Durban Summer Project Debrief

Well we have been back in the States for 2 days now and we are still catching up on sleep and getting use to being back on Central time! However, adjusting to different times and schedules has not been the most difficult part, but adjusting to now having our team around us at all times. Spending five weeks in a foreign country without your friends, family, or any form of technology means that you cling pretty heavily to the team that you are living with. So you can imagine that not having that close group of people around you anymore requires quite an adjustment! We love being back home with our friends and family but we have been missing our sweet Durban team (and not to mention our sweet Durban friends!) a great deal.

The past five weeks have been an incredible journey for Mitch and I and we are so thankful to our supporters, friends & family for making it possible for us to go to Durban to serve the Lord. Because we had never staffed a summer project before, this trip was quite a learning experience for us. However, we have never felt more prepared or more assured of our calling to minister to college students. God was so gracious to us in allowing us to go on this trip and be able to learn & grow into more effective collegiate ministers. In addition, God truly used our trip to Durban to break both of our hearts for international ministry and different people groups. 

I wish that we could write down every single detail of our entire trip but that would be an overwhelming blog to read! We hope to get the opportunity to see everyone soon and be able to tell of our trip in person, but until then, we want to at least share some of our pictures- Hope you enjoy!

Music: After All (Holy)- David Crowder; Let us Love- NeedtoBreathe; Down at the Cross- St. Andrews Hymns

Durban: Week Five

We are finishing up our last week in Durban and although we do miss our friends and family very much, we are so sad to be leaving! We have spent the past five weeks with a group of 15 amazing students who we have become very close with and saying good-bye to them will not be easy. In addition, we have made such great friends with the UKZN students and interns, as well as Anele. Thankfully, Christians never have to say good-bye forever!

We have spent this week again at the UKZN Westville campus sharing the gospel and disciplining students. This past weekend, we had the privilege of witnessing 4 of our students get baptized in the Indian Ocean: Maddy, Paige, Jacob & Katherine. Although the morning was a little colder than usual, as a team we listened as they shared their testimonies and the things that God has been doing in their hearts while in Durban. It was such a sweet experience to be able to be a part of that special day with them.

This past week, we have spent on campus going out in pairs and sharing the gospel with students who are willing to let us share what we believe. Although we went into the week pretty tired and drained, God has amazed us with the number of students who have been not only receptive to the gospel but who have voiced their true desire to begin a relationship with Christ and walk with Him! It has been an incredible week getting to witness God use us and the students to share the gospel- as well as giving us all the boldness we didn't think we had!

We had our last small group on Tuesday night down at the student's favorite restaurant: Mugg&Bean (yes, its an American restaurant). Wednesday night, we spent the night reflecting on the past 5 weeks and all that God has been doing through us and to us. We also have slowly begun the debriefing process, which is going to be harder for some than others. After being on a 5 week trip overseas, it is often extremely difficult for people, especially students, to go back to their lives without having the support of their mission team around them. Because of this, we have been spending extra time encouraging students on how to make the transition as easy and comforting as possible.

Tomorrow we will attend our last weekly meeting on campus and then we will be heading for a night of bowling with the team to wind down. Saturday will be filled with more debriefing discussion and activities and our last night out to dinner. We will be leaving around 9 a.m. (3a.m. eastern time) Sunday morning for the States and will arrive in Atlanta on Monday around 2 pm Eastern Time. Please pray for our last couple of days here as well as for safe travel and lifted spirits as we leave. We cannot wait to get back and give you more details and stories from our trip and we look forward to seeing all of our friends and families!

Durban: Week Four

We are officially down to only one week left! I cannot believe that our time here is already coming to a close, it seems like we just got here yesterday. Due to fact that I am running extremely low on internet time this morning, this update will be short (until I can buy more internet minutes). However, I will be filling in details that I have missed as soon as we get back in the States!

This past weekend, we ventured to the Valley of 1000 Hills and got to see the traditional Zulu dancers as they preformed a typical marriage dance/ courting dance. The students really loved it and it was a great way to spend our free Saturday. On Sunday, we all were able to attend our first Zulu church service. Although the services are about 3-4 hours long, and all in Zulu, thanks to individual interpreters we really enjoyed the services and getting to meet members of Anele's church!

This whole week we have been on the Westville campus of the Universtity of Kwa-Zulu Natal. We have spent the week doing outreaches everyday by asking a different question to the campus each day: What is sin? What is grace? What is love? In addition to the outreach, we have been going across campus sharing the gospel with students and discipling students we have met. The Lord has been doing amazing work this week and we have seen several people come to Christ because of His work through us! We have had the opportunity to talk with and share the gospel with Shembe followers, Hindus, Muslims, etc. It has been a trying week but an incredible week! God is so good.

