (right).  It was a fun game for the kids to play and sometime even more fun for us to watch, as they often got very intense with it.  From where we were playing our game, I could see the soccer field and saw that they had all the kids paired up, one was blind-folded, the other not (right).  It looked very interesting as kids were trying to lead blindfolded kids to dribble and score goals.  It was extremely entertaining to watch!  As the kids ate their lunch (below), I got to play a little soccer and eventually ate mine with all the other leaders.  While I was eating, I was on a mission to find some Americans to watch the soccer game with the next day.  I was also really hoping to climb Table Mountain as well, since the forecast called for a beautiful day.  Pasqual, one of the students from the Stellenbosch University who has been serving with us, asked what my plans were for Saturday.  “Funny you should ask…” I said.  And by the end of the conversation I had a group to hike Table Mountain and some Americans to watch the USA game with!  Before Saturday happened though, I watched the Brazil vs Portugal game with the 13^th Floor team, expecting a fantastic game.  The 0-0 match was far from fantastic…

Then Saturday came, the plan for the day was to drive from SU with Pasqual to Table Mountain, following the bus full of students.  From there we would hike to the top, soak in the view, take the trolley back down and watch the rugby match at a pub in Cape Town.  Then we were going to meet back up with Pasqual and others to watch the USA vs Ghana game at the public viewing park in CT called FanFest, and all hop in her car to drive home.  Then I would catch a ride back to Pneumatix to sleep away America’s victory.  Well, starting very early at 7AM, my plans changed approximately every 20 minutes.  Good thing one of my strengths is adaptability…

Lourens dropped me off at the Stellenbosch University where I met up with Pasqual.  She introduced me to four Americans, one guy three girls, and one South African student teacher and said I was going to ride in the bus with them since some seats cleared up and she would meet us later [plan change #1].  From SU, we drove to Table Mountain.  It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky.  As we approached TM, we saw the top was pretty much covered by a cloud (right).  We
hoped for the best, assuming the sun would burn the moisture off.  When we got to where the trolley station was, we took a bathroom pit stop and found out that the trolleys were not running due to high wind conditions.  We weren’t too worried so we just decided to hike up and back down as well [plan change #2].  The gorgeous weather encouraged us up the mountain (right).  It was quite an intense hike, making the quads burn and the sweat glands open up.  Man do I sweat…  We took little water breaks on the way up, one of which brought us news that the others that were going to meet us at the top were no longer coming since the trolleys were on lock down.  Pasqual said she would just meet us in Cape Town somewhere [plan change #3].  After about an hour of hiking, we entered the cloud that never actually burned off.  As we kept on, the wind picked up, the temperature dropped, and the fog thickened, making it very difficult to hike at all.  After a couple more minutes we decided it wasn’t safe anymore so we would have to hike to the top another day [plan change #4].  We had a much quicker walk down the mountain and enjoyed the view along the way (below).

(The white stuff behind my head is actually the fog that jumped in the picture right before it was taken.)

