Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I have no good title

May 25, 2009
So again, another typical week, I think the month of May can be labeled as fairly routine. I did hear an interesting talk on Monday night though. I met an MTW missionary from St. Louis last week who has been in Cape Town with his family for the last 10 years. He is organizing an MTW team to do ministry for the 2010 World Cup under The Ultimate Goal, which I talked about a couple of weeks ago. So, he has been working some with Ambassadors on the preparation and plans and came to do our staff devotions last Thursday. While he was there he invited me to come hear a guest lecturer at a class he teaches at a nearby Bible college. The guest happened to be the bishop of the church I attend, but who has been on sabbatical since I’ve been here. He spoke about a massacre that occurred at the church in July of 1993. It was just at the time when there was great unrest in South Africa and apartheid was coming to an end, with the new South Africa being established in 1994. No one knows why, it was most likely a random act of violence, although the church was diversified in a time when separation was the norm, but 3 gunmen came in to the Sunday evening service, attended by several hundred people and opened fire with 3 automatic weapons and hand grenades. 11 people were killed and over 50 were wounded, many very seriously. While it was a tragedy, it was also a great witness to the community and the nation, because through all the media coverage and turmoil, the people remained faithful, humble, and forgiving. He spoke about what the church learned through this experience of suffering. After this bishop spoke, 5 of the students from the class shared briefly their past and what God has taught them in suffering as well. One student lived through the genocides in Rwanda, another had family near last year’s earthquakes in China, one guy talked about the witness of a man he saw die from a brain tumor, one girl talked about her abusive stepfather, and the last woman was also a part of the church massacre. It was sobering and saddening, but comforting to see that each of them had hope in God. I have been studying 1 Peter lately, and he speaks a lot about our suffering and how it is a gracious thing and brings glory to God and how those who suffer for righteousness will be blessed.
Since last Saturday’s rain kept most of the team I coach from being able to come for dinner, I had them over again this Saturday. There were 14 of us total, 10 from the team, and it was a really good time. They were more social than I have seen them be yet and they talked for a long time and then we played games and had several good laughs. I think it was good for the unity of the team, but also hopefully a good leap in my relationship with them to let them see that I care about them and want to know them and minister to them.
I ended up in goal again on Saturday, my second time there. Our goal keeper got a red card and was thrown out of the game and I was put in goal in her place. That meant we were playing down a player and when the other team saw me coming in, I think it gave them a go sign to shoot as much as they could. I had to make a handful of saves and thankfully held my ground. We ended up winning 3-0. I’m not sure yet if her penalty carries over until next week, but there is a possibility I could be playing in goal again, but this time it would be against a very strong team, which makes me a bit nervous.
Yesterday, I started experiencing car troubles and had to take my car to the shop today and I think just in time, because it actually stalled out on the way to the garage. I was able to get it there, thankfully, but I am really praying that the repairs aren’t too expensive. Since I was afraid to drive anywhere yesterday, I had my roommate drop me off at church on her way to her church, which put me there about 30 minutes early. So I explored the church a bit and found that there was a restaurant and book shop on the second floor. I had heard about the restaurant, but it was much bigger and busier than I expected. I bought a couple of books as well, and after walking home from church (it was only 1 ½ miles) I spent the afternoon reading. I got about 200 pages through a biography about John Newton and had trouble putting it down. My roommate came with me to the evening service last night so I didn’t have to take my car. I also found a friend to take me to the garage this afternoon to drop my car off. I had asked her dad to recommend a place to take it, so hopefully the place is trustworthy. It is frustrating being in a new place and just not knowing what places are good and where to go, so I was thankful to find someone to help out. Please pray that I won’t be without my car for too long and that the repairs won’t be too hefty.

May 26, 2009
I found out today that our goal keeper received a two game suspension for her red card on Saturday, which was for a handball outside the goal area. That means for the next two games I’ve been elected by our coach to play goalie. We are facing two of the top teams in our league, we lost to won and beat the other so far this season. But that means the pressure is on. I’ll be training as a goalie for the first time ever tonight.

May 27, 2009
I’ve been working in the office a lot lately. I’ve been asked to edit and format a lot of the Bible Study material that Ambassadors uses for soccer schools and with teams. It isn’t very exciting work, but it is definitely a need I can fill. Unfortunately, the office has been without internet a lot lately, due I believe to a bad networking system. It doesn’t help that internet service in South Africa is very poor and often shady as it is.
My car has also been in the shop since Monday. They told me they looked at it yesterday and that the problem is more complicated than something clear cut with a simple solution. I really hope I’m not getting the run around and I really hope this doesn’t end up being something of great expense. I’m a little fearful of that, but I really don’t know if there is anything I can do about it. I feel pretty stranded without a car and while I’ve found rides where I need to go, I can’t find rides where I want to go, when I want to go, particularly to an internet cafĂ©.
I’m also feeling a tiny bit flu-ish with a sore throat and trouble sleeping, so any prayers for grace and sustenance would be appreciated at this point.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Contest Question

