Finally! A few photos!

A typical home in Uganda.  Mud huts and thatched roofs.  It's pretty incredible that people live in these houses their whole lives and are still very happy.  A good lesson for me about what "well-off" is. 

Elephants!  At the world-famous Safari Park- Kruger National Park.  It was incredible to see African animals in their natural habitat.

"Squatter Camps" in Rustenburg.  Thousands of people living in complete filth...it was incredibly disturbing, humbling, and disgusting.  Tiny metal shacks with no running water, no electricity, animal feces everywhere, extremely high cases of crime and rape, and AIDS running rampant.  It's a breeding ground for diseases also, which fuels the negative effects of a weak immune system from AIDS. 

We helped distribute Medication to AIDS patients in the bush bush of Uganda.

Karabo and I!  She's my favorite precious Orphan from Rustenburg, South Africa...where we were at the beginning of June.

Much Love from South Africa,

Lisa & Keith

Done.

I can’t begin to express everything that’s happened.  We have just finished our “debriefing” where we stayed at a team member’s home in a town called Sabie.  We had two days where it seems we did nothing but talk about what happened.  A dozen hours of talking and we only scraped the surface of what has happened to and through us during the last 12 weeks while on ‘Outreach’ in Uganda and NW South Africa.

            In the end, our team decided that the most impactful things about the whole trip were: Learning how to listen to and abide in God, who we’re discovering is more faithful to us than we have ever imagined.  Truly basing each day on following God’s heart for us has led to an incredible maturation in every individual on our team.  Looking back, most of our memories and significant moments centered around the individuals who we met along the way.  People like Agnes and Martha who have turned their homes into soup kitchens for all the hungry kids they can get a hold of.  And Els, who built an orphanage out of nothing and now is trying to start a hospital.  And Lawrence, who couldn’t believe that we would go anywhere without preaching to everyone present.  And the dozens of other people we bumped into who have dedicated their entire lives to simply loving other people with whatever skills they have.  These people have inspired me by showing the extent that personal talents can be used for. 

            I added up some of the numbers to be able to look back over where our team has been.

Over 3,000 hours of service on outreach.  We preached or performed at over 10 church services.  Worked extensively with 2 orphanages.  Hoe’d 5 large fields.  Got 5 cases of Malaria.  Communicated across at least 8 language barriers.  Organized games for over 1,000 different children.  Distributed ARV medication to about 250 people with HIV.  Began a soccer and Basketball team and appointed coaches that began running the teams before we left.  Saw over 30 people decide to devote their lives to living for Jesus as their Lord and savior.

            The list of ways we served goes on and on.  But compared to the needs we saw in Africa, it felt completely worthless at times.  On one of the last days of outreach we walked through a “Squatter Camp.”  40,000 + people living in abject poverty.  Not even running water or the means to daily food.  We put in hours of work at this camp but felt incapable of doing much to help these people.

Even after serving thousands of people these last months, our team had an overwhelming sense that the most permanent change came in what God did in our lives.  Mostly he showed us all a lot of ways that we could grow up and then guided us towards doing so (miraculously at times).   

So now we’ve just finished relaxing for 4 days.  We went on a safari and saw really big African animals.  We have rejoined all of our other classmates from all over the world in Cape Town, where we’ll spend a final week processing the whole journey of this school before saying goodbye.  We look forward to seeing you all very soon.  

