Full Circle

Today we said good-bye to someone who’s been volunteering with Living Hope for more than a year. Among many other things, Kendra has been a faithful part of the Life Skills Education team, particularly in Red Hill, a poor informal settlement not far from Cape Point. We (actually Natasha) first met Kendra in London back in August 2009, when she was on her way to Cape Town. We had just finished our annual short-term work with Living Hope in the previous month when we were told of Kendra’s impending arrival and the opportunity to meet her during a long layover in London! Even though we weren’t here for most of Kendra’s volunteer time, it is cool to see how much she’s grown through it – and how much she’ll be missed by the staff with whom she worked. May God bless you in your next chapter, Kendra!

Red Hill Team

Today we welcomed an outreach team sent from one of our church partners based in South Carolina. Over the past few years, the teams that the church sends have worked in the Hill community, and have developed relationships with the Living Hope staff based there, as well as with the locals. This year continues to build on that investment as the team will be doing outreach events with staff, through door-to-door visits and praying, kids clubs, crafts and leadership development for the women in the community. They will also be helping LH staff conduct free health screening, including HIV testing, in the community. 

Family Wedding

My mom with all her kids!

This past weekend was an amazing and brief getaway to visit with my family and friends in Pretoria. My mom flew us up for a family wedding and this gave us a great opportunity to visit with everyone there. The time away was also good for us – lots of time for much-needed reflection.  

The Construction Team

The Construction Team 

The finished product!

Earlier today we took the new missionary family (Joey, Courtney and their kids) and Granny, an 80 year-old lady who joined the Construction team – all from Tennessee, US – on a tour of Living Hope as a whole. It was so sweet to see Granny (who has never left the US in her entire life) and the kids ‘reactions to the extreme poverty they were exposed to. They tried to make sense of it all, but also trying to be in it. The kids got right involved at Kids Club and Granny was extremely observant and asking all the right questions. But as much fun as we had on the tour, we sadly had to say goodbye to the Construction Team that has been working tirelessly to replace the roof of the multi-purpose. We had dinner with them at the Team House tonight and had some incredible conversation about purpose and calling and how to discern God’s calling through desires. Deep, right? But that is one of my and Tim’s favorite topics. We truly enjoyed having this manly group here and look forward to see what God is going to do in all their lives! Thank you all and God bless

New Missionaries!

New Living Hope Missionaries!

Today we welcomed new long-term additions to the Living Hope volunteer family. It’s an entire family from Tennessee – all six of them! The father, Joey, a former business owner, will play a key role at Living Way, specifically in entrepreneurship/enterprise development. The mother, Courtney, will help the family settle in over the next few months and possibly help in palliative care ministries, as she is a registered nurse. They come with four kids, aged 1 to 9. They are a riot, and we already love them dearly, and know that they will also be an important part of Living Hope’s ministries over the next 3 years or more.

Taking off the roof!

The thatch roof is gone!

With much anticipation, we welcome a construction-focused church team today. They have come to use their God-given ability to improve facilities. We’ve got just the job for them: they will help install a new roof on the multi-purpose center on Living Hope campus. This building was the only one on the premises when Pastor John and his church purchased the property over 10 years ago. It had been a pub frequented by seedy characters, and its bad history was forgotten as the facility was reclaimed in the name of Jesus. Just a few days ago, its original thatch roof was removed in preparation for the team’s work. The team is only here for a week, and that is just enough (we hope!) to install the new roof. Their work and blessing of supplies will defray a significant portion of what it costs to do this big project – not to mention help reduce Living Hope’s fire insurance. 

Lausanne to Living Hope

Delegates learning about Living Grace (homeless ministry)

Delegates getting HIV tests at our mobile clinic

Delegates having lunch with the Support Group Facilitators

We learned during training in August that Natasha and I were going to be responsible for organizing a one-day event on Living Hope’s campus. The Lausanne Conference on World Evangelism, the largest of its kind (4,000 delegates), is meeting in Cape Town this month. We were told back in August to expect from 20 to 60 delegates to show up for an on-campus tour of Living Hope. Living Hope was one of about a dozen missions in the area from which delegates could choose to visit during their day off from the conference. Over the past month or so, we’ve been meeting with general managers and others in Living Hope to help plan this day. The hard part is that we didn’t know how many were actually coming until a few days before the day itself. We needed to ensure that what was shown was a good representation since Living Hope is so diverse in ministry scope. We asked general managers to work out a 15-minute “station” in which staff could help interactively describe and demonstrate their respective ministry areas. We helped them achieve this by providing logistics, schedule, and general communication. The rest was taken care of by general managers and their staff. The end result? Over 100 delegates came and saw an incredible and enthusiastic effort amongst the staff to communicate how God is working in the area through Living Hope. We are also encouraged to see what an event like this (and more like it!) can help spread the word about Living Hope to the local community and beyond.