Here's a question for you: This past Friday I purchased a large bag of nectarines from a road side vendor for 5 Rand, which is roughly about 60 cents. Can you guess how many nectarines were in the bag? Post a comment with your guess, the person who guesses closest wins (I'll bring something back from South Africa as a prize). You can only guess once and the cut off date for the contest is May 31st.
This week's blog post follows...
May 17, 2009
Once again, this was a typical week for the most part. It was nice weather for most of the week, but started raining late on Thursday and didn’t stop until this morning. The team I coach started to play our game (even though most games in the area were cancelled because of field conditions, ours was not) and played about 15 minutes before the refs called the game because they couldn’t see through the rain. Luckily, we had had once chance to score at that point and did, so it counted as a win. The team I was supposed to play against decided they didn’t want to travel in the rain, but in order for us to win the forfeit, we had to wait until game time. We normally meet 2 and half hours before game time to eat a light meal and get ready, so we had to sit around that entire time, even knowing that the other team wasn’t coming. The refs checked our registrations, made us get completely dressed in our uniforms, and even walk out of the locker room together at game time, before they told us we could go. At that point I had been sitting in wet clothes for a couple of hours and was ready to go home.
I had invited the team I coach over for dinner though, and they had already been waiting at my house for a couple of hours, because there was no game for them to watch, (they were going to watch the game I was playing in), so I didn’t really have time to do anything other than get home, change clothes, and start cooking. Because of the rain, only a handful of girls were able to make it, so I’m going to have them over again soon.
I’m going to try to post a picture soon, but in the meantime, be praying for a girl here named Ode (pronounced like Oddie). She plays on the soccer team I play on, but she is also the foster daughter of Joelle, a woman who works for Ambassadors. She has been in South Africa for 15 years (she is 19 now), but she does not have any identity or documents, like a birth certificate, for citizenship in any country. She came from the Congo and her father is in Angola, but she has no links to either country and no proof of her past. Joelle has been working for 2 years to get her citizenship in any of those countries (although South African would be best for her) and has been unsuccessful. Right now she just continues to renew her refugee status in South Africa every few months, which isn’t the best solution, but has no other choice. Without any identity she can’t get a driver’s license, vote, or get a passport to leave the country to visit Joelle’s family in England. She is also a very good player and could play for the South African national team, but can’t do so without citizenship. Her dream is to come to the US to play college soccer and she is studying hard to take her SATs in June (I tutor her in Math once a week), but she won’t be able to see that dream through without citizenship. That’s a long story made not so short, but please be praying for Ode’s citizenship, for the right contacts to be made to move the process forward, and for encouragement in the meantime. One other thing, the refugee office where all of this takes place is not very safe. I went there on Wednesday with Joelle so she didn’t have to go alone after someone attempted to rob her there on Monday. There are hundreds of refugees trying to force their way in through the gates outside and a couple hundred more waiting inside each day, just hoping to be seen. Many of them have been waiting for several months and are desperately seeking refugee status in South Africa. Most of them are told that life in South Africa will be so much better than their home countries, but after months of waiting, just want to return home. It was very sad to see them all there and a little scary to see their desperate state. One man saw that we were given special treatment (Joelle and I couldn’t decide if it was because she called the right person ahead of time to let us in the building or if it was because we were white, and the only 2 white people anywhere around; maybe it was both, which made us feel bad), but this man was pleading with us to take his papers in and just give them to someone inside to look at. He said he was a chess coach and had left Malawi to come to Cape Town to play and coach, but had been there for 6 months waiting for refugee status and was ready to give up. There wasn’t anything we could do for him though. We didn’t get anywhere that day either. Joelle just wanted to get Ode’s refugee status renewed, which has expired again, and after almost 3 hours and 3 meetings, she was told to come back later with Ode, because the process was being changed and she had to be there. She should have an ID instead of needing to renew her refugee status, but after two applications and several follow-ups, it still hasn’t come through. In one office, we watched 2 men flip through about 200 IDs looking for hers, but of course it wasn’t there. I just wonder where those 200 Angolans are whose IDs were sitting in that drawer. It has been frustrating for both Ode and Joelle, and Ode will graduate from high school in December, so for her to start college in August 2010, things need to move through more quickly than they are now.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

