March 21, 2009
I got to play in my first game today because my clearance finally came through. Our team one for the first time and it was against one of the best teams in the league (I’m not saying it was because I was playing). I played all but about the last 10 minutes and I played alright. My hamstrings have been very tight since I got here, and today my legs felt better than they have been for the last 2 months, so I was really happy about that. The team played well together and fought hard the whole game, even when we went down 1-0 with about 20 minutes to go in the game. We ended up winning 2-1 with just a minute to go in extra time. The whole team has not been all together yet for a game, and once they are all there, I’m not sure that I’ll be starting, so I’m thankful for any playing time I get now.
Last night we went to hear Philip Yancey speak (I wasn’t actually planning to go, but some people backed out and I didn’t want the ticket to be wasted). His lecture was decent, but the worship and other presentations weren’t very good, so we decided not to make the 20 minute drive again to hear him tonight. It was nice to hear an American accent and stories about familiar places though.
March 29, 2009
What a week! We spent this past week in a little community about 2 hours outside of Cape Town, called Citrusdal (if the name doesn’t give it away, it is a huge valley where there is orchard after orchard of citrus trees, lime, lemon, tangerine, and orange). It was a beautiful place, the mountains were very rugged, with huge rocks and jagged boulders on each face, and citrus trees lined every road (unfortunately the fruit was still very green, except some tangerines that someone bought for 50¢ for a huge bag, and they may have been the best I have ever had). Unfortunately, there is a huge diversity among the people, between the business and landowners, the laborers, and the unemployed/migrant workers. I didn’t get the sense that the wealthy didn’t care or weren’t trying to do their part, the population of the unemployed is just too high and alcoholism and HIV is just even worse. We actually found people very helpful in donating buns, hot dogs, and snacks to give out in the communities, but what the people need is to know God, and that is what we were trying to show them.
We spent our mornings in 4 different schools, at each one we did an assembly where we shared about God and then led games with the kids. It would have been nice to work with those kids longer term, but we only had an hour or 2 with them for a day. They are so unaccustomed to having anyone come to them from the outside that when they heard there were people coming from Cape Town and that some of us even came from England and the US, they treated us like we were superheroes. They didn’t want to let us go after spending just such a short time with them.
Our afternoons were free, but all of us saw that the community really needed to be impacted, so we spent each afternoon in a squatter’s camp about a mile from where we were staying. It was an area where there were about 200 government built block homes, most about the size of a small American kitchen or living room, and shared by whole families, so beds were often stacked all around the 1 or 2 room homes. Most did not have running water. Beside the homes were another 200 wood shacks. They were no larger than 10 feet by 12 feet, and they looked like something a group of kids would build for a fort out of collections from a dump. We were told that about 10 years ago there were about 10 wooden shacks, but over the past several years, a lot of the migrant workers who would come in for the citrus harvest would not leave afterwards, but were unemployed because of the seasonal harvest, and so ended up building these shacks. For the 200 shacks, I saw about 5 port-a-johns, like you would see at construction sites or fairs at home. The quality of life was very, very low.
We would spend a couple of hours there each afternoon, and we just walked around talking with people and playing with the kids. There was a language barrier (in the schools and the community) because most of the people only spoke Afrikaans, so only 6 people in our group, those from Cape Town, were able to speak with the people, and the rest of us relied on them. That was by far my biggest frustration of the week. The first day I walked around with one of the guys from Cape Town, but I spent most of the time just listening to him have conversations with people in Afrikaans. So the second day I decided just to find a way to serve any way I could, so I spent a couple of hours picking up litter on one street. By the end of the 2 hours, I had about 40 kids helping me and we picked up 7 bags of trash from about a 100 yard section of road. We could have filled a dump truck had we been able to cover the whole community. It was the highlight of my day though to see that the kids cared and realized that the trash shouldn’t been there. (Unfortunately, by the next day there were chip bags and candy wrappers on the ground again). After that, I spent the rest of the time just playing with kids. When we would drive in to the community, immediately we had 40 or 60 kids chasing our cars shouting and waiting for us to play with them. And when we left, they crowded around our cars so tightly I just had to pray that one of them wouldn’t get hit. There were kids as young as 16 months playing in the streets by themselves, may be with an older sibling to watch after them. I couldn’t talk to them, but I could play with them and smile at them, and give them a hug when we left. On Thursday we gave away hot dogs to the kids, almost 100, and I bought little candies to give to the after, and they were so anxious and excited to get this little thing like a Starburst that I couldn’t get them to sit down for anything. They crowded around practically trampling the littlest kids. I would have to grab on to the little ones and place the candy directly in their fist to make sure they got one. I don’t know if candy was that unusual or if it was just a contagious mentality to crowd, but it was so crazy I actually had to stop giving the candy out. I just hope that the kids understood we were there to show them God’s love and not just to play games and hand out candy.
