Back Home

I first must say that I didn’t anticipate writing on this blog anymore – not really sure why. I guess I just figured the “experience” of South Africa was coming to an end and that was that. I just pulled up the website to be reminded of what God had done in me this year and decided to post another entry.

I have been home for a week now. It has been good seeing friends and family and catching up with a few people. I anticipated that I would be quite busy and simply excited to be here and catch up with people – I even told my friends back in Cape Town that I figured I would be excited to be here through the holidays and with my sister having a baby (which I am SO excited about) that I would be on a “high” for awhile before beginning to experience this reverse culture shock that I had heard about.

Well, things did not turn out as I expected.

I had my going away party in Cape Town the night before mom and I left. On Tuesday morning, Nov 27th, several of my friends took us to the airport. I cried quite a bit at the airport as I said goodbye to my good friend Siyoli. Once I was on the plane, though, I was distracted and quite excited about going to Paris with mom. We were there for three days before heading back to the states. It was amazing seeing my very pregnant sister and Scott and my friend Carli at the airport to pick us up. On Sunday, I was quite tired, but very happy to get to see everyone – went to Fellowship in the morning and to a baby shower in the afternoon for my sister and then to a family dinner in the evening.

On Monday, I didn’t really have plans. I needed to unpack and wanted to get settled a bit here at home. I had quite a hard day – cried a lot. Tuesday and Wednesday I almost felt emotionless. Thursday I cried even more than Monday. Now I am somewhere between emotionless and crying… if that even makes sense.

I ran into Cliff Grantham at Starbucks (yeah for Starbucks!) on Saturday and was just talking to him a bit about the week. One thing that he mentioned to me was one of his experiences of being in the military. He would be sent off on an assignment… and when he returned, he would be back to a desk job – but the transition was always very hard. When he was on assignment or on the field (not sure what correct term would be), he felt like he was on a mission and his purpose was being fulfilled in some way. It was what he had been trained for… what he worked so hard for. So, when he would return from an assignment, he would almost feel like he lost his sense of purpose.

I think that is a lot of how I feel… loss of a sense of purpose. I know that God has a plan and purpose for me, but I am not sure what He has for me next. I miss Cape Town and my friends there. I know that I will adjust back over time.

I have not even begun to look for a job yet. I am pretty much taking one day at a time and will probably need to begin pursuing this soon. It’s funny because I really don’t know what to do. I feel like I would love to be in full-time ministry, but I don’t know exactly what that means or even if that is what God has for me.

Please don’t get me wrong, it is good to catch up with people here and see people. I love Fellowship and look forward to getting plugged in there again. I would appreciate prayer in this time of transition.

Love in Him.

A Work in Progress

On the second Sunday of each month, Jubilee Church has a church service in the prison, and last Sunday, Nov 11, I spoke there. As of Wednesday, I was feeling unworthy and not at all ready to speak. I was quite tempted to call or email Stephanie, who heads up this ministry, and ask if she could speak. This may sound strange, but I really felt like God wanted me to speak.

On Thursday, I sat down to begin to prepare something. Okay… I’m normally not this bad when it comes to preparing for things like this, but I was procrastinating on this one. So… back to Thursday… I began to sense that I was simply supposed to share about some of the stuff that God has been doing in me this year. Wow. It’s much easier to get up and just talk about something scriptural… but when it comes to your own issues, it is much harder to talk about. So, I told God that was fine if that is what He wanted me to do, but then didn’t prepare anything – I got up and began doing something else.

On Friday mornings, I am a part of a women’s prayer group. I told the gals where I was with the situation, but did not mention that I felt I was supposed to talk about my own situation. I told them that I was feeling quite small and unworthy to do this. They prayed with me and one of the girls (Cath) had two words for me.

The first was that she felt like God wanted me to speak on what He has done in me this year.

The second was a picture from a book that she has read to the young boy that she nannies for. In the beginning of the book, there are ten tall trees. One by one, they are chopped down, and all that is left at the end is a small acorn. The word went on a bit more, but this is all I am going to share for the purpose of this story.

Cath, felt like I came to South Africa kind of with or as ten tall trees. God has been chopping them down one at a time. They could represent a number of things – unbelief, things in my life that He wanted to cut out, things in my character that He didn’t want there any more, lies that I had believed, etc. And now, I am going home as this small acorn. Hence, why I feel SO small!!

On Friday afternoon, I sat down to begin working on my talk again, and I began to think about this word from Cath and what these ten tall trees may be. I came up with seven quite quickly… several lies that I had believed, an addiction that I had been struggling with, learning how to be a Mary in this world and the importance of that… and several others.

My talk went quite well on Sunday – God allowed His strength and power and presence to flow through me. He led me and gave me the strength that I didn’t have in myself to share these things. In being a small acorn and not feeling like I have much of myself, it allows God to do work through me so much more… without these random trees getting in the way. Am I perfect now? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I am a work in progress.

Phillipians 1:6 says : “… be confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

He will continue to perfect me until the day that I meet Him. Hallelujah!!

…

My mom is coming to see me tomorrow! I am so excited. She should be getting on a flight from St. Louis in about two hours. We will have two weeks here together and then get a few days in Paris. I am so looking forward to seeing her, spending time with her and catching up! We will arrive in St. Louis on Saturday, December 1st in the evening and my very pregnant sister and brother-in-law are picking us up from the airport. I can’t wait to see her all pregnant… I can hardly stand it! I will be at Christian Fellowship on Sunday, December 2nd… probably will be quite jetlagged and quite out of it… but I will be there!

Thank you for all of your amazing support and encouragement this year. I can’t wait to see many of you and catch up in just a couple of weeks!!

As for my SA friends, in case any of you read this, I will miss you and will hope to see you before too long!!! You have been an amazing support to me this year and have truly been my family. Oh how I will miss Jubilee!!!

Coming to an End…

My time here in Cape Town is coming to an end very soon. Four weeks from today I fly out with my Mama. My mom is coming here two weeks from Thursday – November 15th. I am so excited to see her… it’s hard to believe it’s been almost six months! When I think about her coming, my stomach begins to have butterflies, as I am so excited!

My time with Dad and Robin was absolutely amazing! It was so nice to get to spend that time with them and to travel around with them. I fell in love with Zambia.... Victoria Falls is gorgeous... Kruger Park and the animals there living in their environment was astounding. What an amazing opportunity to get to do these things!

My emotions otherwise are a bit everywhere. I am getting very excited to come home and see family and friends and to go to Fellowship, but know I will miss it here too. It is funny how God has been preparing me to come home. I have been having random dreams of being home and seeing people. I also have an American friend here who is studying and doing her thesis on Americans in Africa, so she interviewed me to help her in thinking of different things. In doing this, I was reminded of so many things back home and even just re-realizing some of the big differences in culture between here and there. I think re-realizing some of these things and having these dreams will prepare me and hopefully make the adjustment back home easier.

Over the next three weeks, I am involved with the Restorative Justice II course in Pollsmoor Prison. I am looking forward to this, but am a bit scared of what God is going to bring out in me during this. When I helped with Restorative Justice I, I came home crying just about everyday and almost felt like I should be in the course rather than helping as a table leader. For the second course, we are doing an in-depth study on David’s life. I am very excited about it and would love prayer for me, the other table leaders, Jenny (the facilitator), and the inmates that are participating. Hope Ministries has put together a prayer request sheet, which I will cut and paste below.

I appreciate all of your support and prayers and look forward to seeing many of you in just a few weeks! May God bless you in abundance!

…………………………………..

HOPE PRISON MINISTRY

T O A L L I N T E R C E S S O R S

THE RESTORATIVE JUSTICE COURSE TWO with the Clients of Pollsmoor Female Correctional Centre starts on MONDAY 29th OCTOBER and finishes with the Family Day on SATURDAY 17th NOVEMBER 2007.

We, at Hope Prison Ministry, would sincerely appreciate your prayer cover during this time. This course is THREE WEEKS LONG. The theme for this second course is “DEALING WITH GUILT”. Please pray for:

THE INMATES/CLIENTS OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

● The 25 Clients who will be attending. Please pray for them by name.

Roxanne Helena Nyameka Rosina
Shameema Gloria Novuyo Yolanda
Karin Latecia Lindiwe Hestelene
Shelley Elcira Heidi Alecia
Adelia Loretta Nasheeba
Benita Nozibele Leslian
Iris Zukiswa Charlene

• For an openness to receive the content of the course. That God would prepare and soften hearts and minds.

● For those present to come into a relationship with the Lord. For total revelation of who God really is. That any head knowledge would become heart knowledge.

● For the content of this course to really hit the mark. That the inmates would grasp the truth of what is being taught and discussed. For life-giving revelation.

