Brilliant News!

I recieved my budget from Thailand today - what I need per month to live as a missionary there. And you know what? Once I converted it from the incomprehensible Thai Baht to the Aussie dollar I realised that I really should aim to have $1100 in support pledged per month before I go. Yay! I'm going!
To see my super accounting skills (not) click here to view my budget breakdown.

Supporting thoughts

These last couple of days I've been trying to throw my heart over the concept of support raising. It was an online chat conversation with my future team leader in Thailand that brought this all up. Nearly every time I speak to her she manages to slip in a 'So when are you coming over?'. I finish my last training by the 22nd June 2008. However the School that I hope to staff begins in July 2008! That's an extremely short time to wrap up, say goodbye to everyone in Sydney and move to Thailand. It's also a really short time to make sure I have enough financial partnerships in place to actually be able to go!
I was heartbroken at being run out of Zimbabwe and having to abandon our plans for ministry there. I think I would be even more incredibly disappointed with myself if I had to leave the ministry project halfway in Thailand for lack of funding. So hence - I have begun thinking about support raising.
Firstly, I thought 'this is really weird'. Fact is, till this whole mission thing came up, the only people I've ever asked to give me money are my parents. Sponging off your parents probably comes naturally to every child. It's a whole new ball game when you realise that God wants you to depend on His and the generosity of other people to live. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus is rather blunt about the fact "you cannot serve both God and money". Having probably shot my career in the neck by resigning and stepping out of commercial design, it's a case of serve God first, and leave the money up to Him to provide.
So I began to read this book called 'Funding the family business' by Myles Wilson. He had been supporter of his brother, who was a missionary with Campus Crusade for many years. Then eventually he and his wife decided to take the step to become missionaries themselves. He pointed out that it was strange that the missionaries he talked to felt burdened with the task of asking for support, when actually he had found giving extremely enjoyable. And thinking back, when I was working I did quite enjoy giving to mission and hearing back about what that money has acheived - it was always fun to see. So I guess it should always be enjoyable - both being the giver and being the reciever because both positions are in an opportunity to bless the other...

Lightning Crashes

This morning, I was cranky on my way into work because two of my buses pulled up to the stop but then only let people off and wouldn't take on passengers - so I was late and ended up walking part of the way there. As I rounded the last corner on the Kings Rd in Chelsea I realised why - a police cordon was re-directing people around the wreckage of a silver car. As I passed it I heard a female cop say "one dead in the silver car, the driver of the taxi in critical condition". It's a little bit small town around here cause of the council housing estate opposite so people have been dropping in with rumours of up to three dead in the silver car, and that they were joyriders.
Anyway, feeling cranky about public transport being late seems a bit callous in the light of this.
Then I received an email saying that one of the youngest children I had taught in the preschool in Joburg died a month ago, but they'd thought he had just moved back to Mozambique. Fernando was quite cuddly and had the world's biggest smile, but he was sick in the last weeks while I was there, listless and sleepy all the time. Apparently his father took him to a witch doctor and then he died. This total waste of a young life just makes me angry - I think that there's probably a good chance he would still be living if he had been medicated properly.
However, also over email came the great news that one of my friends, Corrine, is pregnant! She's had scans (you can almost see facial features) and it's all very exciting!
So this morning has just been like the Live song, 'Lightning Crashes'...

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
her placenta falls to the floor
the angel opens her eyes
the confusion sets in
before the doctor can even close the door

lightning crashes, an old mother dies
her intentions fall to the floor
the angel closes her eyes
the confusion that was hers
belongs now, to the baby down the hall

oh now feel it comin' back again
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again
I can feel it.

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
this moment she's been waiting for
the angel opens her eyes
pale blue colored iris,
presents the circle
and puts the glory out to hide, hide

Cold and damp...ahh the english winter

Well, that pretty much will summarise my weather for the next few months. Onto other topics!
I've been working doing web design for a bike shop. I slave away over my computer in the dungeon downstairs beneath the shopfront and pop up every so often to blink in the sunlight (wait, what am I saying, there hasn't been any sunshine to blink at!). My boss is lovely, if rather rough around the edges being a biker and all, and the hours are great. The only problem is, seeing as he lives a biker lifestyle and takes off on random roadtrips fairly suddenly, I work completely random days and I never know how much money I might earn in a week.
Enter God's answer - moving in with the Parnhams. Not only do I save money, but I do love their family and they have a TV! I know that shouldn't factor in my decision to move, but it is a rather exciting bonus after years without.
Also, I've been playing tennis at the free courts on the hill beside where I live. It's sooooo good to get back into the game, even if I am incredibly rusty. And I scored a free lesson in backhand from one of my playing partners...
My thoughts are already turning to Australia (maybe cause I miss the beach and sun), especially after finding out that I have been accepted into the School of Frontier Media in Perth, come January (Hooray!). Apparently I was accepted a while ago but no one told me so I've been sitting here getting rather nervous till I heard. Anyway, on an otherwise frustrating friday, I managed to book a cheap plane ticket to Perth and so am out of Sydney on the 5th Jan!
Although I am really enjoying my time here, it's also exciting to know what I'll be going on into...and I can't wait till Thailand!

