EN ROUTE TO SOUTH AFRICA…
The X-Squad left Atlanta on Tuesday, September 10th en route to South Africa to begin Month One of our World Race.
I will skip all the boring details of travel days and just give you the jist:
1. you SLEEP in all kinds of weird positions.
2. you EAT all kinds of junk food.
3. you REPEAT steps 1 and 2 every two hours for three days straight.
Then eventually you wake up, drag around your super heavy airporter full of crap you won’t need along with your 40 squad mates.
But finally, 63 hours later, on Friday, September 13th, Team Zeal and Team Ratsah arrived at our final destination: Ocean View, Cape Town, South Africa.
This month we will be working with Bradley Barnes in Kingdom Sports Ministry.
THE SKINNY…
Bradley and his wife are missionaries here in Ocean View but four years ago, Bradley’s life was very different. He was an international pro-soccer player, and led the typical life of a pro-athleet. But God changed all of that and called Bradley to Kingdom Sports Ministry, to use sports as an outlet to share His word. Now Bradley, his wife and their two boys keep the door of their house open. Literally. They took nothing but the baby’s crib and now live in the bedroom of a relative’s house in order to host missionaries from all over. Team Zeal is staying in their house this month and you can read more about Bradley here.
Team Ratsah has been split between two families. Ana-Lisa, Hayley and myself, are staying at Raymond’s house, along with his wife (Octavia), their two boys (Nesheer and Jude), Octavia’s grandmother (Ouma Jacoba) and her husband (George). Being split up, has been hard on our team. Because it turns out a lot of bonding happens at night while eating supper, fighting for the shower or that last scoop of peanut butter. But on the other hand, we have also found our host families to be our biggest ministry thus far. As Lesley (our Team Leader) said during team-time one day, “there’s a reason God put us with these families”.
In my home (Raymond’s house) we’re all believers. Ouma (grandmother in Afrikaans) says she’s been praying God would send her missionaries for a long time. She won’t stop saying how honored she is that God has allowed her to host us in her home. She said, “God only gave me one daughter, so that I can take care of other people’s children”. Ana-lisa encouraged us to serve them just as much as their serving us. We’ve been helping around the house, giving the children baths, doing the dishes, and even cooking. But the most gratifying form of service has been sitting around drinking tea and investing in them by asking questions and just talking about our lives. The three of us are so blessed. Pouring the love of Christ into this home and this family has kept me sane and has restored my soul every night after some rough days on the field.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering God has been gracious enough to keep us from squatty-potties and bucket-showers this month. The temperature has been in the low 40s to 50s, so we get to wear half of our wardrobe everyday. And thankfully we do get some hot water for bathing. Woot!
The other half of Ratsah (Lesley, Lucy and Rachael) has been staying with a woman named Francis. She’s not a believer (I couldn’t believe it but it’s true). She knows Bradley through school and has hosted a WR team in the past, so we asked her to help us out again. She came to church with us last Sunday and she really liked it! I’m so excited for what God has in store for Francis and my girls from Ratsah this month.
Other than homenistry (yeah, I just made that up) we have been actually working too.
IN THE HEART OF MINISTRY…
On our first week, we hosted a sports camp at a primary school in a place called Simon’s town. That’s right, we got the chance of teaching God’s word in a public school to lot of students, some who are Muslin or Jewish. A few times I wondered if I was going to get sued for what had just come out of my mouth. But nope, we were totally free to speak and even read the bible to them. It was AWESOME!
Our days consisted of arriving at the school at 8:30am and having a group devotional. Then starting the first session of camp with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders (about 80 kids) from 9-11am. And at 12pm, starting the second session of camp with the 5th, 6th and 7th graders (about 100 kids) until 2pm. We usually got home by 3pm, and then we’d meet up with our individual team for feedback and team-time. We either went to Mug & Bean at the mall for team-time and caribbean mochas or the Camel farm (yes, real camels), a 20 minute walk from our house, for yummy organic treats. We must not be out past sundown. Ocean View isn’t terribly unsafe, but it’s better we don’t go out at night. So we’d rush home, have supper at 7pm and we’d be in bed by 9pm.
Working at the school was harder than I thought it would be. And a lot more frustating than I had anticipated. There was a lot of miscomunication between all of us which created some division between both teams working here. After a whole week of pulling and pushing and steamrolling, we were able to come together and give each other feedback. I felt relieved to get some hurt off my chest. And it felt good to hear people express their feelings openly in a safe place and in a healthy way. We agreed to empower one another and to pursue each other as we continue to work together the rest of the month.
During this time of debrief David hit the nail on the head for me when he said, “The root of all this miscommunication is that we were all worried about our own needs. We were selfish this week.” It jolted me back to something I had read on the first day of ministry,
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
This is from Philippians 2:3-4.
On Monday when we showed up for ministry at Simon’s Town School we were each assigned to a specific station, and in each station we were supposed to teach the kids one characteristic of being a Christian, and then have the kids rotate between the stations. I was given the “service” station. We had a game, and then we would sit them down and tie in the game into the Word, and have a devotional time. Well, clearly, I was so busy thinking about what I was going to say, and how I was going to succeed…and me, and me, and all about me…that I completely missed the mark. I look back now and see that God was speaking that verse over our teams and myself the whole week. As the South Africans say it “Shame! What shame, man!”
The last thing I want for these 11 months is to have God speaking, and me not listening. I don’t want to look back and see what God was speaking then…I want to be aware of it in the moment.
COMING NEXT…
On our drives back and forth, I have noticed a town that looks very different from all the other places we have seen in this region. I was immediately drawn to it. I heard it is the roughest neighborhood around, so you can imagine how excited I was to find that this next week we will be going there for street ministry! This place is called Masiphumelele, also known as, Site Five. I feel God has already put a love in my heart for that place, even without knowing it, or ever being there. I cannot wait to see what happens this week!
