What’s on the horizon?

For the next couple of months we are going to spend 2 days a week with everyone that works at Living Hope. We plan to learn what each person or group does and how volunteers can be utilized in their departments. We want everyone that comes to have a great experience and to do what God intended for them to do based on their gifts. We began today in Muizenberg with the life skill educators. They have a set curriculum for teaching during the school year and then they have to come up with activities for after school kids clubs. The kids are out for 3 weeks break and they are putting together 2 weeks worth of “holiday clubs for kids”. They have to come up with Bible stories, skits, crafts and a snack each day for the next 2 weeks. Mon-Fri. We then interviewed them and asked them how could we help them to be more effective with volunteers and they gave us some great ideas. All in all our first day was a success. Starting next Friday we are going to teach all the life skill educators a skit each week that we learned in Fiji so they can use these for their ministry. We are very excited about all God has in store for us. As for Living Way we are just as excited about all that is going on there. We will launch our 2nd savings club in 2 weeks and have our 1st entrepreneurial class beginning on the 21st of April. Please pray for us to be effective in our ministry and to give God the Glory.

The Containers have arrived

For those of you who have been to Cape Town on a short/long term trip, the containers finally arrived 2 weeks ago. For those who don’t know, Living Hope has been waiting on 4 containers to be used for their kids clubs and other community activities in Capricorn township since September 07. These containers are metal buildings that look like the back section of an 18 wheeler truck with doors on the side. They set them on the ground and within 48 hrs they had already been broken into and vandalized. This is nothing unusual and we can’t allow fear to get in the way of what God has in store for these containers. We must look to figuring out ways to keep the bad guys out. They had a wire fence around the area but that wouldn’t keep anyone out so now they are looking at other alternatives. Everything costs money and fencing and security are expenses they don’t have right now. Please pray for provision and for protection until they get something figured out.
Also for those of you who have visited Living Hope Muizenberg homeless ministry, they are renaming it Living Grace starting April 1st. They will have crafts again and activities for the homeless people to come in and share their stories. They will continue the morning/lunch devotion and meals. They will also continue to provide a shower and place for them to wash their clothes. If anyone is looking for an opportunity in their life to serve and their passion is homeless people this would be a great ministry to get involved in.

Easter Sunday

Sunday morning sunrise was dynamic in remembering the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We attended a sunrise service at the beach and 2 baptisms took place just as the sun came up over the mountains. Words cannot describe nor does this picture do it justice but it was an incredible reminder of what Christ did on the cross for our sins.
We then attended the 9:00 service at King of Kings and enjoyed the rest of the day with a drive around the tip end of South Africa.

The Week before Easter

First off, it has been a great week beginning with Palm Sunday. We visited/worked at Ocean View Baptist Church. This is one of the 5 communities that we are heavily involved with. We spoke about Living Hope/Living Way and asked for local volunteers to come and offer up their services from hair and nails for the patients, to entrepreneurial help for start up businesses for Living Way. While we were waiting for the service to get started we had a good idea the roof was about to be raised. They had very large speakers, a drum set without anything around it, a base guitar and 3 microphones for vocals. It was an awesome service and we both thank God for our experience in Fiji to allow us to have an open mind for the way others worship the Lord on any given Sunday!

On Monday, we began a 4 day entrepreneurial training program. We learned strategies that we have not thought about before and learned that starting out with a very small amount of Rand (South African money) is possible for a business. We are going to have our first training class at the end of April and begin with 6 students, 2 from the sewing class that was starting at Living Hope. This is an exciting time for us as we are digging in with volunteers, getting ready to launch our 2nd savings club in Red Hill, and having our 1st entrepreneurial class beginning on April 21st. I am still excited about incorporating Biblical Financial Principal’s but am waiting on the Lord for His guidance.

Good Friday was dedicated in the morning to going to church and reflecting on what Jesus did on the Cross for our sins. For our Brentwood family it was like Maundy Thursday. It was a great time of reflection and communion. The most amazing thing was that they had 2 different holidays this weekend. It was Good Friday and Human Right’s day. Everyone was off today and will be off on Monday. Since we couldn’t find anything open, we headed down to the beach to watch bodysurfing. The water was about 45 degrees and we couldn’t believe these guys were in the water surfing. We left and headed home for the evening. Stay tuned and I will update the rest of the weekend early next week.

Saturday morning we met United States Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee and Congress woman Diane Watson from California. They came to visit the healthcare facility and to tour around the Cape Town areas to see the impoverished townships. As soon as he met us he immediately said, “Will you all be staying for the tour I want to be sure and have my picture made with you.” I thought that to be really funny because I brought my camera in hopes that he would be willing to have his picture made with us. So they are going to e-mail those pictures to us. I will add them to the blog when they come in.

Lastly, we want to wish you all a Happy Easter! May we reflect on what Jesus did on the Cross for our sins? We need to give thanks and remember that the bread was broken as a representation of the body of Christ and the cup represents the new covenant in His blood, poured out for us.

Invasion of Privacy

Today, we went home for lunch to find that our upstairs neighbors had been broken into.
The intruders took just a few items, plasma tv, computer and jewelry. The police were there when we arrived and were just leaving. The older couple had only been gone for a couple of hours. Up until 2 days ago there was another couple across the hall but now they have left for a few months. We had been told that because we were off the beaten path and high up on the hill we weren’t in the everyday path of the people who make a life of crime but this has awakened our senses a lot. We had also been told that there had not been a break in for 32 years. Just 2 days ago in the evening before going to bed, we stuck our heads out the sunroom windows and asked the Lord for protection that we would not be invaded while living there. We have been blessed with a great flat and view. Well we have learned that we are always at risk and don’t need to let our guard down. Yesterday we had a new security gate installed because the one we had was bent and I couldn’t close and lock it only mike could. While I was waiting for the installers to come, I left it unlocked so I would hear them while out back hanging out the laundry. The installer actually said to me,"why don't you have this door locked". Had that been today it would have been the burglars instead of the installers because they came during that same time frame. First of all this tells us that someone was watching the place and the other thing is it had to be someone that had been in there flat previously. They knew what they were after. So with all that said, please pray for our safety and protection.