● For transparency from the inmates. For them to be open, sincere and honest in their response to the course.

● For the catering of lunch everyday for 40 plus people – Please pray for God's provision and for the preparation of these – this is a big task.

● For the daily venue of the course, as we may have to move venues.

• For the FAMILY DAY on Saturday 17th November. Please pray that the families of the clients attend and are open to respond appropriately.


FOR THE LEADER AND FACILITATORS – Please pray for us by name.

Leader of the course: JENNY CLAYTON

Names of Table Facilitators:

Table of Responsibility: Tania & Sue
Table of Confession: Mim & Veronica
Table of Repentance: Elizabeth & Luke
Table of Forgiveness: Dolly & Abigail
Table of Reconciliation: Marilyn, Doreen & Pam
Table of Restitution: Sarah, Angie and Mrs Fourie

There will be 6 tables, with 4 inmates at each (one table of 5) inmates with two facilitators per table.

● For wisdom, discernment, strength, courage, boldness and insight for Jenny Clayton, who will be leading this course and doing the majority of the talks over the three weeks. This is a supremely demanding role. Please pray that God will restore her strength on a daily basis.

● For God's protection over Jenny Clayton and the 13 Table Facilitators - physically, spiritually and emotionally. Also particular protection over our minds and over our relationships. This course is very intense, emotionally draining, and very demanding. Often at the end of a day the facilitator doesn't know quite where to put, or how to process what they have heard as the inmates unburden themselves.

● For the Facilitators: For wisdom, discernment, strength, courage, to be good listeners and good communicators. To know when to ask a question and when to remain quiet. To be able to draw out the quieter members of the table. For God’s love to shine out of the spiritual workers to the inmates.

We, as facilitators, have found in the past that the enemy will attack the following areas:

• FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
• MARRIAGES
• HEALTH
• STRUGGLE BETWEEN BALANCING EXTENSIVE TIME SPENT ON COURSE VERSUS QUALITY TIME WITH CHILDREN/FAMILY

Also, please pray for:

• PEACEFUL, RESTORING SLEEP FOR THE WORKERS
• PROTECTION OVER OUR HOMES AND TRAVEL
• PROTECTION OVER OUR MINDS, against bad dreams etc
• TRANSPORT & TRANSPORT EXPENSES
• FOR UNITY WITHIN THE TEAM – this is so crucial
• FOR THE DEBRIEF DAY WITH THE CLIENTS ON MONDAY 19TH NOVEMBER. Please pray that the spiritual workers are sensitive to how God wants us to continue to minister to the clients in order to meet their on-going spiritual needs.


NOVEMBER IS RESTORATIVE JUSTICE MONTH AT POLLSMOOR PRISON. COURSES ARE ALSO BEING HELD IN THE MEN’S PRISON AND WITH THE AWAITING TRAIL JUVENILE BOYS – Please pray for them also. Thank you very much.

Please contact us if you have any questions or want an update.

Thank you in advance for your much valued prayer support.

Blessings,
Tania Holcroft, Restorative Justice Prayer Co-ordinator

Time Goes by so Fast

It has been way too long since I have written on my blog! Time is going by so fast, it is so hard for me to believe I only have two more months here!

My Dad and Robin are actually on their way for a visit and will be here in just under four hours. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself! It’s going to be so exciting getting to show them around Cape Town and travel with them!

I have been doing well. We had our last training block over the last two weeks and it was amazing. It was quite hard to say goodbye to everyone, but hope to see them again someday. Training was good – we studied the book of Ephesians, talked about Eschatology, being a Christian in the Marketplace, Sex and Relationships and had time to wait on God in silence.

On Friday, Sept 21st, Jac, who leads fyp South Africa, took all 24 of us on the beach and spread us out there. We were in seeing distance of each other, for safety, but could not hear each other. We were allowed to take nothing – no Bible, no journal, no cell phone, no music, no watch, etc… only ourselves. He left us there for three hours and we were not to move from our own area unless we needed the restroom. It was such an amazing time. We just rested in God, listened for His voice, adored His creation, sang, cried out to Him, loved Him… it was amazing. Afterwards, we got together to debrief and we were each allowed one word to describe what the three hours was like… people gave words such as long, short, amazing, awesome, silence, secure, listening, hearing, interesting, adoring… it was such an amazing time.

We also did some team building activities to build our trust and confidence in each other and in ourselves. One thing we got to do was go abseiling… which is when you basically go rock climbing in reverse… I’m not sure what we call it there – maybe repelling? It was amazing and scary!

Sue (my housemate) and I went to our neighbors on Tuesday night for dinner. Anne is from Montana and William is from Senegal (sp?). Someone had asked Anne to write an article for a magazine called Alive Now and she felt like she had too much going on with writing her thesis and all, so she asked if I would be interested in doing it. It is simply about being a Christian here in South Africa. I am not even sure they will use it, but I have been working on it for the past couple of days and thought that I would put on here what I have so far. I don’t even have a title yet. ☺

Here it is:

As I was leaving Pollsmoor Prison this morning, I found myself walking out with an Africanz lady. She was walking to the front gate, which was about an eighth of a mile from the female section of the prison. She went ahead of me as I was getting in my car. I was driving by her just anticipating to pass her and yet found myself wondering why she was there… was it for counseling the ladies, to visit a friend or even a family member?

As I was passing her by, I heard a little voice in my head: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mathew 25:40). I stopped to see if she would like a lift as I prayed for God’s protection. I asked her where she was going, and she was going to take a taxi to the train station up the road. I went ahead and offered her a ride to the train station and took her there.

As we were traveling together, I found out she was visiting her 18-year old daughter who she had not seen for three weeks and had finally connected with her when she found out she was at Pollsmoor. This lady said that her daughter was a pretty good kid until her dad was murdered in 2001, and she had gone downhill ever since.

I have been in South Africa since January of this year and have been doing volunteer work for Jubilee Community Church in Observatory and also doing some work in Pollsmoor Prison. I have heard many stories like that of this lady… I have met a lady who killed her husband as she was saving her own life, I have met a lady who was drug trafficking to “provide” for her family, and I have met a lady who kidnapped a baby because she and her husband had been trying to get pregnant for nine years with no success.

As I meet with the ladies at Pollsmoor or when I see people begging on street corners here in Cape Town, I am reminded of a verse in Matthew 11 – Mary and Martha send word to Jesus regarding their brother Lazarus and his sickness. They tell Him, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” I love this verse. They are saying that Lazarus is the one that Jesus loves. Each one of these ladies at Pollsmoor, each one of these people begging on street corners, and each one of us is the one that Jesus loves.

South Africa is known for its high-crime rate and non-safety. It has been hard to live here at times, as the culture is very different than what I am used to. One of my friends here made a comment to me that I will never forget: “The safest place a person can be is in God’s will for their life.” No matter where God has called you or where He has you living, He is your Protector and you are safer with Him than anywhere else in the world.

Restorative Justice

Galatians 6:1-2 states, "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

Wow. Restorative Justice has been amazing and yet very emotionally draining. I was reading Galatians 6 this morning and came across the above verse. First of all, I don't consider myself "spiritual" and secondly, I can hardly handle carrying my own sins and burdens, much less anyone else's!!! In the staff prayer meeting this morning at Jubilee, I just couldn't help but cry as I thought about Gloria and her burdens and struggles. I can't even imagine being where she is. I am so not qualified to even begin to help her through this. Yet I realize that it's not me, but God working through me.

In this course, I am "counseling" two ladies. I really just facilitate discussions and help lead them in the direction that the instructor is going. My two ladies are Latisha and Gloria, and they are both 33 years old. I love them both so dearly. They are so precious. My heart hurts for them.

We are having a family day at Pollsmoor (prison) this Saturday and I called Gloria's and Latisha's families to invite them. It was so amazing to get to talk to them and they are so excited about the course and the family day coming up. The family day is primarily for the ladies to apologize for the hurt that they have caused and to take responsibility in front of their families for the crimes they have committed. When I heard that the family day was just two weeks into the course, I was actually surprised and thinking that there is no way the ladies are going to be ready to apologize just two weeks into the course. Yet, by the second day of what I have realized is an incredibly intense and emotionally draining course, many of the ladies were crying and saying that they want to apologize to their families and restore those broken relationships.

One of the ladies in the course is a Muslim and four days into the course she had the revelation that our God is a God of relationship and a personal God, and she had never known that before.

