First of all, I apologize for my lack of posting over the past couple months. I am truly behind on a lot of videos, so I made a compilation video about some of the different things that my team and I did in South Africa.
On our first day of ministry, one of our hosts brought us to a township outside of Port Elizabeth so that we could learn a bit more about the cultural history of that part of South Africa. We learned about quite a bit about the Xhosa culture, from their games, dancing & singing, make-up practices, and their food (0:00).
Every weeknight, Love Story hosts a feeding scheme to feed some of the homeless population. City Feed fed anywhere from 80 to 120 people every night. And, on nights where there were not many people that showed up, many of the people that did come got seconds and sometimes thirds! And, once firsts were served, we had the opportunity to have conversations, learn the stories, and pray over them (1:04). Later in the month, Love Story partnered with a company to host a City Feed in the same building that we had the Good Night Market in. I can honestly say that the people that came were spoiled more than they were used to, from great food to a goodie bag to take home and a restaurant-style experience (1:17). One of the last City Feed’s that my team was able to help with, a Christian group from Nelson Mandela University bought and brought about 150 Bibles to pass out to all of the people that came to City Feed. People received a good hot meal, seconds, great conversation, and the Word of our Lord (1:41).
Through Love Story, we met a small group of English missionaries and church-planters that had been living in South Africa. They work with Freedom Church, a church with several international locations. We got to glean some wisdom from them through parts of their stories that they shared with us in their home over dinner and then over dessert. My favorite part was seeing the different skills and gifts that the Lord has blessed them with besides the gift of faith & obedience to set aside what they knew for His Kingdom. Don, one of the missionaries, is also a published author and read us one of his short stories from his book No Man Will Know (Apostolos Publishing and Amazon).
One of the most beautiful opportunities to serve Love Story was to help work the Good Night Market. Love Story uses the monthly Good Night Market and the day-time version Valley Market to generate enough revenue to continue operations on a month by month basis, from making thousands of meals for school children, impoverished, and homeless people to purchasing materials for the multiple women’s groups. There was wonderful food served, amazing products for purchase, and a community of regulars that come together regularly to support those in need around them even if they don’t come face to face with them (2:12).
One of the other ministry opportunities that we whelped with is preparing care packages for new mothers and their children at one of the public hospitals, Dorah Ngizah. Care packages included clothes for the baby, a toy, diapers, maxi-pads, hat & scarf for the mothers, and slippers for the mother. We sorted through multiple large donations of clothes for newborns and toddlers, toys, and other goods for many hours over multiple days. We were able to deliver about 30 care packages to new mothers, including a mother of triplets (4:39)!
Some of the most beautiful moments in a family happen at the dinner table. While, Katie, Mantha, and Alexa were in Capetown for the weekend, the rest of us had an intentional family dinner, filled with a great surprise of mac & cheese, interesting conversational topics, and Elsie’s introduction to jazz (4:58). Even with all of the extra space that we had around the house, it was even better to welcome the three of them home to a card & candy (5:54).
Occasionally the staff at Love Story insisted of spoiling us, and one of the last times that they spoiled us they randomly took us to the beach and to get ice cream on a gorgeous day in the South African spring (6:26). But, there were also times when we chose to spoil ourselves and our hosts (8:18).
Angie
P.S. All of the times in parentheses are time stamps of the following video because I forgot to add a voiceover.
Prayer Requests:
- For the rest of my team to be fully funded (LeAnn, Claire, Sarah, and Emily),
- To have the courage to be vulnerable within my new team, and
- My new team enjoys our first month of ministry together.
Praise Reports:
- I am fully funded and learned that I was even OVER funded on our funding deadline,
- I am being constantly and intentionally encouraged to share the gifts that the Lord has given me not so that I can be praised but to reflect that back on the Him, and
- We have finished our first four months of the World Race AND a month in the African desert.
