South Africa Outreach - Week 8 Summary

We are here in Somerset West and staying on a student campus called Pneumatix. This place is gorgeous with a country feel, lots of grass and an amazing view. The mountains surround Somerset West and the surrounding towns are in the valley and up along the mountainside. To our right, you can still see part of the ocean. The view screams of the beauty of God’s creation! As a girl who loves the country, this place is such a gift for our last location on outreach.

I am incredibly happy to report how thankful I am to have a room and a BATHROOM that I only have to share with Shane! I am super grateful to have our own beautiful room and a bathroom and shower to ourselves! Things I would normally take for granted as a married woman are now a delight and blessing! Sometimes I’m tempted to put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on our door just to have more privacy, but that would be wrong =)

This week of ministry started out slowly as we had to find new contacts to work with here. The first contact ended up not working out so we were wondering what this week would hold. I wasn’t concerned. I felt the peace of the Lord and have been jealous for more quiet time with the Lord and this location facilitates that well! Monday and Tuesday included working out the details for ministry this week. In the meantime, we spent two afternoons on the beach though not doing what you usually do there. Monday afternoon we went to the beach as a team to have some personal quiet time with the Lord to ask what He wanted to say about the next 3 weeks at a new location. It was like the two beach/God times we had as a class back in Kona. I loved those mornings! The second afternoon, it was filled with beach evangelism! The team even did one of our dramas on the beach for bystanders as Shane, Angie and I had a meeting at a local church to work out some ministry for the week.

Well, the meeting was quick, smooth and fruitful and out of it, we gained wonderful partners at a local church who hope to work with future Call2All teams! On Wednesday, we joined some women from a local church on home visits for HIV patients in their community. What an honor to go into the homes of these women and talk to them, listen to them and pray for them. We also got to share the Gospel with one lady who answered that she did not know Jesus. At the end when I asked her if she wanted to make a decision for Jesus today, she said that she wasn’t prepared to yet. I pray that the seed we planted falls on fertile soil and that she makes a decision for Jesus. In the afternoon, we did a program for the children who normally come for an After-school Homework Program. We pulled out our songs, games, skits and such from our weeks doing VBS in Worcester. They came in handy again! We ended a fun ministry day with a praise service with 800 youth at a local church! We enjoyed some wonderful singing and dancing with the people who gave us a friendly welcome! We were the only Caucasian people I saw in the whole building. I definitely felt like the minority, which I haven’t noticed very much. Even when we were walking through Red Hill and the only white people there, I didn’t even notice. For some reason, it seemed really obvious to me at this church. I don’t know what that was all about!

On Thursday, we had the honor of joining in with the HIV/AIDS Support Group at the local church. It was a special time to connect with some of the patients. We split into 2 groups and shared and prayed for one another. It was really special as 2 people in our group rededicated their lives to the Lord! We also got to pray for healing for all 4 of the patients in our group! God is a God of miracles! Do it Lord!

The downer of Thursday and on wards was that Shane had a rough time with his head =( On the way to ministry on Thursday, we hit a large bump in the road and Shane and Allison were in the back seat. They hit their heads REALLY hard on the roof of the car and were nauseous, dizzy and had head, neck and spine pain =( With Shane’s history with head injuries, this was NOT good. We missed afternoon ministry with the children’s program as Shane rested and I watched him (concussion-wise). By Friday morning, we decided to go to the ER just to make sure. Shane had a CT scan that came back normal which we were very thankful for! The ER doc was a Christian and actually lives here on campus which was such a blessing for my comfort level of health care in a foreign country =) With being a nurse, I’m already skeptical at times with health care providers in my own country, never mind in another one! The head saga continued for the rest of week 8 unfortunately and most of the focus for Friday through Sunday was on the recovery of Shane’s head situation.

I did go out on Saturday morning for ministry and it was so enjoyable! We participated at the church in the monthly HIV Screening Clinic. I offered to help the nurse and told her I was a nurse back home. So, I got to do the testing with her! It made things go double speed because there were two nurses doing the poking and testing! I’m very thankful to report that all our patients were negative, except a known positive patient who got retested. I was really hoping that he would be healed after we prayed for him at the support group. We tested a total of 36 patients that morning. It was so fun to bless people in a nursing role again! I really enjoy helping and serving people in that way! A funny note is that just the day before, while sitting in the ER, I leaned over to Shane and said that I didn’t miss work at all. But, I sure had fun and got life out of being back in that role the next day =)

The next day, on Sunday morning, we participated in the church service at the church we’ve been serving this week. The name is called Bethesda Evangelical Church, which is interesting because I grew up in an evangelical church back home. Even though they had the same denominational name, the churches here and back home are very different. We brought all the kids on stage and did some African songs with actions. It was a blast! Then we did our drama and I think it was probably the best time we’ve done it yet.

On Sunday afternoon, we went up to the water tower on the mountain that supplies all the water for the homes in the area and overlooks the ocean and the city. The view was breathtaking! Absolutely gorgeous! I kept thinking of the seas of glass in Revelation 4 before the throne in heaven as I looked at the sparkling ocean from far above. We went there to begin our week of prayer by praying over the city together. Sadly, our time was short but I think it would be great to go there again before we leave! Quiet time on that mountain overlooking the ocean and city would be lovely! And I want to show Shane because he wasn’t able to come =(

Blessings for this week:

- Breakfast here has been at 8am instead of our usual 6:30 or 7am breakfast times! What a blessing and a nice break!

- Quiet time has been really nice in our new rooms each morning. I really love that time of day!

- Shane and I got to stroll through a mall and eat frozen yogurt on February 14^th for Valentine’s Day! Then after our personal time with the Lord at the beach that day, we got a little time together on the beach too! What a special day after all for our marriage!

- This location has a piano! Woo! Hoo! I got to play and sing for almost an hour by myself on Tuesday morning and it was very refreshing!

- The food here is AMAZING! We are eating so well!

- I finished my last book for the DTS! Going Public with the Gospel was an awesome book and I definitely recommend it!

- The roosters crow all day long here, the guard dogs are friendly and there is a random peacock that we think likes to stare at its own reflection in the windows.

I must say, I’ve really enjoyed the transition to our final location! Can you tell?!