-Keith and Lisa in Africa

Real Toilets

So a lots happened. Lisa got malaria again and actually got sick this time but she's OK. We spent the last 2 weeks in Uganda in Soroti (a town) instead of going to Pader (mud huts in a refugee camp) as previously planned. But we found a refugee camp a quarter mile from the base and made some friends there. Lisa's became pals with a woman named Christine who is a refugee, running from civil war that chased her out of her home town. Christine helped Lisa and some of our other girls run a week long Bible school in the camp. We got to know Christine and her daughter Beatris well throughout the week. After eating and visiting with Christine several times throughout the week, Lisa and i decided to pay for Beatris' school fees for the following year. Beatris has no money (or home/husband) and the total cost of school fees was about 15 U.$.D. for the year.
When i went to the refugee camp for the first time I saw a basketball hoop with no rim attached. This bothered me a great deal. I immediately set about to fix it and in the process met a man named Matthius. He's a full time student, community developer, community council member, youth coordinator, carpinter and war refugee who has lived in a mud hut for 6 years because his home hasn't been safe to go back to. Matthius and I built a basketball court over the next week and by the time i left Uganda, the two of us had gone on the radio, 97.0 fm Delta Radio, promoted basketball in northern uganda, reviewed all the rules of basketball and He started practices with a team he put together. It was glorious.
We're now in South Africa starting a whole new batch of work. It's been a shock coming back into the western world but we're adjusting nicely. Lisa and i spent our first full day here walking around a mall just staring at all the sparkly things for 8 hours.
Lisa and i are doing really well personally. God has been teaching us a lot about our marriage and we've been maturing individually a ton. It's been fun to learn how to treat each other well.
We're excited to be on our way back home soon and can't wait to see yall this summer. Hope to get on the internett again soon...(1 computer for 9 people which is 6 miles away from where we stay). We love you and good day.

MALARIA STRIKES!!!

Yes, that’s right. Malaria has ravaged the team. Even our own Lisa Nelson has fallen victim to the deadly disease. But on an anticlimactic note, Lisa’s malaria was easily treated with a few pills over a few days. Malaria is as common here as a cold. The treatment for malaria has been worse than the actual disease itself.
The team has had an intense week. Most were busy, tired, and homesick. The question, “What are we even doing here?” came up more than once. Many people were content pointing out the problems but didn’t have any solutions, which brought the spirits on the team pretty low. But on Wednesday our team reacted in an inspiring way for me. The leadership on the team put in a lot of time praying, researching and talking, to give the team a stronger focus. We came together to agree that everything we do as a team will be based around the fact that we are here to reveal God and become more like Jesus. We chose Ephesians 5v1 as our foundation and are incorporating this theme into everything we do.
Defining our mission and common inspiration was important for us as leaders to do because as the weeks have gone on, all of us have, to some degree, gotten selfish and disconnected from each other and God. As you might be able to picture, this attitude on “Outreach” led to feelings of discontent to say the least. So we refocused the team on why we are here and everyone followed suit in a mature fashion. Things have been remarkably better since then. I still find it funny how miserable people can get when they focus only on getting what they want. For the last week or so, we’ve been doing the exact same things as before, but it’s all being done with a fresh motivation and it’s made all the difference.
The last week has been great for Lisa and I. We’ve had a lot of fun with each other and doing ministry. We’re still taking care of orphans, bringing food to people in the hospital and meeting folks in the town who have incredible stories shaped by Uganda’s crazy recent history.
Lisa and I have really invested in our team members and the ministry. To work hard at something you believe in gives you a satisfying feeling of tiredness at the end of the day. I feel my energy has been well spent. I’m not sure why, but out of this, Lisa and I have had more energy for each other lately. There’s been a lot of laughing every day and it’s been grand.
I love you all and I’ll leave you with a quote that sums up the African lifestyle and communication that we get the pleasure of navigating on a daily basis.

Lisa- “So I do have Malaria?”
Emaculate (Lab lady) – Nods
Lisa – “What kind of malaria do I have?”
E – “Ha ha ha. It’s OK”
L – “Can you tell me what kind of malaria I have please.”
E – “OK. It’s fine! We are best friends now! Come back any time! J”

We love it!

We’ve been here in Soroti, Uganda for just about a week now and we are really loving the town here and the ministry opportunities that are available here. I cant wait to get into the swing of things and have a consistent schedule. I’m going to focusing on two areas of service and ministry for the next two weeks.