I was asked to lead the morning devotion on the third day of the course. I had no idea what to talk about and was not feeling any direction from God. At the last minute, I decided just to share part of my testimony. I brought in the famous verses of Jeremiah 29:11-13, along with several others. When I was finished sharing, one of the other leaders wanted to say something... she said that the night before she could hardly sleep because those verses were continually going through her head. She almost came in that morning and asked if she could do the devotion because she felt like that's what God wanted to talk about. After she was finished, the lady leading the course, Jenny, said that that verse was continually going through her head, as well, and she had a song that was those verses being sung and she had found the CD to play and planned to play it later during the day... but she went ahead and played the song in the morning, since we had been discussing it. We then went into an amazing time of worship for about 30 minutes. Wow. He's amazing... God is continuing to surprise me this year.

I am feeling incredibly drained and not even sure how to go about "filling up my tank". I have learned one interesting thing (among others, of course) in the last few months. I was involved with intercessory prayer during our youth camp and was telling one of the other prayers that I almost don't know what to do or how to intercede for these meetings. She said that as God works in me, He will outpour through me and into praying for them. Also, while I was in the training for the Restorative Justice course, the leader (Jenny) said that we should just let God work in us and, as a result of Him working in us, He will outpour through us. Seems obvious, but was a revelation to me! And, it takes some of the pressure off! :)

Also an update that I no longer have a car... the car that I have been driving has been acting up more and more and the cost to fix it just isn't worth it. If we can sell it, the church will put some money in and purchase another vehicle for volunteers to use while they are here. I went to Pollsmoor yesterday by public transport, which was interesting, but not bad. It took a little over an hour for me to get there... here's my journey: 10 minute walk from flat to train station, 35ish minutes on train, from train station got a taxi and it's about a 10-minute ride to Pollsmoor, and then about a 10-minute walk to training center. Two ladies that are also in the course met me at the train station and we took the taxi and the walk together, which is quite good. It is actually quite a bit cheaper than having a car, as petrol is SO expensive here.

Love you all so much!

Three and One-half Months to Go!!!

Hello everyone! Wow… the last few weeks have been quite hard for me – I know that God is working in me, so it’s good, it’s just been hard. I have felt quite alone and have been stressed by trying to be in control of my life and my future. God is continuing to draw me closer to Him and I now have a peace about following where I believe He is taking me for the next season of my life – home! Each day I am getting more excited about coming home to my family and friends and Fellowship, but I am also treasuring each day that I have left here in beautiful Cape Town. I am continually broken for this city and the people here.

I only have three and one-half months left here – it’s so hard to believe and I’m sure it will go by SO fast. Here is a breakdown of my schedule for the next three and one-half months:

Aug 20 – Sept 4: Restorative Justice (explained more below) along with regular church work (bookshop, youth, Beauty for Ashes)
Sept 5: Maggie’s 30th birthday!!! Wish I could be there to celebrate!!! (Had to put this in here.)
Sept 5 – Sept 16: Normal life at Jubilee Community Church.
Sept 17 – Sept 28: Training block.
Sept 29: Young adult formal – shall be fun but I don’t have a dress!!!
Sept 29 – Oct 3: Normal life at Jubilee.
Oct 4 – Oct 11: Dad and Robin visiting Cape Town! YEAH!!!
Oct 12 – Oct 20: Travel to Johannesburg, Victoria Falls (Zambia side) and Kruegar Park with Dad and Robin. So excited!
Oct 21 – Oct 28: Normal life at Jubilee
Oct 29 – Nov 17: Restorative Justice at Pollsmoor.
Nov 18: Done with program. Hoping and praying for mom to come and visit for a bit and maybe travel some with her before heading home!

For life now, as many of you know, I have been house-sitting and I return to the flat tomorrow. I will miss the house and the nice car, but am ready to get settled again at the flat and have my housemate around.

I am starting something new this week at the prison, which I am quite excited about. They offer a course to the inmates for them to take before they are released from prison. It is called Restorative Justice and I will be helping with some of the facilitating and will also have two women inmates that I will be working closely with. The course is a six-week course. We meet three to four days a week from August 20th to September 4th and again from October 29th to November 17th. It helps the inmates to deal with the crime they committed and helps them to take responsibility for it and to forgive themselves and others involved, and encourages them to ask forgiveness to those affected by their crime. It is quite intense. We even bring the families in on September 1st for the inmates to talk with them regarding the crime. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of this and pray that God uses me and directs me with the women I will be working with.

It is actually quite funny because I have known about this course the whole year and was really hoping I could be a part of it. I was speaking with Jenny, the lady who runs the course, last Wednesday and she said that she thinks they have enough workers, and that I probably wouldn’t be needed. I told her that I really would love the opportunity to be involved and help out in any way that I can. She said she would let me know on Thursday and I found out that I could be a part of it! I met with her on Friday and she told me that she wasn’t going to have me help out, but since I said that I really wanted to, she made it work – she said that she wants people who are passionate about this and have a heart for it. I am so thankful that God gave me the boldness to even step out and tell her that I really wanted to be a part of it! I normally would have just sat back and let whatever happen happen and trust that it was God’s will.

There is a specific prayer letter which was written by the ministry in the prison for prayer support for this course, and I am going to copy and paste it at the end of this post. I would appreciate any and all prayer for this.

Thank you all for your support – prayer, financial, emotional, Spiritual. I don’t know what I would do without all of you back home! Love you all!

Dear Prayers,
We would be so grateful if you would please pray for the Restorative Justice Course that is being held in the prison at Pollsmoor.
Prayer cover for this program is crucial and we would really appreciate your support in prayer – thank you.
1. The theme of this course is Healing the Wounds of Crime.
2. The primary goal of Restorative Justice is the address and confront the harm caused by crime.
3. We will be confronting, discussing and addressing the damaged and broken relationships caused by the crime.
4. Further points of discussion are: taking responsibility for past and future action, confession, repentance, forgiveness, restitution, reconciliation and accountability.
Please pray for:
1. The inmates who will be involved (24 inmates – all women).
2. For Jenny Clayton (Director of Hope Prison Ministry) who will be leading this course. Please pray for strength for her, as well as wisdom, discernment and protection. (There is a vast amount of work involved before, during and after this course.)
3. Please pray for the Spiritual Workers who will be facilitating each group (this is me along will 11 others).
4. Please pray that the Spiritual Workers can get to the prison each day – for transport (many take public transport).
5. Please pray for the logistics of the venue, catering, and every practical aspect.
6. Please pray for safety and protection and for our families too.
7. Please pray for restoration and reconciliation of relationships that have been damaged by crime.
8. Please pray for the family day on the 1st of September. Family members are invited to attend. The inmates speak about what they have learnt during the course. The inmate may seek forgiveness from family present and in many cases this is expressed. This is hugely powerful.
Thank you so much for your much valued prayers.
Tania Holcroft
Sprititual Worker, Hope Prison Ministry, Pollsmoor Prison.

Hello Everyone!

Hello! I have been doing quite well - have had a bit of a stressful week, but that's okay! We are having a women's breakfast here tomorrow morning, which I am quite excited about. We will have breakfast together and then a few ladies will share testimonies and we'll have some worship time at the end. Herma, who is heading this up, asked me to be in charge of the admin and the decorations, so I am quite excited! We were expecting about 50 to 70 ladies to sign up, and we have over 220 - wow!!! This is the first women's event that they have had, so it is quite exciting and, by the response, it shows that this is needed! I have a team helping me here at the church tonight, which is wonderful.

I actually have youth tonight, as well, and we are spliting into life groups - I help lead the 10th graders. So, we are using this opportunity to teach on serving and then have the kids put this to practice by helping set out tables and chairs and stuff. That is such a blessing to me and I hope that it blesses them as they serve together.

On another note, on Wednesday we met with a lady at the prison who is one of the administrators there. We presented a program to her that we are wanting to implement in the prison. It is a wellness program, and we would teach the inmates about health, nutrition, exercise, sti's, hiv, parenting, etc. I am very excited about this! We do not yet have approval, but should here back soon from the prison. Our plan is to begin this in the women's section and then begin teaching it in the men's and kid's sections, as well. Please pray for favor from the administrators and a venue to use there.

I am also going into the prison this Sunday for church. My life group (small group) is going with me, so I am quite excited to get to take them in and show them what I am a part of and have them meet some of the ladies there. One of my life group leaders, Nico, is preaching and my old housemate, Craig, is leading worship. Please pray that God meets with us, uses us and directs us.

I am still housesitting and will be for a little over a week. It has been amazing having the house and car and know it will be hard to give it up! :) I love how God not only provides what we need, but He provides so much more!!! He continues to bless me, amaze me, astound me, excite me... and I could go on.

Things at the flat are okay - we have a new security gate, and should be getting a new door soon.

I have been getting emails from many people and have not had much opportunity to respond as I don't have email where I'm staying. I apologize and will do so as soon as I can!

Love you all and miss you!

Break-in

Hello everyone. Just a quick update to let you know that my flat was broken into last Wednesday. Sue and I were not home as it was the middle of the day, but were both quite shaken-up when we arrived home in the evening.