Cape Argus Cyclist Race

Sunday was such a neat day. It was hot but there is always a breeze. Cape Town has an annual cyclist(bicycles) race and there were 38,000 entries. They close all the main streets around the area and it was difficult to get to church so we thought we would make a morning of it. We got up at 5:45am and got ready and went down to Fish Hoek with our chairs and waters and waited for the leaders to come through. We learned that the race started at 6:15 and the leaders would come through about 7:00 am. This was a 109 kilometer race( 67.7 miles) At a few minutes to 7 they started appearing in the distance. I was fascinated how these folks all came together in a pack, where they could literally reach out and touch the other person. If you have ever been at a NASCAR race and all the cars are going along at 200 miles an hour and don’t wreck, you would appreciate the rush that these guys left us with. After the first group went by it was a few more minutes and then another huge group went by this went on for hours. One of the pastors from King of Kings Church, that we attend, was in it. We wanted to see him go by but with so many bikers we didn’t think we stood a chance. The only thing we knew is that he left at 8:40. We then calculated how long it took the first one’s to come through and then based on that we calculated what his time might be. With all that said and done, we spotted him gave him words of encouragement and he waved to us. (This reminded me of those silly math questions in school that we had to figure out. I’m sure you all remember if A left at 6 and B left at 8 then what time would A arrive if C happened J something like that). There were some guys who set up some really big speakers and they were playing 80’s music to get the bikers pumped up when they went by. We heard someone way down the road playing the music first thing in the morning and I said, “I sure am glad that music is way down there”, and then another bunch came up at our end and cranked it up. Turns out it was a lot of fun. This lasted until 11:00 for us but the race didn’t finish until about 5:00 pm. We found out that the winner finished the race in 2 hours and 27 minutes just about the
time Guy, the pastor from church, was starting the race. We then went home had some lunch and enjoyed going to the beach.
About the beach this is another story in itself. The water here is cold and we debated about going in but we figured once we were numb we wouldn’t feel anything. After we had played in the waves, we laid out our Sulu’s (from Fiji) and our towels and decided to lay back and close our eyes. We know we weren’t there very long before the tide came in on us and soaked everything we had. We
moved faster than you can believe grabbed up our belongings and sat on the bank and held everything up for drying out. The winds blew and it looked like we were flying flags. I know, I know you really feel sorry for us and to top it off we got sunburned.

My How Time Flies

It is so amazing how fast time goes by. I realized it has been a week since I blogged. Sorry! The team from Rolling Hills left late Wednesday night and we said our goodbyes. We don’t have another team scheduled until May so that gives us some time now to really write up our job descriptions and learn the ropes of Living Hope. It was great to get thrown into the fire to see how we can be more effective for the next group. We had a great time with them. They did a retreat for all of the Prevention team (support group leaders, lay counselors, and life skill educators.) They also took all of the home base care givers to the Aquarium. They intended on Table Mountain but it was too windy that day.

There were a couple of people on the team that went over to Red Hill where all the houses burned in site 3 and we were able to go over and see the shack (house) they built for one of the ladies who didn’t have anyone to help her build back. We also attended one of the afternoon programs, Kid’s Club, where they give the kids a snack do some sort of a craft and a Bible study each day. For some this snack may be the only meal or best meal they get. We also went over to the area where one of the staff at living hope was blessed to not have the fire come to her home. It really was amazing to see how close it came without doing any damage.

Mike and I really wanted to stay the rest of the day and work on building houses for the people and to be able to show them the hands of Jesus but we had to get back. There is a group there now (global challenge) that will be there for a couple of months and trying to do a long term plan. The 2nd day after the fire the people were told they had to go back to the land that the shelter couldn’t take care of them anymore and they had no hope as they got back to the area. There is a man who lives here now that was with YWAM from almost the beginning, his name is Floyd McClung, Mike and I met him last year and recognized he was really making a difference in some of the townships and had only been here a year. He is not with them now but with an organization called All Nations. He had been praying for a way to get into this township and this was the door that God opened. By the end of the first week, he had a team of people helping to bring hope and healing back into this community and now they are working together to rebuild Red Hill. Please pray for us as we really want to go help in this community as well but not sure this is where God wants us to be. There is just so much to do everywhere.

On a lighter note, Mike and I had our first haircuts here. Mike didn’t have any anxiety issues, but I on the other hand did. The ladies will understand this more than the men. I had been going to the same hairdresser for 18 yrs and I didn’t have to tell her anything when I went to her she knew what I wanted and just did it. We were riding down the road and I was talking to Mike about it and he said, “Well you better know what you want because you have to tell her.” I hadn’t really thought about it so I decided on just a trim until I could see how she was going to do. She did great with the trim and next week I am going to be brave enough to go for some “highlights.” Also known as “Covering up the gray hairs.”
This is all for now and I will hopefully do better. We still don’t have internet at home so this makes it more difficult to have to go to internet cafes. Please pray that we will get our connections soon!!!!!
We love you all and pray for you daily!!!