There's a fox in my backyard...

Yes, this morning I looked out the window of my bedroom and say Mr Fox! He was wandering down towards a black cat also sitting in the long grass, but disappeared over the fence when I opened my window to try grab a photo. I have seen him on the road as well.
I've gawked at the big icons - Big Ben, Westminister, the tube, red double decker buses, the Thames and the Millenium Eye - but it's the little, essentially english, moments like meeting Mr Fox, walking down a narrow country lane bordered with hedgerows, being approached by squirrels in Hyde Park, that catch my breath with the conciousness that I really am in this land that has till now only been fairytale and history to me.

Hiep Hoy! Holland!

So yes, I am a very bad blogger...it was my friend Marnie who inspired me to finally get off my lazy cyber butt and log in. Her blog is http://hongkongmoo.blogspot.com/ and it''s a darn
sight more developed than mine!




Westminster Abbey

I spent my first week in the UK actually at a Christian camp called Soul Survivor. A lot of the recent worship songs have come from these conferences and I can see why. As it is I heard new songs called Éverlasting God' and Í'll stand that I think will become quite popular when they eventually reach our shores. although it rained and was muddy and chilly, I still had a good time and God pointed out some important things to me. The missions area also re-affirmed by call to Asia. It was probably a very nice cross-over between a DTS and normal London life.
The next two weeks were job searching in london. l'm extremely lucky in that since my London friend Kate was able to organise house-sitting, I still haven't had to pay for accomodation yet in europe and so have had the luxury of being able to hunt for a graphics job rather than grab any.


Now I am currently visiting DTS friends in Holland. The village my friend Marieke (the biker in the photo) lives in is sooooo cute and we have been riding around everywhere - including to the beach!
Next week I visit TJ in north Holland - the Friesen land.

Nearly out of Africa...

It's only a couple of sleeps till I fly for London. I've been tidying up and preparing for it. I've also been reflecting on all this time in Africa and what I've learnt.
Most of all I think I have learnt to wrestle with God, rather than not involving him at all and avoiding the hard emotions.
Why did we have to flee a country? I don't know but I do know God is okay with me being angry about it - He's big enough for that.
Why are so many still suffering? I don't know but I do know Christian Africans that have a deep joyful faith regardless.
Does God use ridiculously young and naieve people? Yes.
A lot of our time felt wasted and ineffective- was it? Perhaps, but then most of mission work is long boring 'wasted' work with very few rewards and possibly never seeing the results.
Would I do it all again if I knew what would happen? Definitely. I do not want to let go of the little understanding that I've gained of a people standing among a country in ruins and what the lives are like behind those faces on the world vision ads.
I have made many great friends who are now scattered around the world, which makes me exceedingly grateful for the giant re-union heaven will be. I will miss the children here at Beautiful Gate, I have watched some of them grow from whimpering babies to having developed vibrant little personalities even though they are only just talking. It will be strange not waking to their chatter.
See you in London.

Last Night in Joburg

So while the strike was going on we didn't really have any schoolkids coming to Joseph Project so we began working with one of the Lambano baby house, which has very small children and toddlers. Most of the time we just held them and played with them. For one day I went to the park with them which they loved.



Thankfully this isn't me getting nibbled on. But they were right next to our van.


Tonight is our last night at Joseph Project. We reunite with the other teams on saturday and begin debriefing next week. Outreach has been challenging, rewarding and downright dangerous at times. But I have learnt and experienced a lot even though our team did not end up working where we thought we would. Definitely I want to be back in africa someday.

Apartheid Museum

The group that went to visit the apartheid museum - Ren, Kari, TJ, Matt and I.


Nooses for those who died fighting apartheid.


A Casspir vehicle that patrolled the streets during the riots.


Dis-armed weapons from the fighting. There were a lot of AK-47's.
The fighting had even come down Commissioner street in Johannesburg, which is where we were staying. Even though I remember seeing the news about Soweto during the 90's, I hadn't realised that a lot of the fighters were children - until I saw video footage of them being beaten up by police. It is really amazing that there is peace between the races in South Africa today after the terrible atrocities that line their past. I think Nelson Mandela did a pretty good job against the odds. It was incredibly moving.

Day at the Park

This is the park we went to on Saturday. We had a picnic lunch.


I lay on the grass and took photos.






This is Ryan, the ninja, jumping off the horsy ride.

Joseph Project

So now we're safe and sound doing sleeping, eating and working in a community centre called Joseph Project. The whole concept of it is to teach the inner city kids of Joburg to dream again. It's based in Troyeville, once a rich gold baron's residential area, now turned into a slum controlled by 'slumlords'.
So here's what my schedule looks like...
Monday mornings I'm helping build a website
Tuesdays I help out in the preschool for kids too poor to go to normal preschool. They are incredibly cute but their little toes stick out from their shoes and they still arrive in shorts even when it's freezing. Here's some photos of them.

This is Josua who quite prefers the pink bike.

This is Noella. I think she's from the Congo.

Here is the extremely rickety swingset that rocks off it's feet everytime the three of them get on and start swinging.

Mawimpizo, who is the smallest boy in the class, also managed to build a tower bigger than he was. I was so impressed.

Esther is a Malaysian Australian who is the preschool teacher. We have 'circle time' every morning which includes singing. People keep asking us if we're sisters e.t.c


Everyday Lungile, the girl, dresses up like a princess.


We're trying out a new thing, which is teaching them to clean their own dishes. It's very slow, but they did do it. The kids here have to take on a lot more responsibility around the house than kids in Australia. They already fold their own blankets, wipe down tables and help me butter the bread.



Then on Weds there's a meeting and I plan (which usually means shooting a few hoops at the local basketball court while I'm thinking)
On Thursdays I do building work, which so far has been bricklaying or like today, shopping for cement, timber and fittings.
On Fridays it's the website again.
This is only for the mornings. Every afternoon kids from the local primary schools arrive from 2pm onward. We play cricket, pingpong or this dodgy American version of handball called 'foursquare' which turns the kids really vicious as they slam the ball at each other. Then they sit down at tables and get fed lunch. You can tell the ones that are really poor cause they eat everything.
Then we do homework with them for an hour, which usually forces me to go into teacher mode to make them all sit and concentrate. Their level of education is pretty bad considering the ones I tutor are in Yr 7 and they ask me questions like "what's 6 x 2?". I've been trying to give them extra work to help them catch up because a lot of the time their teachers aren't giving them homework (or the teachers simply aren't turning up to class). Surprisingly they like maths a lot better than English.
Finally it's playtime then clean up at 5pm. By this time I am usually exhausted because I have the rowdiest class. I don't know how teachers do it everyday.
The girl on the left, Princess, makes me play pick up sticks with her every day. I hate that game now. She always wins...until yesterday!


This is the dining situation. That's my team leader, CarrieAnne in the red cardigan.

This is cricket in the garage. It's extremely scary if you're fielding up close. I have bruises on my legs from it.

This is that evil foursquare game. Did I mention it was played with a basketball?

Although at first I really missed the open fields, skies and plain living of Zimbabwe, I'm finally adjusting to life here and not feeling so cooped up. Since this is Johannesburg we can't be outside after 6pm at night so the only time I get to be under the blue sky is if I sneak away to do planning on a weds or on 5 min walks at lunchtime. It was driving me crazy at first but I realised a lot of their regular staff are away so they do really need our team here so I had better stop 'kicking against the goads' and just come to accept it was in God's plan.

We have fled Zimbabwe!

So after being robbed on Monday, during which our car keys were stolen and I was stabbed at while trying to get them back, we were forced to leave the country due to police pressure. The police began accusing us of 'working with the opposition' and since the elections are in January, political opposition in Zimbabwe has been beaten up, imprisoned or simply 'disappeared'. Tehy were also taking in people for interrogation. So it was time for us to leave.
Still God protected us during this time, and gave us an incredibly smooth flight as we ran for it, leaving quite a bit of our stuff behind. I just pray he protects the people we left behind. But we are safe in Johannesburg, South Africa, oxymoron though that sounds.

In Botswana

It's red dust and random animals everywhere. We've just run an exhausting conference, and had our day of rest yesterday round a campfire with smores.
People here are lovely, although I'm still undure how much some of them understand, but I think a lot of the time it's more than less.

Khutala's lunch and pics from the roof

this is the township from our roof at night.


The girls on the roof from left to right - Jenny, Kate, Sara & Lindsey. All but Lindsey are my roommates and all but Kate are American. I'll miss my room, we have great talks at night and none of them are on my outreach team.


This is Ren playing worship mustic on the roof. Jenny likes to pretend she's a Tsotsi (gangster) in the background. Actually I found a good word for her- Scoli (baby gangster).

So today we went to Khutala's house to have lunch with her family. Khutala is one of the Beautiful Gate staff and also my leader in the youth group. We had chicken, beef, potato salad, tuna pasta and bean salad. I was ridiculously full then we ate jelly and watched a Jet Li film that was incredibly gory. Then we chatted some more while watching the cricket and eating ice-cream...what hospitality!!! We stayed till 6 when then her Dad and another guy who was semi-drunk drove us home. This is Africa.

In two weeks we leave for our outreaches. For security's sake I can't write plainly and have removed all mention of where we are going from this site. We are learning to sing in the local language, do dramas, we preach on roles in the family, reconciliation and will teach on abuse, HIV/AIDS and suffering.

Last night we had a stations of the cross chalk chase which was actually quite moving for me. You started having your feet washed, then eating communion together then we went out one by one in silence. First you went into the field to listen to some music (Gethsemane). Then in through a obstacle course of accusations, then to a crown of thorns, whip and red cloth. Then they had to carry a cross from one point to another, which was actually really heavy and awkward. Then into the chapel where Lindsey had painted a picture and there was also a set-up of a cross, dice, cloth e.t.c Finally into a dark tent we made with curtains and mattresses (tomb). Finally we drew pictures. After all this we stayed up late eating peanut choc fudge and watching Hitch.

Clowning around

So today we had a giant kids party for the children of the clinic in the township as well as Beautiful Gate, and surprise, surprise, I was a clown. Well, a pirate clown.

There was a jumping castle which I did get to go on, a waterslide, which sadly I didn't make it on, face-painting, beading e.t.c Although my juggling and magic tricks didn't last for long (because I don't know that many), between Jenny and I we did end up making about 200 balloon animals, mostly dogs or hats and swords. I ended up holding Concilea, who is about 1.5 years old and she would cry if I put her down, so Jenny, my entertainment assistant, ended up doing a crash course in dogs, birds, hats and monkeys. Most interesting balloon request - a ninja!

Peter Hammond + Frontline Missions

Today we had Peter Hammond from 'Frontline Missions' come to speak to us. This is a mission agency he began that goes into warzones to evangelise to the soldiers and brings relief aid in. He was there in Monzabique during the communist reign, in Rwanda during the genocide, Angola during the war and now has been working among the persecuted Christians of Sudan for the last 15 years. There are a Christian tribe, the Nubians, who have been living in the mountains and holding out against the Arabs and Muslims for 14 centuries. Sudanese Christians are quite regularly bombed, landmined (most churchgoers on crutches) and killed by the majority muslims as well as starved of medicine, food and the bible by the UN occasionally.
Interestingly, because of the war on Iraq, Sudan has declared peace because it's afraid that it will be next targets by the US.
Anyway, a great answer to prayer is that his agency also happens to have a lot of resources in the native languages of Botswana and Zimbabwe like the Jesus film and discipleship books e.t.c so we go on Monday to pick them up and have lunch with his organisation.
While listening to him speak, I realised that I will probably work with unreached people groups and the persecuted church. There's so many people wanting to hear the gospel, they just need Christians willing to risk themselves to take it to them.

Evangelism through the arts

Oh this week looks like physical torture. Today Matt opened his big mouth and somehow volunteered me to be a solo dancer in one of the dances we are learning this week. I have to 'do my thing' for a 2 counts of 8, which doesn't sound like much but is torture by humiliation basically. Then we went ice-skating as part of our Zimbabwe team bonding and I pulled a muscle while trying to rescue everyone else in 'freeze-tag'.
Last week a group of us wrote a song because our study was 'Worship'.

Building Completed!

So on Saturday we rocked up bright and early to rebuild Mama Zola's roof. Soon neighbours of hers arrived and we pulled off the plastic sheet that had been waterproofing her roof and started ripping up the current rusted corrugated iron. There were about 10 people on the roof, which I would have said couldn't support even a child on it!

Then we sat around in true African style and discussed for over an hour about where the new timber should go! We had only collected enough money to buy timber to replace one half of the building so we had to make do with re-inforcing the other side with scraps.

That's Lindsey playing with the kids. the neighbourhood turned out to watch.

Amazingly the roof was nearly done by midday, so we had lunch all together in one of her neighbours house.

This is Kari on the roof siliconing it. She cut her thumb and bled all over it soon later.

This is everyone who worked on it, except for Andrea and Chiye who went home early. Mama Zola is in the middle and she is ecstatic.

Mama Zola's Roof

This Saturday, we are going to rebuild Mama Zola's roof. Mama Zola is a warm and lovely African lady of about mid 40's who cooks here at Beautiful Gate. She has been living in her house for 5 years while waiting for the government to reassign her to the promised government housing - which is nothing, some families have been waiting 20 years! She has a son of about 18 and also lives with her cousing and till recently, her sister.
Anyway, she was mentioning that she wasn't looking forward to winter because her roof leaked so she was wet and cold throughout it. So Beth thought that we should have a look at it.
We walked through the township, Darby, Beth, Chiye, Jenny and I till we came to her house. The total size of it is 7 x 6 metres, which is actually fairly large for a township house. No wonder the roof leaked though, it was made from the left over peices of corrugated iron that they use on construction sites here. Green soap had been used to try and stop the leaking and a plastic tarpaulin over the whole roof, but the tarp also had holes.
So we drew up some plans, measured carefully (after the original African measurement that Chiye did using his feet!) and asked for donations. People have nearly enough to recover the whole roof in zinc, whichI worked out last night it should cost about $1800 rand (approx $300 Australian). So this saturday we bring ladders and hammers and hopefully can redo it in a day.
Some of Mama Zola's friends are also coming to help apparently. Hopefully it all goes well, because I've never built a roof before and I'm the one who worked out the construction plans.

