Sorry for the delay in posts. We haven’t had much of a chance to use the internet lately, and when we have, it has been very rushed.
Camp last week went really well. Although we only had about 50 kids each day, it was nice to have a break from the craziness of hundreds of kids running around. I think we were also able to make a more personal connection with each child.
One of the girls in Esther’s group brought in a delicacy for us to try: “runaways.” What exactly are runaways, you might be asking? Chicken feet, including the toe nails. While I could have easily gotten out of trying this, I figured I needed to expand my horizons, so I dug in. As you can see, I was excited to try, but not too excited after gnawing on it for a bit. It didn’t taste bad, but it was pure fat/tendon. I wouldn’t do it again. We have been told that we will have a chance to eat fried worms during camp this week. I’m going to try them if they’re available! I kind of think it’s funny that I won’t even think about touching hotdogs/beans/mushrooms, but I will eat chicken feet and worms. Anything for a cultural experience, I suppose. I have a feeling Asia will bring some interesting delights…
We are doing our last week of camp this week in a township on the east side of Pretoria called Mamelodi. With a population of about 2 million residents, this is a fairly poor township. We will be working in an “informal” (see my blog on Joe Slovo) part of the township with an established ministry called Berakah. On Monday, we had about 200 kids attend camp. By today (Wednesday), we had about 300. Most of the older children know a decent amount of English, but the discussion groups still require a translator to be truly effective. The awesome thing about the translators this week is that they are teenagers who are leaders in their community. They have a heart for God and really want to see these children on fire for God. It is such a blessing to work with translators who understand your passion for Jesus.
After this week, we don’t know where we will be exactly. We have 10 days to go wherever God leads us. Team Concrete is in the process of praying about where we should go. We have some contacts in Cape Town on the southern coast that we might be working with. We had a list of ministry options, but all of our hearts jumped at a chance to work with a group of farmers there. I don’t know many details right now, but we’ve been told there’s a need for alcoholism/crisis pregnancy ministry with them and their families. We don’t know if the timing is right with this ministry or not. If we do end up there, we will probably leave on Sunday and take a 24 hour train ride. If this doesn’t work out, we will probably be staying at Alabanza until the end of the month and doing a lot of ministry in squatter camps.
Sorry for the lack of updates and emails to people. It’s nothing personal! But keep sending them, I save them and read them when I get home. 🙂
Much love.