Today, we will be attending the weekly Crusade meeting on campus and discussing the topic "What is love?" Paul Meyer, a staff member with us on our trip, will be speaking to the students about God's love and what it means for those who follow Christ. Please continue to pray for the advancement of the gospel on this campus and the growth of the Crusade movement here!

Durban: Week Three

This week has been one of the craziest weeks we have had here so far! Since it was our last week in the communities, our schedule has been very busy but very productive. This past weekend, we ventured to Isinkwe for a all-day safari on Saturday. We spent 12 hours travelling around and viewing God's creation including a cheetah, rhinos, a hippo, lions, elephants, zebras, giraffes, and more! It was an incredible day and we were so thankful that the animals decided to come out.

On Monday, we spent the day working along side a church that works with the Isaiah House (orphanage). The boys spent the day helping construct a new building, while the girls spent the morning prayer-walking around some of the occult meeting sites that were near by (will explain more in coming posts). In the afternoon, most of the team went to the local daycare to spend time with the kids of the community. I had the priveledge of going door-to-door with a couple of students to share the gospel with the community. The people here are so open to the gospel- it is very refreshing!

On Tuesday, we went back to the same place and the boys once again helped with construction. Mitch, myself and a large group went back to the local daycare. The daycare offers to watch preschool aged kids or younger for familys that are single parent homes or home where both parents have died and the older siblings are caring for the house hold. We closed out the day by playing a huge soccer game with some of the local kids (they were a little bit better than us!).

On Wednesday, we spent the day at an AIDS Hospice called Ukhakane (might be spelled wrong- it means light in the darkness). The boys helped build a fence at the entrance of the facility while myself and the girls painted some of the patient's rooms. At the end of the day, we celebrated Nelson Mandela day (July 18th) by going to the World Cup Stadium and watching Manchester United play Ama-Zulu. The game kicked off by the whole stadium singing happy birthday to Nelson Mandela- it was a once in a lifetime experience for sure!

On Thursday, we went back to Ukhakane and continuted to work on our painting projects and the fence. At lunch time, Penny (the woman who began the ministry), took us down the road to a local meat shop. We all picked out meat and they grilled it on a huge braai for us for lunch. It was quite an experience (and a little nervewracking) but the meat was actually very good! It was a great end to our time in the communities.

Today, we are spending the day training the students in evangelism methods. Mitch also will be spending some time teaching them about Islam so that they may be prepared if they meet Muslim students on campus. Tonight, the UKZN interns are joining us at our place and we are having a huge cookout. We have made such sweet friendships here- its going to be so hard to leave!

Please continue to pray for our team. We have a couple who have been sick this week, myself included, and are having a hard time getting better. Also, please pray for us as we begin our time on campus. Pray for open hearts for those we will speak to, as well as for our students to have courage and to be faithful in spreading the gospel. We miss you all and covet your prayers!

Durban: Week Two

We have successfully made it through week two and have had an amazing week! Last Saturday, our group hosted a VBS for local kids from the Kwa-Dabeka township. HIS church, Anele's homechurch, has a ministry called KwaCare which pays for the schooling fees, clothes, and food for a select number of kids that come from families that cannot afford to pay the yearly school fees (roughly 12 US dollars a year). We hosted a VBS for these kids on Saturday and were able to share several Bible stories with them, the Jesus Film for kids, and the gospel in whole.

On Sunday, we visited HIS church alongside of Anele and the UKZN students and interns we have been working with. It was a great opportunity to experience a different church and worship alongside our new South African friends.

On Monday, we ventured out to a community called the "Newlands". Before the Aparteid, the "Newlands" was created to house all of the "colored" people so that they were not living in the white South African neighborhoods. We partnered with a church called Shalom Outreach Fellowhip, which was started and run by ex-gang members and Christian men with amazing testimonies of how God brought them out of the darkness. We spent Monday doing door-to-door evangelism with members of the community and praying for those whom we talked with. We also had an "outdoor service", where some of the leaders of the church and the youth group shared their testimonies and truth from the gospels over a loud speaker.

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to sit in on the church's Tuesday morning service and introduce ourselves to the community. We also got the opportunity to spend time with the church's youth group, sharing testimonies and getting to know them and their culture.

On Wednesday, We headed to a place called Cato Manor where we hosted another VBS. We spent the morning playing games, singing songs (like the kids all-time favorite "Father Abraham"), and doing crafts. After lunch and another round of games, I (Amy) had the opporutnity to share the gospel alongside one of our students, Kris, with 50 plus kids. At the end, we were able to pray with the students who desired a relationship with Christ and explain to them what a life with the Spirit looks like. It was an incredible experience.

