This is my first blog entry, apologies for those still expecting a monthly video, however there are certain bandwidth restrictions here in South Africa that we have little concept of in the UK. Not going to be able to download or upload anything, that includes watching streamed videos. Quite annoying but Jesus remains sovereign and gives me enough for me to live and love it =). Ok well I flew into Jo'burg on the 15th of January 2010 and had no idea what was going on. It was 5 o'clock South African time, I had just flew a 17 and a half hour flight via Abu Dahbi and hadn't slept in 3 days. Statring to see what Paul meant when he was listing what he had gone through... shipwrecked, stoned etc. I was shuttled from Jozi airport to the Adamos, my FYP leaders and I stayed at their house for the day then was moved to another house in Joburg also where I stayed for 3 nights. I met up with 2 more FYPs at that house, during which we went to the new Rosebank church plant from Godfirst (it was incredible) then we went on to Monte Casino, which is where PJ Smythe preaches the sermon twice in the evening, to a young and big congregation. I’ll try get some pictures of it up some time though am currently having some camera problems with sand getting in.
Ok well I am now in Cape Town where I will stay till November the 26th, and am serving at the New Frontiers church called Jubilee Community Church. It’s a big church of (collectively over 2 services) about 1000 people. I really love it here, there is so much diversity and culture differences which manage to work really well together. There are guys from every walk of life here, guys living in Uni Res’s, people from nice suburbs, people from townships and shacks, from every language, tongue and skin colour. It’s great, we sing a load of Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu songs, amongst others. We have a lot of people from DRC (Congo) and Gabon too so I have loads of opportunities to speak in French, though my Afrikaans is very limited and I can only say a few phrases though I want to learn.
My job here is primarily as a kids/youth leader, and we have a lot of kids at Jubes, We have the basic kids groups on Sunday morning, (I don’t know the numbers but it must be around 200), then we have other projects too – a pre-youth group called Blitz, a younger youth and an older youth. Then also we have an outreach kids work program called “kidz klub” which is a Saturday morning an afternoon with kids from the surrounding areas (mainly semi-townships). Pretty much all the kids that come are not from a Christian background, many are Muslim. We go do home visits to their houses the day before and tell them what is going on, there is so much enthusiasm, they turn up about an hour early and it is difficult to get them to leave afterwards. We reached 100 kids there recently and it is growing all the time. We have loads of games each time then talk to them about Jesus. In that group I mainly look after the 6-8 yr old boys, though we go up to about 14 years old or so. (However we have quite a few that come back afterwards and become helpers. With these guys, we do another outreach, which is football on a Wednesday; we play for about an hour then talk for another half hour about Jesus. Numbers vary though it is about 10 people. I think 3 there so far have given their lives to Jesus and most are or were Muslim. We have youth groups on a Thursday and Friday too, also another project called Sunshade, which is an outreach to women in the area, teaching them skills for jobs, interviews etc. I generally drive the combi (a people carrier) and look after their kids.
I normally work a 5 ½ day week and have Mondays off. We have a morning service which I serve at with kids work then get to go to the evening service (predominantly students). I work a lot of evenings because of youth groups etc so my hours vary and so far my longest has been 8.30am till 11pm, but I enjoy it and I love having such amazing opportunities to serve. I work with pretty much every age, from about 3 years old to student age (25 or so). Also, I have work in the office (which is how I am getting on the internet) and have a desk and I look after a load of computer equipment and I am learning quite a bit on the job but I have been fixing computers, fixing sound systems, fixing fans etc…. in fact a lot of fixing stuff, I enjoy it and I guess I have an amount of gifting in the area, they are helping us to find our gifting areas and give us opportunities so I am growing quite a bit there.
I am currently staying in a little flat with another guy who is a student at UCT (the big Uni in Cape Town). It is a few miles from the church so I have to get a train or get a lift in each day which is a bit of a hassle, though still looking at other accommodation. My budget is fairly stretched, with having a relatively expensive rent (CT is the most expensive place in SA too) and needing to cook for myself. I had some complications with money, though have finally settled (only this week) on having all my money transferred from my account to my parents, to then being sent to my brother’s, who then sent it to the church account here, and I take it out in monthly increments in cash.
