Cape Town
Sunday, November 9, 2008
God was good to us today. I (Adam) did not sleep much of the night and was in the bathroom every few minutes. I didn’t even feel good before we left for church, but once we got there, I was o.k. to preach. It went well, the pastor even encouraged me to the do the alter call. I didn’t quite have their excitement level during it, but I tried my best. For the afternoon of which became evening we had lunch at another families house. They cooked us prawns, which are big shrimp and another kind of fish. It was great. Then they took us on a car trip up table mountain and to camps bay, the main public beach. It was beautiful. So, all in all, a great day. Tomorrow morning we leave early for George to have a few days of vacation and fun at the beach before we need to head back to Pretoria.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The car was not stolen last night…good news! Since the window was open from the smash and grab, we had our doubts about whether we would still have a car in the morning. Car theft is also pretty common here. It has been very nice not to own a vehicle and have to worry about it. Other good news… the window got fixed today. Adam helped take apart the door to get the new window in…what a man! We spent most of the day relaxing and resting. Adam was not feeling well again so it was much needed. He also needed to prepare for the sermon that he is preaching tomorrow about God’s plan for the nations. I look forward to hearing it!
Friday, November 7, 2008
The program for today was to pass out more tracts by a different grocery store. One girl in our group lead someone to the Lord during this time! I (Jo) had a few conversations with a taxi conductor and a taxi driver. Both were interesting, but neither seemed to want to talk about spiritual things. This afternoon we went to a township to donate some soccer balls to a few boys. On the way back, we were the victims of a “smash and grab.” We were sitting at a stop light when a man walked up and smashed in a back passenger window and grabs one of the lady’s purse that was with us. It was very scary. This is pretty common in South Africa. We are a little shaken up about it still. This evening we did the youth program at the church, which was another success. Out theme was the persecuted church. I think it spoke to all of us as well. We told stories, did a Bible study, and played games related to persecution. It was a good night.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
This morning, the ladies of our group went to a women’s shelter to do a devotional for them. Our group meet with five ladies. Flo, an older member of our group, lead the devo because she had been a single mother, just like these ladies. After the devotion, we got the opportunity to sit and hear the ladies stories, which were very heart breaking. This home helps them get back on their feet and teaches them a few skills along with counseling. After this we helped make and serve at a lunch the church serves once a week. This evening we went to a boys shelter and did a program for them. It was fabulous. We enjoyed our time with them. We sang songs, did a skit, memorized a verse and played lots of games. I think that they enjoyed their time as much as we enjoyed ours.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Today we attempted a different type of evangelism—handing out tracts on the street outside of a grocery store. Many of us talked to Muslims and had interesting conversations. I talked to a man who seemed to know his stuff when attacking Christianity, but we found most of it wasn’t true. He had misquoted a scripture, but our arguing with him would not have changed his opinions. We enjoyed our time. We also decided to do a little extra and go out this afternoon back to the shanty town. We talked to a few boys and even saw Basil again, but he didn’t seem to want to talk today. This evening was free and it is a holiday in South Africa and we were told that they were going to have fireworks. Our team headed down to the water front again and grabbed some dinner. Sadly, we never saw fireworks—no one seemed to know about them when we asked. We drove to a few different place, but we did not have any luck.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Happy election day! We are sad to miss this occasion, but hope that you are enjoying watching hours of news about who will be our next President. For us the day was rather slow. We began with tea and coffee and our host church and listened to the testimony of their youth pastor. He was formerly a leader of a gang and has a very powerful testimony. Then he led us on door to door evangelism. I (Adam) took great comfort in the fact that he was rather uncomfortable with this ministry. He does much street evangelism, but he seems to stay far away from door to door. But our experience was short-lived. A few houses, many of whom did not care to talk or receive prayer. One Muslim lady who came to the door and said it would be great, we all pray to the same god anyways. I had to correct and say, well we actually don’t believe that, she didn’t seem to like that very much. Then we preceded to try to minister in a nearby park, but not to many people were out and about. For the evening, we received a call an hour before our program that it had been cancelled and rescheduled for Thursday evening. It fits in with the way this outreach has gone, so we decided to head to a mall for an evening movie.
