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!!