For my parents

Seriously, anytime I talk to them they say that I haven’t updated my blog enough. So this is for them. I’ll try to be a better son…

So right after writing my last blog about wanting to do something in the community, I did just that. There was a group of missionaries from OM here for a week; they were from the US, Germany, Holland and Korea. On Friday the 14th, Dave Christensen and I took the group to some clinics in the neighboring town of Mpumalanga. At these clinics there were anywhere from 60 to well over 100 people waiting to be seen by the nurses and doctors. This group of missionaries got up in front of everyone and just started singing songs and putting on short skits, entertaining everyone and sharing the gospel at the same time. It was awesome to see them work, filled with such a joy and excited to serve. I can’t say I have that same unashamed spirit to go out and do that for anyone willing to listen, and it definitely pushed me and I was thankful I was with them. After the songs and skits, a translator that came with us (and just an amazing guy with such a great heart) gave a message. People were definitely moved and we prayed with some for salvation. We then simply prayed with people who wanted prayer, mainly for their illnesses. The people we prayed for couldn’t even understand what we were saying, but you could feel the Spirit at work and it was incredibly powerful. I prayed over people sick with HIV and many broke down into tears during the prayer. I might never know the full effect of what happened there, but I believe many hearts were touched and pray that God continues to work in the hearts of those people.

One thing about this culture is that people are far more receptive to the spiritual world than in the States. Almost everyone believes there is a higher power and are very willing to pray with you (like in the clinic), and believers here are definitely more aware of the presence of evil spirits. The problem is that I think many people still don’t fully understand what it means to be a follower of Christ (not that most of us do in the States either). They may claim to be a Christian but at the same time still try to mix it with witchcraft and ancestor worship and other things, not realizing that Jesus is the only true way. In general though, it seems different from the problems of indifference and atheism in the States. Please pray that God continues to work in the hearts of his people here and that we can help bring the true gospel to them. I’ve spent much of my life being timid about sharing the gospel; I pray that I can be unashamed of the gospel, bolder in sharing it, and not miss chances to share, knowing that God has not put anyone into my life without reason.

That same night I then agreed to help at a sleepover with some boys from the community. It was me and 9 boys, and I’ll just say that it was crazy. I think they were all between 11 and 16 or so, and they were so excited to be having a sleepover that they couldn’t contain their energy. They ran crazy all night and I think maybe slept for only an hour. I was able to get a few hours myself, but I just tried to remember that they’re young and don’t get a chance to do that stuff too often. They were also all part of a little dance crew they had formed to perform in a contest we hosted at the community center the next day…

That Saturday the 15th, the community volunteers that I teach the business class to, put on a concert and dance contest at the little amphitheater we have at the community center. People from the community signed up to perform anything from gospel music to rap and compete in the hip-hop/pantsula dance contest. Interspersed into the day were a few pastors who gave messages. The event was a lot of fun and it was cool to see people from the community get into something they could relate with, and show them that rap and hip-hop dance could be done well and be clean at the same time. I really enjoyed it and we also took some of the kids from Lily, many who couldn’t stop dancing to the music all day themselves. I think some hearts were touched there as well. We also capped it off by serving free hotdogs, soup and juice to any kids who were there, and there were a lot. The plan is to hold maybe one event a month here to help reach out to the community. Last month’s event was the Nick Vujicic visit, so they will vary greatly.

That was a busy weekend as on Sunday a few other volunteers and I took some of our third graders to Tala, the small game reserve that borders Lily. This was their reward for passing the times table test that we gave them in homework club and they were super excited. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them, especially cause they are such goofs. They are trouble though too, and they got a hold of my phone and called my mom without me even knowing it. It wasn’t till a few days later when my parents reached me that I found out some of the boys had called my mom’s cell at 4:30 am pacific time and left her a 2 minute message in Zulu. At least my mom said it was cute, ha.

Speaking of homework club, we are done for the year! The kids are going into exams and about to head into summer break, so we won’t pick back up till January or February. As for the next few weeks though, we will be very busy preparing the kids for a nativity play they will be putting on at our church in Pietermaritzburg. We are working very hard to get them ready and hope they won’t be too scared by the large audience. I think its going to be very cute, but it is really hard work getting little kids to concentrate long enough to practice; they don’t really get the concept.

Well that’s it for now on that front… onto the next set of adventures.