It's hard to believe that I'm already a month into my time here in South Africa! It's been such a blessing to be here, to learn from God and from the community here, and to begin seeking out where God would have me serve during the months ahead.
As I'm exploring different areas of ministry, I wanted to share about a really awesome experience I had last week. When I was here in May, I really felt drawn to ministry in the townships, and I've wanted to explore that further now that I'm here for the year. So last Wednesday, I went out to a nearby township with one of the other apprentices, Sarah, and one of the staff guys, Doug. We visited a family that Doug's been really involved with over the past couple years. A couple of the women in this family are (or have been) sangomas, or traditional healers. Ancestor worship is a big part of what sangomas do, but most people in South Africa who rely on traditional healers also practice Christianity. Often sangomas are accepted as just as high of an authority in spiritual things as the church.
Doug's had the opportunity to share a lot with this family about following Jesus, and at one point last year, one of these women told him she wanted to give up being a sangoma and only follow Jesus. The family has now asked him to lead a Bible study for them, and we got to take part in that last week. It was so exciting to see the family and some friends and neighbors all interested and asking questions and responding to the Bible story we read. One of the girls (Sophia) invited me to come and visit again soon--she wants to teach me to cook some traditional dishes, as well as go shopping for eye makeup. =)
I'm not sure where all of this will lead, but I'm looking forward to hanging out and talking more with Sophia and seeing where the next few weeks take me in ministry involvement. There are some opportunities with a couple of ministries to women and teenage girls in downtown Pretoria that I will be taking a look at this week. What I want to be part of here is building deeper relationships that make a difference--whether that's studying the Bible and mentoring girls in Soshanguve, or volunteering with women's shelters in downtown Pretoria, or something else entirely! Please be in prayer with me in the coming weeks that God would continue to show me where he is working and how I can best be part of that during this year.
Prayer requests:
-Pray that I would be attentive to where God is leading in the next few weeks, as I explore opportunities for ministry
-Pray that I would be fearless in diving into relationships here, getting to know people in deeper and more meaningful ways as God places them in my life
-Continue to pray for our team as we live and learn together--pray for deep friendships to develop as we move out of the "getting to know you" stage
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Out of orientation and onward!
My third week in South Africa has concluded, and with it, our orientation time. Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday morning were spent in a time of reflection, solitude, and prayer--to look back on the past three weeks as well as to the year ahead. We celebrated with a Mexican Fiesta last night (organized by the apprentices), and had a time of commissioning at tonight's braai.
I'm excited to jump into our first six-week "learning posture" tomorrow--the year will be made up of six of these. Our first posture is "Listening," during which we'll focus on listening to God, ourselves, and the culture around us. On the ministry side of things, these next six weeks will be spent exploring different opportunities for ministry and seeking out where we might serve for the remainder of our time here. Though I'm a bit impatient to jump into ministry, I'm looking forward to seeing where the next six weeks take me.
In other news, over the past week I've plunged more deeply into culture here by driving a lot. I was very proud of my solo grocery-shopping trip on Thursday, during which I had no problems driving on the correct side of the road. Until yesterday, when Sarah had to stop me--twice--from turning onto the wrong side of the road. Sigh. Interesting fact, to counterbalance my not-so-talented driving: in South Africa, a traffic light is called a robot. No one seems to be sure why. But there you go. That's all for this week. Stay tuned. =)
I'm excited to jump into our first six-week "learning posture" tomorrow--the year will be made up of six of these. Our first posture is "Listening," during which we'll focus on listening to God, ourselves, and the culture around us. On the ministry side of things, these next six weeks will be spent exploring different opportunities for ministry and seeking out where we might serve for the remainder of our time here. Though I'm a bit impatient to jump into ministry, I'm looking forward to seeing where the next six weeks take me.
