Love for the Sake of Love: Living the Life

We’ve had the chance to truly experience Cape Town this past week. Its funny, because the pace of life is much slower here, yet we always seem to be busy. We’ve been cramming an unusually high amount of stuff into our days recently. Between Friday and Monday we:

Went to a winery

Volunteered at a kid’s club with over 400 students

Helped out at Ocean View’s youth group

Went to the Cape Town airport...TWICE

Ate at Nando’s, one of my favorite South African restaurants

Did some serious rock climbing down the face of a mountain overlooking the city

Went to a cookout and ate way too much food with the leaders of Hillsong Church as we watched a rugby match

Met all of the Living Hope Volunteers

Woke up in time for Ocean View Methodist’s 8:00 a.m. service

Went to Hillsong Church

Got lunch in downtown Cape Town

Jumpstarted the dead battery in our car for the third time

Babysat Kieren, Casey and Sarah’s adorable 2 year old daughter

Hung out with some of the Ocean View youth

Went SKY DIVING

Visited Long Street, Cape Town’s main street downtown

Shopped at a traditional African market

Walked around the beautiful waterfront

Almost touched some seals

Went on a harbor side boat ride with Jordan, one of Casey and Sarah’s other interns, as our captain

Climbed Lion’s Head Mountain at sunset

Needless to say, we’ve been having a lot of fun. On Thursday night I got to be part of the Women’s bible study group that Sarah leads. It was amazing. These women were all so supportive of each other and really hungry to read the Bible and learn more about God. It was really encouraging to see that God is really working through Sarah to reach the lives of these women. They are each struggling with some hard issues, but have so much comfort in knowing that God is there with them. Sarah has mentioned wanting to start a young adult bible study here eventually, which I’m also really excited about. I’m very passionate about young adult ministries and I think that Ocean View would benefit greatly from having one.

We experienced pure chaos on Friday when we went to a kid’s club with over 400 children. I wish I had some pictures, because it was crazy. They were running around and screaming and to make it even more interesting, we were doing arts and crafts with glitter. I have so much respect for the leaders that organize it every week. I know its not an easy task, but I loved getting to be part of it.

On Saturday, our team grew from two to four. First, we picked up my sister Christine from the airport. She was supposed to be doing mission work in Zambia all summer, but was having problems with migraines from the malaria medicine she was taking and had to leave. We were able to make it work where she’ll stay with Doug and I for the rest of our time in Africa. There is also a new intern named Jordan that will be working with Ubuntu for the next month. He’s a really good soccer player and will be helping with the coaching. It’s been a lot of fun having some new people around.

-Alison

Here are some pictures from our last few days here: