Violence in Joburg

Well I only have a week left in South Africa! Its crazy how fast it has gone...I don't know how many of you have heard about what's been going on in Joburg, here's an article in case you haven't...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24705508/

I just wanted to ask everyone to be praying for the situation, a lot of the youth we work with are foreigners and some of the violence has spread to the inner-city where they live...we're suppose to be having a going away party this coming Friday at Troyeville but we don't know if we'll be able to if its not safe.

Anyway, that's all the update I have for now, I might not post again until I get home, I want to put some pictures up of the youth at Troyeville sometime soon though.

KwaZulu-Natal

This past week has been awesome…I just got back from a five day trip to KwaZulu-Natal, a rural Zulu part of the country about five hours from Joburg. Me, Kelsey, and Russell (another American that helps out at Troyeville) were able to go with Pastor Cheryl from Troyeville and some of her family. We went around to some rural villages and passed out clothes, blankets, & toys that had been donated to Troyeville. One man Cheryl knows holds a church of about 40 people in his home in a village called Emmaus, very near the Lesotho border…





…we visited him on Thursday and brought a bunch of the donations to his family. He’ll help distribute them to members of his congregation. Fortunately, he’s getting a new church built soon. On Friday we visited an orphanage of about 40 older kids in another village called Qua Qua and determined what kind of stuff we needed to bring them on the next trip down. Saturday we went on a pretty strenuous 12k hike in the Drakensburg Mountains, a very beautiful mountain range in this part of the country that I would describe as somewhat of a cross of the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains, here’s a few pictures from the hike even though the pictures don’t really do it justice.







On Sunday we went to yet another church and after the service we passed out blankets to the whole congregation, at which point everyone (even the pastor) were so happy they got up and started singing and dancing.

It was a great experience overall, I got to see another beautiful part of the country and experience a rural African village, plus it’s always eye opening to see the poverty and need of a place like this firsthand. Its incredible how diverse South Africa is, you can go from modern, urban city to urban slums to rural villages in a matter of hours and encounter 10 languages along the way. For example, nearly all of the tourists in Drakensburg were rich, white Afrikaans people, staying in huge resorts just miles down the road from Zulu huts.

It's still Africa...kinda

Just some random thoughts from the past week...

The power has been going out a lot lately, about every two or three days for about four hours at a time, we've been going through a lot of candles...not only is it really inconvenient but its also really bad for businesses all over the city who can't operate without power, its one of the many problems of the government and it makes you remember that you're still in Africa

Its been getting colder here the past couple of days, 50s and 60s during the day and down into the 40s at night, supposedly this is earlier than normal for it to be this cold, so I hope it warms up a little bit before I leave instead of turning into winter because I didn't bring many winter clothes

We visited Sandton the other day, this is essentially the upper class part of town, its the financial district and the part of the city where all the businesses are starting to locate...we went to a huge mall there called Sandton City, which is basically two skyscrapers connected together with an outdoor square and this statue of nelson mandela in the middle...



...it was definitely the biggest, most upper class mall I have ever been to, I'd say almost twice as big as the Mall of Georgia

We went to Joburg Hospital the other day with Pastor Cheryl from Troyeville in order to visit a little girl from church that was in there and pray for her...I had heard a lot about the hospital, its pretty much the premier hospital in Africa and where anyone on the continent comes that has to have some kind operation done, so I guess I was expecting an extremely nice, modern hospital that might belong in Sandton, instead it was really big, but very run down, dirty and old looking...again a reminder that its Africa and not the U.S.

Finally, it was my roommate Jon's birthday the other day and we went to the Lion Park and the restaurant Carnivore to celebrate...the Lion Park is essentially a small zoo but you get to drive around inside the area where the lions are as they come right up to your car, and you get to play with lion cubs, here's some pictures...





We ate at Carnivore, an all you can eat place where they serve all kinds of African game meats, we had impala, kudu, crocodile, and ostrich...they bring it on skewers right to your table and slice it off onto your plate.

That's all I can think of for now.

Cape Town!! and Joburg update

Well I went on vacation to Cape Town last weekend, we stayed with some of the other Hands On missionaries stationed there. Its one of the coolest cities I've ever been in, it felt a lot safer and a lot more American than Joburg, it was nice to get a break from not being able to go out at night...here's a few pictures...

These are from the top of Table Mountain







Most of the group that was there...me, Kelsey and Mercedes from Joburg, Jay and Chris from Port Elizabeth and Brittany and Robyn from Cape Town



These are all from Capepoint, an hour or so outside of the city...
This is known as the Cape of Good Hope


Capepoint is behind me...the southern most tip of Africa


This is where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean


A baboon, they're suppose to be all over capepoint but we only saw this one...they supposedly steal your bags and search for food if you're not careful


At the waterfront with Table Mountain behind me as wait to take a ferry over to Robben Island, a former political prison where they held Nelson Mandela for years.