Once we got to the bus, we found out the other people we were going to meet were at Canal Walk, so we met them there for some lunch [plan change #5].  Then we drove into CT, looking for a place to watch the Rugby game.  We ended up getting very lost and gave up, so instead drove past the Canal Walk again to go to a very nice overlook of the sea [plan change #6].  There we had a very good view of Cape Town and Table Mountain (right top) and an amazing view of the sunset (right middle and bottom).  I had a great time just hanging out, indulging in fun conversation.  It was very nice to relax and talk to some American people.  Let me say that in a foreign country, an American accent is one of the most comforting sounds ever.  From there, we drove back into CT, expecting to be dropped off at the Fanfest where we would wait for Pasqual and the others, who, since their numbers grew, ended up taking the train instead of a car [plan change #7].  Unfortunately, our driver was a little worried she would get lost again, so she told us she would drop us off a couple blocks from the Fanfest [plan change #8].  On the way there, I was getting less and less comfortable with the coming night.  It was dark and I was just starting to get a little worried.  I committed to praying for the remainder of the ride.  The girls were tired from the day, so they were just going back to SU and Alex (the guy student) and I walked together to Fanfest.  We soon found out it was not just a couple blocks away and I just prayed a little harder [plan change #8].  I was quickly comforted by a huge presence of police and traffic cops, directing people and traffic through the city.  We asked a couple cops where the Fanfest was and they pointed us in the direction.  When we got to a fork in the road, we asked another couple cops and found ourselves with an escort to the park!  God answered some prayers last night as we felt very comfortable getting a guided tour of the city center.  Once we were close, we decided to get some dinner.  I never thought I would ever find comfort in the glowing yellow arches of McDonald’s, but that night I definitely did.  We had a gross, but satisfying meal and met up with the others.  We traveled as a herd, following Pasqual since we were all from the US and she was the only South African.  The lack of noise made us worry slightly and soon we found out that Fanfest was closed due to high wind conditions [plan change #9] (and they really were! I still have dust in my eyes from the wind).  Since the park was closed, we had to quickly find a place to watch the game.  We got a taxi ride over to Long Street (probably equivalent to Bourbon Street) and squeezed into a bar to watch the lone tv with 30 others.  Then we heard there was an empty tapas restaurant next door with a tv so we filed out [plan change #10].  We sat down across the small venue and I was greeted by a friendly American accent.  The restaurant owner was from LA and PA, owning two restaurants in SA and living and traveling around the world.  As a recent Big Mac eater and a US soccer fan, all I wanted to do was watch the game, but I had to buy food and drink if I was going to be able to stay.  As I slowly watched the US get defeated, I ate some small, delicious seafood- grilled oysters, grilled clams, and sautéed mussels.  When the depressing match came to an end, the street erupted with joy since all of SA was supporting the last African team in the tournament.  We all piled in one taxi and headed for the train station.  On the way, some of the girls made the executive decision to take the taxi all the way back to Stellenbosch since everyone along our path said how dangerous the train was at night- I did not object at all [plan change #11].  And by the end of our ride, my plans to get a ride back to Pneumatix were replaced with an overnight stay at Stellenbosch University [plan change #12].  It is probably quite believable that within an hour I was asleep in a bed- it had been quite the day.  And the 12 changes in plans is definitely a conservative summary.

Now today, I was picked up to go to More Wine with Lourens and Elsa, meeting about eight others at a restaurant where we got a back room and had church.  Then I got a chance to take a breath and a shower!  It was definitely one of the best showers I’ve had in a long time.  I walked outside and was pretty much face to face with a peacock!  A peacock!  I was so shocked.  I ran inside to get my camera.  I had a sandwich in hand as well and the peacock walked right up to me, staring at the bread the whole time.  I gave it some bread and just stared as it walked away.  I was still shocked.

By sun down, I found my second wind and went with some new friends to a fellow American’s house.  This guy, Tom, has been living here for over four years now, being fully involved with Adventures in Missions, and specifically the World Race.  The World Race is a program that takes individuals on a life-changing, missional experience in 11 countries in 11 months.  Tom is a coach for teams that are on this adventure.  We simply hung out at his house and watched soccer and played poker- really a fun time with some guys.  I was also blessed by the conversation I had with Tom, really just because he simply said, “be blessed,” when he greeted me and said good-bye.  Then when I got home I received an email and was extremely blessed by the combination of words and scripture.  Aaand I just unconsciously called this place home… wow… that’s scary…

Sheep or McDonald's

Thursday, June 24, 2010, 8:00PM

Pneumatix, Somerset West, South Africa

It’s been a couple days since I’ve written, so hopefully I will remember everything:

On Tuesday, we went to Kayamandi again, but this time we set up to show the South Africa vs France game on a projector screen.  The plan was to do the usual show after the game- good thing we’re used to staying flexible!  The set up went smoothly, as usual.  When it came time for the game to start, that’s when things got a bit hectic.