Monday, November 3, 2008
This morning our team met at the church to go out an do door to door evangelism with the youth pastor, Denzel. We walked around Woodstock and stopped at a shanty town where there were lots of people around. I (Jo) talked to a woman named Grace who had her three children taken away for abuse and neglect. She seemed to think that this was outrageous, but she was living in a car. Until she got an actual place to live, she would not get her children back. So I prayed for her. Then we talked to another guy, who was a Muslim. He was young and had come to visit a friend to give him food and some clothes. He was interested in us because we were “tourists” and he wanted to start a touring company. It is amazing how God will open doors like that. This evening we went to a prayer meeting. It was a prayer meeting/healing service. Almost everyone in attendance had a need. Many in Africa consider epilepsy a spiritual condition, so they rebuked this spirit of epilepsy and covered her face in oil. It was a new experience for all of us.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
We encountered our first authentic South African braii today. Our host threw the braii (a barbeque) for our team after church. We had the choice of Lamb Chops, Chicken and Sausage. It was quite a great feast, except the chicken legs weren’t quite done. Hopefully we don’t get food poisoning again. In other news, we visited two more churches today and shared for a few minutes in each. We are experiencing a variety of church styles and long sermons. For example one of them went for over an hour and I (Adam) honestly could never follow him. I don’t think he had a main idea that he was communicating what so ever. He never opened the bible, but fortunately did paraphrase a few verses. Oh how we miss the Chapel on Sundays.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Today was our day off…as if we needed one! Hahaha. We took a taxi, then a bus to the Waterfront. Taxis have a horrible reputation here for being dangerous, but we really enjoyed our ride. The drivers get very close to other cars and sometimes drive with the doors open. The Waterfront is the harbor and it is pretty touristy. It has a lot of shops and attractions. We went on a short boat ride around the harbor and we saw some seals that just hang out there. It felt kind of like a date. I even splurged and got some Hagen Daz ice cream and we watched the boats. We went to a market and walked around as well. It was a beautiful day!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Happy Halloween. Actually that is not the case in South Africa and it is understandable because they are so much more concerned with the demonic world. So, no sweet treats for us today. Today we planned in the morning and went to a big mall in the afternoon for lunch. This evening we stopped by a mission’s dinner that our host was putting on for her brother. Adam spoke briefly at the dinner about missions and our organization. The dinner was to raise money for brother to continue his work on the ships. After this we rushed off to another church to do their youth program. We had a great time. We played games, did trivia questions, did a Bible study and a skit—all around the theme of missions. I think the coolest part of the evening was to see how the kids warmed up to us through out the night. We are excited to go back next week.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Today was an adventure of a day! We went into the center of Cape Town to do a prayer walk in a Muslim area. Because of apartheid, it became a Muslim area and almost all the Christians had to move out. Today, there are very few Christians and there are no churches, but mosques everywhere. After this, our team decided to go on an adventure. We thought it would be fun to go to Cape Point. We piled seven people into a Camry…this is definitely Africa style! It was rather uncomfortable and we drove for a long time. We never made it or even came close, but we did get to see Fish Hoek, which had a beautiful beach and Kalk Bay. which had a cute town and some boats. It kept us entertained and on our toes for the afternoon.
Verse of the day: James 4:15 “Instead, you ought to say, ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”
Please pray that we could be flexible with our schedule.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Jo and I feel much better! Today we met with the Pastor of the church we are working with from Woodstock. As you are well aware from our prayer calendar, the focus of our ministry was supposed to be working with people of different faith. Well, when we sat down with the Pastor, she had no nothing initially planned. I asked her what their Muslim ministry did? and she responded, we don’t have one. Quite a big communication error, but we went with it and made the best of it. So we are doing quite a few programs with the church, we are running a few youth programs, visiting some cell groups, working with two boys shelters, serving food for the homeless, doing some door to door and attending a prayer meeting. It was also funny when they asked me if I was qualified to preach. I was glad that they asked, because my experience thus far has been people who allow anyone on their pulpit, but they phrased the question in an interesting way. “Do you preach just like we do.” Well, I said not quite. That was based on my experience this past Sunday, where they spoke about receiving a new kind of tongue from Psalm 23. And they are a bit more charismatic than the Chapel per say. So, they are apparently going to sit down with me individually before next Sunday’s allotted time.
