Outreach in Mountain View

Tonight we had the privilege of being a part of a community outreach with one of our International Teams from Tennessee, US. The team partnered with one of our local church partners to reach out to the community of Mountain View. All week they’ve been doing door-to-door and children’s ministry which all culminated into a Testing day and what was the Outreach tonight. At the testing day people could get free HIV, TB, Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar tests. Then at the Outreach, people within the community were invited to the event that started off with some worship, the children performing to their parents the songs and Bible verses they learned this past week and then a message from the Pastor. Everyone had a great time and just seeing how people were moved was extremely powerful! This is why we are here and so cool to start of our time with Living Hope this way!

Friendly Welcome

We were welcomed this morning by a sweet retired couple from the UK who arrived a few days ago and will be staying here to volunteer full-time for the next two months. Mike will be assisting the chaplain’s office and June will be ministering to patients in the health care center on campus. We can tell they will be a breath of fresh air not only for our clients, but also our staff. We thank God for their commitment to come and serve with us!

Hitting the ground running..

We shouldn’t have, but our flight arrived in Cape Town at mid-day today – and we still went into the office for our “first day”. Happy to see us, our manager still told us to go home and come back fresh tomorrow, but we were too excited to miss it, even if we came in for a few hours. There are lots of volunteer inquiry emails received since the beginning of the month and are awaiting response – here we go! We kept on working and working – till it felt so late even though the clock only said 3:45 pm. Little did we know that it was already 6:15pm and that the clock decided to stop working today! Go figure!

Returning "Home"

The bride and groom with our deck-out Landy!

The groom and his best men!

What a whirlwind past couple of weeks! We are going back to South Africa after a quality (albeit short) visit with friends and family in the US & UK. My brother Jim’s wedding, was nothing short of perfect: flip flops and khakis, and the entire family together for the first time since 2008. It was so special to be there and see everyone even though we had long ago written off the idea that we would be able to do so this year. We also had the chance to share with friends in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and London how God was calling us to serve in full-time missions – and how we drove through Africa to get there! We would have loved to stay longer and see more people, but not so this time. We are determined, though, to stay in better contact with everyone abroad, since we know that we can’t do this without the prayerful support of friends and family.

"Unexpected" Travels

We board an airplane to the US today. I’m very excited to see my family. It wasn’t part of the “plan” to do this before starting work at Living Hope, but about two months ago I got word that my twin brother Jim was getting married – in early September! We didn’t want to miss it, and prayed that we could afford the time and money to make it happen. To our amazement, both areas were taken care of! Our reporting manager allowed us to delay our start date from 1 Sept to 8 Sept, and my parents covered a large portion of flight costs so that the entire family could be there. What a gift! So we’re flying in early to 1) catch up with friends and church in London on a 3-day layover there, and 2) spend some time with our dear friends and church community in Fairfield, Connecticut. We will spend the final week with my family in Pennsylvania in the run up to Jim and Molly’s wedding. We know the time will go quickly, but we know it’s worth it!

First Outreach Week

One of the most exciting parts of our job-to-be is that we get to be part of outreach initiatives on a regular basis. Not only that, but we will actually prepare the way for these events to happen in advance. There is currently a team here from a church in Nevada. Living Hope (Mike and Pam) have arranged for the team to work alongside a local church in the community of Masiphumelele, or Masi for short. Masi is a squatter camp of predominantly makeshift shacks of wood and tin, and has grown to at least six times the originally intended size. Very few of the thirty-five thousand people living there have received a government-built house in recent years, but the vast majority continue to wait years for theirs. The visiting team members are partnering with local church leaders for a week and go door-to-door to meet and pray for people, help with a free ‘health screening’ day, and provide leadership development for the church, amongst other great activities. Some of the team entertained the children of those getting tested with some facepainting. Today was just a glimpse of what we can look forward to!

A Couple's Vision Trip

This afternoon we had lunch with a family who were out here from Ohio, US on a vision trip. They are considering moving out here as full-time missionaries with their 5 children. They wanted to meet with us since technically they would be coming over when we are the Volunteer Coordinators – a big realization that this actually happening! They wanted to just hear our thoughts, share their hearts and pray together. We shared with them what others have shared with us: you might have the calling, but its got to be the right timing. And then we also all realized that if they are going to do it, they will have to do it as a complete family. That God would have to have 7 perfect puzzle pieces for them to fill here. I know that they are still only starting to hear the calling, but it would be amazing to have them out here with us. So we’ll pray to see what God wants to do in and thorugh them – how exciting to be able to be a part of that?