Picnics and Storms

In case I didn't mention it before, this week we're being taught by Padraig Twomey, a reconciliation worker between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast, Ireland. Today we had a pretty cool mini-sermon from him.
In John 6, It's passover time, a time to share meals traditionally, and Jesus just happens to share one with 5000 people. When the other disciples don't know what to do, it's Andrew, the litle brother who notices the small details, who mentions 2 fish and 5 barley loaves - traditionally the harvest offering to God, also the poor man's bread. It mentions that the crowd is on the green grass - unusual for Israel, especially around that time of the year. It's like Eden again - God is walking around feeding men and all around is green and lush.
But then Jesus leaves and straight after this picnic experience, it's storms and darkness for the siciples as they try to cross the lake in their small boat.
It's like the Christian life - great picnic experiences where everything is lush and life is great, church is great e.t.c. But you have to leave sometime and go through the darkness where you may not see your way and there's nothing solid beneath you and you may feel the absence of God. Yet Jesus is on the shore and he sees them (without judgement or annoyance because they left him behind). He walks out to them on the water, which is like arecreation of Genesis 1 where the Spirit of God hovered over the waters and chaos, now the Son of God walks over the waters.
When he reaches the boat, it says that they made to let him in, and found they were already at their destination. Like on our journeys when we think we're aiming for somewhere, even if it's a good goal like being a missionary, when we encounter Jesus, we're already at our real destination.
If we carry our crosses in life we meet Jesus more than at the picnic, he will walk out to us.

Zimbabwe + Botswana comedy team!

Yes, yesterday the teams were announced for outreach and I am going to Botswana then Zimbabwe for about 2.5 months. True, it's not all comedy, but the motto of this outreach is "Bringing laughter and those who are flexible will not be broken." The places we are going to have very little to laugh about, and not surprisingly, my team has quite a few of the natural comedians on this DTS. Also for almost all the time we will have no beds, running or drinkable tap water, electricity or contact with the outside world. The outreach is based in villages and we go by Combi.
We leave on April 21st for Botswana. There we are linking up with a local pastor and running a 4 day conference. He also wants us to do some teaching about AIDS/HIV. Apparently the church is mostly of girls, because many house-holds there have no parents due to aids e.t.c and are run by older kids taking care of younger ones.
Then we go to Bulawayo Zimbabwe. There we join a orphan/foster care program that has about 100 kids. We will visit their houses, run bible studies for families, teach the kids, play sports with them, visit schools and hospitals and feed them if we can - Zimbabwe currently has no petrol and food is scarce. The govt. doesn't allow people to give away food either because they think it makes them look bad or that the food comes with an agenda behind it.
The last three weeks the team is still praying and working out where to go from there on.
And I have to dance and do dramas! Yuk! Apparently, it's the best way to reach this culture. We begin getting out camping gear, medicine and putting our dance routines together soon. At least, if I have to dance in public it will guarantee laughs.

HIV

We had classes with Dr Vaughn Stannard, the Director of Beautiful Gate and a pediatrician to learn about HIV & AIDS.
Firstly, HIV is the virus and AIDS is simply the last stage of that virus where the person begin the inevitable decline into death. The HIV virus attacks the white blood cells, specifically the CD4 cell, which means that a person with it catches and doesn't recover from diseases and infections that a healthy person would easily be able to fight off.
The kids here are on Anti-Retro virals, which are medicines to slow down the progress of the HIV virus, so they have the possibility of living into their 20's and even more maybe.
What surprised me this week was learning about the discrimination that surrounds HIV. Here it's very stigmatised, so husbands will beat their wives when they find out they have HIV, even though it's usually the husband that gave it to them through infidelity! And parents will abandon their babies, even though it's the parents carrying the virus...the less education a person has, the greater the fear and myths they believe usually. We watched a movie called Yesterday, about how one African woman deals with learning she has it.

Game Park + Table Mountain Photos!

A couple of my best animal photos from the game park drive at Worchester. I hung on the back of the ute with one hand, standing and clicking away with the other.

So this was probably the best photo I got, this giraffe was only about 30 metres from the ute. It just popped up around a corner.

Late in the day on the way back this herd of Zebras heard us coming.

Then on last Sunday we climbed Table Mountain. I am really unfit. 100 metres into it I was ready to turn back.