Seals at the waterfront


Table Mountain from the ferry to Robben Island


Penguins on Robben Island


Baby Penguins


Well I think I've posted enough for now...everything back in Joburg is going really well, we're doing a series in youth right now about Biblical heroes so I spoke last Friday night about the stoning of Stephen and I think a lot of them got something out of it...we're having about 15-20 show up consistently on Friday nights which is encouraging. These guys all continue to struggle with understanding why God allows innocent people to suffer so much...most of them have family members that have died of AIDS or live with single mothers or other family members, some are immigrants from the Congo or somewhere else nearby and left their family behind and live with friends or something...its been a really hard message to get across to them...anyway, I'll try to post some pictures of youth and other stuff at Troyeville sometime soon.

Finally an Update!

Sorry its been so long since I've updated...I've had a lot going on the last few weeks and haven't had a lot of time on the internet.

Most of my time lately has been focused in the inner city at Troyeville as the youth group starts to grow. We've started having youth group on Friday nights at Troyeville. We've had about 20 kids show up for the first few. We try to make it a fun place where they can come and hang out on Fridays since no one gets to go out much at night. We play games and have a short devotional message. The hardest part about it is trying to figure out safe transportation for everyone, one of the kids was mugged walking back home after the first week.

The next couple of weeks are school holidays so we're planning on just having some hang out times during the day to get to know the youth better.

I've also started playing basketball on Wednesday afternoons at a park in Troyeville near the church. I try to meet guys and bring them with me to Bible study on Wednesday nights.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to visit an orphanage associated with Troyeville called Door of Hope. They have a box where mothers can anonymously place babies that they're planning on abandoning, rather than leaving them on the street.

I went to a rugby game last weekend. It was a lot of fun and really cheap! About $6 for front row tickets in a big stadium in downtown Joburg. The league is made up of professional teams from South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. It ended in a tie on the last play of the game.

This past week I was at a conference for all the IMB missionaries in in the southern part of Africa. There were about 550. We spent a lot of time in missionary training meetings that all the missionaries go through, but we were also interviewed and debriefed by a lot of different people about our experience in the Hands On program, since this is the first semester they've done it and they're trying to figure out how its going.

I'm going to Capetown next weekend!! Its suppose to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, so hopefully I'll be posting some pictures next week sometime.

More Pictures

Here's some pictures of Joburg I took after we drove up a little mountain nearby and some pictures of my apartment...

Downtown Joburg


Sandton (the financial district)


Outside my apartment...


...and the rest of the complex


My bedroom


Kitchen


Living Room

Meeting the IMB prez and other stuff...

So the last couple of weeks have been really busy...

Last Tuesday the IMB had their regional leadership meeting in Joburg and we were able to go and give our testimonies about what we've been doing here. Since this is the first semester for the Hands On program they wanted some input into how its been going. We were able to meet Jerry Rankin, the president of the IMB, and a really nice, genuine guy.

We've been busy at Troyeville planning for our first youth event coming up this Friday night. We're trying to make it a really fun hang out time that will get them to come back with a very simple Biblical principle that they can take away. We've also had a bit more time in Troyeville hanging out and playing some basketball with some guys in the neighborhood who we'll hopefully be able to get involved with the youth.

In Lyndhurst, we'll hopefully be starting a house church in our apartment complex within the next couple of weeks...I'll keep you updated on how that is going. One of the guys we met in our complex actually became a Christian yesterday afternoon after talking with my roommate Jon for a while. I played soccer with some of the youth at Lyndhurst yesterday afternoon, they set up a concrete block as the goal, it pretty hard to hit and the guys are pretty awesome but I held my own and even scored a couple goals.

I've been learning about rugby, South Africa actually won the rugby world cup a couple of months ago, so its a pretty big sport here, along with soccer and cricket. We're suppose to be going to a rugby match sometime soon.

That's all I can think of for now...

Safari Pics

Here's some pictures that I was able to load from my safari at Pilansburg...








Sunset





Sunrise over the lake as we watched a pride of lions hunt a herd of wildabeasts in the field to the right...the next picture is one of the females who had just crossed the rode in front of us a few minutes earlier.

Weekly Schedule

Well I'm back from my safari which was an amazing time, I'll tell more about it later when I am able to post some pictures, for now let me just give some more details about what I've been doing in Joburg. I know a lot of people have been asking what a normal week looks like for me so here's a summary...

Sunday - me and two of the girls (kelsey and mercedes) on the team attend Troyeville Baptist which is in inner city Joburg, we teach youth sunday school which normally has between 20 and 30 youth. Sunday afternoon is nap time (except for the next couple sundays when we have youth planning meetings at Lyndhurst Baptist) and sunday night the whole team attends Lyndhurst Baptist (real close to my apartment).


