Don't forget to turn the lights off!

So we got into Cape Town Thursday so it's been a while since we've been able to update, but here we go!

First of all, Cape Town is Amazing! With a capital A! It's so beautiful here, the people are friendly, the mountains and ocean is incredible, and God is being represented through many many people here. It's definitely a sight to see.

We're staying with a missionary couple, Casey and Sarah Prince, who are from Raleigh, NC. Alison knows them from her church, Grace Community, so thats how we got connected with them. Basically, they're pretty cool. Awesome folks. Awesome story. Awesome ministry. Sarah has her Masters in Divinity from Duke, so she preaches in some of the churches often. Casey is a pretty legit soccer player, and has opened up a sports ministry called Ubuntu Sports Ministries. The reason why we are here is to help them both out with their ministries that they are doing. 

Ubuntu Sports Ministry is so cool. Basically, Casey moved here, rounded up a bunch of kids, got a series of teams together to add to a soccer league here, coaches them, trains them, leads bible studies with them, shares God's Word with them, and encourages them. It's so great to see what he's doing. Alison and I have gotten a chance to attend some of the soccer games so far. The kids are GOOD! They all work as a team and kick butt every time they're on the field. 

The reason for starting this ministry with the kids is to give them hope and lead them on a path towards God. Ocean View is great. Cape Town is great. But like any other city, there's a lot of drugs that go on and a lot of poverty that is in the area. Many parents are addicted to drugs, and dont raise their kids in a positive direction while they're young, giving them too much freedom and no positive role models while they're kids. As a result, a lot of people get addicted to drugs, remain in poverty or end up in jail. Casey decided to do something about that, and almost two years ago decided to move to Cape Town to starts a ministry through sports. It's great, because he takes young kids who are 13 or younger, puts them on a team in a league, leads bible studies before practices with them, teaches them soccer, leadership skills and life lessons, which as a result keeps these kids out of trouble and off the streets. I've been able to meet a lot of the kids so far and I can't wait for the coming month so establish relationships with these kids. One of the coaches and I had a really great conversation in the car yesterday about Jesus and what it means to us to live for Him, and a couple of the kids in the car were very interested and got to hear what we had to say. I'm so thankful for that opportunity.

I was talking to some of the kids about school the other day. They grow up speaking Afrikaans with everyone in the community, but the kids speak English in the schools. Some kids also speak another language to each other, but I forget the name of it. So one of the kids, who was 12 years old I might add, says to me..."we're forced to know and speak fluently 3 languages in our school systems. How many languages do you know?" My reply: "one. English". Dang it America. You let me down.

I've gotten to drive a lot while i'm here. It's so much fun. But scary. Every car is manual. No Automatics. Driver is on the right side of the car, not left. And traffic drives on the left hand side of the road, not right. Within the first 24 hours I was here, Casey gets me a car and says "ok, good luck. have fun driving". Then drives home....Driving has been interesting to say the least. Lesson #2 in Africa: Don't leave your lights on. The car dies quick if you do. Just saying.

Goin to Hillsong Church in Cape town tonight with the crew for some awesome workship!! 

Doug

Cape Town!!

Like Doug said, we had an amazing time working with Ignite South Africa this past week.  Click here to read more about our time there.

http://ignitesouthafrica.org/2011/05/love-in-action/

As we pulled into Qwa Qwa on Wednesday for the conference Chris Tomlin’s ‘God of this City’ was playing.  It was the perfect start to the day to look around and see such a huge city that God loved so much knowing that “greater things are still to be done in this city”.  All of the pastors and church leaders seemed really receptive of the messages and it was overall a great day.  After we packed up everything from the conference we rushed back to Harrismith to grab our stuff and drove to Johannesburg so we could make our flight to Cape Town this morning.  

We’ve only been here a couple of hours, but its been great so far!  I’ve been dying to get to Cape Town to see Casey and Sarah since I fell in love with South Africa two years ago and I am so excited that I FINALLY found an opportunity to come.  My sister, Christine, beat me to it and visited them earlier this week, but she was only able to stay for 2 days while we’re here for a month, so I think it all evens out.  I know we’re both hoping that this will be the first of many trips for us to Cape Town.  Its been over a year since I’ve seen Casey and Sarah so we’ve spent some time catching up and getting settled in.  We’ll be spending the month helping the Prince family and Casey’s organization, Ubuntu Sports Ministries, and we’ll live down the street from them with one of their neighbors.  