Verse of the day: Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Please pray for our relationship with our partnering church in Woodstock.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Jo and I either contracted food poisoning or a bug of some kind. Neither one of us slept very much and was hugging the porcine bowl for most of the night. Jo said it was similar to her experience in China. I felt bad for her, because she had made me a birthday dinner last night but never really got a chance to celebrate it. It was a rough evening, especially considering that we are at a host’s home, but we made it through. We stayed home and skipped the second day of training. It was funny though because a random guy just dropped off the 4 year old around 3 o’clock. We had fun with her and watched high school musical, but the family did not come home until after 5. For dinner we had curry. It was hard to digest, especially since we hadn’t eaten much all day, but our host family didn’t seem to understand. She kept telling us that we needed to eat more and asked me if I didn’t like her curry. Oh well, I guess sometimes in a different culture, you are in a lose-lose situation.
Verse of the day: Matthew 4:23 “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
Pray for the health of our team during the outreach.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Happy Birthday me! Thanks for all of those who emailed and signed my facebook. It is much more appreciated to receive some love when you are miles away. My training team also celebrated. One of the groups called and sang to me and the other we saw in person sang me happy birthday with puppets. They also had a cake for me at lunch. Today was our first day of Orientation. It was a long day, the guy was extremely knowledgeable about Islam, but was hard to understand and listen too.
Verse of the day: Psalm 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Praise God for the community of believers that he has placed around you and thank him for the encouragement that you receive from them.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Today was a day full of long services! Our first service of the day began at 10:30 and finished a few minutes before 1 pm. Then this afternoon, we went to a community prayer meeting with our hosts that lasted almost 3 hours! Some of the speakers for that would switch in between English and Africaans and so some of it I did not even understand. Today was a fun day of getting to know our hosts better, Sheena and Hershal. They have two girls, ages 2 and 4. They are very hospitable people. They have a small house with only two bedrooms, so they gave us their room and are sharing with their girls for the next two weeks. They have been to America and so we sat around and talked about their impressions and what they thought was really fun on their two and a half month trip.
Verse of the day: Romans 12:13 “Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
Please praise God for our hosts and their hospitality.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
We have arrived in Cape Town and what an adventure the drive was! I feel like I traveled through Kansas, Arizona, Colorado, West Virginia and back to Colorado with all the different terrains of South Africa. Our first adventure was yesterday when the bus ran out of diesel fuel only 3 km away from the gas station. Once we went and got diesel for the bus it still didn’t start because air got into the engine. After three hours of sitting on the side of the road and a mechanic, we were moving again. Our group stayed the night at a prison, but it hardly felt like one. The room Adam and I got assigned must have been the one smoking room that existed there. It smelled so bad that we moved our beds into another room, but the beds reeked so bad of smoke that it made that room smell as well! We had a short nights sleep and were back on the road at 4 am this morning. The good news is that we did not run out of diesel today, but the bad news is that we got two speeding tickets. Adam was driving the car and did not realize that the speed limit dropped from 120 to 80 km/hour. I only know that he got a ticket because I saw a camera flash…which is how they give speeding tickets by taking pictures and sending them. The other ticket was for the bus driver. Oh, forgot to mention, we say five different sightings of baboons on the road, only in Africa. But we made it safe and sound. We got to our host family and I really think that this will be a great family to stay with.
Verse of the day: Proverbs 2:8 “For he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.”
Please pray that our time with the family would be smooth and that we would not over step any boundaries.