Monday- our day off...usually we hang around the Tadlock's house (one of the missionary couples here) and use the internet and phone, sometimes we'll go to the mall and see a movie


Tuesday - we have a hang out time for the youth at Lyndhurst in the afternoon where we play sports and board games

Wednesday - me and the two girls are in Troyeville for most of the day, we have a meeting with the youth pastor, prayer meeting with the church, tea and sandwiches, and a wednesday night bible study where everyone watches a video and then the youth breaks off and we help facilitate the small group discussion...Troyeville also has a preschool for kids whose parents can't afford it, so we get to play with these kids for a lot of the day as well


Thursday - we have our weekly meeting with our supervisor Chuck which usually lasts for most of the morning, and he generally takes us somewhere in the afternoon for "cultural learning"...we're suppose to be going to the apartheid museum sometime soon

Friday - so far we've been attending youth at Lyndhurst Baptist (about 60 kids) which we've helped to plan and have facilitated small groups...In March me, kelsey, and mercedes will be in Troyeville on Fridays where we are going to start a Friday night youth group event

Saturday - we have a prayer meeting at Lyndhurst in the morning but besides that every saturday has been pretty different so far, we're hoping to start volunteering at an AIDS orphanage associated with Lyndhurst every Saturday. We've been hanging out in our complex with our neighbors on Saturday nights, last Saturday one of our neighbors took us to the market in one of the townships with them to get fresh vegetables and then cooked for us.

Whatever downtime we have in the afternoons is usually spent hanging around our complex (sometimes at the pool) and trying to meet people or preparing for whatever Bible study we have to lead. We've already met several guys in our complex that have come to youth at Lyndhurst with us, eventually we're hoping to start a house church in our complex.

I think that will give you a pretty good idea of what I do most of the time...if anyone has anything that they want me to talk about then post a comment and let me know.

Safari

I'll be going on a safari next Monday and Tuesday to Pilanesberg National Park. So check back for pictures sometime next week. Here's the website if anyone is interested

http://pilanesberggamereserve.com/index.html

Pictures from Tanzania

The entire group at orientation plus the Tanzanian college students that helped us.







The dining room








Playing spades, our nightly entertainment

First Two Weeks in Joburg

Well, I’ve been in Johannesburg (Joburg) for about two weeks now and a lot of that time has been spent on even more orientation with our missionary supervisors here. Our apartment is in a pretty nice part of town outside of the main city, and it reminds me a lot of the states (there’s a mall and a grocery store within walking distance of my apartment). The big difference is the way crime affects how you do things here. Everything closes at four or five o’clock and almost no one goes out at all after dark, plus every house and apartment complex has multiple layers of security with guards, gates, electric fences, and bars on the windows and doors.

One of the coolest things to me so far has been the variety of languages. Its impossible to tell what someone’s first language is until they start talking…whites will either be of British heritage and speak English or they’ll speak Afrikaans (which is a Dutch and German based language) and blacks might speak any variety of tribal languages, Zulu and Xhosa (which uses different clicks with your tongue and is really cool sounding) being the main two. But pretty much everyone knows English and a lot of people speak at least 4 or 5 different languages.

We’ve really just started getting into the ministry we’ll be doing, and I don’t think we’ve really had a normal week yet, but here’s an idea of what I’ll be doing. We’re working alongside two different churches, Lyndhurst Baptist, which is within walking distance of our apartment, and Troyeville Baptist, which is in the inner city, pretty close to downtown Joburg. Our main job with both churches is helping organize and lead the youth groups, although there are other things we’ll be involved with as well (we're going to be volunteering at an AIDS orphanage that is associated with Lyndhurst Baptist one day a week). Our main goal is to develop relationships with the people in our area in and around our apartment complex and eventually start small house churches and Bible studies.

On Friday we went with Chuck (our supervisor) to one of the townships several miles outside of the city. It was one of the poorest areas I've ever seen, no running water or electricity, dirt floors, with shacks built almost on top of each other. There are hundreds of thousands of people living in townships like this around Joburg. Most of the people live there because it is land that the government has said they will eventually develop and provide housing with plumbing and electricity. So people from all over southern Africa come and live in these areas for maybe five or ten years hoping that eventually they'll get a better life. I didn't take my camera with me but here's a picture I found of what one looks like...

...so Chuck took us to a church inside the township that he has helped start and we played with about 20 kids that they were keeping at a daycare inside a building similar to one of those in the picture, we also helped them build an outhouse. It was a great experience and hopefully we'll be going back pretty soon...to me the saddest thing about it is the fact that a few miles down the road is the financial capital of Africa with millionaires and a very American style of life.