This is Kari near the bottom looking at our goal - Platteklip Gorge. The top was covered in cloud - the 'tablecloth'. We prob should have realised that if the cable car wasn't going due to high winds, it wouldn't be great weather near the top.

This is the view half way up. It's Capetown waterfront and main city. Pretty spectacular.

Near the top, it starts to look a lot like Mordor from Lord of the rings. The mist boils over down into the Gorge. This is Jenny looking dark and scary. She's also my room-mate.
We could not complete the climb because the winds were knocking me off my feet near the top, and the fog was blinding (and freezing!). It just got too dangerous. However, on the way back, we got a lift back to our van in a BMW driven by a German who manufactures plastic car parts. Loved the faces of the other team members we passed...great day.

Week in Worchester

On Friday we finally came back from Worchester, and it was good to be 'home'. We went there to combine with other DTS's so that the national director of YWAM could teach us all about the Holy Spirit.
It was quite an intense week, and since YWAM is non-denominational a lot of people had to think through the teaching vs what they had previously been taught. I myself am still processing, but I agree with most of it, and have been researching what I don't agree with. Luckily it's not mandatory that we have to agree with it.
We did have one great surprise though - they had organised a day where we drove through a game park and then walked and swam in a dam! I saw rhinos, giraffes, lions, elephants and something called a Dazig that looks like a beaver/possum. I was riding on the back of a ute,s o I got some good photos I think. Will try load them later.
Also I have a cold now and am pretty busy because assignments are starting to be due + I have to do that chapel talk on Friday. It's only 5 minutes, but speaking isn't my strong point.

Kid's Program

I just wanted to tell a cute story of what happened a few days ago when my group had to run the Beautiful Gate Kid's Program. This is just a half hour that's a little bit like vacation bible school for the Americans, and like Beach Mission to the Australians. So there's about 7 of us and we had the half and hour planned...or so we thought.
It was in the chapel, which is a hall with echooey acoustics, so when the kids ran in there screaming and shouting it was mind-numbingly loud.
When we finally got them semi-quiet we sang Father Abraham, shaking our legs and arms, then 'we are marching in the light of God' and 'I'm in the Lord's army', all cute action songs. Then we acted out the story of Joshua nad the Israelites and jericho, with some of the kids being the wall, while a lot of them marched around it 7 times singing. Then we shouted and the 'wall' came tumbling down.
And then there was still 10 minutes to go!
So we sang 'this little light of mine'. And then we were really out of ideas. So the team turned to me to wrap it all up.
"So...Joshua prayed and God heard him...um..have any one of you prayed to God?"
One by one a lot of the little hands went up.
"Okay...do you come out the front and share?"
The kids were like "pick me" "me" "me". They came up and the first boy said something like "I pray to be friends with Jesus."
These are some of the other prayers we got.
"I thank God for the mamas and the people who take so good care of us" The mamas were sitting up the back and they were talking and cheering the whole way through.
"I want to be best friends with Jesus"- This one was quite popular
A 8 yr old girl who is deaf and can't really talk came up and I was thinking 'what in the world are we going to do?' but she just made these noises, then smiled and pointed to heaven and everyone cheered anyway.
And the cutest one was a 3 year old who came up and said "I want to be Jesus baby."

Overcoming Racism...

Actually Grace is mainly teaching us about other stuff, but I find her little snippets of life story interesting.
There was the time when she was a little further into YWAM and one of the other girls, a blonde causcasian, came up to her and said "Grace, I've found a photo of you!" Grace followed her into her bedroom and she pulled out a photo of a white woman with a little brown monkey on her shoulder and said "Look it's me and you!" and then laughed, along with everyone else in that room.
Grace was supposed to play music for the praise evening in a few minutes, but she definitely didn't feel like it after that. She was so hurt she went to talk to another African and prayed about it. The Grace felt God telling her to wash this woman's feet, so she did in front of everyone at the service that evening!
Of all things, if someone had just insulted me for being Chinese, the last thing I would want to do is touch them, much less do an act of service for them. I guess she lives up to her name.

The Beautiful Gate Kids

Finally, a photo of them! These kids are all HIV positive, but also bright and full of life. Today one of the girls who I thought was too traumatised to talk started chatting away to me and pulling on my pants to make me pick her up so maybe she was just shy. Also, their play area is now grassed.