In other news, over the past week I've plunged more deeply into culture here by driving a lot. I was very proud of my solo grocery-shopping trip on Thursday, during which I had no problems driving on the correct side of the road. Until yesterday, when Sarah had to stop me--twice--from turning onto the wrong side of the road. Sigh. Interesting fact, to counterbalance my not-so-talented driving: in South Africa, a traffic light is called a robot. No one seems to be sure why. But there you go. That's all for this week. Stay tuned. =)
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Week #2 concludes
You’ll be happy to know that it's not rainy today, so I’m anticipating that I’ll be able to write an update without incident. (I can feel your excitement.)
This past week, I’ve started to feel a little more settled--I think I’m moving from feeling like a visitor (as on the two weeks I was here in May) to being more at home here. The upcoming week will be our last week of orientation, and our schedule will more closely resemble what our usual schedule will look like during the year. It’ll be nice to have a little more room in the day for things like...breathing. =)
This past week has been full of a lot of team building-type stuff, as well as many discussions on culture, culture shock, and worldview, as we start to anticipate engaging more fully with the culture here in South Africa. Though we've done a few service projects, we've had a lot of team interaction as well. It's been a challenge for me as I’ve started observing more closely how I interact with others in a team setting. I always hated group projects. =) This will be a year of living together in close community, and it’s been both difficult and rewarding for me thus far as I start to see in deeper ways what living out the whole “body of Christ” thing can look like.
I'm not going to give a play-by-play of the week--hopefully the daily photos will give you some idea of the past week--but I will say that I drove here for the first time on Friday. Yes, on the other side of the road and the other side of the car. Go me.
This past week, I’ve started to feel a little more settled--I think I’m moving from feeling like a visitor (as on the two weeks I was here in May) to being more at home here. The upcoming week will be our last week of orientation, and our schedule will more closely resemble what our usual schedule will look like during the year. It’ll be nice to have a little more room in the day for things like...breathing. =)
This past week has been full of a lot of team building-type stuff, as well as many discussions on culture, culture shock, and worldview, as we start to anticipate engaging more fully with the culture here in South Africa. Though we've done a few service projects, we've had a lot of team interaction as well. It's been a challenge for me as I’ve started observing more closely how I interact with others in a team setting. I always hated group projects. =) This will be a year of living together in close community, and it’s been both difficult and rewarding for me thus far as I start to see in deeper ways what living out the whole “body of Christ” thing can look like.
I'm not going to give a play-by-play of the week--hopefully the daily photos will give you some idea of the past week--but I will say that I drove here for the first time on Friday. Yes, on the other side of the road and the other side of the car. Go me.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Week #1
Note to self:
When writing weekly updates, it is best to avoid doing so during a thunderstorm, as inevitably, lightning will strike (literally) and not only knock out the power, but also short out your power cord, preventing you from posting said weekly update. An additional side effect of said thunderstorm and lightning strike may be that the Pangani modem and/or router will fail, and then prevent further access to the Internet for the remainder of the weekend.
(There's my excuse for this being late.)
It's Sunday, and I'm at the conclusion of my first full week in Pretoria. This past week has been a great time of getting to know the team as well as absorbing some local culture and getting the lay of the land, so to speak.
Our mornings usually start off with a communion time. This doesn’t always mean literal bread-and-juice communion, but rather a time for communion with God through worship in different forms. We’ve had many team discussions, exploring aspects of culture here, some bits of philosophy of mission, and just generally orienting ourselves here in Pretoria.
We’ve also ventured out from Pangani quite a bit, with trips to the Voortrekker Monument and Pretoria Community Ministries’ sites (all kinds of urban ministry from an AIDS hospice to a homeless center), and a picnic at the Union Buildings. And, the five of us apprentices were set loose on Pretoria North one afternoon for a scavenger hunt. They made us drive and navigate our way around Pretoria North on our own...aaaa! To be truthful, I haven’t driven yet. Two others of our team volunteered...and so I was off the hook. I suppose my day will come soon enough. (Further note: I drove this week. Woo!)