One of the Ambassador’s staff has a mother-in-law who lives in Citrusdal and was our contact in to the community. She is working to get grants to set up shelters/orphanages for children with HIV. She told me she hasn’t met a woman in the squatter’s camp who does not have HIV, which is very disheartening, because that means that most of the kids would have HIV as well. Medications are available, but most adults don’t take them for themselves, and wouldn’t be responsible to give them to their children either.
Some of the other interns spent their time in 2 homes in particular, people who they met on the first day and talked with throughout the week. One man had been an engineer, but was crippled in a taxi bus accident that killed most of the other passengers. He lost his job and his home and ended up in the squatter’s camp in a wheelchair with his wife and young kids to take care of. A couple of guys prayed for him all week and encouraged him with Scripture. They believe he is a Christian, but that he had given up hope. Throughout the week he told them how they had showed him that there is hope in God and that he can carry on. God provided for him in many ways throughout the week, rides to and from the hospital, food for his family, and money to buy bread, and he acknowledged that it was God at work. He even was able to get up out of his wheelchair and walk across the room on crutches for the first time in a long time. I think he was given hope that had been previously dampened and I think that if God continues to work in him that he could make an impact on that community.
On Saturday, we hosted a fun day for all of the kids around Citrusdal. Unfortunately, there was a political rally that day and a lot of people were at that instead. The schools we visited were all about 20 minutes apart down bumpy dirt roads and schools were supposed to provide transportation for kids, but they didn’t, may be due to the rally. So, we had hoped for about 500 kids and ended up with around 150. I think it was the right 150 kids though, because the squatter’s camp and government homes were very close, so it was mostly those kids who came over to spend another day with us. We played games, sang songs, and did a skit. The guy who has been with us several times doing our evangelism and discipleship training also came out for the day from Cape Town with some of his staff. He presented the gospel to the kids and pretty much every single one of them stood up to receive Christ. I think it was a contagious act where when the first person stood, everyone else stood as well, but may be a few at least made a sincere commitment, at least I hope and pray. I also pray that someone will be there to follow up and that the kids can get plugged in to a church, if at all possible.
Sort of a side note, we spent the week in a campground, which turned out to be nicer than anyone expected. We did sleep in tents, but the area was very grassy and in nice surroundings. We were afraid we would be on dirty, dusty, hard ground, digging holes in the ground for our bathroom, but that wasn’t the case. One of the staff also brought a lot of cookware, so we were able to do all of our meals in an electric skillet, a pot, or on the grill. It was actually pretty relaxing and enjoyable. There was a pool, but we all laughed when we saw it, because I think you could have jumped over it without touching the water, at least width wise, and there was definitely no room for swimming laps length wise. We did have one touristy afternoon, on Friday when spent about an hour at some natural hot springs. It was actually a hot spring fed pool, but it was very nice and relaxing, and it was a good change of pact to the week.
I would say that it was a good week, but I feel like you do when you come back from a short term mission trip. You hope that you made an impact, that people saw and heard the gospel, but you know that they need something more. My heart has been impacted by what I saw and experienced, and I pray that God will provide people in the community to work and build relationships and disciple people for an extended time so that there is a lasting impact on the community.
March 31, 2009
I was asked to coach the Ladies’ Second Team on Saturday and practice starts tonight! They had to join a league other than the one they had planned to join, so it begins much earlier than anyone planned or hoped. It is basically the feeder team for the semi-pro team that I am playing for. We will have practices just one night a week and games on Saturdays. It will mean that I will miss my practice one night, but hopefully it won’t interfere with any of my games. The girls will mostly be 15 and 16, but some will be older. Pray that the team itself will be impacted, that God would bring Christians as well as non-Christians to play, and that there will be gospel ministry as well as discipleship taking place. Pray that the team will also make an impact on others in the league through our values, attitudes, and play. Pray also that I will have wisdom in how to be a leader for the girls and how God will use me in their lives, and that I will coach well also.