Several items were stolen, including my laptop, eye glasses, two rings that my mom had given me, Sue’s digital camera, Sue’s clarinet which she has had since she was nine and has sentimental value, as well as some other smaller items. I think we are both doing pretty well. It’s a bit traumatic to think that someone was going through your stuff – both of our rooms were a mess. They broke in through the back gate… actually bent up a metal gate and kicked our door in. I will put pics up at some point in time of that. I am currently at the church, and will probably not be wonderful in keeping up with emails and such as I am house-sitting (an amazing house with a great alarm system and have use of their ’94 Camry!) for someone who doesn’t have Internet access. Sue does have a laptop, so I can keep up with that while I am at home.

One absolutely amazing thing is that my stuff is covered under my mom’s homeowners insurance since that is my permanent residence… such a blessing! My mother has been absolutely amazing and has already gone and picked out new eye glasses for me and will be shipping them over this week. Thank you so much!!!

I am overall doing well. I met with our church counselor on Friday and she walked me through some of the feelings and stuff that I would go through and am going through, and I am meeting with her again on Tuesday. It was so good to talk about it. It’s funny because it is quite normal here for stuff like this to happen, so when I was talking to friends here about it they would make comments like, “When that happened to me…” or “Last week when my dad was hijacked…” or “When I got mugged….”. After speaking with people I kind of thought that I was making this a bigger deal than it was, but when I woke up on Friday I came to the conclusion that it was a big deal and it’s okay for me to be emotional about it.

People here have been absolutely amazing… very encouraging and Sue and I even had some people stay with us in the flat for a few days. I am so blessed to be surrounded by this amazing community here and am so thankful for it.

Love you all.

Prison Ministry

Wow. The service at prison this morning was amazing. I spoke to Stephanie last Thursday, who leads this ministry and these services, and she had been out of town for about six weeks. She mentioned to me that she really wanted to go to Jubilee this Sunday (today), since she hadn’t been there in so long, and so I told her that she could do that and I would be fine leading the meeting in the prison.

I’ve know that I was going to talk, but it was so amazing getting to organize the meeting and lead it. I asked three other people to go in with me. Sean led worship. Luke shared his testimony. And Laura did a rap that she had written. We really all led the meeting together.

God showed up. It was so powerful. I loved it… I so feel in my element with I am doing women’s work and women’s ministry and women’s prison work. I love to show women God’s unconditional love. I love for them to know that God is for us and that our lives our in His hands. Maybe it’s because I’ve struggled with this and I am a woman through and through… emotional and craziness and all… and I know what it’s like to be consumed by our thinking and wrapped up in our thought lives.

The service was amazing. God was in every part of it. I felt like I struggled a bit with my talk, but God came through. What did I talk about? I talked about waiting on God through our circumstances… the importance of the body of Christ… the importance of what we feed our minds… the importance of waiting on Him and in His presence. The theme being focusing on Him through life and ways which we can do that.

I actually had such a hard time in knowing what to talk about. I felt like God was leading me to speak on being fully devoted to Him in body and in Spirit… and I did in a way, just not where I thought that talk would go. I even had everything typed out yesterday, went to Jubilee to print it out and practiced it there. Then, last night, I had new ideas and things that I felt would be good to share… thinking that God was redirecting my talk. So, I sat down, and almost started over. I text messaged one of the guys, Luke, thinking that he may have a printer at his house… so, I redid it last night, went over it this morning, and emailed it to Luke. He printed it out and gave it to me as we left for the prison.

After I had spoken, we had about 20 minutes of ministry time. It was amazing. The women were coming up to Laura and me asking for prayer for different things that they were struggling with. Laura even had the opportunity to pray with one of the ladies to recommit her life to God. The woman were coming one after the other. As we would pray with one, the next one would come right up.

Can I tell you how much I love serving with the body? It is such an amazing way to get to know each other and to love Him together… God is amazing. This was the first time that Sean, Luke and Laura had been in a prison. It’s not an easy thing to see. In speaking with them afterwards, Laura mentioned that it wasn’t what she expected. These women were normal… we can have normal conversations with them… it’s hard to imagine what they could have done to be in a prison. I remember thinking that same thing just a few months ago when I first went to Pollsmoor.

Wow. I love watching God work. I love it when He shows up. I love it when He leads. I just love Him.

Happy 4th of July!

Hello everyone. It’s always hard to know how to title these entries and where to start. I have had a good week. I moved last weekend, and am really liking my apartment. I plan to take pictures soon and put them on the website. It has been great making it like home here. I have borrowed some picture frames and put pictures up of my family and friends back home – it makes me miss all of you more, but I love having them up to look at. God has blessed Sue and me so much in this apartment. He has provided all that we need and more.

Winter camp for the youth group was good. It was very chilled and relaxed, which was actually quite nice. As most of you know, I am a perfectionist and like sticking to a schedule, but it was so great to not be so consumed with this. I did a lot of the admin for it, which I enjoyed… was pretty unorganized because I only had about a week to organize, but it all came together okay… just a reminder that God’s in control. ☺ I had the opportunity to talk to a few of the girls who were really touched and I could see God working in them in different areas of their lives. It is such a blessing and excitement that some of these girls are opening up to me and wanting encouragement.

One of the pastor’s here, Alastair, asked me to come and share with his life group on Wednesday. He asked that I share about America and a little of my testimony. I was quite excited that it was the 4th of July… so I began by sharing what the 4th is in the states and what we generally do… and also shared what mom and Maggie were doing. I really didn’t know what exactly to talk about or what they would want to know, so I just opened it up for questions to see what they would be interested in. It was so amazing. I shared about my family, Christian Fellowship, Granny’s House and friends and about some of my upbringing and testimony. I love it when we don’t plan a lot and God always comes through. They wanted to spend some time at the end praying for me, for Christian Fellowship and for America. One particularly powerful time was when they asked me to name the pastor’s of Christian Fellowship and we prayed for each of you by name. It was incredible…. and made me miss you guys!

Speaking about not planning a lot and seeing God come through… I am speaking at the prison this Sunday. I have been working on this more this morning and plan to spend some time today doing this. I feel like I know the general topic God wants me to speak on, but am having a hard time with the specifics. Please pray that God leads this and directs me where to go. Please pray that the power of God meets with us and that He brings the ladies there that He desires.

On a personal note, I have been sleeping much better. God is continually teaching me total and absolute surrender to Him. I was reading Practicing His Presence yesterday afternoon, and came across this quote:

“Moment by moment I’m kept in His love, moment by moment I’ve life from above;; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, Moment by moment, oh Lord, I am Thine.”

Sounds like a good place to end. I love you all so very much.

Life here….

Hello everyone! Things are okay here – I have been struggling the last couple of weeks with a few things. I know God is in it and I know that He is working in me through this. I actually didn’t sleep well for almost two weeks. I went and saw Karen, who is the doctor in our church clinic, on Wednesday, for four different reasons, one being the sleep issue, and she gave me a couple of recommendations… and I have actually slept for the last three nights, and it’s felt so great. The two things she recommended are no caffeine after noon (obvious, I know) and spending some time before God before going to sleep. She even recommended that if there are certain things that I am struggling with, to write them down on paper and give them to Him. I have done this for the last three nights, and it has not only help me to sleep, but brought me closer to Him. Also discovered on Wednesday that I have ringworn (sp?) on my leg… eeh.

I have struggled this year a bit in feeling productive. I had coffee with a friend yesterday and talked to her about this a bit. She came here about five years ago on this same program and struggled with this, as well, and has seen others struggle with it since. She said that this year is often a year that God works more in us than through us. So, although we may not feel too helpful or productive, He is actually working in us in ways that we may not see right away.

Youth. Yesterday for youth group, several of us leaders made about 100 brownies for all the kids. It was quite fun, and kind of got me in the mood to do more baking. It is quite different to bake here, as they use different measurements… and then there’s the whole Celsius thing. ☺

Our youth pastor and his wife have recently been blessed with a new house. The couple who lives in the house are going to the states for a minimum of nine months and have allowed Chris and his family to live there free of charge for as long as the couple is in the states. How amazing! A group of us went there last Monday and helped clean and paint. It was a fun day.

We have winter camp for youth from July 2-4. Please pray that God meets with us and prepares us for this. I am excited. The group will be a bit smaller, as a lot of the leaders and kids are on holiday, but I am excited to see what God does here. Chris asked what area each of the leaders would like to be involved in, and I chose God focus. I am excited about this, but don’t have a lot of creative ideas in this. Please pray that God gives me ideas and that these kids get excited about God.