The first area of ministry is working with a Mobile Clinic. Both Keith and I, along with a couple of our teammates, went out to one of these clinics last Wednesday. It was amazing! It was a UN official sort-of day. J We rode in the back of a pick-up for an incredibly bumpy hour-long ride on African “roads”. It was sooo much fun seeing the Ugandan country side from the back of a pick-up…such a fitting way to see a developing African country. We eventually arrived at a rural village where over 100 people were waiting under trees for the medicine that we were bringing. Out job for the next two hours was filling prescriptions for these Ugandan villagers who were suffering from all sorts of problems. The most common illness were: malaria, stomach problems, and HIV/AIDS. I think a lot of the stomach problems probably are a result of the sanitation problems that are pretty much inevitable in much of Africa. They just don’t have running water and don’t have money for soap and most don’t have toilet paper….so you can imagine the diseases that spread just because of a lack of simple things like that. Grandpa, you would’ve been so proud to see me filling prescriptions for these people. I took a picture for you of Pharmacist Lisa in the African bush. J Keith and I are going to do 3 more clinics like these within our two weeks left. I’m so excited. I hope to also bring a message from the Bible next time we go.

The other ministry that I’m going to be involved in is working at an Orphanage that works with babies and toddlers. These children have either: been abandoned by their extended family because they have HIV, their Mother died during child birth, or they have been mistreated by their parents or relatives and needed a safe haven. I will be working on a consistent basis with this Orphanage and I’m so excited to love on these beautiful babies. This Orphanage was started by a Dutch woman and so it’s very well run, tiddy, and precise. I love that things are organized. Haha I can’t stand working for ineffective organizations.

There are tons of mosquitoes here because we’re close to a swamp so please keep us in your prayers and pray specifically for good health…especially that we wouldn’t get malaria from these mosquitoes. God has been protecting us so much while being here, so I am confident that His hand is over us. That brings me an incredible amount of peace through all of the crazy situations that Keith and I are in.

I apologize for not having pictures to post…it’s hard to post them at an internet café with poor internet. J We’ll have LOTS to show you when we return of these places, people, and situations that we’re writing about.

God bless! Much Love from Uganda~
Lisa

Good Frday

Hello everybody. It's Keith this week. Lisa and I have made it back into Jinja for our day off this week. This morning I had cheese and Lisa had meat for the first time in 7 days, and it was glorious!
The last seven days have been incredible. Last weekend was hard for us as nearly everyone on the team struggled with culture shock and homesickness. It lasted about three days for everyone and we got through it as a team. Since that time, everyone has been excited about all the work we've been able to take part in. One particular family that lives next to us, has caught the heart of our team. It's a Muslim family who is struggling financially and has a very sick kid named Abeeba. Someone from our team has visited the family nearly every day to chat and pray for them. Me and the guys from the team cleared the families field and mulched the earth with Ho's all last week. They hope to plant a bunch of corn this season. And just a few days ago, Lisa led the father of the family to accept Jesus as Lord and he devoted his family to Jesus. It was an incredible moment and we are all still praying for Abeeba who is sick in the hospital.
Every day has been full of teaching the Bible and serving the village around the base. But this week has been dominated by planning. We are plannnig a giant easter party for everyone in the village. And we have been discussing going to another village called Pader at the end of the month. In Pader we would live amongst war refugees who have the highest percentage of post traumatic stress out of every people group in the world. We would teach the Bible, hopefully help organize a church there and build a school. As of five days ago I was sure that many members of the team would refuse to go as it would require living in rustic conditions. But in the last few days there has been an incredible change of heart in nearly everyone on the team. It seems that everyone has found peace in putting complete faith in God to guide them anywhere. By "God guiding them" I'm referring to a string of coincidencess that have worked out perfectly in our favor to point us to going to Pader...one of which included a random Asian lady telling our whole team the exact answer to questions we had for God while praying earlier in the day. My stomach dropped while she was talking, i've never experienced anything like it personally. I've always believed in God as an idea....and my life goes well when I pray and do what He says, but it freaked me out when He so blatantly showed up as someone alive who has a relationship with us. Seeing God work in individuals and the team has tearified and comforted me at the same time. I doubt i'll ever be able to wrap my head around it.
Things are going well outside of "ministry time". Our team is pretty cool and navegating international travel with 10 people from six different countries is always interesting. Traveling through this continent has been amazing. Lisa and I hiked a mountain yesterday and looked out over lake Victoria and some of the most beautiful countryside i've ever seen. We also got heckled by baby monkeys on the way down. Lisa and I are having a lot of fun. Things here are tense at times and we get excited about coming home every few hours but overall we're having a blasty blast and laughing together when we're not working together.
I've been especially proud of the role Lisa chose to take in the leadership of the team. She has to fight off the temptation every day to do everything for everyone because, as it turns out, she actually does know how to do everything. But instead of micromanaging the whole trip, she's guided the team through sublte wisdom and impactful relationships. Most of the girls in the school, including the school leader and team leader, have pulled me aside to rant and rave about what an incredible impact Lisa manages to have on them simply through relationship. I think she should be in charge of Washington when we get back...she'll efficiently manage the state through friendships and hugs.
Until then, we'll be in situations that i've been dying to get into for years. Please pray for us. We coud especially use prayer for faith in God that pruduces peace of mind. We love you guys. Good day.
-Keith, writing from the last westernized place we'll see in a month if all goes well :)