Casey decided to throw us right into life here by making Doug start driving so he could get used to driving on the left side of the road.  If that isn’t enough to focus on, its also a stick shift and our sense of direction is awful since we’re unfamiliar with the area.  He’s done great so far and we’ll pick up the car we’ll be using while we’re here tomorrow.  I’m technically supposed to also learn at some point, but...I might just stick to navigating and let Doug handle this one.

I’m sure its going to be a busy month, but we can’t wait to see what God has planned for our time here and how we’ll be able to serve this crazy family.

-Alison

Jesus is My Super Hero

Wazzup y’all!

Alison is feeling better, thank you Jesus. Thank you everyone who said any prayers for her during the past couple days. She spent some time resting, catching up on any last minute jet lag that she didn’t finish getting during the process. So thats good.

Sorry we haven’t been able to write more. Internet accessibility is just not the same here as it is in America. Que Asco!

Anywho...So the last two days have been pretty awesome. Basically on Tuesday, Alison and I finished up doing a lot of organizing for Ignite South Africa. There was a ton of resources that we had organized for them, and we’re so glad to help out with them because this provides their coaches and their pastors with TONS of resources to learn more about the Gospel, ways to minister, evangelism techniques, etc. Basically anything involving Jesus, there’s a book on it that they have which is pretty awesome. 

Yesterday (Wednesday) was an amazing day. The day was filled with last minute packing, organizing and the pastors conference. The pastors conference was so sick. I wish everyone could have been there to see it. The Holy Spirit spoke through June, Jill, Abram and everyone else who spoke at the conference. It was so cool because just over 90 Pastors, leaders, church members, and anyone else who just wanted to know more about Jesus showed up to a local church in the middle of Qwa Qwa. Topics such as gifts of the spirit, fruit of the spirit, healing, and raising up hope in the community, etc. were talked about and preached, which was awesome to hear. It’s just great to see this ministry doing amazing work in the city because the Holy Spirit talked a lot about hope and how the people in the city should not settle for poverty, or sickness, or anything that might overtake them and belittle them or make them weak. That Jesus died so we can live. That he conquered death, and defeated Satan in the process. That its Him who we need to be focused on, and His rising from the grave that gave us any and all power to remove sickness from our body to heal us. It’s Him who provides for us, and that life in Jesus is bigger than this poverty that they’re living in, and they should continue to trust in Him and not ‘settle’. I wish everyone could have been there to hear what the Holy Spirit said through June, Jill and Abram.

The coaches that are part of Ignite are amazing. There are about 15 colored coaches who work for Ignite that are citizens of South Africa and members of the city and community that they witness to. These coaches go into the schools in Qwa Qwa to teach the students about drugs, abstinence, etc. incorporating the gospel into this. The point of this is to reduce pregnancies outside of marriage, drug problems, etc. that might continue their path in poverty so they can find hope and a purpose, and to rise above. The coaches are so cool. They all talked to us for hours, shared some laughs, ate some good African food with them, and talked about Jesus. Amazing amazing amazing. If they’re reading this, we love you all. Such great people and friends. 

 We just got into Cape Town today. Casey and Sarah are so funny. I’ll let Alison talk more about them. 

peace out 

Doug

Pray for Ali

Wazzup y'all

So i'm going to make this blog short and sweet. Basically, please pray for Alison. She went to bed last night with a fever, inflammed throat, and just complete tiredness. The flu is being spread around here pretty badly so we think she may have caught that, but of course, TIA, so we're not completely sure. So, please pray for her well being.
As for me, i'm fine so far (knock on wood). Although I do have a big rash on my leg from hiking yesterday. Lesson #1: do not hike Africa in shorts. The brush will eat you alive!

Praying for everyone in the States and everyone else who we know who is on summer projects throughout the world. Go team Jesus!

Doug

TIA: This is Africa (continued...)

So the first thing I would like to say is that Alison stole my title for this blog post. Urg. So wrong. Thats the answer to everything here in Africa though. "What is that?" or "Is this going to kill me?". Answer: "I dont know, this is Africa" haha.

So I just want to say that Africa is so amazing. Truth. Once we stepped off the plane and went through customs we could already see what it was going to be like for the next two months. Afrikans everywhere, language I've never heard of before, cars just like from the movies of 4 wheel drive jeeps and their awesomely cool license plates that you see in the Borne Movies (I want one!). Jill and Amanda, two of the three women who run Ignite South Africa, picked us up from the airport. They're pretty awesome people I must say. June is the other woman and she is awesome herself. All three live in a house here in Harrismith, so Alison and I are staying with them for the week. I'm the only guy though, so apparently they just feel free to pick on the lone guy all the time. Women.

