This was just a nice sunset between Table Mountain and the adjacent mountain during soccer practice one night.

This picture was on my day off visit to Cape Point, sorry I'm squinting so much, the picture took a while to take, I couldn't hold my eyes open any more.

I took a few pictures during our soccer camp in Capricorn. This gives a little glimpse in to the condition of the field as the kids are being coached by the AIS interns.

Cape Point Excursion

April 15, 2009
Yesterday was in the 80’s so a few of us went to the beach, you never know when it is your last chance, so you have to take advantage. It was nice today as well and it was the last day of our break, so I went with two friends to Cape Point. It is a national park where you can go to the very southern tip of the Cape Peninsula where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. It is also where the Cape of Good Hope is, and monument in recognition of the exploration of DaGama and Dias. It was a beautiful area where rocky cliffs and beaches fell spilled over in to picturesque sandy beaches. We saw signs everywhere warning about Baboons being dangerous and attracted by food, but we only saw two baboons, and they weren’t even in the park, they were walking along the street in the town just north of the park. (Yes, they literally were baboons and not goofy people). We did see a family of 7 ostriches though as we were driving to the Cape of Good Hope. Ostriches are fairly common here on farms, but it was fun to see them in the wild.
My roommate from Scotland leaves for home tomorrow morning, she decided pretty early on that she was not going to continue with the internship after the initial training phase, and I’m still not quite sure why. My other roommate from Cape Town will also be moving out this month as well to save money by living at home. Another woman will be moving in on Saturday, she does not work for AIS, but is loosely affiliated. I just met her about 2 weeks ago and we have not spent much time together, so my prayer is that we get along fine and that living together goes smoothly. I believe she is from Cape Town originally and as far as I know is employed full-time.

Soccer Camp Conclusion and Easter Weekend

April 9, 2009
Well, by the second day of camp, word got around the area that we were there and we had a few people (kids and young adults) trying to jump the fence and steal our equipment. We lost may be 5 or 6 soccer balls the second day. And when we sent people away who didn’t belong, they threw rocks over the fence or stood along the outside and swore at kids. (I felt terrible when a little boy about 6 years old came to me and told me there was a man standing at the fence swearing, no one should have to be exposed to that at that age). Everything else with the kids seemed to have gone well, the drills and Bible studies that is.
The third day, we were told that kids had stolen balls in their backpacks the day before and caught 3 kids with balls in their bags that day. We also caught kids hiding balls in a bush to come back and take later. I’m not sure if they got any, I tried to search the bush, but it was too dirty and smelly to get close. We also had to break up a few fights; it seems that a lot of the kids take to violence as their first solution to a problem, a cycle which I pray can be broken. We had to have people constantly watching the fence to keep people from jumping in and still had people get over. The gospel was still presented and kids were still influenced, regardless of what a few kids and locals did, the gospel went out.
Today, we had intended to allow locals to come participate in competitions and a tournament, but we had to be careful about who we let in. We did end up running a tournament for 15 teams and the day was successful. Again, there were a couple of fights, but mostly among the younger teenagers, and the older teenagers were pretty well under control, which was an answer to prayer. I was really disturbed though by 3 kids who were beating up on a much smaller boy, because they were angry about the result of a game, which he had nothing to do with. Two of them were holding him up in the air by his hands and feet while the third boy drop kicked him in the back. When I confronted them, they felt justified and really didn’t seem to care.
We presented soccer balls to the two winning teams in two age groups and it was amazing how many others came begging for balls for themselves, kids and adults giving any reason to get a ball. Unfortunately, some of the younger kids who had won soccer balls had them stolen from them before they even made it out of the school gate. I really can’t understand how someone can be so greedy or desperate and so conditioned to stealing that they think it’s okay to steal from a kid half their size. We did replace the stolen balls, but I would imagine that they were soon stolen as well.
I’m still amazed (appalled) at the state of a community that is so conditioned to fighting, stealing, and disrespect that it could be so evident in a kids’ soccer camp. It really showed the despondent situation the community is in. God is needed so desperately there. There were some good conversations in the oldest group of teenagers, between some offended Rastafarians and our staff. They were offended at nothing more than the bold presentation of the gospel, so hopefully God will continue to make them think and question and turn to Him. I am confident that a seed was planted in others as well and I pray that God will continue to water and nourish that seed until its fruition. We had a local church involved each day and encouraged all the kids to get plugged in there. Ambassadors was only there for a week, so I pray for the church to continue to make a long term impact.