Another big component of my time here so far has been made up of just getting to know the team here--both staff and fellow apprentices. By way of introduction: Carissa, my roommate, is 23 and is from Illinois. Sarah’s 27 and hails from Oregon (she’s my fellow non-morning person). Tyler, the lone male apprentice, turned 23 on Friday, and he’s from Texas. And Katie (I met her on last year’s road trip) is 27 and also from California. Our staff coaches are Arthur & Melissa (from Fresno, CA), Luc (from the Congo), Doug (from Michigan), and Bryan & Daleen (from Visalia, CA, and Pretoria, SA, respectively). (Bryan’s actually on sabbatical for the next few months, but he’s still joining us for the fun stuff!)
The week concluded with a day of hanging out at Sun City, a resort-type location that’s a 1 ½ hour drive from Pretoria. I had a great time relaxing and spending time with the group, though hanging out on a fake beach at the edge of a chlorine pseudo-ocean still seems a bit odd to me. =) Today we visited a local Methodist church and witnessed a nice big rainstorm (alluded to above), just before our evening braai (smaller this week and indoors because of the wetness outside!). Perhaps next weekend my online time will not be curbed by the interference of lightning and power outages.
Thank you to those who are praying and emailing and keeping me in your thoughts. I miss home and friends and it’s good to hear from you all!
When writing weekly updates, it is best to avoid doing so during a thunderstorm, as inevitably, lightning will strike (literally) and not only knock out the power, but also short out your power cord, preventing you from posting said weekly update. An additional side effect of said thunderstorm and lightning strike may be that the Pangani modem and/or router will fail, and then prevent further access to the Internet for the remainder of the weekend.
(There's my excuse for this being late.)
It's Sunday, and I'm at the conclusion of my first full week in Pretoria. This past week has been a great time of getting to know the team as well as absorbing some local culture and getting the lay of the land, so to speak.
Our mornings usually start off with a communion time. This doesn’t always mean literal bread-and-juice communion, but rather a time for communion with God through worship in different forms. We’ve had many team discussions, exploring aspects of culture here, some bits of philosophy of mission, and just generally orienting ourselves here in Pretoria.
We’ve also ventured out from Pangani quite a bit, with trips to the Voortrekker Monument and Pretoria Community Ministries’ sites (all kinds of urban ministry from an AIDS hospice to a homeless center), and a picnic at the Union Buildings. And, the five of us apprentices were set loose on Pretoria North one afternoon for a scavenger hunt. They made us drive and navigate our way around Pretoria North on our own...aaaa! To be truthful, I haven’t driven yet. Two others of our team volunteered...and so I was off the hook. I suppose my day will come soon enough. (Further note: I drove this week. Woo!)
Another big component of my time here so far has been made up of just getting to know the team here--both staff and fellow apprentices. By way of introduction: Carissa, my roommate, is 23 and is from Illinois. Sarah’s 27 and hails from Oregon (she’s my fellow non-morning person). Tyler, the lone male apprentice, turned 23 on Friday, and he’s from Texas. And Katie (I met her on last year’s road trip) is 27 and also from California. Our staff coaches are Arthur & Melissa (from Fresno, CA), Luc (from the Congo), Doug (from Michigan), and Bryan & Daleen (from Visalia, CA, and Pretoria, SA, respectively). (Bryan’s actually on sabbatical for the next few months, but he’s still joining us for the fun stuff!)
The week concluded with a day of hanging out at Sun City, a resort-type location that’s a 1 ½ hour drive from Pretoria. I had a great time relaxing and spending time with the group, though hanging out on a fake beach at the edge of a chlorine pseudo-ocean still seems a bit odd to me. =) Today we visited a local Methodist church and witnessed a nice big rainstorm (alluded to above), just before our evening braai (smaller this week and indoors because of the wetness outside!). Perhaps next weekend my online time will not be curbed by the interference of lightning and power outages.
Thank you to those who are praying and emailing and keeping me in your thoughts. I miss home and friends and it’s good to hear from you all!
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