We all went to Qua Qua yesterday which was about a 45 minute drive from their house. The ministry itself is ran out of Qua Qua, so it was pretty cool to see what the town was like there. All I have to say is that these women are LEGIT. God has blessed them so much. The first couple hours we were there they had a meeting with the counselors who go into the schools to teach kids about safety and certain protection methods incorporating the gospel into their material. Its so cool because they're all really young but when the meeting started they all started off with songs of praise and prayers and testimonies and to hear how passionate they are about the Lord and to see how they sung songs of praise was mind blowing. I promise you, these 15 counselors sung with more enthusiasm and passion than an entire church back home would. God has blessed these people and their love for Jesus is so strong. It encourages me to push myself even further. The last couple hours we were there we met with a couple of "pastors in progress" I like to say. June taught the class and just amazed me with the material she taught. You could just listen to her and see the Holy Spirit speaking through her during the day. Her love for Jesus is so strong that she perseveres through the trials to teach Jesus to those in the area. I mean she gave her life to live 8000 miles away in a country that is not the most comfortable place to live in to share the gospel for crying out loud. What amazing people and what a blessing it was to see the Bible being lived out.

David was a man who touched me the most. David is 23 years old. He is an Afrikan, who came to know Christ in the past couple years. His hardships are more difficult than the average. His family disowns him for the way he lives. For pursuing a life of love and obedience to God, his family blames him for not being there for his mother, who is struck sick with HIV and is on the verge of losing her property to the government. He encouraged me yesterday though. Through all this difficulty in his life, he continues to look to Jesus for his guidance and for his support. With little income that he has, he hopes to become a pastor and share the gospel to his people. I may or may not have gotten teary eyed while talking to him throughout the day. What made me smile the most was that he had told Alison and I at one point that he had never had a conversation with white people before. Yes, there are white people in SA. But in Qua Qua, most are Afrikan. He pulled me aside and said he had never opened up to someone before like he had to me, and it was a pleasure to talk to a white person who listened and continued a conversation with him before. And apparently me being American made it more worth wild to him. He says that we made his day yesterday. Truth is, he made our day too. What an amazing man David is. If you're reading this, please pray for David and his family. He needs prayers.

Tomorrow is Sunday! What what. Can't wait to check out the church that Jill, June, and Amanda go to. Oh by the way, you should see the view outside of the house. It's incredible. I'll post a picture on twitter at some point. Internet isn't free here. You can't just get unlimited bandwidth. They pay for a certain amount of bandwidth a month here, so I dont want to use up a lot of their internet posting a picture or video. But the next time Alison and I are at an Internet Cafe I'll make sure to post a picture.

Love you all. As Lindsay would say, LATERRRRRRRRR

Doug

TIA- This is Africa

We’re finally in Africa and I love being back here.  We may have travelled for 24 straight hours with practically no sleep, but it was worth it.  We’re in a town called Harrismith, which is 3 hours south of Johannesburg living with 3 missionaries named June, Jill, and Amanda who are the backbone of Ignite South Africa (ignitesouthafrica.org).  I met the three of them when I came to Africa two summers ago so its been great getting to see them again.

We spent the whole day in Qwa Qwa, a township about 45 minutes away from here where Ignite South Africa serves.  We started the day by sitting in a 5 hour meeting with 14 of Ignite’s coaches that teach a program in many of the schools in Qwa Qwa.  The curriculum the coaches teach covers God’s purpose for the students’ lives, leadership, and many of the tough issues they’re facing like HIV/AIDS, drugs, and sex.  All of the coaches were very welcoming and we had a chance to talk to them a bit.  I don’t know why it still surprises me after all this time, but I was shocked to hear all the struggles they’re facing and how much they praise God and depend on Him through it all.  

After a quick lunch at KFC (America follows us everywhere) we went into another meeting with about 15 pastors in the area that are taking a course on the foundations of Christianity, which is HUGE, because most of the pastors here have no biblical training.  This class is legit too with mandatory attendance, homework assignments, and weekly tests.  Today was their last session of the class so it was a time of celebration for the group.  Once again, we got to hang out and talk to them which was great.  David, one of the coaches who was also there for the class in the afternoon, opened up to Doug and I and we got to here a lot about his life.  The bond between Christians, even those that are complete strangers and live on opposite sides of the world, is such a special one.

Ignite is having a big pastoral conference for about 120 people next Wednesday that we’re going to help prepare for in the next few days.  We’re also going to use this time to help with some of the administrative tasks that need to be done and to brainstorm ideas of how L4L can serve Ignite South Africa once we get back home.

Doug will update the blog tomorrow with more details, but we’ve had an amazing start to our summer and I can’t wait to see where we go from here.

-Alison