I got to play in my first game today because my clearance finally came through. Our team one for the first time and it was against one of the best teams in the league (I’m not saying it was because I was playing). I played all but about the last 10 minutes and I played alright. My hamstrings have been very tight since I got here, and today my legs felt better than they have been for the last 2 months, so I was really happy about that. The team played well together and fought hard the whole game, even when we went down 1-0 with about 20 minutes to go in the game. We ended up winning 2-1 with just a minute to go in extra time. The whole team has not been all together yet for a game, and once they are all there, I’m not sure that I’ll be starting, so I’m thankful for any playing time I get now.
Last night we went to hear Philip Yancey speak (I wasn’t actually planning to go, but some people backed out and I didn’t want the ticket to be wasted). His lecture was decent, but the worship and other presentations weren’t very good, so we decided not to make the 20 minute drive again to hear him tonight. It was nice to hear an American accent and stories about familiar places though.
March 29, 2009
What a week! We spent this past week in a little community about 2 hours outside of Cape Town, called Citrusdal (if the name doesn’t give it away, it is a huge valley where there is orchard after orchard of citrus trees, lime, lemon, tangerine, and orange). It was a beautiful place, the mountains were very rugged, with huge rocks and jagged boulders on each face, and citrus trees lined every road (unfortunately the fruit was still very green, except some tangerines that someone bought for 50¢ for a huge bag, and they may have been the best I have ever had). Unfortunately, there is a huge diversity among the people, between the business and landowners, the laborers, and the unemployed/migrant workers. I didn’t get the sense that the wealthy didn’t care or weren’t trying to do their part, the population of the unemployed is just too high and alcoholism and HIV is just even worse. We actually found people very helpful in donating buns, hot dogs, and snacks to give out in the communities, but what the people need is to know God, and that is what we were trying to show them.
We spent our mornings in 4 different schools, at each one we did an assembly where we shared about God and then led games with the kids. It would have been nice to work with those kids longer term, but we only had an hour or 2 with them for a day. They are so unaccustomed to having anyone come to them from the outside that when they heard there were people coming from Cape Town and that some of us even came from England and the US, they treated us like we were superheroes. They didn’t want to let us go after spending just such a short time with them.
Our afternoons were free, but all of us saw that the community really needed to be impacted, so we spent each afternoon in a squatter’s camp about a mile from where we were staying. It was an area where there were about 200 government built block homes, most about the size of a small American kitchen or living room, and shared by whole families, so beds were often stacked all around the 1 or 2 room homes. Most did not have running water. Beside the homes were another 200 wood shacks. They were no larger than 10 feet by 12 feet, and they looked like something a group of kids would build for a fort out of collections from a dump. We were told that about 10 years ago there were about 10 wooden shacks, but over the past several years, a lot of the migrant workers who would come in for the citrus harvest would not leave afterwards, but were unemployed because of the seasonal harvest, and so ended up building these shacks. For the 200 shacks, I saw about 5 port-a-johns, like you would see at construction sites or fairs at home. The quality of life was very, very low.
We would spend a couple of hours there each afternoon, and we just walked around talking with people and playing with the kids. There was a language barrier (in the schools and the community) because most of the people only spoke Afrikaans, so only 6 people in our group, those from Cape Town, were able to speak with the people, and the rest of us relied on them. That was by far my biggest frustration of the week. The first day I walked around with one of the guys from Cape Town, but I spent most of the time just listening to him have conversations with people in Afrikaans. So the second day I decided just to find a way to serve any way I could, so I spent a couple of hours picking up litter on one street. By the end of the 2 hours, I had about 40 kids helping me and we picked up 7 bags of trash from about a 100 yard section of road. We could have filled a dump truck had we been able to cover the whole community. It was the highlight of my day though to see that the kids cared and realized that the trash shouldn’t been there. (Unfortunately, by the next day there were chip bags and candy wrappers on the ground again). After that, I spent the rest of the time just playing with kids. When we would drive in to the community, immediately we had 40 or 60 kids chasing our cars shouting and waiting for us to play with them. And when we left, they crowded around our cars so tightly I just had to pray that one of them wouldn’t get hit. There were kids as young as 16 months playing in the streets by themselves, may be with an older sibling to watch after them. I couldn’t talk to them, but I could play with them and smile at them, and give them a hug when we left. On Thursday we gave away hot dogs to the kids, almost 100, and I bought little candies to give to the after, and they were so anxious and excited to get this little thing like a Starburst that I couldn’t get them to sit down for anything. They crowded around practically trampling the littlest kids. I would have to grab on to the little ones and place the candy directly in their fist to make sure they got one. I don’t know if candy was that unusual or if it was just a contagious mentality to crowd, but it was so crazy I actually had to stop giving the candy out. I just hope that the kids understood we were there to show them God’s love and not just to play games and hand out candy.