If you have been watching any of the World Cup games on tv, you will here the constant sound of horns.  They call them “vuvuzelas” here and literally every soccer match sounds like the ones we’ve been experiencing here.  (As a side note, SA actually has a national Vuvuzela group that puts on concerts, check it out here) So, naturally, all the people that came into the tent brought their vuvuzelas.  With the hype of the match and being in an enclosed space, I thought my head would burst with the noise.  Some of the team had to step out for a bit due to the noise, but the majority of us toughed it out.  Personally, I was a bit excited to be experiencing the true nature of the soccer fan in SA so I still had a good time, despite the headache.  By the end of the game, the tent was packed with people, all cheering in unison and as loud as possible- such a cool experience.  And SA won the game! -But not by enough.  They needed to score at least four goals to make it through to the next round.  They had tons of shots on goal, but only two went in.

After the game, we made sure the kids stuck around and we did a little dance competition instead of the play.  Unfortunately, we realized that there was not going to be deep enough attention span for the hour that was needed.  As the team packed up all the gear, I stood off to the side and talked with some of the local boys.  We had a very interesting and somewhat sickening conversation.  They are all between 12 and 15 and the conversation actually started out very fun, talking about the U.S., Obama, how he has two daughters (yes they knew who Obama was and his kids), Zuma, how he has five wives and 23 kids (Zuma is the president of SA), different soccer teams, and soccer players.  They told me that Zidane came to visit their school!  You know, the guy who got a red card last World Cup for head-butting the Italian player!  Yeah, apparently he isn’t so bad after all!  Anyways, in the middle of all that, they were telling me, “Hey that girl there, yeah she’s good for you.”  They were pointing to one of the girls on the 13^th floor team.  “Nooo,” I said, “I have a girlfriend back home!”  They asked about her for a couple seconds and then went back to say, “So what!  That girl, there, she good for you.”  As I shook my head they asked, “So you don’t cheat?”  I was actually very surprised at the question and went on to say that there was no way I would ever cheat.  I asked if they had girlfriends and all three of them buffed up and smiled, nodding with pride.  Then I asked them the same question they asked me, “So do you guys cheat on them?”  I was actually asking it as a rhetorical question, expecting them to laugh, “Yah!” They said, “I have three.”  I was shocked.  “Yeah we like Zuma because he likes sex!  That’s why he has many wives and many kids.”  I was still shocked, and I had to ask, “Wait, so you guys have sex?”  “Yes!  We like sex, that’s why we like Zuma and we cheat.  Obama doesn’t like sex.”  I was still very shocked, and sadly had to keep from laughing at the last statement about Obama.  I asked if they wanted to have kids like Zuma at their age and they said, “No we use condemns.”  I continued to try to ask them questions and make them see how wrong all of it was, but I realized to do that, I needed to rewrite their culture, their entire society.  I needed to remove the sexually explicit media, redo their parenting, reestablish (or establish) ethical values, and teach them about love- true love.  It was an extremely tragic moment for me.  I really did not know, and still don’t know what to do.  And honestly, there probably is not much I can do at all, except to love on them.  Only by God’s grace will huge social changes like that occur.  Please join me in praying for this change.  Some change actually has started to happen.  Deep inside the Keep Them Safe motive is the slow process of establishing some of those key values and characteristics.

 

And that brings us to Wednesday- Compassion Day.  Every Wednesday in Kayamandi and Enkhanini (I have been spelling it “Kanini” this entire time… oops) Serve the City hosts Compassion Day.  I started the day (right) in Kayamandi with the 13^th Floor crew.  Our mission was to organize the kids to clean up a park and plant several trees (below left).  The stress was on having the local teenagers and children do the work because it would give them a sense of ownership.  It is also a very cool thing to watch a tree grow that you planted.  The park had some serious issues.  Broken glass was everywhere, old chip bags, used bottles, and burnt logs; I mean any type of trash imaginable was there.  We filled ten black bags full of trash and still did not clean everything up.  As many of the kids helped pick up the trash, others were busy digging holes for the trees.  They all did a great job, really making the park look much better than it was before (below right).  We marched back to the home base in victory after the long morning’s battle with the park.  The kids ate lunch and I played some more soccer- much worse than I did on Monday.  (Actually, so much so that they didn’t ask me to play today! Ouch!!) (below bottom)

