Oh the Joys...

Wow, it has been an amazing week in the Cape! We have been helping with kids club every day this week, and oh what a blessing it has been!!! Monday and Wednesday we were at Mountain View, which is about a 15-20 minute walk through the community (amazing!!) from Ocean View, and Tuesday and today (Thursday here) we stayed at Ocean View. The kids are absolutely amazing. I loooove to be greeted by precious African kids racing down the street to jump into my arms. It is a precious, priceless moment. Yesterday and today, the kids decided to dog pile on Michelle, which is equally as amazing. Today before kids club started, several kids worked together to pick me up, and I thought that I was going to be thrown over a huge wall--that is how strong they are! So much fun!!! I wish I could describe each of these kids' faces...they are absolutely beautiful, crafted only in the image of God, and I can only imagine the depth of their stories.

Our mornings this week have been spent in four hours of lectures, followed in the evening after kids club by 1.5 more hours of lectures. We have packed a loooot into 4 days' lectures, and there have been some amazing discussions...lots to soak up and from which to learn! I am so blessed to be here on this trip. Not only am I blessed altogether to be in Cape Town and South Africa, I am further blessed by the amazing things God is doing here, and not to mention the great group that surrounds me. They are the happiest, most encouraging and uplifting people. I learn a lot from our professors, but I also learn a lot from my fellow students. They are an amazing blessing, and the trip would definitely not be the same without them.

As you know, my senior year of college is rapidly approaching, and along with it is coming the stress of figuring out what to do next! I am not really worried about it, but I am concerned and seeking. I want to change the world, I know that. And I am called to career missions, so I know that also. I have also been called to "incarnational missions" (I learned that term this week that applies to my calling 2 years ago), which means living among and like the people (my calling comes from John 1..check it out!). There are tons of opportunities and doors open wide for needs that need to be met in the world; I just need to pray for discernment about which avenue is the one for me. Do I go to seminary right after graduation, or do I wait a little while? And regardless of that, in what should I major for my graduate studies? What will be most effective in changing the world? "Your calling lies at the point at which your greatest desires meet the world's greatest needs." But what are the world's greatest needs? They are many!!! I will change the world, I guarantee that, but I cannot fix everything. So what exactly and specifically is my calling? I dunno. And what is my greatest passion? To know God and make God known. To change the world and point people to the feet of the One who made them and loves them with an undying love. To change things not only spiritually but also physically for people, especially those living in less-than-human conditions, which sadly is probably most of the world's population. My passion is to be the hands and feet of Christ daily to all people and all peoples. So in order to do these things and to be what God wants me to be, where do I go from here? I dunno. For now it is to go on my knees in prayer at the foot of the cross. The Lord will lead me there in the Lord's timing. I will just wait on Him. But not a passive wait; no, I will wait actively, seeking to serve and not be served. Woo hoooo!!! :)

"The Lord's Spirit has come upon me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers, and to say, `This is the year of the Lord's favor.' " --Luke 4:18-19.


Peace :)

How can I stand here...and not be moved by You?

I was telling one of our team members today how I already feel that I have had an amazing spiritual journey in South Africa and we have not yet started our ministry projects with Living Hope. We have spent the last few days getting acquainted with Cape Town and the surrounding area, and I continue to be amazed daily at the beauty of the Lord revealed in Creation. Today we attended a church called Masiphuwalele Baptist, an all-black church in a poor black community called Masiphuwalele (try saying that five times fast!). I joked with my roommates before leaving the house this morning that we would be worshipping God today in a way that we have never worshipped before, and boy was I right! We arrived at the church to the most amazing sound of Africans loudly and boldly singing praises to the Lord. I cannot describe the beauty of their voices as they rejoiced simply to be alive. Though I understood very few of the words they were singing, I felt completely free to follow the Spirit's guiding and to worship the Lord with gladness. What a blessing.

After church, we went to see a community of African penguins (an incredible experience) and then headed up to Cape Point, the southernmost tip of the African continent. We "hiked" (I put it in quotes because while it is a straight up climb, the way is paved) up the mountain to a lighthouse, where we were surrounded on every side by the vast, beautiful ocean. It is the place where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, and it is an absolutely incredible sight. I cannot put into words the beauty that surrounded us there.

Again I will say that I continue to stand amazed at the beauty of the Lord. And I feel very encouraged spiritually, because I am reminded again and again that the Lord has huge and amazing plans for my life that I cannot myself imagine. My human brain is incapable of thinking up the designs to create something as beautiful as Africa, much less the entire world, and my mind definitely cannot design amazing plans for my life. My prayer for the last few months has been, "Lord, do that for which we know not how to ask; do that which we cannot imagine." And the Lord continues to pour out His goodness, faithfulness, and beauty upon my life, and I stand utterly amazed. The Lord is highly creative, and I truly think He loves surprising His children with the awesome things He can do.

