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...