April 14, 2009
Saturday, I played in probably the most boring game of my life. First of all, I was asked to play goal keeper, which I have never played before and most people will laugh when they read this. Our starting keeper wasn’t around, and the two back ups were both injured. So, since I’ve coached keepers before, I was the next option. The team was new to the league, so we didn’t know what they would be like, but it turns out anyone could have stood in the goal (and I mean anyone, like a 5 year old would have been fine). We won the game 9-0, I touched the ball twice, plus a few times that my team kicked the ball back to me from about 30 yards out, I think because they felt bad for me. I basically watched for 90 minutes.
Sunday didn’t feel much like Easter except the church service (actually I went to good services both on Good Friday and Sunday). I was a little sad after church, because at that point I had no plans for the day and thought I would end up doing nothing all day. But then one of the other interns called and a few of us went to the Waterfront, where we knew all of the tourist restaurants would be open and ate an overpriced lunch and then walked around for a while.
I would ask for prayer for church. I enjoy the sermons and I am comfortable with the worship and the doctrine. However, it is a fairly large church, so a meet someone new each week, but then never see them again, so I’ve found it hard to get to know people. There have been 3 social events since I’ve been there, but I haven’t been able to go to any of them because of commitments with Ambassadors. I haven’t seen any of my small group in church yet, so I haven’t really built relationships there either. I have friends from Ambassadors to hang out with on evenings and weekends, but it would just be nice to have friendly faces to connect with on Sunday mornings at church.
We completed the training portion of our internship on Thursday, so we were given a couple of days off this week and don’t have to be back in the office until Thursday. I still have practice and games, so it hasn’t been completely responsibility free, but a nice change of pace anyway. Yesterday we went to an amusement park that said it was Africa’s largest amusement park. I’m not sure I believe that claim. It would have trouble competing with Kennywood and Cedar Point makes it look more like the Big Butler Fair. It was fun, the lines were fairly short, but so were the rides. We rode everything we wanted to in about 3 hours, watched a poor dance show (not my choice), and then went home. It was a good day trip, but it made me yearn for an end of the summer trip to Cedar Point when I return.

Soccer Practice and Soccer Camp

April 4, 2009
My first practice coaching the Ladies reserve team was interesting. Because we only found out about the league a couple of days prior to starting practice, there were only 8 players there. I was told that there are more interested, just unable to attend on short notice. The level of players was quiet varied, from brand new to retired semi-professionals, which will make practices interesting. I think if we have a decent core group of experienced players it should be okay and it will help the new players along. Apart from the soccer aspect, I think there will be a lot of potential opportunities to disciple the young girls, which is a definite area for prayer.
After a busy week last week, this one was a little bit lighter. We will be running a soccer camp next week at a local school while they are on break. There are 800 kids in the school, but we are limiting the attendance to 250 kids because of space and staffing. The camp will be paid for by businesses who have agreed to sponsor kids, so getting 250 9-13 year olds there shouldn’t be a problem. It is a very poor community, where kids don’t even have a field or a park to play in, so we will be using the school facilities. AIS is working with a church and another soccer organization to run the camp, but I was asked to run the AIS portion of the camp (who knows why?), which will be the older half of the kids. So this week I have been getting all of the details planned (coaching and Bible study sessions) and coordinating all of the other interns to make sure everyone is prepared and trained to lead a group of kids on their own. Please pray that the program runs smoothly, that coaches lead well, and most importantly, that the gospel is declared clearly and made known to the kids. Pray particularly for Thursday, which will be a day open for all kids and families to come from the community. There will be games and skits, as well as a gospel presentation and testimony. We have invited local churches to help that day as well, to allow people to be plugged in to a local church to allow ministry to continue.