On Thursday, We had another day of VBS with the kids of Cato Manor and we were able to share the Jesus Film with them. Their craft for the day was to make a giant chain out of strips of paper where they wrote down what they were thankful for. Some of their answers broke my heart: "I am thankful that God that my parents are still living", "I thank God I have a mother", "I thank God that I am still living", and "I thank God for keeping me until today". The pain and hardships that these kids are going through at such young ages is devestating- but they are so thankful!! I am learning so much about humility and thankfulness from such young people.

Today (Friday), we are heading out for the weekend to go on a Safari! Each 5-week summer project has a fun activity somewhere in the project to "debrief". We hope this finds everyone back home well and we look forward to sharing with you again next week!

Greetings From Durban!

We have officially made it to South Africa and almost all of the way through our first week! Mitch and I met our entire team at 8:00 a.m. Sunday, July 1st, at the Atlanta airport where we began our journey to Durban. Our flight arrived in Durban at 8:00 p.m. Monday, July 2nd. We had a little mix up with the rental cars, but we finally got it smoothed our and we were on our way to our home for the next 5 weeks!

Tuesday morning, we woke up and headed to our first day in the township of Kwa-Dabeka. We helped do some much needed landscaping (clearing overgrown roads), handing out rice and soup to the orphans and the sick, and getting to know our partners from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The team leader, Anele, has planned out our entire 3 weeks in the townships and we have loved getting to know him and the other South African students we are working with. We ended Tuesday night in our small groups going through Tim Keller's 2 Timothy study.

Wednesday, we ventured to another part of Kwa-Dabeka and spent the morning picking up trash around the houses/apartments. In the afternoon, we split into groups and began getting ready for our AIDS/HIV training session that we will be hosting on Saturday. The 5 different sessions explain what AIDS/HIV is, how it is contracted, how to protect yourself, how to treat others with AIDS/HIV, and how to make smart choices with God for your life. We will also be putting together a Vacation Bible School for primary age children on Saturday as well. Wednesday ended with a night of reflection to meditate on the things we have seen this week and how God can be using us while we are here.

Yesterday, we spent the morning hosting a thrift store for the community and a soup kitchen. Before soup was given out, the gospel was presented and we had the opportunity to talk to members of the Kwa-Dabeka community and pray for them. In the afternoon, we continued our AIDS/HIV training and some of us girls also got dance lessons from some of the women in the community center. We ended Thursday with men's and women's time, discussing the past week and our spiritual walks.

Today, we had a day off which has been spent on the beach hanging out with our South African partners. The boys have made attempts to play rugby and we ended up running into a World Race Team that is currently in Durban and from the States! It has been a great day of fellowship, relaxation, and spiritual conversations that will end tonight with a group cook-out and a trip to watch the local rugby team play!

We have loved being in Durban and are so excited to see how God is going to use us to serve the people here as well as work in our hearts and the hearts of our students. Please continue to pray for changed lives as well for the safety of us and our students, as we are in some pretty dangerous parts in Durban. We will update again at the end of next week and cannot wait to share some amazing stories!

Preparing for South Africa

Well time has eluded me once again and I now sit here staring (and by staring I mean gawking/hyperventilating) at the 5 days that linger between today and the beginning of our South African adventure. I have yet to do laundry, nor pack, but I do know where my passport is- a small step in the right direction!

Our journey to Durban officially begins at noon on Sunday, when we will fly from Atlanta to Washington D.C. From D.C., we will fly to Dakar, Senegal; from Dakar to Johannesburg, S.A.; and finally from Johannesburg to Durban. We will arrive in Durban Monday afternoon and begin to settle into our new home for the next 5 weeks! (and by settle in I mean crash from our 24 hour travel)

For the first three weeks of our project, our team will be working alongside of South African students from the University of Kwazulu-natal in the townships of Durban. The townships, or "slums", are predominately made up of black South Africans and are home to the lowest socioeconomic  class of Durban. We will be spending most of our time working at the local AIDS Hospice and orphanage, assisting in any way that we can.

Township right outside Durban

The last two weeks we are in Durban will be spent on the campuses of the University of Kwazulu-natal sharing the gospel, meeting with students, and working alongside of the the South African Cru staff there. At nights during the week, we will have small group Bible studies, men's & women's community groups, team dinners, and large group meetings (on different nights of the week).

Because we will not have cell phones, and will only have access to the internet via once-a-week visits to an internet cafe, this blog will be our main source for updates on our trip and experience. We will make a point to update our blog at  least once a week with the highs, lows, praises, and prayer requests of our team. We are extremely excited to embark on this adventure and pray that God's glory will radiate greater than we could have ever hoped or imagined!