Prison. I am speaking at the prison on July 8th and believe that I now know what God is directing me to speak about. As I was reading my Bible a couple of days ago, I read in Corinthians 7, “An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs; Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.” My most wonderful friend, Christine (I miss you!), has been telling me for years that it is an amazing opportunity for me to be single and be able to be wholly devoted to God. Of course I believe that, but still have that desire to want to be married. Anyway…. So, although some of the women in prison are married, they are not living in the role of a wife or mother now, as they are in prison. So they can use this time to be wholly devoted to Him. God has also been working in my life and teaching me to be more of a Mary, than a Martha, which has been a challenge, but I think I will speak on this a bit, as well. I love how God uses our challenges and struggles and uses us in them. I would love prayer in this… that God helps me in preparing and speaks through me.

Bookshop. As I have been working at the bookshop and wondering why God brought me to South Africa and why I am running the bookshop here, I have been reminded of how much I love books that have changed my life. I am not a huge reader… another reason I have wondered why I have been placed in this position… but I have read a few books that have increased my passion, love, vision, character, etc. So, getting the right book in the right person’s hands at the right time can be a very impactful, life-changing thing.

Steven Van Rhyn, the head pastor here at Jubilee, asked me to put a book on hold for him last week. As I have had it in the office here, I decided to pick it up and see what it’s about. I think it’s one of “those” books…. Impactful, life changing, exciting. As I have been reading it, I have decided I need to buy this one and get Steve another one off the shelf (that is in “new” condition).

So, if anyone is wanting a good book to read, I recommend “The Power of Vision”, by Andy Stanley. I have taken a few quotes out of the first several chapters (as that’s all that I have read) and have put them here.

Quotes from Andy Stanley in his book, “The Power of Vision”

What is a vision?
Where does it come from?
Visions are born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. Anyone who is emotionally involved – frustrated, bronkenhearted, maybe even angry – about the way things are in light of the way they believe things could be, is a candidate for a vision. Visions form in the heats of those who are dissatisfied with the status quo.

…..

For a vision to become a reality, someone must put his or her neck on the line. Vision requires visionaries, people who have allowed their minds and hearts to wander outside the artificial boundaries imposed by the world as it is. A vision requires an individual who has the courage to act on an idea.

….

A God-ordained vision will begin as a concern. You will hear or see something that gets your attention. A thought related to the future will generate an emotion. Something will bother you about the way things are or the way things are headed. Unlike many passing concerns, these will stick with you. You will find yourself thinking about them or in your free time. You may lose sleep over them. You won’t be able to let them go because they won’t let you go.

….

There are always more questions than answers when God births a vision in our hearts. There are always obstacles. There is always a lack of resources. A man or woman with a vision usually feels alone. Even isolated. Often there is little to go on other than gut-level, unquenchable, insatiable desire. And hopefully a sense of destiny: a feeling that this is what you were made for, an assurance that God has called you out into uncharted waters with a divine purpose in mind. If any of that rings true for you, you may be on the brink of something divine.

….

Our tendency is to pray for miracles. But in most situations, it is more appropriate to pray for opportunities. More than likely you need an opportunity rather than something supernatural.
If you are a parent, you probably have a vision for your children. Instead of simply praying that they would become men and women of character, pray for opportunities to build character into their lives. Your vision involves you You have a role. You have a part to play.
If you have a vision for unbelieving friends (or family), don’t simply pray that they will be saved. Pray for an opportunity to speak to them about Christ. If you pray for an opportunity, more than likely you will recongnize when God brings it along.

Love you all!!!

Times… They are a Changin’

We had a braai (bbq) today and invited lots of friends to come over. We just decided to do it for no apparent reason, and, as we were all hanging out, I realized that it would be the last time that all five of us housemates would be together.

Tom leaves tomorrow to head back to England. I am sad. He has truly been like a brother to me here in so many ways. Not that I have a brother… but I can compare my relationship with him to my relationship with Scott back home. Tom is hoping to come back in September or October, so I may get to see him again if that all works out. Craig, another housemate, leaves on Thursday to go to Zimbabwe for six weeks. Becky goes home in mid-July and I move three weeks from today. I am excited about moving, but also sad that this “chapter” of the last five months is over. It has been great living here and has made it easy to get quickly plugged into life here.

God’s provision has astounded me this week. Some of you may know that I was basically going to run out of money in the beginning of November… and that was without a ticket home! Someone unexpectedly donated $2,500 this week. Wow... thank you… speechless.

I also spoke to my dad yesterday on the phone. He and Robin are coming out the first two weeks in October. They plan to spend a few days here in Cape Town, then the three of us will go up to Victoria Falls for a few days, then go to Krueger Park near Johannesburg. They said that they plan to pay for me to travel with them. This is such a huge blessing to me. These are two of the big things to see in the southern part of Africa, and I didn’t know if I would get the opportunity to do either. Wow… thank you… speechless.

Also, just remembering how He made a way for me to go home in April. I didn’t anticipate being able to go home… and He made a way. My mother provided the funds for my airline ticket and a bit of spending money while I was there. Thank you!

God provided this amazing flat for Sue and I to live in. Someone from the church owns it and is letting us rent it for quite cheap… it will be R2500/month – which I’ll pay R1000 – wish is about $140/month. Also, I do not have any furniture; although, Sue does have a few things. Last week, someone donated a bed for me to use. And… today we found out from several others that we now have a TV, a microwave, a bedside table for me, and a vacuum cleaner.

I wanted to move and was hoping that it was God’s will. When I made the decision to move from the Frasers, I strongly had a peace that I could move or stay here and I would be in God’s will either way. His provision in all of this has been amazing. I will miss the Frasers, but do plan to come back often. As three of us are leaving here, they have been looking for others to come and live here – God has already provided two people who will be coming in July to live here. This has just all worked out so perfectly.

I have been reading a book by Andy Stanley… I don’t have it right here, but it’s about casting a vision. One thing that he says in there is to pray that God gives you opportunity. I always pray that He will use me, but I don’t always pray for opportunity. So, I began praying this. God has opened three doors just this week for more opportunity. I spoke at Sunshade on Tuesday morning – we did an outreach for the ladies to invite their friends, and two of us spoke on the gospel and His grace. I was then asked to come to one of the life groups to share about myself and even about America – this is on July 4th, which I think is quite exciting in and of itself (since it’s a holiday in America). Thirdly, I was asked to take a team into the prison the second Sunday in July… they also asked if I would be the one to speak. Exciting. God is increasing opportunity.

I had mentioned some possible women’s ministry stuff here. This is still all up in the air, and it may be for quite some time. I will keep you posted if and when anything happens here. I would love continued prayer.

Overall, I am doing well. I spend quite a bit of time with a group of the young adults here. It’s great, because there is always stuff going on and it’s easy to get connected, but it’s hard to make good, close friends in a group setting. I am definitely making a few close friends and am trying to hook up with some of the other ladies to build deeper friendships. It’s hard to believe that my time here is half over… I can’t think about it too much because it does make me sad. It’s so weird because I don’t really know what will happen with me next year. I don’t have a plan… I’m hoping that God comes through and lets me know what His plan for me is. ☺

I think about you often and am praying for you. I am excited at the work God is doing at Christian Fellowship and I love praying for things that are halfway across the world and knowing that God is big enough to answer those prayers. What an awesome God we serve.

God’s Irrevocable Plan for Us

I have had an interesting week. I began on Sunday by finding out that I am going to be an auntie!! Wow – I am so excited. Scott and Maggie will have a little one coming in January 2008. Yeah! I am quite sad that I will miss the pregnancy, but have requested that they take many photos!

On another note, I have been struggling a bit with God’s purpose for me here and His purpose for my life, in general. ☺ I know that God is using me in different areas here, but I want more! I want more challenges, more responsibility, more growth, more of Him.

I am working on a possibility for women’s ministry here and would appreciate prayer in this. I don’t know what God is going to do here or if He is going to open this door. I also want more challenge and responsibility with the youth group. We have an amazing youth group and I am excited to see God working in it and to see what He is going to continue to do here.

For the majority of the week, I was trying to be in control of my life… I don’t recommend it, it’s way to stressful. I have so many unanswered questions and unanswered possibilities.

As I was reading my Bible Friday morning, I came across Romans 11:29, which states, “for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” The American Heritage Dictionary defines irrevocable as “impossible to retract or revoke”. I was blown away by this – there is nothing that we can do to mess up or retract or revoke what God has for us… His call and His gifts for each of us are irrevocable. How amazing… how encouraging… how relieving!

Settling in…

I am settling in back here in Cape Town. I’ve been back for about two weeks and am enjoying getting back into a schedule. I am helping out with Alpha for the next three weeks, and am looking forward to that.