Please pray for us, as tomorrow we will begin class and our ministry project at Living Hope. I don't know exactly where we will be placed, as LH has several campuses throughout Cape Town, but I do know that we are in for an absolutely amazing experience! Please join me in praying for the Lord to do what we cannot even imagine, both in us and through us. And stand back with me, watch, and be amazed at what the Lord reveals to us all. :)

Blessings! Love you all!!


Michelle

The beauty of the Lord, revealed in the Cape!

Hi to everyone from South Africa!! I am truly in the most beautiful place on earth, and I so happen to be staying in the most perfect spot of the most beautiful place. When I walk out the door of the Team House, to my right is a huge mountain, and directly in front of me is the most beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean. The last two days have been spent getting acquainted with Cape Town and Living Hope, the organization through which we will be serving next week. Not only am I totally in love with Cape Town, I am also in love with Living Hope. Their vision and passion is exactly what I dream of doing in the world! They have sites in the various communities throughout Cape Town that seek to meet the people of the community where they are. LH challenges Capetonians (did I spell that right?) to dream big and imagine a life beyond the slums in which many of them live. LH offers numerous programs to empower people in the community to do and be something truly great and amazing. They have a wound dressing station at one location, classes to teach people to sew and garden at another, kids clubs for after school all over...they also have a place where really sick and/or dying people can come and hopefully get better, but if they do not get better, they at least have a place to die in peace and dignity. We have not yet worked with LH, but we got the tour of their locations yesterday. I am so pumped to dive right in and serve with LH!!!

Today has been an incredible day. After watching the sun set over the water while sitting on a rock in the ocean last night, we rose early this morning to take a ferry ride to Robben Island, where we were amazed and surrounded by God's incredible beauty revealed through Creation. When we arrived at Robben Island, we got a tour and were educated on what exactly Robben Island is. For those who don't know (because I did not know before reading the book for this class), Robben Island is the prison island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 13 (is that right? ha!) years before finally rising to become South Africa's president back in the day. We actually were led on a tour through the maximum security prison, where Mandela was, by a man who is a former prisoner of Robben Island. The men (the island was only for black male prisoners) had all been imprisoned for sabotage and fighting against the government. When I asked our guide (a precious, precious man) if the prisoners there were actually guilty of their charges, he responded by saying that each of RI's prisoners had been activists in fighting politically against the apartheid government. I am not going to write a book here about the apartheid govt., but I will say that I really respect Mandela, our tour guide, and the other former prisoners who risked (and some who gave) their lives to fight for the freedom that belongs to all human beings. Their prison cells (for the ones in the highest security section, who had individual cells) were smaller than the dog kennels where the security dogs resided when not "on duty". All they had in their tiny cell was a small window, a blanket, a small mat that looked like worn-out carpet scraps, and a 5-gallon (or x-liter, because they are on the metric system here) bucket they used as their "bathroom". How absolutely incredible it was to stand where Mandela stood and to see the lime quarry where he spent every day of several years digging through rock with his bare hands and to see and take a picture with a man who was imprisoned there with him for the same cause! I respect their courage and their ambition to make not only their own lives better, but also the lives of generations of South Africans to come. Amazing.

After Robben Island, we went to Table Mountain, a huge mountain that has a "flat" top, thus named Table Mountain, and got to ride a cable car to the very top, where we walked around and explored. I have never seen anything as magnificent as I have seen yesterday and today. At every moment in Cape Town, I am overwhelmed by the beauty that surrounds me, and I cannot help but want to sing praises to the Lord! Pictures absolutely cannot capture the beauty and majesty of the Creation of our Lord.

Though we have only been acquainting ourselves with Cape Town, I wish I could tell you all the things the Lord is doing spiritually, but I do not think I can because I do not really know myself! I just know He is at work. Do you know what it is like when you know something incredible is about to come your way but you cannot even imagine what it might be? Yeah, that's a really cool thing, and that is where I am. I feel like something huge and life-changing is just around the corner, but I absolutely do not know what it is, so I lift myself up to the Creator of the beauty that surrounds me. The Lord makes incredible goodness and beauty from nothing, and He will make something incredible out of me and out of the precious people living in Cape Town and all over the world. Woo hooo!!! :)

Blessings to all, and to all a good night!