In the Heart of Africa

We are here in Jinja, Uganda and it's been a wonderful week thus far! We are living at a beautiful place...large property so it's kinda of like an oasis from the village and city. Keith and I have our own little room complete with a TOILET, which the rest of our teammates are jealous about because they have a ceramic covered hole in the ground to take care of business. One of my favorite things about where we're living is the huge filtered water tank that is 15 feet from our front door! Praise the Lord! It's not cold, but it also doesn't give you the runs...so that's all that matters.

Uganda is absolutely gorgeous. The sunsets are beautiful, the afternoon thunder storms are thrilling, and the lush landscape is quite enchanting. We have goats, chickens, puppies, cows, and geckos in our front, back, and side yard. :) Oh!...and turkeys! We can't forget the turkeys. Their gobbling lulls me to sleep.

My favorite part of the week was visiting and Women's Prison located right next to Lake Victoria. Myself and 3 other girls from our group accompanied a man from Y.W.A.M. who has started prison ministry over the last few years. We taught, chatted, and prayed with 30 women who were in prison. I had a great time praying with Rachel and Josephine. They promised to continue to pray for me as we continued on our journey.

On Wednesday night Keith and I stayed over at a local women's house. The Ugandan people LOVE to be hospitable so we took them up on their offer to join them for evening conversations in their mud hut living room and then stay the night. A giant cockroach stayed the night with us too! We had a great time with our host Irene and her two kids Faith and Joshua. They are 17 years old and 22 years old and served as a translator. They are an absolutely delightful family. We'll have to post some pictures later.

We haven't experienced full-blown culture shock yet, but it'll surely come.

Our entire team is stoked to be here and eager to see how God works throughout our time in Uganda and South Africa. After Easter we will leave Jinja and head NE to Soroti.

I apologize for any typos, I'm in a rush here at the Internet cafe.

Much Love from Africa,
Lisa

Migration

Friday, March 27th. It’s a warm misty afternoon here on the base and all 25 people in our class are attempting to clean their rooms at the same time in a two hour window. I’ll be shocked if there’s not blood shed over the disinfectant spray by 3pm. Lisa and I are about to walk out the door in 30 minutes to spend three days on planes, trains, and automobiles traveling to Uganda. We are the first of three teams to leave the base this weekend….SOMEONE JUST BROUGHT ME HOT CHOCOLATE WITH MARSHMOLLOWS IN IT!!! I love African hospitality. The Malawi team leaves tomorrow and team India leaves Sunday.

These last two weeks have been nuts. I’ve been busy from early until late everyday…(someone just burst out into song “Leaving, on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again” The entire room joined in. I swear this place is a real life musical) back to the letter…Lisa and I have been studying every day and also helping plan the trip. It’s been exciting and stressful.

Two days ago one of our favorite team members decided he couldn’t go on “outreach” with us. He has to go home and deal with some stuff. It was sad. It got a lot more sad when we remembered he was the accountant. But now I am the accountant/treasurer and travel agent and student and leader…the team doesn’t know it yet but I’ve siphoned the funds into a private bank account for Lisa and I to buy a house on Chelan. They should find out by the time they get to Uganda.