April 6, 2009
We had our first day of soccer camp this morning. We were supposed to start at 9:00 and thought there would be a couple of hundred kids, but there were only about 40 there. Apparently, the recruiting in the schools was a little lacking compared to what we expected. Thankfully though, a couple of us drove out in to the township while a couple others walked around the block and within 15 minutes we had 200 kids at the field, ages 6-18. The field is in pretty poor shape, mostly sand pits and hills, and more glass than grass, but the kids were happy to have soccer balls to kick around and play with. From the road you can’t see how poor the community is, so I was actually glad to be able to drive around looking for kids, because I was able to see the homes the kids came from (I was actually a little scared, I would not go there at night or alone, you could tell from people’s looks that outsiders are not normally there). Literally, the homes were filthy shacks, falling down and unmaintained. Some kids showed up without shoes at all, and very few kids had soccer shoes. Each intern led a group of about 12 kids (except for myself as I was coordinating) and spent about an hour doing soccer training then 20-30 minutes sharing a Bible lesson, and then a few minutes scrimmaging. The day started a little late, so we didn’t do everything planned, but we ended the day with a skit to present a brief gospel message and a bit of an explanation of why we were there. Overall, I think things went well.

Citrusdal Pictures

The first picture is of my roommate and I playing a game with kids in the squatter's camp we worked in each day. It was basically dodgeball, only we always threw and the kids always dodge. What a great game for the thrower! The second picture is from the day we served hot dogs and candy to the kids, the picture doesn't show it, but it was quite a mob when I pulled the candy out of my car. I thought the littlest kids would be trampled.

The last picture is one of the interns presenting a skit to the kids at school. It is a skit relates soccer to our need to have God in our lives to live as He intended us to, to fulfill the purpose for which He created us.

Citrusdal and soccer teams

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.

Ethics and Prison

March 15, 2009
This week we spent quite a bit of time talking about ethics and different scenarios that one might come across in sports and debated what Biblical principles would teach us about how we should act in those situations. Some of the debates were pretty interesting. We also talked about Sports Values, things like winning with humility, losing with dignity, teamwork, etc. Basically, it is about applying Biblical principles again to sports, which are valuable lessons to teach to Christians and non-Christians.
I met again with the girl from the college who I am mentoring. Our conversation was pretty general; I am just trying to get to know her. I asked her how much she has studied the Bible and she that outside of church, she hasn’t. So I asked her if she would be interested in studying the gospel of John with me. She didn’t know what that was, but I think that is partly due to the fact that she has gone to a Xhosa church and only has ever had a Xhosa Bible. She asked me if I would get her an English Bible, so I went out and bought one for her to make our studying together easier. I also got her a notebook and wrote down passages that we could read this week. My plan is to meet with her after church next week to talk about what we’ve read. She also came with me to church this morning (I was supposed to pick her up at 9:30 for a 10:00 service and she got in the car at 9:55, which meant we were about 5 minutes late for church, because knowing Africans I had built in some leeway time, next week I’ll have to lengthen it). She enjoyed the service and said she would like to go with me again next week. I don’t know what will come of our time together or what God is doing, but it is an area where I would appreciate prayer.
I went to Bible Study again on Wednesday night and they asked me if I wanted to switch groups, recognizing that I had been placed in a very young group. They moved me to a group with people my age and it was more comfortable and more challenging, so I guess God answered that prayer. There was one person who was very overzealous though and it made it very difficult for anyone else to contribute to the conversation. I was a little unprepared for such a person, but next week I’ll know and be prepared to talk and think at the same time instead of thinking before responding and not getting a word out. The leader said this person has only been there a couple of weeks and he’s still trying to figure out how to handle the situation as well.
Yesterday we had our second game and this time we had 12 players available, so there was at least one substitute. I don’t have my clearance still, so I was not able to play again. I did invite the team over for dinner afterwards and a handful of them came. We had dinner and then we hung out and played some games. It was fun.

