It’s been a week since we arrived in Muizenberg. Yes, I said Muizenberg…not Fish Hoek. Both are suburbs of Cape Town and our housing is actually in Muizenberg which is beside Fish Hoek.
The city of Muizenberg is very beautiful. We are located at the base of some beautiful mountains and a 15 minute walk from the coast of the Atlantic ocean. The water is cold here! The houses and towns are located along the coast and up the mountains which makes me think that this area of South Africa reminds me of the pictures I’ve seen of Greece =) So beautiful!
Week 4 has been incredibly challenging for us and our team. Tensions have been running high as we live in close community with one another. Community living has taken on a whole new meaning as I am living in a small house with one bathroom, my husband, 4 other guys between the ages of 18 and 40 and a thin door separating us from the rest of the house. Please pray for me over the next 3 weeks! I have never been so thankful for my little apartment in Winnipeg where I live with my husband and no others (except for the times my siblings have lived with us for a few weeks or a month)! I’ve never lived with males who I’m not related to or married to and it has been a little overwhelming.
We have two main ministries that we are working with here. In the mornings or evenings, we are working with Living Hope. It’s hard to explain what they do and are because they do all kinds of things (palliative health care, AIDS counseling, feeding of the homeless, teaching work skills, children’s programs, etc). For our team, they have asked us to work with a pastor from a local community in a township at the southern tip of the continent. Red Hill is an informal settlement of about 2500 people. There are prophecies about revival beginning in South Africa and spreading upward into the whole continent of Africa. Red Hill has prophecies specifically about revival, as it is the southern most settlement in South Africa! It’s awesome what the Lord is doing and saying!
This week in Red Hill, we did door-to-door evangelism and built a house (shack really) for a woman in the community whose house collapsed. It has been such a blessing to grow in boldness in sharing the message of Jesus with people. A huge strength in our team is evangelism whether it’s during outreach, at the grocery store or wherever! This week 3 more people got saved! We also joined the church for a bible study, which ended up being an evening of praise, worship, dancing, sharing testimonies and prophetic words! It was super refreshing and it was so much fun! I felt so at home in the Spirit with those people!
In the afternoons, our team separates into two groups and 6 of us help with a soccer camp and the others volunteer at the surf camp. Shane and I spent the week at the surf camp and let me tell you, it has been crazy! We thought the kids in Worcester were violent and needing lots of attention. Well, the kids from a local township (Capricorn) that come to the surf camp are WAY worse. They are in need of a lot of love and attention and are consistently violent and perverted. It’s so sad to see their behavior because they must see awful things at home. The townships are overcrowded, made up of small shacks, filled with violence, theft and immorality. The surf camp has been a big challenge and it’s hard to see the fruit of why we are there. But, that being said, after one of our girls gave the 10 minute word on Wednesday, one young boy came to her and said he wanted to build his life on a good foundation and gave his life to Jesus! So, those moments make it worth it!
Random details of outreach location #2:
- The weather in Muizenberg is cooler than Worcester. Definitely not the heat we encountered and I’m thankful =) It’s SUPER windy here and I have to pull out sweaters and my jacket some days. It’s crazy to think I can wear jeans and a sweater in Africa during their summer! Who would have thought?!
- Shane and I have had almost no time alone here in Muizenberg. One night, we walked up and down our street just to have some alone time and get some fresh air. Today, we have had the house to ourselves for 3 glorious hours! I’m so thankful!
- We spent our first full day here in prayer as a team. It was a great way to start our next 4 weeks. We prayed, shared, had time to quietly listening to what the Lord is saying for our time here and we read through Acts from start to finish out loud as a team (it took 2.5 hours). It was a great way to start location #2!
- Our 3 focus themes from the 7 themes of Call2All that we cover on outreach that we are focusing on here are compassion, church planting and unreached, unengaged people groups. We continue to do evangelism, 4K mapping, orality and prayer anyways!
- The first night here as we were getting ready for bed, the biggest cockroach I’ve ever seen was on our floor in our room! He was super fast and sent us on a squealing chase! He ended up running under the door of the guys room =)
- We have a nice room with a beautiful window that faces the back yard (including the concrete wall with spikes to deter theft). I’m so thankful that we have our own room! The mattress is in very rough shape and dips big time in the middle! We pray for our backs each night and it hasn’t given us pain! Praise the Lord!
- We did an experiment this week as suggested by one of our team members and appointed two people each morning to pray for the day, the team and our outreach for 30-60 minutes before breakfast. It was good! At our team meeting, we shared what we heard from the Lord that morning.
- We had to take our clothes to the Laundromat for the first time today. It’s weird and somehow a relinquishing of control to not be able to do your own laundry! So, a load went there and we did another one by hand in the bathroom tub. Shane and I haven’t hand washed clothes together before. There’s always room for more firsts =)
So, on the whole week 4 was a big challenge team-wise. We could use as much prayer as possible for our team unity and for the community living. I’m hoping that we can grow closer and stronger and that this next week is an easier one. I’m hoping and praying a day or two off this weekend does us all good!
The highlights of each day definitely have to do with the outreach ministry. It is such a blessing to minister along side my wonderful husband. It is a blessing to work as a team in evangelizing, meeting new people, praying for people and loving on the kids. I’m sooooo thankful he is here. I wouldn’t want to do it without him! It’s so great to have the support of your closest friend and to have this experience together!
As we go in to week 5, I’m looking forward to our ministry times in Red Hill. I am super excited that we are going to focus on discipling in that area, including starting cell groups using the simple church model! Many people have made a commitment to Jesus at some point but aren’t living out a relationship with Him. What a challenge it is to follow Jesus if you don’t have a Bible or any support from friends or family to grow in Him. I want to encourage and teach these ones, starting with getting my friend a Bible in her language!
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