This week I served in camps on our base. The first one was our Jam camp, which was for all the teenagers and young adults from our various communities we’ve been discipling. We did a lot of encouraging and hanging out and it was awesome to see the diversity of young people from so many different communities come together. The second camp was a school camp for troubled youth. There were some atheists and a lot of Muslims and it was cool to share with them about what I believe and how that got me to South Africa.
The more I live here, the more I realize the sameness of people. Teenagers from rural villages and white South African suburbs joke around and ask the same questions as teenagers in California do. Substance addicts and the disabled in the townships of Cape Town have the same mannerisms and speak of the same struggles as the homeless of Sacramento do. My eyes have been widened to see how far God’s heart truly reaches.
Today, I’ll be doing some street ministry, followed by a Team 1,000 meeting (we are beginning to organize 1,000 people for ministry during World Cup). I hope this finds you all well! Please let me know what you guys are up to and how I can pray for you, any news from America means so much to me!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Local Ministry
We just finished our first week of local ministry and it was wonderful! We have about six different communities we serve in locally. We begin each day with worship and prayer and then split up into groups and serve these communities. Many areas are pretty new for us, and we are just beginning to build relationships and pray for God's direction on how we can best serve. God opened a lot of doors in our first week. Here is the low down of some sites we are serving in.
Hout Bay has a fisherman's township that we've been praying about serving in. The people aren't very friendly there and until this week, we haven't been able to build any relationships with young people. On Monday, we met a man who is doing soccer ministry with the local youth. He is very excited to partner with us in ministry and we are excited to work with the youth in sports ministry.
Cape Academy is a boarding school for ten to twelve graders from disadvantaged communities who show leadership potential. These students are away from home and don't get the support and love that families bring. We're doing a bible study there on Monday nights and it was so cool! We had about twenty students show up and they seem really happy to be there. I was reminded of how much i love youth ministry!
Imizamo yethu is the township that is closest to our base. It is super diverse and has people from many different African countries who come here to find work. We had a big soccer game with the local youth and hope to do house visits and compassionnate ministry in the homes of the people there. We are also praying that God opens doors for us to minister to the girls there.
Sir lowry's is a township we've been doing children's ministry in for a few years. The children have opened doors for us to begin building relationships with their families. After walking through the township and visiting and praying for families in their homes, we go to a big field and completely exhaust ourselves playing with the children. Right before we left, we met a few youth who were interested in starting a small group. There is nothing for the children and youth to do here besides drugs and abuse is really common. I've only been to Sir Lowry's twice, but my heart has broken into a thousand pieces for this place and the people here.
As for me, i'm doing well. South Africa is wonderful and inspiring and humbling and i feel so priviledged to be where my biggest passions and the world's biggest needs collide. God is definitely moving here and i love being a part of it. Please pray that God continues to open doors and give us direction as we enter our communities. Pray for the young people we will be meeting and disciplinig. And pray that we love well and share Christ's love with the world.
Hout Bay has a fisherman's township that we've been praying about serving in. The people aren't very friendly there and until this week, we haven't been able to build any relationships with young people. On Monday, we met a man who is doing soccer ministry with the local youth. He is very excited to partner with us in ministry and we are excited to work with the youth in sports ministry.
Cape Academy is a boarding school for ten to twelve graders from disadvantaged communities who show leadership potential. These students are away from home and don't get the support and love that families bring. We're doing a bible study there on Monday nights and it was so cool! We had about twenty students show up and they seem really happy to be there. I was reminded of how much i love youth ministry!
Imizamo yethu is the township that is closest to our base. It is super diverse and has people from many different African countries who come here to find work. We had a big soccer game with the local youth and hope to do house visits and compassionnate ministry in the homes of the people there. We are also praying that God opens doors for us to minister to the girls there.
Sir lowry's is a township we've been doing children's ministry in for a few years. The children have opened doors for us to begin building relationships with their families. After walking through the township and visiting and praying for families in their homes, we go to a big field and completely exhaust ourselves playing with the children. Right before we left, we met a few youth who were interested in starting a small group. There is nothing for the children and youth to do here besides drugs and abuse is really common. I've only been to Sir Lowry's twice, but my heart has broken into a thousand pieces for this place and the people here.