Still having some visa problems, as some of you may know, I didn’t manage to get my visa before I left and was turned down by the SA High Commission. I am having some more documents redone and being sent out to me in SA, though I would appreciate prayer for speed, as a deadline is approaching, where I will need to pay a fairly hefty fine and then in about a month if I still don’t have one I will become an illegal immigrant…
Life here is amazing, it is a beautiful country and a beautiful city. Everyone is preparing for the world cup… however I am not sure how many people from the West know that their winter is actually in their summer and vice versa, so people will be coming in the winter here for the world cup and it may not be as warm as they may have expected. Also, for Cape Town the rainy season is in the winter here (so June – August), but up in Joburg in the North, the rainy season was over the summer. I was up in Jozi for the first 2 weeks of my time here, my training block was up there, then I flew down to Cape Town afterwards. There was 9 FYPs there (one missed the block), and now we have dispersed to our various churches. There are 3 of us in Cape Town Jubilee, one in Table Bay (or Blouberg), 2 in Somerset West, just south of us, one in Saldanha, up the West Coast, North of us, and then on the other side of the country, one in Durban, one in Amanzimtoti, and one in Mtubatuba. We have an amazing load of FYPs here, and we are a tight knit group and get on well with each other. I only get 2 weeks of annual leave here this year, though if I had more I would want to go visit Durban, that would be awesome. Oh and also, fyi, The sea on the West Coast of SA (Atlantic side) is really cold, but then on the other side of the Cape Peninsular, it is a lot warmer (from the Indian Ocean). It gets warmer as you go further up the East Coast. I climbed Lions Head (mountain on the West side of Table Mountain) a few days ago and am planning on climbing Table Mountain (and Devils Peak) in a week or so. It is amazing being able to wake up each day and see a huge mountain on your back door, and you can see the mountains wherever you are in Cape Town. There is also Signal Hill NW of Lions Head and then the 12 apostles run South down the peninsular. It is a beautiful place, and I have fallen in love with the country.
Missing the UK, my family, my church family and all my friends, hope to chat or catch up sometime soon,
(Part 1)
ReplyDeleteHey guys hows it?
This is my first blog entry, apologies for those still expecting a monthly video, however there are certain bandwidth restrictions here in South Africa that we have little concept of in the UK. Not going to be able to download or upload anything, that includes watching streamed videos. Quite annoying but Jesus remains sovereign and gives me enough for me to live and love it =). Ok well I flew into Jo'burg on the 15th of January 2010 and had no idea what was going on. It was 5 o'clock South African time, I had just flew a 17 and a half hour flight via Abu Dahbi and hadn't slept in 3 days. Statring to see what Paul meant when he was listing what he had gone through... shipwrecked, stoned etc. I was shuttled from Jozi airport to the Adamos, my FYP leaders and I stayed at their house for the day then was moved to another house in Joburg also where I stayed for 3 nights. I met up with 2 more FYPs at that house, during which we went to the new Rosebank church plant from Godfirst (it was incredible) then we went on to Monte Casino, which is where PJ Smythe preaches the sermon twice in the evening, to a young and big congregation. I’ll try get some pictures of it up some time though am currently having some camera problems with sand getting in.
Ok well I am now in Cape Town where I will stay till November the 26th, and am serving at the New Frontiers church called Jubilee Community Church. It’s a big church of (collectively over 2 services) about 1000 people. I really love it here, there is so much diversity and culture differences which manage to work really well together. There are guys from every walk of life here, guys living in Uni Res’s, people from nice suburbs, people from townships and shacks, from every language, tongue and skin colour. It’s great, we sing a load of Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu songs, amongst others. We have a lot of people from DRC (Congo) and Gabon too so I have loads of opportunities to speak in French, though my Afrikaans is very limited and I can only say a few phrases though I want to learn.
