South Africa Mission 2008

Sean Kelly Disabled Children's home.
We got to hang out with the kids,
help the staff workers and be humbled
all at the same time.

Cape Town beach facing Table mountain…no sand just beautiful tiny multicoloured pebbles!

Stunning scenery…trying to capture it’s beauty with a camera is quite hard!

a perfect place for reflection at the end of a day…

Working with the locals in four different townships…jobs are scarce which makes living situation desperate and unstable from day to day.

Yes I did my share of washing up!

We are not to ignore suffering but to grieve it as God does, attempting to be His hands and feet while not giving into despair. It's an uncomfortable place to stay in, but an essential part of fulfilling the social calling of the gospel.



Preparing the spuds for the feeding programme!

BEAUTIFUL FACES!

One of my favourite days, spending time walking through the township chatting with the locals, obliging in prayer requests, listening to life stories....

Up to 50 of us from all over the world came together for two weeks and worked together with churches and 'Boost Africa' to work in townships, schools and the community as a whole.

Feeding programme, feeding approx. 300 children everyday in a township, where they could otherwise go without.

Giving out food was great but i LOVED connecting with the kids, hugging them and spinning them round and listening to them laugh!

I love hands on, practical stuff...that is the one of the biggest parts of the gospel for me (although God's grace is even BIGGER! lol)

I finally get how to do the towel thing!

I am there...right at the back (we're playing 'paper, rock, scissors' but a different version of 'ninja, police, waiter'....they LOVED it!
(Township school of Da Noon, Cape Town)

Just 5% of the children at the Kibbutz nursery in another township.

Many of these children would have a bleak future if it wasn't for those working full time in the kibbutz, dedicating their lives to parenting and supporting them.

This REALLY is the tip of the iceberg...i have so many wonderful memories and other times when it was really hard.

The 3 month course before going out taught me SO much about the Christian faith that it's hard to know where to begin but one of the biggest things i learnt was the main theme that runs through the Bible...'Be blessed, to be a blessing!'

Don't keep hold of what's given to you...GIVE IT AWAY! :)

We're off in 3 days (monday flying from Birmingham to Dubai then on to South Africa..loooong but great cos we're flying with Emirates and apparently they're really good!)

We have a big team of people from all over that want to join us so it has gone up from 8 to around 50!

From my beautiful sister working with children in the slums of Brazil :)

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

The mission has finally been confirmed as South Africa...we'll be in a place called Worcester!

We have various things that we'll be looking into doing,these include helping out in schools (primary and poss secondary), possibly working with a community that lives in a rubbish dump, possibly working in an AIDS Orphanage, Street drama, prisons, alongside farmers and other stuff... a lot of the things we'll be doing will be decided as a team out there so i'll be more precise once it's happening!

click on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BreedeValley.jpg to see image :)

The Starfish Story

The Starfish Story
Original Story by: Loren Eisley
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…

”I made a difference for that one.”

2008 Training and mission prep...

So, i've left my jobs for a term, renting the house out, selling the car and going to take a course called CDTS; Crossroads Discipleship Training School for three months where we explore more about the Christian Faith and how it applies to helping others in need and also prepare for the next stage abroad which will include knowing about other cultures, giving the best you can and taking care of yourself...and then take part in a two month mission in either the Phillipines or S. Africa or somewhere else after that!



And it's never felt so right!



AND...there's more when i get back in September but that's for later! ;)



Will be adding photos shortly :)


...

Youth With A Mission...CDTS The course begins...



The last couple of weeks have been a bombardment of things including getting to know the ways of the base...there's about 150 people on various courses here each day and about half of them live on base so it's been a case of booking out laundry rooms, sharing bathrooms, bedrooms, dining rooms and suddenly realising after 4 days of contantly being with people that YOU NEED TO ESCAPE!!!

Which is where the lovely countryside and bike shed comes in handy! LOL "i vant to be alone!" But once you've been out for an hour or so things balance out again and it becomes all good again! We all have work duties so some of us help in the kitchen or clean or garden...i've been assigned reception duty which i feel is a bit of a copout cos i LOVE IT!

You get to meet everyone as they come in and out and see how it all works and check your emails! woohoo!! lol I don't know why they've assigned me this duty...maybe they like my posh english accent ;)

There are kids here at the base too which is fantastic! We have kids from the UK, Holland and the States right now...the English kids are slowly getting the American accent which is quite funny!



We play pool and ping pong and table football when the brain has been overloaded with info! lol I've met so many different people here, like Lisa, my room mate who's originally from the States...her hubby earns an income from a website business he set up years ago...they now live in Chilli and have set up a ranch that is a place people can go...just to 'stop the world and get off' as they say!
There are beautiful gardens, food, 5 star rooms, councelling if you want it etc...ALL FREE!

As you all know, I'm here to do a course first and then go out on mission…There have been so many things that have touched my heart..and i've written some of them below...A few years ago i prayed and asked God to break my heart with the things that break His...Sometimes i can't take all the injustice in this world and get so frustrated and heartbroken and He continues to remind me to not try to change the whole world but to take each day, one at a time and be a part of making a change, sow my seeds and watch the domino effect....

The stories of needs around the world are staggering. Stories of 'Honour killings' in Afganistan where women are slaughtered by their own dad's because they were raped, so they disgraced the family, and the only way to 'fix' that is to kill your own child! thousand's of women every year slaughtered because of this mind boggling DECEPTION!

Another story of a tribe in Brazil where they believe that when a man reaches 40, the way for him to reach 'heaven' is to kill himself, so they all drink a poison and die at the age of 40...another CRAZY DECEPTION!