From Kayamandi, we walked to Enkhanini.  It was a very interesting walk, actually, seeing the different parts of the township and stopping for a picturesque photo (right).  Once there, we split up to conquer an epic task- to build a bridge!  When it rains in Enkhanini, the hills become very slick and people often fall on them.  In the ravine, water collects and creates a sometimes-impassable river.  So, over the past couple months, on Compassion Day, teams have been building stairs in a heavily trafficked area of the township.  The final touch is the bridge.  The manly men started digging and mixing and moving and talking and planning the structure.  For some reason, I was left out of that group, so I was given the task of bread-man, which I actually preferred!  The same slices of bread we had last week with the verses written on them, we got again on Wednesday.  I talked to my group, explaining the goal of our intentions with the bread.  We wanted to completely avoid the close-ended questions so that we could produce the purposeful conversations.  And I think we did!  We went to the same houses we had last week, trying to continue to grow those relationships.  The neat difference this time was that most of the verses on the bread were actually written in Xhosa (as opposed to English last week).  Since the people here speak Xhosa, they were able to get a lot more out of it (so we assume).  And, since I obviously cannot speak or read Xhosa, I asked the English-speaking people to translate the verses for me.  This lead to some cool conversations, working over the verses, trying to both figure out with the exact translation was.  Overall, it was an awesome experience of doing a micro-Bible study with some of the people in Enkhanini.  After our escapades, we had a traditional Xhosa dinner, which was an adventure in itself.  On the menu for the night: sheep stomach (below left).  To answer your questions: yes, I ate one bite; no, it was not good; well almost, I gagged and muscled it down.  Since a majority of us didn’t eat dinner that night, we stopped off at McDonald’s on the way back.  By the end of the night my stomach was feeling really weird.  I’m not sure if it was from the sheep or the McD’s…

And now we’re at today, Thursday.  Lourens picked me up early this morning to take me to Kayamandi for the day.  Africa time was at its best today since it was a painful 40 degrees this morning, making everyone fairly late.  By ten oclock we had the program rolling.  Loud music brings children in droves, and gives everyone something to dance to and sing along with.  A team from SCAS (Sport for Christ Action South Africa) runs the morning program, so a couple of them jumped up front to lead us in a fun dance and aerobic icebreaker.  The genius aerobics ended in calming stretches and a final sit-down stance.  [Let me take a second to explain how terribly hard it is to 1) try to organize kids 2) try to organize kids in Africa and 3) try to simply get the kids to sit down.  In Cameroon, half of our struggle was in trying to settle the kids down.  This amazing aerobic beginning brought the kids to an even more amazing focused seat.]  Once the kids were settled, another group from the SCAS team hopped up to perform a great skit that depicted Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation.  They had a nice discussion after the skit with everyone and dismissed the kids to their assigned age groups.  From there the kids went through rotations of several different games.  I got on board with the relay races.  With each set of kids, we had them do several different relays.  They started with a normal run, then the classic wheel barrel, and ended with “last person in the line crawls between everyone’s legs to stand in the front of the line” race which ends when the whole line reaches the finish (not sure if you visualized that correctly, hopefully the picture helps, below).  A brief discussion afterwards lead us to talking about how teamwork was vital in the family and how we could all be better players in the family team.  At the end of the rotations, kids were dismissed for lunch, and we got a break.  The leaders were eventually fed and then were released back into the wild to defend ourselves from little children.  Well, it wasn’t that bad, but at times it felt like it.  As the little kids did their thing, the older teenagers, who had been helping us translate the entire morning, were in different workshops, all geared towards building the quality character.  I sat in on a poetry workshop that encouraged us to express our feelings through artistic poems, building the creativity in all of us.  Then I was picked up and met the 13^th Floor team at the beach where we watched the sun set before eating dinner.  It was quite an amazing day.