I’m completely out of time because I have to get 9 catlikewanderers onto a train in a couple minutes. Lisa and I love all of you so much and we will miss you and technology greatly. We love you again, please pray for us and we love you.

Blown away by Ceres, South Africa

Ceres, South Africa

Wow, so much happened during our week in Ceres, it’s one of those experiences that I don’t even know where to begin or how to articulate what we experienced.  Here’s my shot at giving a glimpse of what happened.

Our team of 10 people headed 2 hours north to Ceres, South Africa where we went to be a blessing for our weeklong stay there.  Of course, like most service trips, I think we ended up receiving more of a blessing than we gave.  The only thing that we knew as we drove up to Ceres was that we were going to be working with a new church and we’d be staying in houses of church members.  We pulled into the township in Ceres and drove aimlessly around for a bit, as we all questioned whether or not our driver actually knew where we were suppose to be going.  However we eventually found the church (a tent, similar to a small circus tent) and much to our surprise we were greeted by a group if singing and dancing locals who were dressed in their traditional African outfits and holding a large sign saying “Welcome to Green Village Church”!  It was WAY more than any of us ever expected!  That was pretty much how the rest of the week continued.  The hospitality, generosity, and excitement of the local church members was absolutely humbling & inspiring!  We were consistently outdone in joy, hospitality, and generosity.

Our team members were hosted by three different households for the week; each house not being bigger than a small two-bedroom apartment.  And we were staying in the really nice part of town.  This township that we were staying in and ministering in consisted of 3 different types of homes.  The first type being government homes, which were the homes that we were staying in, are equipped with electricity, running water, and usually a fridge.  The second type of housing is a shack that is probably on average 300 square feet that is made out of scrap metal, has very low ceilings, and sometimes cooking facilities.  The third type of housing that we saw and visited were “squatter camps” which is basically houses in a dump.  Outside sewer system, 150 square foot “houses”, made with cardboard/scrap metal/zinc/anything/everything, no running water in homes, 3 outhouses for the whole community (100 people or so), and large trash piles located in the entry way to their community.  This was very hard to see and be in for even the few hours we were there.  I honestly cannot imagine living in conditions like that.  We prayed for and gave testimony to over 30 people in this community and saw a handful of people commit their lives to Jesus.  Rock on!  You can imagine how much more receptive people are to hearing about Jesus our Savior when they’re literally living in a dump.  People want hope.  I think these people are much more excited about heaven than us westerners, cause they’re not living in luxury like we are here on earth.  They are living in filth.  Most of the people in this community are single women who are raising numerous kids off of pretty much nothing.  The work opportunities obviously revolve heavily around the harvest season for fruit and if they’re lucky enough to get work their job is to work night shift at the local fruit packing plant…11 hours standing on your feet.  They need God our comforter. 

It’s been interesting for me to be in these situations because I’m finding myself needing God more too, in a different way than I need Him at home.  Back at home I generally have all of my comforts and needs covered, therefore I see my need for God in my emotional vacancy and deep yearning for a purpose to my life.  I have all of the material things back home…but something in me always tells me that I was created for more.  God created me, His unique creation, to be in relationship with Him.  The fun part now is trying to discover what God has planned for ME!  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope”- Jeremiah 29:11.  But last week in Ceres I found myself appreciating more about how God provides for me in the physical things.  I thanked God for every meal I had, because most people there can’t afford to eat three meals a day.  I thanked God for a bed, because many people were sleeping in filth.   I thanked God for each cool breeze that came, because it was over 100 degrees and there was no air conditioning ANYWHERE! It wasn’t even cool in the shade.  You all know how us Hogans over-heat too!  Ugh…just thinking about it makes me perspire.  I saw a new side of God through my new situation.  It was intriguing to have my “God-in-a-box” perception shattered.  It’s oddly comforting to know that I cannot comprehend the God of the universe.  That’d be weird if I could understand someone so profound…

