Final Report

I've been back in the states five days now and it's been well over a week since I was able to update anything here. Just to briefly recap the last week, we went on a retreat with the students from UKZN that was awesome. About 25 students came with us and we had a great weekend, letting the local students connect with each other and the Crusade staff, learning, worshiping and hanging out together. Just over the course of a few days you could see the local students beginning to take ownership of ministry on their campus as they were encouraged to see all God has done in the past weeks and the realization that next semester there will be no one there to carry it on except for them. After the retreat our US team went out to a backpackers camp for a day of debriefing and then a safari to end the trip. The safari was amazing and the debrief was a great way to bring closure to the eventful six weeks we had together. Now onto some thought about the whole trip...

When we arrived in Durban back in May we had a three-fold mission for our time there. The three objectives were to reach the UKZN campus with the good news of the gospel, reach the community with the good deeds of the gospel, and to encourage and resource the full time Crusade staff there in Durban. Looking back it is wonderful to see that God allowed us to see all three of those things take place. Our first three weeks were spent on campus, everyday Mon.-Fri. from about 10-4, meeting students, initiating gospel conversations and eventually following up with those students and even beginning to disciple them. In those three brief weeks we saw 25(!!) students accept Christ. It was unbelievable to see how open many of the students were to the gospel and the way the Lord had been preparing hearts to hear and receive the good news. We were also able to follow up with most of these students at least twice, and with some as many as 5 or 6 times. 10 of them came with us on the retreat. It was amazing to see how God was beginning to redeem that campus.
The second goal, community outreach, was our focus for the last 2-3 weeks. This was accomplished in a number of ways: helping at an orphanage, painting schools, visiting retirement homes, serving breakfast to displaced refugees and working on houses in one of the townships. We spent the most time in a township called Ntezuma. This township is home to 500,000 people and studies have shown that it is 47% HIV positive. There is incredible need there! We partnered with an American lady who is there trying to start an AIDS hospice and clinic through one of the local churches. She had only been in Durban a few weeks when we met and started helping her. We did a number of things with her, but most of our work was on houses of people in the community who will hopefully soon be patients of the clinic (once it is up and running). We repaired roofs, doors, windows, dug drainage ditches and spent a lot of time just playing with kids. Seeing the poverty of the township was very hard emotionally and psychologically, but the work there was incredible rewarding. Our last day there may have been the saddest good-byes we had before we left.
Lastly, we wanted to encourage the local staff. One of the best moments of the trip was on the day we left, when the local staff just expressed their thanks for us for our work and their excitement at all that had happened that they will continue to be involved in. They were thrilled to see students excited on campus for the first time in over a decade, happy to be connected to the ministry in Ntezuma and thrilled that some of us were considering coming back in future summers or even on short term trips (1-2 years) after graduation.
Some other provisions that God blessed us with were our team and safety while we were there. We had 18 awesome students who were committed to our vision and worked hard to see it come to fruition. In God's grace we all got along great for the whole six weeks and never really had any drama. We were also very blessed to never be victim to any crime. The crime is unbelievably bad there, but not one of us was every victim to it. No one had anything taken, and neither us nor our cars were never harmed.
To end, I just want to thank you for your support. Whether you have read every blog posting since I left or this is the first you've seen, your support truly did make the trip possible and you played a HUGE part in God's work in Durban. Your financial support me allowed me to be there, but you support in prayer strengthened our team daily and allowed us to see God's hand at work in a community that desperately needs his redemption. So again, thank you, thank you, thank you.
God bless.

Last post from Durban

In 24 hours I'll be headed out of Durban for the weekend retreat and won't be coming back (at least not anytime soon). Today mostly consists of last minute souveneir shopping, packing and closing things down. I'll be back on campus for a few hours to say a few good byes and that will be all she wrote. Yesterday was our last day working in the townships and leaving those people was actually much harder than I expected. It's amazing how quickly you can latch on to people, especially fellow believers. Most of the kids didn't understand we were leaving, but there were some tears from some of the mothers in the township. Leaving for the last time it was a great feeling to think back and see visible evidence of the good deeds of the gospel within that community. And we were ever blessed to see those good deeds create opportunities for the good words of the gospel as one lady who we helped received Christ as her savior at church last weekend. To send us of the people of the small church we worked with held a traditional Zulu "feast" for us last night. It was fun even though the food left a lot to be desired. The highlights were cow intestines and chicken feet. I tried both and fully intend to never try either again as long as I live. Some of the food is ok, but I'm growing to appreciate American food more everyday that we're here (I have a list of things to eat within my first few days back). In all I'm very thankful for the chance to work in the townships, it was hard at times, both physically and emotionally, but it was good.
The retreat begins tomorrow you can really be praying that God will use this weekend to work in the hearts of students here so that a they can take what we've started and carry it on. There will be a number of new believers there as well, which is exciting to see their desire for growth. After that we're on the the game park for our debrief and safari. I may have some computer access Sunday or Monday, but I'm not sure. If not, I'll put a long trip summary up here once I'm home. So if you don't hear from me again here soon, I'll be home in a week- see you then!