First Lecture

Well, orientations truly over and lectures have begun. It's hard to adjust to sitting for so long in the little chairs with the table armrests.
Today's speaker was Grace Goeda. We all drew and then shared what brought us to Ywam (I drew an ear and zzz), our happiest family moment (I drew an ice-hockey club, it's not the happiest but it's one of the most recent), our challenges (I drew a phone cause it's one of the few ways I can contact Australia) and our dreams (I drew a fork and spoon, not because my dream is eating, but because of that verse 1 timothy 2:20-21 talking about utensils for God's use).
then she spoke a bit about YWAM values and her own background, which I found the most interesting.
She had come to YWAM during apartheid. She had to catch a lift on a fruit truck to get there, and then she found she was in a DTS with white people. She believed so much in her racial inferiority that she slept on the floor in the room she shared with white girls, so that she would be lower than them, and only took showers after they had. It's hard to believe this is possible when it says in the bible that all mankind is made in the image of God. Anyway, thankfully over time she let go of those racist beliefs.
Apartheid has definitely left scars on this country.
And I also found out today that the Minister for Health has been on record saying that eating a certain combination of onions, herbs and garlick would cure AIDS. And the governments ad campaign to educate people on aids just promotes condoms, which my doc said aren't completely effective anyway! ridiculous! No wonder there's an epidemic still!

Crossroads

It's hard taking a photo because if you show you're carrying a camera you'll be mugged so I had to take this shot from a moving car, but this is the township of Crossroads. Families have been waiting 20 years here to get a government assigned house. People are living in the kind of storage containers we use on construction sites, and in corrugated iron shacks and weatherboard houses if you're better off. Most houses have barbed fencing.
This morning I walked through it for the first time to go to a local church. Two guys came up to us to try and get hugs - they were already drunk and it was only 10am in the morning. We aren't allowed to walk through it on our own, but a Tata (father) of one of the cottages walked us there so we were safe.
Lower Crossroads Baptist church was mostly in Xhosa. It was in a new little wooden building that doubles as a preschool. People broke out into random song and it was hugs all round at the beginning and again the end. Africans are very huggy.
We walked back and I chatted to another Tata about the kids he takes care of. It turns out that many of them come from the hospital, where they have been abandoned by their families when they find out that their son or daughter is sick from AIDS. HIV has a huge stigma here so Africans don't tell each other that they have it, and if you do tell, you will be outcast by your family. So even though these parents know that they too have aids, they will abondon the children rather than let the rest of the family know that the child has aids from them. Sadly, some of the kids are now old enough to ask where their parents are and to understand that they have been rejected. Out of 43 kids, 20 still have living parents, but only 6 visit regularly.
Class begins properly on Monday. Even as I type the first speaker has arrived on base - they have arranged for different teachers to come each week to speak on their speciality.
This week is on hearing the voice of God. We have had some class time already but it was mostly orientation and prayer/goal-setting. I have also been assigned to work with the youth group here, which meets on fridays and has about 35 local kids.

Here's a pic of some other members of the team


Matt (Aust) and Cam (USA)

Picnic!

Yesterday we had our picnic - a trip to Simon's Town, a protected beach are famous for penguins!

I also went swimming but not very far out for fear of sharks. I know there are sharks at Sydney beaches too, but for some reason it's not so scary - maybe because I don't hear the shark siren that often.
Today I learn how to catch public transport. There's only one train line I can use cause the others are too dangerous (and the station that's just opposite Beautiful Gate is too dangerous!). Taxis here are actually mini-buses. And we have to go in 3's.

Kate (UK) and Kari (US) , Tsitske (Holland?) in the background

Hair braiding and what not...

Today we began sharing our testimonies in class. I think mine was more on the humourous side, especially when I said that just before I left, someone had called and said that they couldn't believe I was becoming a missionary - and I remembered that I had been banned from visiting their house because I had beat up their kid when I was in Yr 6!
Anyway, a definite theme through the many diverse people's lives has been the power of God transforming. There's another aussie here called Matt, and I couldn't believe it when he said he's been sick (mitochondria problem - sound like star wars) and had low self esteem right up through to yr 12, cause he's the most hyperactive and confident boy.
Then it was lot and lots of having my hair braided and teased with the kids. It's a little weird going to visit them because they live in cottages with 'mama's' - carers that rotate through the week, and you have to greet the mama first. Some are friendly, some are a little harder to decipher. Apparently if you don't greet them they become very offended.
hope I'm doing okay on the greetings then.
I'm on classroom, courtyard and rec room cleaning. Can't drive here cause I don't know how to drive a manual which is annoying. Now I will be driven around by Americans who aim for the wrong side of the road.
We can't take photos of the kids for child protection reasons but I will try to get an official photo to put up.

Not the usual Sunday morning...