As for me, i'm doing well. South Africa is wonderful and inspiring and humbling and i feel so priviledged to be where my biggest passions and the world's biggest needs collide. God is definitely moving here and i love being a part of it. Please pray that God continues to open doors and give us direction as we enter our communities. Pray for the young people we will be meeting and disciplinig. And pray that we love well and share Christ's love with the world.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
training done!
Hey friends! Three weeks into South Africa and I'm settling in pretty well (although we move around so much, "settling" isn't the best word to use). This last week has been dedicated to meeting with about 40 other ministry leaders in the country to discuss and dream about world cup ministry that will happen in June and July. We are still in the dreaming phase, but have some good resources and hope to take children and youth sports ministry training to youth leaders throughout the country as well as host big screen showings during world cup with street and compassionate minsitry and evangelism.
Next week will be our first week of really getting our hands into local ministry projects. I'm eager to begin building relationships with the people in the townships, communities and schools we will be serving at locally. My ministry family is such a wonderful support and we laugh so much when we are around each other. I still miss America and the people I love who are still there. This has been the most challenging transition I have experienced so far and I'm learning to cling to God for strength more than ever...which is a good thing. I am in a good place.
Next week will be our first week of really getting our hands into local ministry projects. I'm eager to begin building relationships with the people in the townships, communities and schools we will be serving at locally. My ministry family is such a wonderful support and we laugh so much when we are around each other. I still miss America and the people I love who are still there. This has been the most challenging transition I have experienced so far and I'm learning to cling to God for strength more than ever...which is a good thing. I am in a good place.
Monday, January 25, 2010
first week
A week and a half has gone by and I’m still alive! (sorry for not responding to texts and emails, my internet is limited). There’s so much to say, but I’ll stick to the awesome stuff. There are 27 of us total and we are so diverse (American, Afrikaans, Colored, Xhosa, etc). We speak 7 different languages and come from all kinds of different backgrounds and places. We live in community. We eat together, pray together, serve together. We are already a family. In a country recently free of Apartheid, our love in diversity speaks for us before we even open our mouths.
Our home base is an old World War 2 army base on the foothills of Table Mountain overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It’s Summer here and gorgeous! Camps of students filter through the campus pretty regularly and we’ve been leading activities and working with them. We’ve been doing a lot of training this week, team building, vision casting, and scouting out ministry opportunities in townships in and around Cape Town. Our focus is to build up and disciple young people in these communities and empower them to be the spiritual leaders where they are at. The kids in the townships flock to us when we come. We run around with them and love them as much as we can. Most are left by themselves while their parents work, and they are hungry for love.
What I love about this ministry so far is that it looks so much like the way Jesus chose to minister during His time on earth. We aren’t going out to show a Jesus film and evangelize village after village of people who won’t have a clue where to go next. Instead, we will go out and spend significant time with young people, ask questions, teach, model, love, disciple and show others how to live intimately with Jesus and serve in His reign. We will move around a lot (we’ve spent the night in three different places already), borrow a lot and give away even more. The sacrifice will be and has been hard, but when I think about the privilege of following Christ and working in His Kingdom, I feel more than blessed.
God has been rocking my world since I’ve been here. I was so confident doing youth ministry in the United States, but here, I feel so out of my element, unused to the many cultures and unsure of myself. I’m learning more than ever to trust in God’s wisdom bringing me here and embracing the fact that God loves to work through small broken people who are unsure of themselves, which is exactly where I am right now. I am pretty homesick and I cry daily. I know it will get better. Please pray that I will stay strong.
Our home base is an old World War 2 army base on the foothills of Table Mountain overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It’s Summer here and gorgeous! Camps of students filter through the campus pretty regularly and we’ve been leading activities and working with them. We’ve been doing a lot of training this week, team building, vision casting, and scouting out ministry opportunities in townships in and around Cape Town. Our focus is to build up and disciple young people in these communities and empower them to be the spiritual leaders where they are at. The kids in the townships flock to us when we come. We run around with them and love them as much as we can. Most are left by themselves while their parents work, and they are hungry for love.