Winding down...

Here in Durban we are having a bit of a down day, planning for the big retreat with UKZN students this weekend. I'll be co-leading a seminar on prayer so I've spent some of my morning beginning to prepare that. This afternoon is also our last chance for some more shopping or other random stuff before a busy last three days here in Durban. You can pray that all the preparation goes well as we have given everyone one the team some responsibility and very few of us have experience in planning retreats. Tonight we are going to see Prince Caspian, which just debuted here Saturday night.
Yesterday was a bit of a frustrating day. We were back at Ntezuma, one of the townships, but they really didn't have a lot for us to do. I spent most of the day just playing with local kids, which was fun, but not what I expected. I spent a while talking to a lady whose house we worked on at the end of the day. She had a heart-breaking story. She and her sister (23 and 25 respectively) live together in a very small house with their 3 children and one more in the womb (due in August). They lived with their mother until she died in 2003 and since then they have been caring for their younger brother (now 19) and their children with no real source of income and no one to look out for them. The really sad part of the story was that the most I asked about their family I still never once heard of any male figure except their little brother (who has been involved with a gang some in the last few years). They never mentioned their father or the fathers of any of their four children. The townships are simply void of fathers and the effects are evident everywhere. Due to the AIDS crisis and other issues the country is currently 45% age 20 and younger- that is just unbelievable! But when you go into the townships you start doing the math and you see its true. Tons of kids, mothers doing their best to provide, men bumming around in groups and no men in the homes. It's going to be hard to change many of the problems in this country until that begins to change first.
Please continue to pray for our last few days here, the retreat and debrief times. This week will probably be the last of my internet access, but I'll try to put up a total trip review as soon as I'm home to close out the blog. Thanks for continuing to pray!

Welcom to Zulu church, where organization is not one of our strengths, but flexibility is...

It's been a while since I've been online so I've got a lot to update and only a little time. Maybe I can elaborate on some of this more later, but here is a quick rundown of the weekend.
Friday was a "family day" and one of the most memorable days of the entire trip. We drive about 1.5 hours out of Duran, to an area called the midlands (basically the beginnings of the huge mountains that run parallel to the coast about two hours away from Durban. We spent a few hours doing a things called a canopy tour which consisted of riding 8 zip lines from the top of a mountain down into the bottom of the mountain next to it. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. The longest ride was almost 200 yds long and a few rides were 25-35 yds above the tree tops.
Saturday we helped a local AIDS ministry put on a day camp for high schoolers from all around Durban to educate them about HIV and encourage them to love healthy lifestyles with Christ as their foundation. It was a very tiring, but rewarding day. That night we went over to Gary Price's house (he is on Crusade staff here full time) and cooked out with his family. Being in someone's home and eating a home-cooked meal made us all a bit homesick- 4 weeks of living in a hotel and eating out has officially gotten old. We hung out with his 5 sons, played ping pong and just relaxed for the night.
Sunday was the much anticipated day to preach at kwaDebeka. We were told that it was youth Sunday, but when we showed up we could tell it was not any different than normal and asked around only to find out youth Sunday is next week, we had been told wrong. Assuming the pastor had a message prepared we thought for a while we weren't preaching after all. But someone knew we had been misinformed, found out we had been preparing and asked the pastor right in the middle of the service if we could preach. He was incredible gracious and let us preach. Preaching there was really a cool experience and something I'll never forget. Using the translator was tough, but other than that it all went well. I spoke first and then Barrett followed me. He did a great job of tying it all together and the people there were very kind to thank us for bringing the message.
This week is our last in Durban. Today I'll be painting again- hopefully I can update again soon though.

A morning with the refugees

Today was another interesting and new experience. Five of us were at a local Anglican church at 6 AM this morning (that's midnight back home- I thought about making some calls home) to serve breakfast to about 75 refugees who have been displaced by the local xenaphobic attacks. It was a rewarding morning overall and we were able to serve the church well by sorting and organizing all the donation after we finished serving breakfast. In all we worked for about 4 hours there. Going into the morning I wan't sure what to expect. Working with refugees sounds a bit scary or even dangerous. Thankfully, we found the refugees to be the most polite, selfless, and agreeable people we've encoutered here. Most of them are from Congo. If you don't know much about the situation there, its awful to say the least. There is an awful war that has been going on for some time. All of these people fled Congo and even though many have had their lives threatened here in South Africa it is much safer for them here than is is there. Some of the stories were unbelievable. One lady in particualr said that her husband was taken one night when soldiers ransacked their home. She fled the next day with two children and has had no correspondence with him since. She has no idea if he is even alive and has raised their two children by herself, supporting them here in South Africa. They were recently threatened by some other residents in their flat and ahve been living in this church for a week now. The refugess have literally nothing, having fled their flats with only what they can carry and it doesn't appear that they can go home anytime soon. Hopefully we will get some more time with them next week.
In all this has been a great week- I've done something different everyday, but its all been good. It's hard to believe the trip is winding down. We have 4 more days of community work, the retreat with the UKZN students and then our debrief before we head home. Hope all back home are well. Please conitnue to pray that God would use us in all these places of incredible need.