May 11, 2009
This past week has been fairly normal, I’m pretty settled in to a regular routine. This weekend was busy though. Saturday morning I went with a couple of the other Ambassadors staff to volunteer at a deaf school soccer tournament in the morning. There were teams from 5 different deaf schools in the area. Unfortunately, they were a little late in arriving, and I had to leave early, so my job was mostly limited to set up and preparation. I did get the chance to hear a friend give his testimony to the kids, and it is a pretty powerful testimony full of God’s grace and forgiveness.
I went straight from there to coach the reserve team. We played probably the best team in the league and were tied 1-1 at half time. The girls showed a lot of potential and were working well together (the 1st team was watching and made some comments about how impressed they were). Unfortunately, the other team was just too much to handle and we ended up losing 7-1 (although, we didn’t have our usual goal keeper, which didn’t help). I think the other team had 2 Americans playing for them, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to them after the game, because I had to quickly run off to the 1st team game. That game went much better, winning by a score of 7-1. I scored one goal, my second of the season, and I was pretty happy with it. One of the other girls on the team kept commenting about how fun the game was, it wasn’t even our highest scoring game, but she said she thought the team played really well against a another skilled team, so we really earned the score.
Sunday morning one of the girls asked me if I wanted to run in a 10K race with her. She told me it was supposed to be one of the most beautiful races in Cape Town (they actually have a lot of races, Africans love to run), so I agreed. It was a pretty venue. It was right along the Atlantic shore, next to a lighthouse, and on the side of a mountain. That meant that there was about a 2.5K uphill stretch up that mountain side, but it did make for some nice views. I kept reminding myself to enjoy the scenery and made sure I was looking around as much as I could. At one point the song “All Creatures of our God and King” started playing on my iPod and I looked up with the shore to my right, a rocky mountain ahead of me, and another mountain to my left and I just praised God for it. When the line “Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Spirit three in one, oh praise Him, oh praise Him, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...” was being sung, I almost raised my hands up in the air while I was running, but I didn’t want to kill my momentum. I did however fly up that hill with considerable ease (although it was much shorter than the first 2.5K hill).
Did I mention I won? I won a gift certificate to some farm village outside of Cape Town. I don’t know what they have there, but it was a nice prize. Actually, that prize had nothing to do with the race. I ran 10K in 55 minutes, which is respectable, I think, considering I did no training prior and played a game the day before, but nowhere near the winning time. Some college girl won the race. I just won a random drawing after the race. They gave away about 30 prizes, mostly water bottles and small stuff. My prize was the second to largest prize (worth about $50). The largest prize was a two night stay for two guests at a local hotel. It was only accommodations, no food or other package, which would pretty much be useless to me, so I’m actually glad I didn’t win that.
Please continue to pray for both of my soccer teams. I still need a couple of players for the team I coach and am looking for opportunities to reach out to the players. I’m also still trying to build relationships with the girls I am playing with as well. Yesterday, because of the race, I was able to spend about 6 hours with one girl, and that was a blessing, but there are others I would love to spend time with as well. I’m praying also for the girls at the homeless shelter; they haven’t been very committed to coming to our program. We are lucky to get 10 when we could be getting 20. The next couple of weeks are really important for relationship building, because I’m going to be busy in June with a few other projects and may not be around much. The last two weeks in June will be particularly busy, as I’m joining an international team of players to do ministry around Johannesburg for the Confederations Cup. It is a big tournament being held in South Africa this year with 8 men’s national teams, the best from each region. (For anyone who cares, the US will be playing).

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

April 25, 2009
The last week and a half have been fairly uneventful, sort of just settling in to the routine. I have soccer practice Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday with games on Saturday, including coaching on Tuesday and Saturday. The team I am coaching is still struggling to get enough players though. There are no youth teams for girls, so we are trying to find teenagers and adults with no pool to draw from. I’ve been going to the homeless shelter to work with the young girls. My first week there, none of the staff were able to go, so myself and two of the other interns took charge and ran the program straight out of the blocks. It went fine, the girls were responsive to us and we had a good conversation at the end of our time together. One of the other interns lived at the shelter for a while and left a year ago to do a training program and then joined Ambassadors in January. He shared about his goals and dreams to get out of the shelter and then to join Ambassadors, so we talked with the girls about their goals and dreams as well. Many of them want to go in to ministry, so I hope they are able to see those dreams fulfilled. (Although we did talk about doing ministry in everyday vocations as well).
Speaking of vocations, I have been trying to figure out what I want to do when I get home in August. I don’t know if I will be able to find something permanent from here. I may have to find something that pays the rent when I get home and then look for something more suitable at that time. I had been thinking last year that I would want to stay in ministry full time, but now I am wondering if that is the best option. I want to do ministry, but I’ve been thinking that moving in to a secular job may open up more opportunities and allow me to build more relationships to be effective in talking to others in need. I’m wondering if I am to expand and build the relationships I am in, if it would be better to not work within a “ministry” context. If anyone wants to keep an eye open for possible opportunities and pray for God’s guidance in that area, I would appreciate it.
May 1, 2009
This week was a pretty typical week, except that it seems to be the time of year when South Africa has a lot of public holidays. First it was Easter and then last Wednesday was election day, which is a holiday here, then Monday was Freedom Day (I didn’t notice any celebrations, it was just a day off), and today was a holiday, but I have no idea what is was.
Wednesday we went to a meeting to talk about the ministry centering around the 2010 World Cup. All of the ministries and churches in South Africa will come together under one heading, The Ultimate Goal. The meeting left a bit to be desired, but it is exciting to think about what kind of ministry potential there is during the World Cup. FIFA has actually granted churches rights to show the games on Big Screens without licensing fees, as long as they don’t charge admission. It is a first as far as I know. But that means bars won’t be the only ones opening their doors for public viewing and churches can reach people in their communities. Most South Africans don’t have access to TV, especially satellite and most people won’t have transportation to get to pubic viewing areas around the stadiums, so local churches seem to be a great option. The Ultimate Goal is also pushing churches to do clinics and tournaments, and further encouraging them to get involved volunteering, offering hospitality to visitors and ministry teams, and providing information and aid to tourists.