We’ve been in South Africa for about 10 days now, so if you’ve been wondering what exactly my team has been doing here, you’re in the right place!
(Photos to come later – our connection isn’t ideal for uploading pictures at the moment)
We’re staying with Pastor Julian Pillay, his wife Michelle, and their son Christopher in Phoenix, which is a suburb of Durban. Their ministry is called Shepherd’s Heart, which covers a few different things in the Phoenix area.
Before we began any of our ministry, we took advantage of our day off to visit Durban itself, and decided to do something extreme. When asking the Pillays about some local touristy things to do, they told us about the World Cup stadium. You could ride the world’s largest swing and take a 200-foot free-fall into the stadium. Naturally, we had to try this, and it was awesome. I almost sacrificed my GoPro in the process to make this video, but it was totally worth it.
Last week we were running a Holiday Club (Vacation Bible School) at two local churches each morning. It pretty much followed the format of your typical VBS – singing, games, and bible stories. I ended up being one of the main song leaders as well as teaching a group of at least 20 kids from ages 7 to 11, which was interesting to say the least. The kids really seemed to enjoy it though, so by VBS standards I would consider that a success.
In the evenings we’ve been attending various church services (bible studies, prayer meetings, youth groups) and often a few of us will either preach or give our testimonies. On Friday I had the opportunity to teach on James 2 at the youth meeting, which was an amazing experience. I had never studied a commentary before or even prepared a message for a setting like that, and it went really well. One of the things I’ve really begun to uncover on the Race – actually since training camp – is my gift for public speaking. I hope I get to use it more over the next 11 months.
On Saturday we got up at 5:30 in the morning and went to one of the churches we’ve been attending. Our team plus a few of the church members made nearly 700 sandwiches and then took off to a government housing development outside of Phoenix. We handed out sandwiches and juice to the kids living there for about two hours. Ruben, our contact at that church, told us that the families living in this development had come from informal settlements (thrown together tin shacks in makeshift communities) and the majority of them were on government support. Then, we took the rest of the sandwiches to Durban Beach and gave them to the homeless living in the area. (This will likely be a regular event for us on Saturdays and I’ll be posting a more detailed reflection later.)
Yesterday we went back to Phoenix Baptist Church, which was where half of us had run the Holiday Club last week. Pastor Leslie asked us to come up to the front and introduce ourselves, which we had figured would happen, but then he asked us a question.
“Do you have your song item?”
Excuse me, what? Song item? Oh no, they really expect us to sing for them, don’t they.
I frantically looked around for the guitar I had played during Holiday Club, but it was nowhere to be found. Thankfully, the keyboard player from the worship team vacated his seat, and I took his place. Suddenly, we were singing “Every Move I Make” (complete with the na na na na na na na’s…) in front of the entire church, and the drummer and bassist from the worship team even joined in. I wish I had a video of this because I’m sure it was hysterical. Just another day on the Race.
Please keep Team Kindred in your prayers as the rest of the month goes on. Most of us have been sick (it’s winter and therefore flu season in South Africa right now) so we’ve had a few challenges over the past week. Thankfully, everyone seems to be on the mend.
On another note, I am $3,250 away from being fully funded! You can make a tax-deductible donation by clicking the “support me” tab on the left. Any amount makes a difference – thank you in advance!