One of the Ambassador’s staff has a mother-in-law who lives in Citrusdal and was our contact in to the community. She is working to get grants to set up shelters/orphanages for children with HIV. She told me she hasn’t met a woman in the squatter’s camp who does not have HIV, which is very disheartening, because that means that most of the kids would have HIV as well. Medications are available, but most adults don’t take them for themselves, and wouldn’t be responsible to give them to their children either.
Some of the other interns spent their time in 2 homes in particular, people who they met on the first day and talked with throughout the week. One man had been an engineer, but was crippled in a taxi bus accident that killed most of the other passengers. He lost his job and his home and ended up in the squatter’s camp in a wheelchair with his wife and young kids to take care of. A couple of guys prayed for him all week and encouraged him with Scripture. They believe he is a Christian, but that he had given up hope. Throughout the week he told them how they had showed him that there is hope in God and that he can carry on. God provided for him in many ways throughout the week, rides to and from the hospital, food for his family, and money to buy bread, and he acknowledged that it was God at work. He even was able to get up out of his wheelchair and walk across the room on crutches for the first time in a long time. I think he was given hope that had been previously dampened and I think that if God continues to work in him that he could make an impact on that community.
On Saturday, we hosted a fun day for all of the kids around Citrusdal. Unfortunately, there was a political rally that day and a lot of people were at that instead. The schools we visited were all about 20 minutes apart down bumpy dirt roads and schools were supposed to provide transportation for kids, but they didn’t, may be due to the rally. So, we had hoped for about 500 kids and ended up with around 150. I think it was the right 150 kids though, because the squatter’s camp and government homes were very close, so it was mostly those kids who came over to spend another day with us. We played games, sang songs, and did a skit. The guy who has been with us several times doing our evangelism and discipleship training also came out for the day from Cape Town with some of his staff. He presented the gospel to the kids and pretty much every single one of them stood up to receive Christ. I think it was a contagious act where when the first person stood, everyone else stood as well, but may be a few at least made a sincere commitment, at least I hope and pray. I also pray that someone will be there to follow up and that the kids can get plugged in to a church, if at all possible.
Sort of a side note, we spent the week in a campground, which turned out to be nicer than anyone expected. We did sleep in tents, but the area was very grassy and in nice surroundings. We were afraid we would be on dirty, dusty, hard ground, digging holes in the ground for our bathroom, but that wasn’t the case. One of the staff also brought a lot of cookware, so we were able to do all of our meals in an electric skillet, a pot, or on the grill. It was actually pretty relaxing and enjoyable. There was a pool, but we all laughed when we saw it, because I think you could have jumped over it without touching the water, at least width wise, and there was definitely no room for swimming laps length wise. We did have one touristy afternoon, on Friday when spent about an hour at some natural hot springs. It was actually a hot spring fed pool, but it was very nice and relaxing, and it was a good change of pact to the week.
I would say that it was a good week, but I feel like you do when you come back from a short term mission trip. You hope that you made an impact, that people saw and heard the gospel, but you know that they need something more. My heart has been impacted by what I saw and experienced, and I pray that God will provide people in the community to work and build relationships and disciple people for an extended time so that there is a lasting impact on the community.
March 31, 2009
I was asked to coach the Ladies’ Second Team on Saturday and practice starts tonight! They had to join a league other than the one they had planned to join, so it begins much earlier than anyone planned or hoped. It is basically the feeder team for the semi-pro team that I am playing for. We will have practices just one night a week and games on Saturdays. It will mean that I will miss my practice one night, but hopefully it won’t interfere with any of my games. The girls will mostly be 15 and 16, but some will be older. Pray that the team itself will be impacted, that God would bring Christians as well as non-Christians to play, and that there will be gospel ministry as well as discipleship taking place. Pray that the team will also make an impact on others in the league through our values, attitudes, and play. Pray also that I will have wisdom in how to be a leader for the girls and how God will use me in their lives, and that I will coach well also.
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