My job here is primarily as a kids/youth leader, and we have a lot of kids at Jubes, We have the basic kids groups on Sunday morning, (I don’t know the numbers but it must be around 200), then we have other projects too – a pre-youth group called Blitz, a younger youth and an older youth. Then also we have an outreach kids work program called “kidz klub” which is a Saturday morning an afternoon with kids from the surrounding areas (mainly semi-townships). Pretty much all the kids that come are not from a Christian background, many are Muslim. We go do home visits to their houses the day before and tell them what is going on, there is so much enthusiasm, they turn up about an hour early and it is difficult to get them to leave afterwards. We reached 100 kids there recently and it is growing all the time. We have loads of games each time then talk to them about Jesus. In that group I mainly look after the 6-8 yr old boys, though we go up to about 14 years old or so. (However we have quite a few that come back afterwards and become helpers. With these guys, we do another outreach, which is football on a Wednesday; we play for about an hour then talk for another half hour about Jesus. Numbers vary though it is about 10 people. I think 3 there so far have given their lives to Jesus and most are or were Muslim. We have youth groups on a Thursday and Friday too, also another project called Sunshade, which is an outreach to women in the area, teaching them skills for jobs, interviews etc. I generally drive the combi (a people carrier) and look after their kids.
(Part 2)
ReplyDeleteI normally work a 5 ½ day week and have Mondays off. We have a morning service which I serve at with kids work then get to go to the evening service (predominantly students). I work a lot of evenings because of youth groups etc so my hours vary and so far my longest has been 8.30am till 11pm, but I enjoy it and I love having such amazing opportunities to serve. I work with pretty much every age, from about 3 years old to student age (25 or so). Also, I have work in the office (which is how I am getting on the internet) and have a desk and I look after a load of computer equipment and I am learning quite a bit on the job but I have been fixing computers, fixing sound systems, fixing fans etc…. in fact a lot of fixing stuff, I enjoy it and I guess I have an amount of gifting in the area, they are helping us to find our gifting areas and give us opportunities so I am growing quite a bit there.
I am currently staying in a little flat with another guy who is a student at UCT (the big Uni in Cape Town). It is a few miles from the church so I have to get a train or get a lift in each day which is a bit of a hassle, though still looking at other accommodation. My budget is fairly stretched, with having a relatively expensive rent (CT is the most expensive place in SA too) and needing to cook for myself. I had some complications with money, though have finally settled (only this week) on having all my money transferred from my account to my parents, to then being sent to my brother’s, who then sent it to the church account here, and I take it out in monthly increments in cash.
Still having some visa problems, as some of you may know, I didn’t manage to get my visa before I left and was turned down by the SA High Commission. I am having some more documents redone and being sent out to me in SA, though I would appreciate prayer for speed, as a deadline is approaching, where I will need to pay a fairly hefty fine and then in about a month if I still don’t have one I will become an illegal immigrant…
Life here is amazing, it is a beautiful country and a beautiful city. Everyone is preparing for the world cup… however I am not sure how many people from the West know that their winter is actually in their summer and vice versa, so people will be coming in the winter here for the world cup and it may not be as warm as they may have expected. Also, for Cape Town the rainy season is in the winter here (so June – August), but up in Joburg in the North, the rainy season was over the summer. I was up in Jozi for the first 2 weeks of my time here, my training block was up there, then I flew down to Cape Town afterwards. There was 9 FYPs there (one missed the block), and now we have dispersed to our various churches. There are 3 of us in Cape Town Jubilee, one in Table Bay (or Blouberg), 2 in Somerset West, just south of us, one in Saldanha, up the West Coast, North of us, and then on the other side of the country, one in Durban, one in Amanzimtoti, and one in Mtubatuba. We have an amazing load of FYPs here, and we are a tight knit group and get on well with each other. I only get 2 weeks of annual leave here this year, though if I had more I would want to go visit Durban, that would be awesome. Oh and also, fyi, The sea on the West Coast of SA (Atlantic side) is really cold, but then on the other side of the Cape Peninsular, it is a lot warmer (from the Indian Ocean). It gets warmer as you go further up the East Coast. I climbed Lions Head (mountain on the West side of Table Mountain) a few days ago and am planning on climbing Table Mountain (and Devils Peak) in a week or so. It is amazing being able to wake up each day and see a huge mountain on your back door, and you can see the mountains wherever you are in Cape Town. There is also Signal Hill NW of Lions Head and then the 12 apostles run South down the peninsular. It is a beautiful place, and I have fallen in love with the country.
Missing the UK, my family, my church family and all my friends, hope to chat or catch up sometime soon,
Liam