Lots of Stories

It has been a busy week followed by my first weekend of rest since I’ve gotten to Africa. Last Saturday I got up early and ran a half marathon. I was pretty impressed with my result of 1 hour and 46 minutes considering I didn’t really train for it. Ben and Gabby Rehmeyer(daughter of Daran) were going to run with me but they both bailed last minute. There were some serious African distance runners that smoked me but I held my own against the average runner. That night I went to a barbeque at the AIM team house. AIM stands for Adventures in Missions and the Swazi AIM team is comprised around 15 college age kids who are here for 4 or 8 months to volunteer and intern with different ministries. It’ll be cool having some Americans here that are my age so that I can go off and let the Rodger’s family have some time alone. The AIM Team is also comprised of South Africans and a Canadian.

On the work side of things, we had a photographer from Mission of Mercy kind of fall into our lap this week. Our Children’s Cup server had been down because of Hurricane Rita and so we didn’t get the email about this photographer until Monday the day he was arriving. Eventually, we found him at a hotel. We had until 1pm on Tuesday to get the shots he needed. So we drove around like crazy trying to find certain children he needed to take pictures of. It all worked out despite many frustrating attempts to find one girl at a school only to find out later that she goes by a different name at school. Mission of Mercy is partnering with us to open up 4 Carepoints next year and these pictures were for their program launch and fundraising drive.

Nathie and I are working on a camp for 12-16 year olds from our various Carepoints. We’re working with the bible club leaders and teachers to organize the camp for the 21st-23rd of October.

Ben and I got to introduce a service group from a local high school to our Moneni Carepoint. They are going to come weekly to play games with the orphans and do some basic teaching. It is hopefully the first of many such partnerships that get churches and schools involved in our projects.

Daran, Ben, Beano and I went down to the Lowveld (basically where it’s dry and flat) and into the rural area to talk with some people at a Catholic Mission. We basically picked their brains as to the struggles and obstacles that exist to working in the rural areas. It was a good meeting and will hopefully help us as we transition into the rural areas. The contrast between urban and rural areas is the system of laws. In the urban settings there are established laws, regulations and a judicial system. Once you are in the rural areas the basic ruling party is the regional chief. The chiefdom system is complex with cultural intricacies which make it difficult to work in these rural areas. There is no such thing as judicial recourse…basically what the chief says goes. Pray that we have discernment as we start to work in the rural areas.

Ben and Beano went to Mozambique last Friday to sign registration papers and start the process of working with the orphans in that country. Ben had been asked to speak at a high school on Friday and so instead Daran and I spoke to them. I thought there were about 150 of them but Daran later told me that there were at least 400 kids there. Anyway, we got to tell them that God loves them and can do great things through them. Daran spoke first and I wrapped things up. This country has a lot of hopelessness and we told them that following Christ gives life purpose and hope. Daran did a great job and I didn’t screw it up too bad. Pray that I continue to be challenged to step outside my comfort zone.

There is more I could talk about including a man running around town with a spear in hand, rural irrigation systems, monkeys, cultural issues, AIDs statistics and such but I’ve written enough for now. Much love, thanks for the prayers and emails.