White Boy Just Scored?!

Monday, June 21, 2010, 10:47AM

Sustainability Institute, Stellenbosch, South Africa

On Saturday we went to the beach!  It was very beautiful but a little cold.  Definitely not swimming weather!

Yesterday, I went to an expression of church called More Wine (http://www.morewine.org/faith.php), a church that Lourens started as a response to a growing movement in church culture.  This movement is calling people to look at the Bible and find the true definition of the church.  It is also a movement that many intelligent people have written books and blogs about which I have yet to read, so I will stop there.  Either way, it was cool to see a close-knit group of people meeting on a Sunday morning instead of going to a large, sometimes impersonal, institution.

Afterwards, I met up with the team and traveled with them to the Canal Walk.  No it’s not a hiking trail, as I thought it was; it’s actually a mall!  This mall was huge!  The food court put many American malls to shame (right).  I actually felt very odd supporting the exploitative consumer culture when the township I was at on Friday was just a couple miles away.  I did it anyway and left from there to go to the Hillsong church again.  This week they had the guest worship leader.  I realized once he got up front that this was the same guy that led worship at the Hillsong concert I went to over the summer at Merriweather Post Pavilion- crazy! (below)

Today the 13^th Floor team is performing at a venue in Stellenbosch.  It is called the Sustainability Institute.  As I was sitting at the table eating breakfast, a lady sat down at the other end (she was obviously on staff) with a man.  From what I gathered in my eavesdropping, he is a farmer who uses the services provided here at the institute.  They have a café on site which sells some of the products produced by their registered farmers.  It is an excellent resource for these farmers that may just be starting or that need help or guidance.  It was really encouraging to hear their conversation and see the available resources.  I bought some extra food to support the cause (and maybe I was a little hungry…) and it was delicious!  The bread was made fresh and the coffee was great as well.

This time spent at the institute has been good because I have had a chance to debrief myself on some of the week’s events.  I got to spend a good deal of time in the Word and was very encouraged.  I am also preparing myself for going into Kayamandi later today.  Another girl and I will be going to hang out with the kids and play some fun games.  Hopefully we will be creative enough to keep them occupied!

Monday, June 21, 2010, 9:04PM

Pneumatix, Somerset West, South Africa

Well, like I said before, it’s good to stay flexible!  When we got into Kayamandi, there were not many kids there and the most of the staff were eating lunch.  I found out today that when it rains, or even looks like it might rain, the kids usually don’t come out to the program, so there wasn’t too many of them today since the rain was off and on.  However, for the time I was on site, the rain seemed to stop, so I was able to hang out with some of the older kids.  I decided today was the day I was going to try my best to play soccer with them, all of which are around 15 to 16 years old.  Let me just say they have some serious skills.  Their ball handling is great and the pace is extremely fast.  And some how I was able to put up a fight!  One of the games came down to penalty kicks.  My team wanted me to kick the first one for some reason and I managed to make it in.  Then a back and forth battle went on as it cycled through the team members and ended up with me- I make it, we win; I miss, we keep shooting.  And again, somehow I managed to make it!  Let me tell you, I definitely surprised myself, and I’m sure Sean would agree haha.  Eventually my team lost and we got kicked off but not before I scored another goal in game.  I must boast for a second and say it was extremely nice- two touch rip right between the goalie’s legs.  It got everyone that was watching laughing and yelling since the white kid just nutmeg-ed the goalie.

The time that I wasn’t playing, I was able to talk with some of the other leaders that are involved with Keep Them Safe.  It’s really cool to get different people’s stories with why they are involved.  It has shown me a part of where God’s heart is.  So many of these leaders and volunteers come from totally random parts of South Africa, and literally the world.  I’m serving next to a group from Brazil, a guy from Germany, a couple of friends from the U.S., a loan Englishman, a wealthy guy from South Africa, and many Kayamandi local leaders.  I am very excited for what God has in store for my relationships with them