A week in review...

Here's a look at some of the things I did this week.

Monday (22 October)

• We started a new class today. Out of the Saltshaker with Rebecca. In this class we are discussing the challenges to living an evangelical life. We had a great discussion today.
  Our last mission team of the year, from Michigan, arrived on yesterday. Today we met the 10 of them. So since there is a team here again, that means we have coffee bar again. I got it all set up today and we opened for the first time in a long time tonight.
• The Hand in Hand Pastor's conference started today and will go through tomorrow afternoon. 3 pastors from Summit Church in Orlando Florida are here to preach and teach at the conference.
  

Tuesday (23 October)

• Today was a busy day. I had a lot of work to do for BTS (that stands for behind the scenes). I updated inventories for our donation and resource rooms and updated attendance for Launch Pad classes. Then I called all the students that missed class last week to see how they were doing and pray with them.
• After dinner I had a meeting with one of the staff. We talked about some things I'm struggling with and she really challenged me in some areas I need to change in and encouraged me on some ways to begin that change. I look forward to meeting with her again next Tuesday.
• Then Hannah and I filmed our project for Alece's Intro to World Missions class. We are currently taking a look at other world religions and Hannah and I had to present Freemasonry, Unitarianism, and Christian Science in a creative way so we made a talk show called "Biblical Worldview Today." It was a lot of fun. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time. One of the guests on the show was an old man named Jake McNeal, who Hannah dressed up as. She really looked like an old man which is the scary part...I'm still laughing about it now. Here's a picture...

Wednesday (24 October)

• Today I finished up some office work in the morning and then went to Launch Pad in the afternoon. I can't believe today was the last lesson of the term and that graduations are next week! I love my class! They are so great! I'm really going to miss teaching them and seeing them every week.
• Then tonight we had a staff development meeting with the 3 Summit pastors. I learned a lot about perseverance tonight.
  

Thursday (25 October)

• Today for Leadership Lab, Niel did a Q & A session with Isaac, John, and Andy (the Summit pastoral team). It was really neat to see how much these guys have accomplished at such a young age and it was encouraging as well. They took the vision God has given them and ran with it. I also enjoyed hearing about their challenges and seeing their faith through it all.
• Then we had our presentations for Alece's class...lots of fun and I learned a lot about Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam and how to better minister to people of these religions.
• Town Time...I saw Dan again today. He was so excited to see me as I was to see him. Krista had some work to finish up back at the base so Hannah went with me today. He seemed so much happier this week and told me that we have given him his hope back. We talked with him a little more this week and tried to encourage even more. He told me how he had read the scriptures we gave him last week and what they meant to him. It was so encouraging to hear. I also gave him a paper with more scriptures that I looked up for him throughout the week that I thought would be beneficial to him. Seeing Dan again today made my day. It is so encouraging to see his hope and excitement to study the Bible restored. I know that God has big plans for him. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. Here is another picture of me and Dan from today..
• Then we had church tonight. Cassie talked a little bit about the life of David how we need to know God's plans and follow and obey them even when things get rough.
• Josh came home tonight! It just wasn't the same without him! His grandfather passed away, so he went home to the States to be with his family for a couple weeks. I'm glad he was able to be with his family for a while, but I'm really glad he's back!
  

Friday (26 October)

• ISOM and Soul Stirrings in the morning (two of our weekly classes)
• Then Hope House! I love these kids so much! I wish we had more time with them but we don't. We have 2 weeks left with them. They will forever be in my hearts and I will always keep them in my prayers. The kids were pretty wild today, but that's what kids do, right? Anyways, here are a couple pics from today....
  
  

Saturday (27 October)

• Nothing! It's nice having a day to just relax!!!

Today (28 October)

• Today I climbed Everest and spent some time reading and journaling up there. It was beautiful. If I have time later, I'll put some pics up for you to see.

Praise God

Every Thursday we have the opportunity to go into Harrismith to do our grocery shopping and any other shopping that we need to do. Since it was not my teams turn to do the grocery shopping and since I had already gotten everything I needed in Durban and Joburg, I almost didn’t go to town. But I did, and boy am I glad I did. As my friend Krista and I were walking down the street, we were met by a Indian man asking for money or something to eat (There is quite a high population of Indians here in SA). At first I was like “Sorry, we don’t have anything” but I was stopped by Krista who suggested to the man that we walk to the store together and treat him to some food. So that’s what we did. As we walked we found out a lot about him. He went by the name of Dan, but his Indian name is actually Dayalan. Anyways, we found out that he had a wife and three kids, but his wife had left him and took the kids, and left him homeless on the streets. We also found out that he had a Bible in his bag and was very excited to share with us about it. Anyways, Krista and I decided to take Dan to KFC (yes, oddly enough, we have KFC here). Dan told us that he would wait outside because he was ashamed and did not want to shame us, but we told him that we were not ashamed of him and that he was welcome to join us. So he ended up coming inside with us. We told him that he could order any meal from the menu, so he picked one and while Krista waited in line to order, I sat down with Dan at one of the tables and began talking with him. He told me more about his life as a homeless man and it broke my heart to hear all the things he has been through and the constant fear he faces on a daily basis. Then he brought up the topic of how our riches are in heaven and that he is here today because of the grace of God. We continued to talk about this for a while and Krista and I shared some other scriptures with him. We also had the opportunity to share with him a little bit about prosperity and how God may not necessarily give us everything we want but He gives us everything we need to survive. We also talked about some of the things that Jesus went through when he was on earth in relation to some of the challenges Dan was facing. We encouraged him to keep his head held high and shared with him that God has a plan for his life. I was so encouraged by Dan’s courage and strength in the face of all the challenges and hardships he has faced, but was excited to be able to encourage him more. As our conversation came to a close, we had the opportunity to pray with him and my heart was deeply touched through our time of prayer. When we were done praying, tears were streaming down both of our faces. Then Krista and I decided to take him to the store and buy him a couple essential toiletries. He was so appreciative and told us that we were angels that God sent to him in his time of need and that we were an answer to his prayers. I was deeply touched by this experience and will never forget it. Dayalan (Dan) Gounder will be in my prayers and I would love if you could pray for him too. Please pray for his safety and that he would continue to seek after God though all of the challenges and hardships that are ahead of him.