Anyways, our days were filled with house visits to church members and random people in the community.  We would ask people how we could pray for them, whether they were Christian or not, and we’d pray for God’s blessing over their struggles and hardships.  Our group did lots of kids ministry because there were lots of children running around the streets at all times (stalking us, because we were the only white people in the township & we played games with them).  Many times we would gather a few kids to play games in front of the church and we would end up with over 100 kids joining our circle, anxiously awaiting the game that we were going to play with them.  A game to play with 100 kids….in the middle of an uneven dirt field FILLED with broken glass and metal….hmm…do you know any?  Cause we sure struggled. Haha.  Another problem was most everyone did not speak English in the township, they spoke Xhosa.  So our team quickly learning international communication techniques for working with the children, such as big facial gestures, clapping, and loud noises.  We stretched the creative side of our brains for sure.  J 

Keith preached at one of the church services and gave a bit of testimony about how God has changed His life.  You should ask him to share those with you when we return.  J  He’s given me to go-ahead to offer that, by the way. 

Our international quest continues and we are constantly being challenged to evaluate what we believe, why we believe that, and if it’s correct.  It’s our hope to move from egocentric/ethnocentric to God-centered people.  Pray for us.  J  haha

Much Love from Africa!

p.s.  We leave for Uganda in just under 3 weeks!  We will depart on March 29^th-ish! 

p.p.s.  A great documentary to watch to gather understanding about the refugees in Uganda is called “An Unconventional War”.  Watch it!  Powerful true story about prayer. 

 

Picture 1:  Our group with the church members who greeted us into Ceres with singing and dancing!

Picture 2:  Women of the church in their traditional Xhosa dress.  Hazel, our host, is the 3^rd from the left in the top row (white dress).  She was wonderful! 

Picture 3:  I became closest with these 3 women during the week J

Picture 4:  View from our front yard.  The houses seen are the highest class government houses.

Picture 5:  In front of the grade school where we taught a class.  There were over 140 kids in a normal American sized classroom that usually holds 30 kids. 

Picture 6:  Girls who we played with and loved on all week. 

Picture 7:  Playing games with the kids in front of the Church tent aka kids attacking us

Life speeds up

Hello Home,

            Every week down here is busier and more intense than the last.  But on occasion we do have time to be married and entertain ourselves.  Two weekends ago Lisa and I were able to take a train down to Simonstown, the last town before the Southern tip of Africa, and stay the night at a B&B overlooking a beach covered in penguins and one of the most stunning coastlines I’ve ever seen.  We spent the day in the sun then sat on our balcony watching a lightning storm roll over the mountains and out to sea.  It was amazing to have our first quiet night alone together in weeks.             

            This last weekend for Valentines day the guys in our DTS class planned a morning which included roses for all the girls, a hot breakfast with waiters, singing “Can’t take my eyes off of you” with surprise guests bursting out of windows for the chorus, and more sappy gestures of love.  The girls took the guys out that night for a campfire and s’mores.  At the end of the day I knew the Lord had his hand over the base because this is the first Valentines day I’ve ever seen where 90% of the girls didn’t break down and wallow in self-pity because they didn’t get exactly what they wanted.

            In important news concerning the base, I have moved up to 5^th in the Muizenberg International Ping Pong tournament standings and look to challenge the 3^rd place participant tomorrow. 

            During our lectures we’ve been taking a look at the Lordship of Jesus and have been challenged to take a good look at what and who is in control of our lives.  It still amazes me how I will so blatantly see other people’s addictions, and pursuit of empty promises but it takes being shaken up quite a bit for me to grasp that I have faults too.  Why are people so funny like that?  This week was enormously impactful for me.  Simply sitting down every day for a week and looking in the Bible at what God says should actually be the focus of our lives, it makes me wonder how I could ever want anything else.  It’s hard not to become passionate about Jesus when you begin to understand what He desires for us individually and in our nations.