What I love about this ministry so far is that it looks so much like the way Jesus chose to minister during His time on earth. We aren’t going out to show a Jesus film and evangelize village after village of people who won’t have a clue where to go next. Instead, we will go out and spend significant time with young people, ask questions, teach, model, love, disciple and show others how to live intimately with Jesus and serve in His reign. We will move around a lot (we’ve spent the night in three different places already), borrow a lot and give away even more. The sacrifice will be and has been hard, but when I think about the privilege of following Christ and working in His Kingdom, I feel more than blessed.
God has been rocking my world since I’ve been here. I was so confident doing youth ministry in the United States, but here, I feel so out of my element, unused to the many cultures and unsure of myself. I’m learning more than ever to trust in God’s wisdom bringing me here and embracing the fact that God loves to work through small broken people who are unsure of themselves, which is exactly where I am right now. I am pretty homesick and I cry daily. I know it will get better. Please pray that I will stay strong.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
quotes
I've been reading a lot lately, mostly to continue preparing my heart for serving in South Africa in two weeks!! I've been digging through my books and found some quotes that are too good not to share...enjoy.
Do you know when people really become spiritual? It is when they become the slaves of God and are branded with his sign, which is the sign of the cross, in token that they have given him their freedom. Then he can sell them as slaves to the whole world, as he himself was sold. For the foundation of this whole edifice is humility.
St. Teresa of Avila
You can’t separate God in his awesome power in heaven from the snotty, bloated kid with the fly in his eye in the ditch. God is not impressed by the size of our church. God is not impressed by how many times we go to church but by how much we become like Jesus. The world is on an accumulation binge—give me more and more and more—but God is a giver.
B.F. Skinner
Follow the example of the King by choosing to enter into broken worlds, not sit outside them with right answers. And when you arrive wherever you are sent, you will know what to do—love people until they can feel it, proclaim Jesus’ reign with words and actions and love.
The world is waiting for new saints, ecstatic men and women who are so deeply rooted in the love of God that they are free to imagine a new international order.
Henri Nouwen
To have accepted the love of God is to be armed and disarmed at the same time. No weapon is more powerful. But in using such a weapon it is the user who is broken wide open. This is a love that cannot rightly be kept in. It is a bursting out love. In its spilling out, it binds to others and when it binds to others, it heals, it knits hearts, it builds community and it brings everything together in perfect unity.
Invest in love. Yield to love. Be transformed by love. Allow nothing to stand in the way of your commitment to love. Don’t use overload as an excuse, and don’t spend your last moments on earth apologizing for your life. Set love in order, beginning today.
Richard Swenson
I want to be a missionary, leave everything for Christ and in the end, feel like I never made a sacrifice.
John Piper
Do you know when people really become spiritual? It is when they become the slaves of God and are branded with his sign, which is the sign of the cross, in token that they have given him their freedom. Then he can sell them as slaves to the whole world, as he himself was sold. For the foundation of this whole edifice is humility.
St. Teresa of Avila
You can’t separate God in his awesome power in heaven from the snotty, bloated kid with the fly in his eye in the ditch. God is not impressed by the size of our church. God is not impressed by how many times we go to church but by how much we become like Jesus. The world is on an accumulation binge—give me more and more and more—but God is a giver.
B.F. Skinner
Follow the example of the King by choosing to enter into broken worlds, not sit outside them with right answers. And when you arrive wherever you are sent, you will know what to do—love people until they can feel it, proclaim Jesus’ reign with words and actions and love.
The world is waiting for new saints, ecstatic men and women who are so deeply rooted in the love of God that they are free to imagine a new international order.
Henri Nouwen
To have accepted the love of God is to be armed and disarmed at the same time. No weapon is more powerful. But in using such a weapon it is the user who is broken wide open. This is a love that cannot rightly be kept in. It is a bursting out love. In its spilling out, it binds to others and when it binds to others, it heals, it knits hearts, it builds community and it brings everything together in perfect unity.
Invest in love. Yield to love. Be transformed by love. Allow nothing to stand in the way of your commitment to love. Don’t use overload as an excuse, and don’t spend your last moments on earth apologizing for your life. Set love in order, beginning today.
Richard Swenson
I want to be a missionary, leave everything for Christ and in the end, feel like I never made a sacrifice.
John Piper
Monday, December 7, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