Here is a picture of me and Dan…
There is so much more to this story but I had to leave a lot of it out in order to make a semi-short (haha that still didn’t happen) post. But if you would like to know more of the story, please ask.

Action-packed

Well, the past couple weeks have been action packed. As I said before youth camps were awesome and went really well, but I guess I failed to leave out something else that was going on at the same time. During the week of and the week before camps, Thrive hosted what is called Family Days, which is a time when some of the interns’ parents came out and stayed with us for either one or two weeks. My roommate and close friend Hannah’s parents and grandma came out for two weeks. It was cool to meet everyone’s parents and I really enjoyed getting to know them. Anyways, here is a picture of me with Hannah and her parents….
After camps ended, the parents left and we had a couple days to recover from camps before we headed to Joburg for the weekend. We had the opportunity to volunteer at the Global Leadership Summitt put on by the Willow Creek Association. Basically we did whatever needed to be done…greet people, set up chairs and tables, serve tea and coffee, stuff thousands of lunch bags and welcome bags, and set up and break down the resource center. I really enjoyed being able to talk with the other volunteers and interacting with the Afrikaans community. It was cool to be able to experience another culture. While in Joburg we had the opportunity to go to the movies and the mall which was a real treat. Although I didn’t buy anything at the mall, I really enjoyed being able to hang out with friends. Here is a picture of Josh and I trying on hats in one of the stores…
After Joburg we returned to our weekly classes and responsibilities for a couple days and then we packed our bags again and left for Durban. In Durban we had the opportunity to attend the Global Leadership Summit. I learned so much from this conference, and I think I will be processing all that I learned for weeks to come. Our accommodations were actually in a little beach town called Ballito and were right on the beach so we had many opportunities to enjoy the beautiful Indian Ocean. I woke up every morning to watch the sunrise and was even blessed to be able to see dolphins and whales surfacing in beautiful morning light. It was definitely a relaxing weekend and a productive one as well. Here are a couple pictures from sunny Ballito…




One of the sunrises…
A nighttime walk along the beach…
So there was a Subway in Ballito which was super exciting but the one opportunity we had to go, they were closed.
Hannah and I had the opportunity to go bowling at the mall in Durban. I even won a free game for getting the ‘ladies high score’ of the day. Here’s a pic of me bowling…

11 to 10

A few weeks ago, my fellow intern Amy injured her knee pretty badly. After many doctor’s visits and seemingly little progress, it was decided that Amy needed to return home where she could receive better medical care. So, on the last day of our first youth camp we all came together and said our goodbyes. It was a sad day as we lost one of our own, but at the same time I know that God has bigger plans for Amy. She will greatly be missed and the internship just won’t be the same with just 10 of us.

Our last group picture....
I'm really gonna miss her...

Whirlwind week…

On the 22nd of September we began a 9 day adventure called youth camps. Each year Thrive Africa hosts youth camps that are open to youth in Qwa Qwa and Intebazwe (and this year Khalanyoni as well). Well, this year we had 3 back-to-back 3 day camps here on the base. Each camp held it’s own challenges, but all were great. For example camp 1 was hot and extremely windy, camp 2 was rainy, and camp 3 was pretty chilly and rainy. But we made it and all 3 camps were a success! This year’s camp theme was Crossroads and featured messages about making the right decisions in life, staying on the narrow road, getting rid of distractions and keeping our focus on God. Camp was also jam packed with games and fun activities! The campers were divided into 10 teams (each team with a different color shirt) and took part in activities as a team. Some of the big team activities were low ropes, paintball, volleyball, the zip line (AKA the foofie slide), Playstation, and the music studio where teams got to record a song. At the end of camp all of the campers received a CD with all 10 team songs on it.I could go on and on about camp but if I did this blog would be a novel, so I’ll just leave you with lots of pictures…

Team bonding time...

Playstation (sorry its a little blurry)... Low Ropes.... The zipline AKA the foofie slide....

I did it too... Me at my balloon dart station at the carnival...Me and some of my Launch Pad kids....
Josh drinking a goldfish....

The peanut butter and jelly skit... Dave shooting Josh w/ paintballs...