            In the upcoming week, our outreach team (the 10 people we’re going to Uganda with), will be doing a 7 day service trip to a town named Ceres.  Ceres is a lot like Ellensburg; a city surrounded by fertile farmland a couple hours away from the coast up in the mountains.  There is a lot of poverty there by South African standards, but it’s pretty well off compared to a lot of the rest of Africa.  We are going to help build a church that just got started and to work in a grade school.  Lisa and I are busy helping to plan this trip and have been asked to co-lead the rest of the outreach trips in Uganda and the Northern states of South Africa.  We’re pretty stoked about that.  We leave in just over a month for our Uganda outreach, which is pretty surreal.  It’s hard to imagine that we’ll actually be living in the heart of Africa for at least 8 weeks. 

Lisa wanted me to apologize for breaking her promise to blog every week.  Last week got a bit busy here.  We will post again in 2 weeks when we return from Ceres.  She sends her love to everyone, of course!  

Picture 1:  The Base we live at in Muizenberg. 

Picture 2 & 3:  Our luxury room at the Base that will be glorious compared to where we’ll be sleeping in Uganda, I’m sure!

Picture 4:  View from Simonstown B&B.  Penguins located on beach right below our balcony!  $50/night…exchange rate is still in Americans’ favor!

Picture 5:  Penguins in Africa!  Who woulda thought…

Renewal of our Minds

This last week here at our Y.W.A.M. “base” aka home we had an incredible teaching on forgiveness and reconciliation by a man who lives out what he teaches.  What a novel concept!  J  Our weeklong speaker, Wilson, has experienced a great deal of oppression, pain, and just basically had a very rough life.  From losing both his parents before age 9, being a victim of apartheid & serious racial discrimination here in South Africa, to being held at gunpoint many times, and many more deeply scarring events, he’s had many circumstances where he’s had to choose whether or not he was going to forgive people.  His life is a deeply powerful testimony to the freedom that comes with forgiveness and reconciliation.

A concept that really captivated me throughout the week of teaching was the idea of taking responsibility for my actions or reactions when someone wrongs me.  In the past I’ve kind of functioned with the mentality that if someone does something wrong to me then I have the right to react less-than-pleasantly to them.  Us Irish don’t do well with letting people get away with screwing us over.  We’re bitter and have the right to retaliate however we see fit, correct?  Jesus was not vengeful but rather His nature is to extend grace & mercy so as to maintain relationships.  God is such a relational God, and unforgiveness really jacks up relationships and prohibits the peace that God intends for us all to have.  It’s my goal to develop habits and ultimately a lifestyle of forgiveness so that I’m not bound by bitterness.  I think this is going to be a life-giving path and I’m excited!

Not only did Wilson speak about forgiveness between individuals but also between nations.  At one point Wilson asked us 25 DTS students to make a big circle and one by one Wilson called the students from each nation (being represented in our class) to enter the middle of the circle and receive a blessing from all of the other nations.  So Keith and I were 2 of 5 representatives from the United States of America.  We entered the circle as our new buddies from all over the world prayed out blessings and thanksgiving for all of the good that America & it’s citizens bring to the world.  The different nations thanked God for:  America’s courage to act on behalf of justice, our initiative when needed, our innovative spirit, our generosity, and of course that we’re ridiculously good looking.  I thought it was going to be a really cheesy moment, but I was actually very proud to be representing America and just proud of the goodness and blessings that come from America.  More so it was just refreshing to be amongst people from nations all over the world and to not see each other as a threat but instead to appreciate each country for what their country and culture brings to the world’s blessings! 

In the most important news, Keith has plowed his way from the 23^rd spot to the 10^th ranked spot in the “Muizenberg International Table Tennis Challenge” that’s occurring here at our base.  People are trembling with fear.  Secret Ingredient for success:  “a lightning fast forehand”- Keith Nelson.

Drum roll please……we finally found out where we are headed on our Outreach for the last 3 months of our trip and the verdict is…….UGANDA!  J  Our class of 25 students will split into 3 teams that will head to:  Uganda, India, and Malawi.  Our team of 10, which are headed to Uganda, will meet up this week to begin planning our trip.  We will discuss what ministry and service we’d like to do and where we will be headed within Uganda.  Keith has already drawn multiple very precise maps of Uganda for us to study and use as references…and he just loves maps and is a big big nerd.  But the maps are actually extremely well done!  We will be sure to post more details as they unfold regarding what kind of work we’ll be doing in Uganda.