At home I would probably have slept in till now...
Instead, today our ride to church broke down so we had a little service on base with a few songs on the guitar and I ended up giving the message - nearly a 3 point sermon on the temptation of Jesus!
Then we played with the little kids after their service. There's been a lot of holding little african babies and soccer lately (last night my team got whooped, the world cup rematch is prob on monday). this morning a little boy asked to shake my hand, then when I did I felt a little prick of pain. He was holiding a scapel blade in his palm. The little boys thought it was a good joke - they can be brats just like kids anywhere. Luckily only the top layer of skin was broken and so I should be alright. It was just a bit of a scare, although I guess everyone here lives with the possiblity that they could contract aids, especially the 'mommas' in the cottages who live with the kids, they all just count it part of the cost of enriching these kids lives.
As it turns out, they use the scalpels to sharpen their pencils, so I am thinking I'll try buy them all pencil sharpeners.
The welcome BBQ or 'braai' - half a drum of hot coals - is about to begin. This is the official start to the school.

relax

Hi one and all, I got a new sim card today. We went to the mall where I unsuccessfully tried to buy an adaptor and sunnies.However, we did get to play with all the little kiddies this arvo after dinner. Apparently a guy named Cam on the team looks like a wrestler called John Singer, so he got tackled the entire time by little boys doing rather provocative wwf wrestling moves. I ended up carrying a lot of little ones, then starting a soccer game and then ended up with a little monkey boy on my head.All that youth leading is coming in useful.

Here's a pic of us relaxing afterwards playing this game called Quim which is basically like go fish with special codes to alert your partner who has to call out if you have 4 pair. My esp wasn't really working tonight and Cam was my partner but it was funny.

G'morning

The posts are coming thick and fast cause right now there's not a lot to do before school starts. Thanks to everyone who's already written me an email, it's so nice to to feel totally disconnected. I haven't been able to use the phone yet, can't seem to connect to australia.
Today I feel much better after having slept most of yesterday and until 4am today. More people are arriving on base. I'm having a lot of fun playing texas hold-em with crayons and just chilling out. I need to learn to drive a manual here - the only other driver for this side of the road is Matt, an Aussie still on his P's, though he's driving anyway.
We have some required reading, one of them is a book called 'foreign to familiar'. It's basically about culture clashes. It generalises and divides the world up into 'cold' climate culture- people who are task-oriented, individual rights focused and privacy respecting (US, Aust, North Europe), and 'hot' climate cultures - relationship focused, group focused and without need for 'personal space' (Asia, Indigenous cultures, Africa). It'll be interesting if this book is right, since nearly everyone on team is 'cold' cultured while South Africa is 'hot' although there is a lot of western influence here.

First day on base

So I arrived after about 24 hours of travel to see Beth and Carrie (team leaders) calling out my name at the airport.
Crossroads turns out to be near the airport. It is a shanty-town, but the Beautiful Gate base is absolutely amazing. It's a new compound - only 2 years old, so running water, electricity, nice bunk beds e.t.c. I'm not really slumming it at all.
Had a lunch of mash potato, peas, carrots and meat, so I haven't exactly had to acclimatise to the local food yet. Weather is like Sydney - hot and a little humid.
Just walked around the base. There are 43 children here. They have a pre-school, a medical centre where there are tubs of each child's medication - the kids eat up to 20 pills a day and that's normal for them. The children stay in cottages that have bunks and a couch area. They're at school at the moment, but the set up looks like they are really well taken care of. The last child who died here was in 2002, in 2004 some sort of HIV medication became available and since then they've been getting better and better.
I'm a bit out of it at the moment, walking around just mumbling and trying not to sleep. hopefully tomorrow my brain returns.

Stopover in Singapore

Ahh, the free internet here is great!
After running a little late due to having a broken bag and needing to repack when I should have been going to the airport, and also having a few kilos over the bag limit, I caught the flight in time and have landed here with a 4 hour stopover.
Luckily Singapore also has free local phone calls so I have will have a good chat to Hock at midnight when he gets home from band practice.
Now I'm getting excited about going. I was sitting in the plane thinking 'this is surreal'.

Just about to go away...

Hi guys and girls, it's been a very hectic January.
I actually haven't really had time to pack properly or think about going yet, and I leave today. I have one massive suitcase with most of my things stuffed in, and luckily mum bought me three pairs of jeans while she was in Thailand (I picked her up yesterday morning) so now I have more than 1 pair of pants without holes.
I guess being so busy has meant I really haven't had time to worry either. A couple of days ago I got my yellow fever injections, but couldn't get the rabies or typhoid with that so I'll have to get it in South Africa. I've been loading photos of friends onto my ipod to combat the homesickness (so if you want to send me a photo of you please do) and some of the guys gave me a journal filled with pages that they had decorated and photos, so I read that a couple of nights ago and cried a little. I know there's going to be a lot of changes while I'm away...
Instead of preparing, I've been away on our youth group camp at Wee Jasper (population 65). It's drought affected country and we were in the 'Tin Huts' - no running water, no electricity.
We had some brilliant moments so here's some pics of that camp.

Andy pulling Jingy through a hole...or is it proposing?

Our fearless leader (so cute!)

The boys at work

Tiff and Phillip (the croc)

Next posting...either from the free internet at Singapore during my stopover or from South Africa!