From South Africa

Hello Everyone from South Africa. If you didn’t hear we made it safely and without a hitch. We have now been here two weeks and we can honestly say it has been an amazing experience so far, as well as an eye opening one. For the last two weeks our group of 19 have been working with local schools close to the townships (informal settlements is the PC name). The school Gina and I have been working in is a two part experience. Each day we spend an hour and forty minutes teaching a classroom of students. We have been able to teach on a range of topics, from respect and teamwork to about the different countries in the world cup. Then in the afternoon, the group of six of us that go to this school, coach soccer for an hour. At times it is hard but just seeing how exited the kids get when we show up makes it all worth it.

We could tell you many stories and experiences so far but to save your eyes and time I will just tell you two to give you an idea of what we are doing. So flexibility is something we are definitely learning here. On any given day a teacher may say their class is switching with another class, so we have to teach a different set of students that are also a different range of ages. One day we came to the school and were not supposed to coach the students until 2, from 2 to 3. While we were sitting at the school eating our lunch one of the teachers told us that the kids were on their way to the field. The next thing we know the principle walks in and says to the effect of “oops I forgot to tell you, you have the kids from now (12:30) till 2”. It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal but when you have a plan and it gets changed it can be challenging, especially for me and Gina. Another thing that happened was on the first day. We showed up to coach soccer, we walked onto a big field of rocks. No joke, a soccer size open area of rocks. Literally you couldn’t roll the ball straight if you tried. Then a hundred and twenty kids from age 12 to 18 came out at the six of us and we were told to teach them how to play soccer =) It was definitely a learning experience and challenging but we also reason that if we could handle that the first day we could handle anything else that came our way.

It is hard at times to see the living conditions the kids live in and to hear about things that go on with the kids at home. In my class of fifth graders one lesson the teacher gave was about not drinking, fighting, doing drugs, and having sex. She told us that all those things were almost normal for kids even at that age. Our teacher told me and my partner Peta (from Samoa) stories from when she worked with abused children, and even about how one girl in our school who had been raped. It is not easy to hear about and really puts into perspective the needs that are still out there in this world. I have been blessed with a Christian teacher who is open to us sharing with the kids and praying with them, which has been amazing. They really seem to respond well and I can only pray that God uses the words we say to really make a difference, if not now at some point in their lives.

A few other things you may find interesting. First that our school is not taught in English but in Africaans, most of the students we work with speak English but a lot of the time it can be challenging to communicate. I find we have to explain things many different ways and with simple words for them to understand well. This next week our schedule is the same but once the world cup starts the kids go on holiday so our schedule changes a little. Obviously the teaching part will go away, but the coaching part wont. The plan is to still coach our same kids for two sessions a day, I believe, and then to watch a world cup game with the kids. I am really excited about it right now, but also I am trying to keep an open mind because I wont know if the plan will change until it happens.

Enough for now, again we can never say thanks enough for the prayer you all give us. We don’t get many chances to get on the internet here, but we will try our best to post again soon.

South Africa here we come…

We just arrived back in Harpenden from Manchester and now have four days to prepare and debrief before our 11 hour flight to South Africa. We are getting really excited. The last two weeks have been some of the most rewarding and challenging times so far in England. I know for the guys, living in such close quarters has really tested our patients toward each other. It has definitely been a learning experience to say the least.

Practically, as we said before, we worked with a Brazilian church in the projects of Manchester. This involved coaching local kids, playing soccer against a bunch of guys from Angola, helping at a local rec center, putting on a fun day with face painting and games at a local park, praying and really interceding on behalf of the community, and many other things. In the church we did a lot of work with the youth, talking with them, having a sleepover night, and really just building relationships with them and sharing our faith with them if the opportunity came up. For me I also got a chance to give a fifteen minute talk in front of the church. It was a great experience. I talked about 1 Thess 5:17, pray without ceasing, and what that means practically for a person’s life. I mainly focused on different parts of my testimony and verses that support the idea of praying about everything and anything and how nothing is too small to bring to God. I felt like it went really well and God really spoke through me. These two weeks really taught us both a lot and we are really exited to see what South Africa will bring.

Please be praying for us and we promise to try and update you as much as we can. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support!!

April 2010!

One post a month...not great but what can you do. Things have been really busy here the last month and believe it or not will only get more busy the next three. We leave for Manchester on Monday to work with a local church there, and then we are back in Harpenden for four days until we leave for South Africa for two months, but first let me tell you about what has been going on here.
We spent a week in Cardiff (in Wales). As a team we joined 4 other schools for a week of lectures and outreach there. The lectures focused on Evangelism and what that actually means. We learned about how evangelism isn't about saving people or even telling them about Jesus per se. It is just about loving people and genuinely caring about them and showing interest in their lives. It was a great week to just spend some time together and to really grow together as a group. There has been a lot of change in our group for the better, it has been really exiting to see.
In Cardiff we got the chance to do some soccer coaching in a park with local kids. This was really cool, the same group of kids came for three days straight and we really got to hang out and get to know them and share a bit about Jesus with them.
One of the days we ended up arranging a match with a group of guys from Botswana for the following day. Which was another cool opportunity that opened up.
As I mentioned before we leave for Manchester on Monday were we will be working with a Brazilian church doing various sport coaching in schools and local leisure centers as well as serving the church in anyway we can.
Then we're off to South Africa on the 14th of May. I'm getting really excited to finally be on outreach but there is definitely a lot that needs to get done before we go so it can be stressful at times. If you could just pray for our safety in Manchester and that everything goes smoothly during our time there that would be awesome.