I’m moving in July! One of the girls who works at the church (Sue) has found a two bedroom apartment and asked if I would like to live with her – yeah! I am excited. We went and looked at the apartment this week and it is adorable and has an amazing view of table mountain. The cost of living will actually be very comparable to what I am paying now. I will miss the people that I live with and will miss family life, but have an open invitation to come here anytime… so I plan to do that often. ☺

Things at the bookshop are going well. I spoke with Stephanie, who is the one in charge of Beauty for Ashes and is my project leader while I am here. I am not going to be helping out with Beauty for Ashes too much anymore, but will be doing some admin stuff for them. I have mixed feelings about this, but trust God has something more for me here. I am hoping to get involved in planning some type of women’s retreat or day here and would love prayer in this… as I’m not really sure where it’s going to go from here.

I am helping out with the youth group and am enjoying that. I have been moved three times as far as which grade level I am working with – I am now with the tenth graders. The kids are absolutely amazing. Although the church has many cultures, almost all of the kids in the youth group are black South Africans. About once a month we meet only with our specific life groups (as opposed to the entire youth group meeting together). So, last Friday we had a guy come and teach the tenth grade life group salsa dancing. It was a blast! Please pray that God uses me here and gives me a love for these kids like He loves them.

Love you all and appreciate you SO much!!!

Back in Cape Town

I have arrived back in Cape Town… only took 41 hours of travel time! It is good to be back here and I received a warm welcome from everyone. I have jumped right back into life here. I went to youth last night and am having dinner with some friends tonight and then going to a talent show that the church is hosting. It’s great having something here to come back to – much different than when I first came.

I had no problems traveling with my washed passport. When I checked in, both in St. Louis and London, both the people checking me in (not sure what their official job titles are) commented that I must have washed my passport, but there were no problems. Yeah! Thanks for all your prayers.

I was reading Terry Virgo’s book, “No Well Worn Paths”… and I finished it on the way back here. It’s a great book, I would recommend it to anyone. It’s basically Terry’s testimony, which includes the start and happenings of NFI as well as Terry’s experience at Christian Fellowship Church.

It was such a blessing to get to go home for a couple of weeks… I so enjoyed catching up with you guys and wish I could have had more time to get “quality” time with each of you. I appreciate you all so much.

Rendezvous

I am here in Columbia. It’s been wonderful catching up with friends and spending time with family. It will be doubly hard to leave again, but I am also excited to get back to Cape Town. I just have a quick story… especially for the avid Joyce Meyer fans (Carli and Julie!). ☺

Last Tuesday morning I was at my friend Carli’s place in St. Louis. I have not been feeling well, as many of you know, and I was lying there on her floor on my stomach with my head resting on my arms… and I was just wondering (kinda whining)… “Why is this so hard?” What is so hard? I don’t even know… my family situation… my heart being in two places at the same time… life….

Carli was sitting on the couch and she turned on the tv… and Joyce Meyer was on. I turned over to watch it and Carli was thinking about changing the channel but asked if I wanted to watch it… I said I’d like to watch it as I was hoping for something encouraging.

We watched for about 10 minutes, and as Joyce was wrapping up the program, here it came… “If you want it to be easier, quit asking God to use you.”

Wow… I’m pretty speechless and I think it speaks for itself. What is my response? “Here I am. USE ME!!”

I love you all so much… and my prayer is that He uses you, too!!!

At Home....

I am here in Columbia, Missouri for a couple of weeks. My Uncle Robert passed away last Wednesday and I got to fly out to California to be with my family and go the funeral. I got here in Columbia yesterday and will stay until May 9th. My phone number here is 573-446-0065.

I did have an issue with my passport in coming home. I washed it in the washing machine in Cape Town and I guess it's not technically valid anymore, as the machines can't read it electronically. I went to see if I can get another one... an emergency passport, and found that that's not possible. I plan to call the airline and may also contact the Dept of Home Affairs in Chicago to see what my options are here. Please pray that this all works out and that I can go back as scheduled on May 9th.

Love you and hope to see a lot of you when I'm here!

April Training Block

April Training Block was amazing. We went to Stellenbosch, which is in the mountains – it was gorgeous! The teaching was amazing. I think my favorite was Adam Whitlock, who is from England. He brought a team with him and they spoke on the prophetic. They taught about it and had some ministry time. Another gentleman, Nigel, spoke about cross-cultural ministry. This was excellent, as well. I learned so much about South African culture and some of the history here, and learned a lot about building relationships with people of different cultures.

I am back at my home here and it’s nice getting resettled and doing laundry! ☺ Duncan is currently making spaghetti for lunch and we are all going to be eating together soon.

We have a big conference this coming weekend at Jubilee – it’s called Together on a Mission. Terry Virgo is the main speaker and he arrived last Thursday. I haven’t seen him yet, but I look forward to talking with him and hearing him talk at the upcoming conference. Steve is actually interviewing Terry and Wendy this evening at church, so I am looking forward to that, as well.

I have a couple of prayer updates and requests:

Robert. My Uncle Robert has been diagnosed with bone cancer and it is terminal. Please pray for him – first that God will wholly reveal Himself to Robert and second that God would heal him. I am looking into options of coming home for a couple of weeks – to see my uncle in California and to spend a few days at home in Missouri. Please pray that, if this is God’s will, He will provide the funds for me to do this.

Hannah. One of the girls here, from England, has been quite sick and there was a lump found near her heart. I went to the doctor with you the week before training block and this is when it was found. We prayed for her and are trusting that God has removed it. We are going to the doctor tomorrow to have it checked out. If it is there, she will have to have surgery in the next couple of weeks. Her mom is coming out on the 25th of April, as she was planning to visit, so she will be here soon.

Packages. Thank you all so much for praying for the two packages that had not yet arrived. One of them came on Friday!!! Yeah! Because Destiny and I put a value on the package, they want to charge us $250 before we can get it. I don’t exactly understand why, but they said we could write a letter to customs and explain that these are our personal items and ask them to waive the fee. Please pray that the fee is waived!! We should find out this week.

God bless! Thank you for your amazing support and prayers! Love you guys!

Off to Training Block...

Hello. I hope you are all doing well! I have some updates and prayer requests.

Work. Bookstore is going well. I am enjoying it and starting to get settled there. I am currently not doing Think Twice or going into the prisons for various reasons. So, the majority of my work for the last several weeks has been at the church. I really desire to be out in the community. Please pray that God opens doors here and shows me where He would have me go. My work is fairly flexible, as my project leader wants me to try different things until I find my fit.

Friends. I am making some wonderful friends here. Three of the girls that work at the church – Bronwyn, Sue and Tess – have been particularly amazing. I feel like I am getting more connected. I would love to make some friends outside of the church, though. I am thinking about looking into some different things that I can get involved in to do that.

Car. Our car is not doing too wonderfully. ☺ I plan to put some photos online, so you can see it. We took it to the shop and found out that it needs quite a bit of work. Since the value of the car is not much, the church has decided to sell it and take the money they get, put it some additional funds, and buy a better car for us to use. It is not an incredibly safe car, so I’m quite excited about getting another one. Please pray that this is a quick transition and we get blessed with a nicer, safer car. Please also pray that God gives me patience with the car. I have become the individual who is in control of it, but also have five people to continually look after and make sure they have transport when needed. This week has been quite stressful as I continually get phone calls as they need rides. It seems as though I spent the majority of the week out and about and didn’t get a lot of work done otherwise. This week was an exception, though, as one of the fyp’s is quite sick and doesn’t have her VISA sorted – so we spent much time at the hospital and the Department of Home Affairs.

Training. I am leaving first thing tomorrow morning for two weeks of training in Stellenbosch. This is our second set of training. Please pray that God meets with us and blesses our time together as the 28 of us meet up again. My schedule for this is posted on my website, under “Schedule”. ☺

I will not be online or checking email for two weeks. God bless! Thank you for your amazing support and prayers! Love you guys!

Hello! :)

Hello. I have some exciting updates and a prayer request.

Car. We have a car!!! A couple from the church moved to England and donated their car to the church for FYP use. There are six FYPs, so we've been figuring out how this will all come together, but I spoke with the office manager at Jubilee this afternoon and we decided that Tom and I will be the drivers of the car (since we are the oldest) and it will be kept here at the Frasers. It is such a blessing! I am getting used to driving on the opposite side of the road. Not only do we have a car, but the church will reimburse us for all petrol that is used for the benefit of the church. So, we only have to pay petrol for personal use! What a blessing!

Bookstore. Today was my first full day in the bookstore. I have a lot of work to do, but am excited as I learn it more and get it oranized... most of you know how much I love to organize things!!! I spent most of the day today going through the stock list and comparing it with what we actually have. Sounds boring and mundane, but I actually like this stuff!