Driving on the left is still weird

Today was another eye-opening day in the townships. I went to Ntezuma, a township of 500,000 people just outside Durban. The size of this place was unbelieveable. You can almost see from one side of it to the other and if you picked it up and dropped back in Georgia it would immeidately be one of the largest cities in the state and even a larger city within the South. Again, the poverty was unbelievable. We spent the day working on people's homes. I was mostly at a house where we were putting a roof on (there has been only half of one for a while now) and replacing broken windows and a door. We got the roof done, played with kids, and were able to do a lot for these two single moms and their combined 5 kids. One of the scariest moments of the trip also took place when Andrew, one of our guys, fell through the half of the room that remained when we showed up this morning. He fell about nine feet after the roof caved, but thankfully his head eventually landed on the bed and he only had small cuts and a pretty big bruise on the back of his hip. He'll be sore but that's about all. The other memorable part of my day was a trip to a government building with a handicapped lady to get her welfare check. Teri (one of our leaders,the pastor of the church in the township and I took her to pick up her check and after getting the lady out of the car and into her wheelchair the security guard would not allow Teri and I into the building. So we waited outside in the car, that had the windows down (we didn't have the keys) while everyone in the township that receives a welfare check poured by on either side. It was without question the most stressful and nervoud 10 minutes I've had on the trip. I don't think we were in any real danger, but the people were very condensed, there was no one we knew within sight and we were getting stared at by everyone. I tried to keep my cool while calming down Teri as well. Thankfully we made it out fine. The last danger of the day was a near accident when our driver pulled into the right lane out of habit and we faced oncmoing traffic for a few seconds before we could get back over. The whole driving on the left thing contiues to feel weird, ever after all this time.
As far as the rest of the week- we'll be back on campus tomorrow and then Thrusday we are working in a church that has been turned into a refugee camp for those displaces by the xenaphobic attacks here in Durban. We are staying very busy but it's good!
Also, a sermon update, it looks like Barrett and I will be talking about the 2 Tim. verse about "Let no one look down on you becuase you are young..." and tying it in some with the story of Davids life as a young man. It's coming together but the situation is still intimidating.
Please continue to pray for safety for our team. Today was a wake-up call that lots can happen if we let our guard down or make poor choices. Also, just pray for energy. Doing all this manual labor has made us a pretty tired bunch around the clock. Thanks for the prayers- amazing that there is only 15 days left!

Welcome to Zulu church, where white guys get stuck in the choir and pulpit before they can blink

Hey everyone,
I'm not sure if I was able to give any kind of preview about this, but our trip took a very suprising turn this weekend. I, as well as 6 others on our team, were invited to sing in the youth choir this past Sunday at our church which is all black and entirely in Zulu (the tribal language). Thankfully the two songs we helped perform were in English- Amazaing Grace and the Bebe Wynans version of "o Happy Day." I've heard many a white person say they would love to one day sing in a gospel choir, well let me tell you fristhand it's all you've ever dreamed and more. After chior practice Friday night I was ready to step and slide, clap and make a joyful noise.
Apparently we did such a good job that we convinced someone we should find our way onto the stage again. Next week is youth sunday and they will be leading worship and presenting the message. And by they and I mean Barrett (one of the other guys on the trip) and myself will be preaching next week. When we were asked we thought they wanted us to give a short testimony/ devotional thought, only to find out that we are allotted AN HOUR(!!!) for our sermon. Neeedless to say, please pray for us this week as we try to prepare a message that will translate into Zulu culture and hold people's interest for an hour.
In other news we went back to the orphanage today, which was fun and sad all at the same time. My buddy from last week, Kosi, and I hung out for the whole time. He is five. I pushed him on the swing and he sat in my lap for a long time. We noticed today that all most of the kids wants from us is to be held, hugged and carried, which makes sense because they each receive so very little personal attention. Later this week I'll be doing some manual labor, heling fix peoples' homes in the township and may even do some things to help some of the foreign refugees staying in camps protected form the xenaphobic attacks that have mostly ended now.
As I think I said last time, you can be in prayer for our team as things have become less structured, more stressful, and more likely to cause bad attitudes. Also, continue to pray that God will bring students on the retreat in two weekends. Thanks for all your prayers and I'll be back to update soon.