We wanted to thank everyone for your emails, comments, and messages.  It’s great to hear from our loved ones back at home…even if it’s just a quick line!  J  You can become a “follower” of our blog, meaning that you are notified everytime we update the blog, I believe.  The details are at the top of this webpage.  FYI- we will try to be diligent about updating this blog once a week (every Wednesday-ish). 

Much Love from the beautiful country of South Africa!

~Lisa

 

Photo 1:  Township aka ghetto near Muizenberg

Photo 2:  The Youth Group girls from township that I volunteer with.

Photo 3:  One good looking man and the view from our backyard!  We climb that mountain in the background frequently.  Great view!

Photo 4: Stadium in Cape Town for World Cup 2010!  Whoo!!  

We made it!

 We're here in Muizenberg, South Africa in our fourth week of D.T.S.  That stands for Discipleship Training School.  Becoming believers in Jesus has changed our lives for the absolute best, therefore we are pursuing what we have found to be truly fulfilling and life giving...a deeper understanding of who God is and what He's called Keith and I to do in our lives.  

At our new home we are living with about 50 other people ranging from age 18-35 years old.  We, as Americans, are the minority and it's great!  It's great to get to understand what it's like to be the odd man out.  Humbling.  Our new housemates are from soo many countries but a few that I remember off the top of my head are:  Holland, South Africa, Mozambique, England, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Nigeria, Uganda, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, D.R. of Congo, Australia, Northern Ireland, etc etc.  It's been interesting trying to have group conversations with so many people where English is a second language.  

Our weekdays are filled with mostly class time, "chores", and local outreach projects.  My favorite local outreach thus far is when we picked up trash in the worst street in town, which was an incredible way to break down barriers between people who would otherwise probably be hostile to us.  It BLEW me away how much humility ourselves, by doing the dirty duty of volunteering to pick up the trash on neighborhood streets, melts away fears and hostility.  I ended up meeting a 15 year old girl who is living with her Aunt in the slum/drug street in town.  We've hung out a few times, played volleyball at the beach, ate ice cream, talked about life and our dreams, etc etc...I've come to find out that her Mother died just last year and that she's been living with extended family ever since.  She's such a sweet girl and it's been a blessing to get to know her and her Aunt.

Keith is also spending Fridays & Sundays working at a local church to help with their Sunday school and children programs.  There is currently a teacher-child ratio of 1:50, so his help is greatly welcomed!  I am leading a Youth Group in a "township" aka poor part of town on Friday afternoons.  I already met a  big group of 14 year old girls, by simply standing outside our meeting hall and looking really different from them...being white with weird long blonde hair.  It's quite a tactic for meeting African teenage girls.  :) 

We should be finding out later this week where we and our classmates will be heading for our "Official Outreach" locations.  This location is where we'll be for the second 3 months of our trip (late March -late May).  Our choices were:  Thailand, Uganda, Malawi, or India.  Keith and I feel called to be in Africa, therefore we put our preference for  Uganda or Malawi!  Crazy stuff-but we're excited!  I am going to use these next couple of months to try and rid myself of my need for a comfortable & clean place to sleep and my need for access to healthy food.  That's just not going to be feasible on our Outreach so I'm trying to take baby steps...God is leading me with His grace.  

If we go to Uganda we'll be working with the very poor and refugee population  OR if we go to Malawi we might be working with HIV orphans.  Either should be quite an eye-opening experience to say the least.  I am learning more and more that most people don't live like a I do as a princess.  Even with a crashing economy, I am going to be SO thankful for the blessings that God's given me in Washington!  I am so fortunate and ridiculously blessed!  

Missing home and sending LOTS of love from South Africa!!!  Your prayers for Keith and I are oh-so appreciated!  :)

Photo 1:  Surfing Lessons at Muizenberg beach!  I learned how to surf!

Photo 2:  Table Mountain, Cape Town.  View from Cape Town waterfront.  The exchange rate here is good...all Americans vacation here!  :)