LINK. This Friday, Saturday, Sunday and next Saturday, I am taking a course called LINK at Jubilee. LINK stands for Life Together in the Kingdom. It is supposed to dig through any old stuff in your past and help you to work through it - it is supposed to help change your perspective to God-centered, as opposed to past-centered. I debated on taking this course in the beginning, but the more I heard about it, the more I wanted to take it. Please pray that God speaks to me and uses this in my life!

I love you all!

Pollsmoor

I first will say that I have put some more photos online – three sets… Harmonus, Hout Bay and Misc.

I am not going to say a lot, I just want to share something that happened while I was at Pollsmoor Prison yesterday. I go into Pollsmoor every Friday to counsel women. Until yesterday, I had been observing and shadowing the other ladies that counsel there.

We went in yesterday morning and Stephanie and I went to the high security unit, i.e., the isolation unit. She has been counseling a girl there and I have been shadowing. When we went yesterday, there was another lady (we’ll call her Faith) who was in the cell next to the lady that Stephanie was counseling. Stephanie asked the warden if I could spend some time talking with Faith and the warden at first said no, because Faith is a Muslim and will not be interested in talking to me. Stephanie pursued it a little more and we decided that I would just talk to her and it wouldn’t be any type of formal counseling thing. So, I sat down and we talked and got to know each other a bit. I found out about her life and began asking her about her beliefs. Faith told me a little about Islam and explained to me that Allah is the “higher power” of her religion. I asked her if she believes in Allah. She said that she used to until about a year ago when Jesus began speaking to her!! Our conversation progressed from there, as you can imagine, and was amazing and humbling. She eventually got out her Bible and she had a letter in it that she had written to Jesus… just pouring out her heart to Him. She let me read it… I was speechless and still am. WHAT AN AWESOME GOD WE SERVE!!!

Love you all so much and am SO blessed to have you in my life!

Hello!

Hello everyone. My work here is going well. I am currently involved with six different ministries at the church, and I really like all of them; however, it has been a bit hard, as I don't feel like I can give myself wholly to any of these because I don't have the time. The ministries are Beauty for Ashes, Think Twice, SALT (youth), prison ministry, bookstore and Sunshade. I spoke with my mentor, Jo Loizedes, yesterday and expressed some of my concern with this. She did say that this is a lot to be involved in and that I do have the option to give one or two things up if I feel like I need/want to. Please pray that God directs me here.

I did find out today a couple of specific things that I will be doing while I am at the office on Tuesdays and Fridays, and I am quite excited about them. I will be running the bookstore at Jubilee and will be heading up the social aspect of Friday night youth, which includes preparing the drinks, music and setting the atmosphere when the kids come. These are both right up my alley, so I am quite excited about them!

I am getting more settled here. I have pretty much established a routine, which is so nice! I am getting used to walking everywhere and knowing where the safe places are. I have even been walking home from the church on Tuesdays and Thursdays to get some exercise - it's probably about 3 1/2 miles.

I am establishing more relationships, which has been nice. I know that it takes time to make really good friends, and I trust that will come. I have cell group on Wednesday nights, which I really enjoy, and I think this will help me to establish relationships as time goes on.

I am going away for the weekend with the SALT (youth) leaders. It's a leaders weekend - we are going to Hermanus, and I am looking forward to seeing a different part of Cape Town! :)

Thank you all for your support, love and prayers. I appreciate you all so much!

The first full week at work and my birthday!!! :)

Sunday, Feb. 4th: I spent the afternoon at Beauty for Ashes and had lunch with the ladies there. It was my first time in the half-way house and I really enjoyed the day. A young girl who is attending university here and is working on her theses came to interview the ladies regarding their testimonies before prison and while in prison. I sat in on the interviews and was humbled and shocked by some of the suff that I heard. The ladies are precious and I am excited to get involved more here. Grace, who I am going to be mentoring, does not arrive until mid-March, so I will probalby not spend too much time there until she arrives. Grace is not her real name, but I am going to call her that here for confidential purposes.

Monday, Feb 5th: I was very blessed on my birthday. When I woke up, one of my roommates and my house parents both gave me gifts... it was so nice. I spent the day in a high school with Think Twice, teaching the kids about sex, std's and hiv. I mostly observed, as it was my first day. The topics were quite graphic, but I'm sure I'll get used to that.

In the evening, we had some people over - about 20 young adults. I had met them all before, but don't know any of them well, of course. I was so blessed and I had a wonderful evening. Some people swam and many of us just sat on the trampoleen and talked for hours. Some people brought gifts and they sang happy birthday to me in several languages. It was a wonderful evening.

Tuesday, Feb 6th: This was a hard day for me. I just woke up emotional. We had staff prayer at the church at 830am and I cried for much of the time... which was really good. I had Sundshade in the morning and I actually had the afternoon off. I won't typically have Tuesday afternoon's off, but Stephanie said I could have it as I was at Beauty for Ashes all day on Sunday. Starting in mid-March, I will be spending these afternoon's with Grace and, until then, Stephanie is going to find some projects for me. We had prayer at the church in the evening... which they have the first Tuesday of every month.

Wednesday, Feb 7th: My day off! This was a good day. I relaxed some by the pool and in the park, worked on my fyp assignments for several hours, wrote some letters and cards, and read my Bible for awhile. I then had my life group in the evening. I think I am really going to like my life group. There are about 20 of us, which is quite a bit of people, but it's a good group.

Thursday, Feb 8th: Thursday morning I had my life group with the ladies from Beauty for Ashes, which Jo Loizedes leads. It was nice. The afternoon was a meeting at BoA and in the evening I went to the Loizedes' house for dinner. It was a very nice evening - Jo is a wonderful cook. I took some photos and put them on my website. They said that they had Thanksgiving dinner for a couple of years when they got here, but they are not any more. They really miss that holiday. So, we're going to have Thanksgiving dinner at thier house this year. Yeah!

Friday, Feb 9th: I went to the prison in the morning and shadowed some of the counselor's. It was a good morning. It was crazy, sad, humbling.... wow. The ladies were precious. This was my first time ever in a prison... I don't think it is what I expected. The people are so normal. I really am having a hard time putting this in words. I'll be going in the prison every Friday, so I will express more of my experiences to you in the future... and will hopefully find words to explain it. God's just amazing.

Saturday, Feb 10th: I went to Stellenbosch for the day to celebrate one of the girls birthdays here. She wanted something a little low-key, so just about ten of us went. I put the photos on the website. It was a nice, relaxing day. We went to a couple of wine farms, and we did some wine tasting which was incredibly cheap.

Sunday, Feb 11th: It's just the afternoon now. I went to Pollsmoor this morning for church. It was very neat. About 30 of the inmates came to the service there. I got to share a little bit about myself, why I'm here and a small portion of my testimony. I had to talk loudly and slowly, so they could all understand me.

Prayer Requests: Please continue praying that God draws me closer to Him. I have good days and bad days, which I know is normal. The beginning of last week I was having a really hard time. My quiet times have been hard and it's been hard for me to focus. I sent several people an email to pray for me, and this has gotten better through the week, but please continue to pray for me here. Please pray that God helps me to keep my focus on Him all the time, but that I will especially not be distracted in my quiet time and worship time.

Please also pray that God remains my #1 focus in everything. When I got into this, there was a clear no-dating policy. This was removed a couple of months ago, and I just found that out. I know that God's in control, but I kind of liked having that boundary line because I then knew this wasn't even an option.

I love you guys and miss you! Thank you for showering me with e-cards and regular cards on my birthday. You guys are so wonderful!

What This Year Holds

Today I spent the day in a planning meeting for Beauty for Ashes - for both the ministry at the half-way house and the ministry in the prison. We spoke about the plan and goals for the year. I am very excited that I got to be a part of this and see all of the facets of what this organization does, even though I won't be a part of every detail.

On Mondays, I will be involved with Think Twice and will be in an eight-week training course to learn how to teach about HIV in schools. I will take what I learn here and reform it so that I can present it to Sunshade (which includes women from Beauty for Ashes and the community) around July and we also hope to present this in the prison by the end of the year.

I will normally be going into the prisons on Fridays for the purpose of counseling women there. I will begin this next Friday, February 8th, and will first be shadowing Stephanie, who runs Beauty for Ashes, before doing any of this myself.

There are several other courses that I can take throughout the year - I hope to take all of them, but will see where God opens doors and what the availability of the courses are. The courses are (1) HIV counseling, (2) Educational Training Services and (3) Restorative Justice counseling (which each woman in prison has to do prior to their release).

There is a 22-year girl who will be moving into Beauty for Ashes soon. She will be there during the days from mid-March to mid-April (on day-parole) and then will be there around the clock after mid-April. They are planning to have me as her mentor, as they want someone younger. I am the only "younger" one that is a part of this now. She has been in prison since she was 13.