March 16, 2009
Today was our day off, but it was a little rainy this morning and windy this afternoon, so it gave the air a bit of a chill (still warm enough for short sleeves). I went to the waterfront with 2 other guys and we visited the Two Oceans Aquarium, which was actually a little disappointing. There were animals from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but not a huge selection. It cost $8 and we saw everything in about an hour. Afterwards we were walking along the wharf and saw 8-10 huge seals lounging on a pier, and one swimming in the water. We thought that was more exciting. Tonight I have practice and have to pick up my laundry on the way. Not many people have washing machines, including us, and most people wash all of their clothes by hand, but I just don’t think I would get my clothes very clean and don’t want to invest that kind of time scrubbing all of my soccer clothes, so I pay about $4-5 every week and a half to 2 weeks to have my clothes washed for me. They wash, dry, and fold them for me, and usually even match my socks (I always have to refold them after for myself, but that’s partly because I’m picky about how my shirts are folded). Sorry that wasn’t very exciting information.

March 19, 2009
Yesterday we went back to the prison where AIS runs their academy and we spent the afternoon with the guys in the program. They took us in to the prison and to the room where the guys stay. As part of the program, they all live together in one room, like a giant dorm room, and all adhere to the same rules and standards. Ambassadors has even been allowed to provide posters and other decorations for the room, so there are a lot of Scripture verses around the room pointing the guys to the truth about who they are and what God has done and can do for them. They have to follow pretty strict disciplinary guidelines to stay in the program and these are posted and tracked in their room as well. We trained with their “team” (they have training 3 days a week and will soon start competition in a local church league on Saturday as well), so we got to interact with the guys a bit. Part of their training includes spiritual training as well. This week’s lesson was about lying and we participated in the discussion as well. The conversation was challenging and encouraging and the guys seemed pretty engaged. Everyone was divided in to two groups and two of the prisoners led each group discussion. They are both Christians (I wrote about one of them in an early post) and know the grace of God and what He has done for them, so it is really cool to see them teach the Scriptures to the guys, because they can relate so well. There seem to be wardens in the prison who are leading them as well, I am fairly certain that their cell warden is a Christian and has a great impact on them. So God is at work there.
Please pray for that prison though. These guys are in an area of the prison that is for younger offenders and their section is specifically for sports and ministry, and is slightly separated from other parts of the prison, but not entirely. It is a very dangerous and very horrific place. Gangsterism runs very deep throughout the prison, which means murder, rape, and violence and very prolific throughout the prison. There are sections of the prison that are controlled by gangs and guards are stabbed regularly. The maximum security areas are unsafe for anyone from the outside to enter and ministry is next to impossible. Pray that the guys in the Ambassadors program would be freed from any gang ties (some of them have been heavily involved and breaking ties is very hard, as it puts their lives in jeopardy). Pray that they would be open to hear the truth of the gospel, that the Spirit would be at work in their lives, and they would be free from the binds of their past. Pray for those who have given their lives to Christ that they would continue to be a witness and continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our great Lord and Savior. Pray that God would put people in their lives who are able to minister to them from within the prison at lengths that Ambassadors is unable to go to during their limited time there.
I’d also like to ask for prayer for myself with one of my roommates, I’ve been frustrated with her lack of motivation and diligence, and it is affecting my attitude toward her, so I need pray to know how to motivate her and help her along with some things she really needs to accomplish.
I spent significant time in prayer today for some friends at home and each time I pray for people at home it gives me great assurance knowing that God is the same God there and here, and I’m able to pray for you to our great and awesome God as if you were sitting here with me even while you are an ocean away.

March 20, 2009
Today we organized a tournament for the college across the street from our playing field. They help us out by allowing us to use different facilities and stuff, so in return they asked Ambassadors to participate in their “Fun Day”. We ran a tournament for 8 teams of students and I spoke for just a couple of minutes during the tournament just to tell them who we are, what we do, where they can find us, and what we believe. This afternoon we are heading back in to the city where we will do outreach among a Muslim community. Last week only a few kids came, and the teens were not interested in talking much with us, so hopefully this week more will participate.