Holy Spirit

So much has happened in the last two weeks. Last Sunday I went into London with a few people from the school to go to Hillsong, I also went to Holy Trinity Bromton where Nicky Gumble, the Alpha guy preaches. They both were great, in HTB a pastor spoke who runs a church in Baghdad. Some of the stories he told were crazy, he has over 20 personal body guards. As far as the actual school, it is also going great. At times it has been really hard living and spending so much time with people so different then myself. There have definitely been a few conflicts, however I can honestly say that things have gotten way better over the last week. We are really starting to come together as a group, it has been amazing how God has been working in each of our lives. I wont go into too much detail but this week we learned about the Holy Spirit and had some amazing experiences with Him. To be honest a lot of the changes in people came after some encounters and Baptisms with the Holy Spirit. It has been a really good week and I learned a lot too. The week before we learned about discipleship, we looked back at the culture during Jesus’ time. It was really interesting to hear about what it meant to be a disciple during those times. In those days a disciple would follow their Rabbi day and night and literally try and learn how to be exactly like that person. I found that to be profound because in church we always throw around the word disciple, “go into all the world and make disciples…”, I am on a “discipleship training school”. But it wasn’t until that week that I really understood what that meant and honestly I am still learning what that means. Other than that life has been really good, I am very happy right now and even when I am dealing with problems I just feel a joy and excitement for the future. Thanks again for all the prayers! -Colin

Freedom

sorry i've been slacking. Like Colin said last week was quite an encouragement for the school. The week was lead by the "freedom team" here on the campus. The teaching is all about being saved by God, finding your identity in him and living free from sin (especially sins we don't necessarily tag as sin). The coolest part of this teaching (in my opinion) is when a group of the staff ask God what his original design is for each student. As a leader I got to learn and practice being apart of actually prayer for each student which was really cool. I was one of the people who prayed for Patch (Colin's roommate). It was hard at first doing something like that cause it takes a lot of faith and confidence that it is God who is speaking to you, but each time I did it my faith grew as the words I received was very similar to what other people in my group received. It was especially rewarding this week getting to see the students begin to really engage with God and take this time here seriously. Many students identified some of the things that were holding them back from getting closer with God and prayed for freedom from that.
On another note I am beginning to get really tired and kinda sick. We spent a lot of time outside this week, but we are officially FA level 1 coaches in football (soccer)!

Original Design

This week we learned about Gods original design for a person’s life and about the strongholds that hinder you from living the way God made you. I won’t get into too much detail but I would like to share with you two personal testimonies. One is mine. Growing up my mom continually reminded me of a prophecy she got while she was pregnant with me. A lady told her that I was going to be like John the Baptist. So she reminded me of this often and more than often I told her I think the lady got me and Keith mixed up. So this week we each had four leaders from around the base pray over us and ask God to reveal to them our original design as well as some strongholds in our life. For me it was awesome to see four people who don’t know me at all tell me exactly the kind of person I am and the strengths I have. It just really made it real to me that God made me the way I am for a reason and it wasn’t just by accident that I am the way I am. But the coolest part was one of the guys told me he was getting a verse from the bible for me about John the Baptist and how God made me to be like John the Baptist, that I would in a sense prepare the way for Jesus. Sparing you from what that means to me I found it to bet a major faith builder. You can write some things off to coincidence but things like that there is just no way.
If that doesn’t encourage you my roommate Patch got a word from someone a month ago while being prayed over at his church. The lady told him she saw him riding into battle on a white horse like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. A pretty specific word if you ask me. Then when he was being prayed over by the people here someone told him they saw him riding on a white horse like in Lord of the Rings when Gandalf comes and saves the day at the end of the second movie. I love when things like this happen and God makes himself so obvious you know it is Him, which has been happening a lot this week. Anyway I hope you enjoyed that. We will try to write posts more often, especially some from Gina.

It's Snowing! 2-10-10

Don’t worry it hasn’t stuck yet. The school has been going for just over a week now. So far it has been great! Everyone clicked right away and everyone seems to get along pretty well. Our group consists of thirteen students, four girls, one from Switzerland, Samoa, America, and England, nine guys, two from America, six from England, and one from Rwanda. Then we have 7 or so leaders, Gina and Jeremie, two guys from England, one from New Zealand, one from Brazil and two other girls from England and Ecuador. As we mentioned before we have a sports focus on this DTS, which has been awesome. Right now we are in the process of taking a FA level one coaching clinic for soccer. Meaning when we come home we will know how to coach, we may even throw in an English accent. In case some of you are wondering this means on top of taking classes on topics such as intercession, honesty, forgiveness, humility, ect., we also play and learn how to coach different sports and how to use sports to love and outreach to people, especially young people. This is awesome because as we talked about in class today it is important to connect and relate to people where they are at and with what they like. Now if we think about it, people may not like going to church but it’s rare to find someone who isn’t passionate about some sport.
Another thing, in case you are curious, this is what an average day looks like, generally. We have morning workout from 7-8, breakfast from 8-9, class and/or small group from 9-1, lunch from 1-2, sport training or study time from 2-4, work duties from 4-6, then dinner from 6-7 and then finally depending on the day we have church, more sports or just free time. Obviously things change around depending on the day. For example tonight we booked a gym to play some basketball so we pushed dinner back an hour. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what we are up to. Gina’s schedule is a little different but she can share that with you in the text post.

Thanks again for your continual support in prayer. We miss you all!