I want to cry when I think about what I'll be involved in here - I am so excited and humbled... I really can't think of the words to describe it.

I love you all and appreciate you more than you know.

Tomorrow the FYPs have a welcome tea at 10 A.M. and I will be helpng with the youth tomorrow night. I have a birthday party for a friend on Saturday, which should be fun as we'll be hanging out by the pool. :) On Sunday I have church and was invited to Beauty for Ashes for lunch - I hope to go to this, but need to figure out transportation home afterwards. Monday's my birthday and we're having a party here at the house in the evening... woo hoo!!!

Project

I just spoke with Stephanie, who is my project leader. I will be meeting with her tomorrow, Tuesday, afternoon at 1:00. However, I will be going to a prayer meeting at the church at 8:30 and then will be helping Jo Loizedes with something called Sunshade from 9:30 to 12:00. I am not exactly sure what Sunshade is, but I'll let you know when I find out. I will have an hour just to hang out around the church before meeting with Stephanie.

A couple of my roommates have a prayer meeting at 6:30 A.M., as they are involved with a program called BLITZ... I will not be involved with this, but will probably have to tag along with them, as that is my ride. Stephanie informed me that she will not be available to pick me up or take me home at all, so please pray that transportation will be provided throughout the year and this will not be an issue.

January Training Block

I have returned back from my first Training Block and start my project this week. I have just put my photos from this on the web-site. We didn’t have too much free time, but we used all that we could to do some tourist-type stuff in the area. It was very gorgeous.

The training was very good and quite intense. I was mentally and physically worn out within the first few days. I will put some specific info about some of the training stuff below, but I will first talk a bit about some of the fun stuff we did. There were 27 of us… I was the oldest, there was one 25 year old, one 24, and the rest were 21 or younger. It was good getting to know everyone. I felt quite a bit older, but several of the younger ones were calling me their “big sister” by the end of the two weeks, so that was nice.

We were in a dorm-type facility right on the beach in Simon’s Town. It was absolutely beautiful, as you’ll see in the pictures… the beach was great and the water was very clear. We had some friends around… penguins. They would just hang out on the beach with us, which was quite adorable. They were so cute when they would walk!

We had the weekend off between the two-week training, so we actually went to three different services at three different churches. Two were youth services (Friday night at The Bay and Sunday night at Heldeberg) and one regular service (Sunday morning at Simon’s Bay). These are all three NFI churches. It was so great to get to visit some different churches, as I probably won’t get a lot of opportunity to do that when I’m more involved at Jubilee.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to the mall. Jac (who is head of NFI South Africa) let me drive his car with eight girls… it was quite packed and was a fun experience to drive. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. They drive on the opposite side of the street, so that was a first for me. It was also a manual transmission… which I can drive, but it’s been awhile.

I have also seen some US stores here, which I heard that I wouldn’t see. They have McDonalds, KFC, Shell, Seven 11, MAC (that one really surprised me!), Guess and several others. No Starbucks though – that’s one I would love to have around!!!

Most of the coffee here in instant coffee, which I’m starting to get used to… as hard as that may seem!

I am doing pretty well emotionally. I have my moments, of course. Part of me feels like I’ve been on vacation and it’s time to come home. However, I am really excited to start my project and see what life will be like here.

I am a bit concerned about the transportation part of things. I have to depend on others to pick me up and take me home. Taxis are not like they are in the U.S… it’s a 15-minute walk to get a taxi, which is basically a large van full of many people and the van has it’s standard stops. It’s not safe to walk to a taxi from here by yourself and it’s definitely not safe to be on one by yourself. About six of us experienced this together on the way to training block. There are five of us living here, three of which are FYPs, and Destiny is about a two-minute walk from here, so the four of us will hopefully be figuring out the transportation together.

Here’s a little bit more details from the actual classes:

Counseling and Listening Skills. This was a very intense course on crisis counseling. We had a test at the end, and, for those of us that passed, are now certified to do this type of counseling. It was very intense, but Gill was a great teacher and helped us in making this practical. I studied and ended up getting a 100% on the test – that’s not like me. ☺ However, I know that it’s much different when it’s on paper versus an actual person. I hope to get to use some of these skills here and I imagine I will be able to at Beauty for Ashes.

God’s Story and God’s Word. I really enjoy both of these classes. Dave Adams is one of the pastors at Jubilee and he taught both of these. We actually did a brief overview of the entire Bible… it was incredibly intense, somewhat overwhelming, but very enjoyable.

Working with Your Money, Stewardship and Leadership. Jac taught these three courses and I really enjoyed them, as well. The titles of the courses show exactly what he talked about… he didn’t get too specific with managing money, but talked about how to manage all that we’ve been given in a God-glorifying, giving way.

Church History. Lex taught this course. It was great… intense, as the rest of them. I really enjoyed Lex and got to talk to him a little over lunch-time to catch up with some of the stuff going on in Columbia. He said that they would have me over and we could get out all of their old pictures and go through them together.

This Great Salvation. This was an excellent course. Sean talked about evangelism and how to do this in a manner which is effective in getting people interested and open. It was great for me. It still scares me to do this, but hopefully I will get the opportunity to do this here and become more comfortable in it. He focused more on just talking to people that we randomly meet when we’re out and about. He also got pretty theological on some stuff… which is harder for me.

Worship and Prophetic Ministry. That was pretty awesome. ☺

Assignments. Last, but not least, we got a list of assignments that will be due in April. I have three essays I have to write – one on God’s Story, one on Church History and one on This Great Salvation. I also received a book, “Bible Doctrine”, and I have to read two chapters and answer the questions at the end of the chapters, as well as read one other chapter and journal on this. I also have to work out a budget and write down all my goals for this year and review these with my project leader. Lastly, I have to fill out a report and send it to Jac and Megan each month. I was told that if I spend about two hours a week on all of this, I should have it all done by the time it’s due… which is the April training block (the first two weeks of April).

This is quite long! I love all of you and miss you!

Pictures!

I have finally posted some pictures. :)

I am off to training camp tomorrow and will probably not be online for almost two weeks. Love you all!

Summer Camp - What A Great Start to My Journey in Cape Town

I returned today from summer camp. I had a great time there. I am, of course, still missing home so much, but I had a wonderful and very busy week. There were a total of 372 people at camp... including about five NFI churches, 150ish leaders and 200 some kids. We were divided in quiet time groups - there were nine in my group, three leaders and six kids. It was so great to be in these groups and get so personal with the kids.

The meetings were amazing. Becky and Vicki - you both would have loved the meetings! The Africanz love to dance and have many dances for the different songs. We also sang some of the songs in Africanz, which is quite common here in Cape Town. I believe it's the second most used language after English. The meeting reminded me much like the mid-90s at CF. They were amazing.... and the sermons spoke much of the Word and truth and the importance of walking a life with God.

The weather was incredibly hot. There is a hole in the ozone layer, so there is no ozone layer here. I don't know exactly what that means, I just know that we must be careful while in the sun. :)

I met some wonderful people at the camp. I met most of the FYPs... who are the others in the program with me. I also met many that I will be going to church with and some friends from other churches. It was a great way to get started here in Cape Town. I feel like I get to go to church tomorrow and I'll know some people. Yeah!

Steven spoke at two of the meetings, so I got to talk to him a bit... for those of you that know him. He had his two adorable boys with him. Also, Ami and Jessica Loizedes were at the camp and I got to talk to them a little bit. I took some pictures of them and hope to get them on the website soon. Their mom picked them up today from the church and I got to talk to her some. She and Lex said they are planning on having me over for dinner after training camp is over.

I will be at training camp for the next two weeks. If you'd like to see what I'll be up to, please check out my contact info and look at the "January Schedule" posted there.

Thank you for all of your posts and emails - I wish I could respond to all of them! You all are so wonderful and such a great encouragement to me. Thank you so much!

I'm here!

I have safely arrived in Cape Town. It's hard to believe! I haven't seen too much of Cape Town yet, but will be going to the beach tomorrow for summer camp. Summer camp is for the NFI youth and I will help in doing whatever they need me to do. I will be there from tomorrow, January 7th, through Saturday, January 13th.

I am settled at my new home and my host parents are quite wonderful. They have been so inviting and helpful. My room is quite small, which I'm not used to, and I'm pretty certain my bed is smaller than a twin. I will have four house mates, one girl and three guys. The host parents have opened their home to people volunteering at Jubilee Community Church and their door is pretty much what we would call a revolving door. I have been blessed by them today and am excited to get to know them more. We all will have dinner together each evening and we each get a night of the week to cook. :) Vegetarian shall be interesting here.

I am happy to be here and looking forward to what God has for me, but I have had an emotional day. Please pray that God works in me and through me this week at camp and that I'm not an emotional wreck! :)

Love,
Elizabeth