Discipleship in South Africa

I’m writing a final post with words that explain my last days in Durban, South Africa. I’ve been thinking about this since I came home in June but haven’t done anything about it until now. Don’t ask me why I’m doing it now, but for some reason: it is time!

 

The last couple of weeks in the beautiful country South Africa were busybusybusy, but in a fun and adventurous way.

 

We renovated the small office we had in Burlington

 

 

and I went around in the small township and visited all the friends I made during my time over there. Here is Fransesca, one of the sweet ladies that prepared the sweet treat “barbequed cow leg”. To be honest, I didn’t try it, but I do regret not doing it.

 

 

 

I visited Thandasile, Simpiwe and their newborn

 

 

 

and we had celebrations with the community development course that finished in late may. From the left: Zukiswa, Mesta, Johanna, Benjamin, Martin, Nomvula (Stella), Thokozani, Nokubonga.

 

 

 

Some of the guys that I spent time with during my four months in Burlingon gathererd together and we had a South African “braai”, or barbeque. It was truly a sweet group of guys and I had a sleepover at Saneles house. I loved finally getting the opportunity to stay there. It was really nice walking around in the community by night and embrace the culture even more.

 

 

 

I’ve fallen in love with the community Burlington. One of the questions I've been wrestling with being here is: in what way can I, you, them, us help people in need? I know the easy answer would be, give money! and sure it helps and it is sure needed. But giving a fish instead of a fishing pole, speaking in pictures, doesn't make sense. But in the same time it really breaks my heart to see poverty when it torn families apart, neither the less I rejoice even more when I see that not being the case. True joy, not birthed out of riches and things, but out of love. Man, as I'm writing it, I feel like  vomiting due to the fact that it sounds cliché. But it is true my friend, you’ll find true joy in te midst of these awesome friends in Burlington and no one, nothing can take that away from them. God truly cares for these people and He loves them sooo freakin much, as He loves you and me... once again one of those sentences that is easily taken for granted.

 

This experience, being in Burlington, has brought out truth and I can honestly say that I believe in Jesus Christ as savior, King, a living person in you and me. It is crazy, difficult to get and I’m just in the beginning of the process of understanding this.

 

 

 

Here I am standing in between both the Indian ocean and the Atlantic. SWEET! I also dipped my feet into the water here, at the most southern tip of the African continent.

 

 

 

Even though the last picture showed the most southern tip of Africa, this is what people somehow recognize as the famous tip of he continent, “cape of Good hope”. More beautiful and attractive for people In general.

 

 

 

Me and my friend Chris from the DiscipleshipTrainingSchool in Belize, who also stayed in South Africa to do his internship, went to the Krüger Park to go for a safari. He lived in the northern part of the country on a base close to the park. It was truly sweet meeting him face to face and also experience some of South Africa together.

 

 

 

Here is Chris, a real cliff hanger.

 

 

 

We saw elephants, cheetahs, buffalos, rhinos, giraffes, deers, snakes, monkeys, zebras and more that I don’t know the name of or can remember right now.

 

 

 

 

After traveling around some I ended my period in South Africa staying on base and in Burlington to wrap up and to give the opportunity to staff on base to connect with the friends I made during my four months in the township. The picture shows Burlington from above. 3000 inhabitants in the valley.

 

 

 

I just had to take a photo from the sweet blacktaxi as it’s called. I enjoyed most of the rides even if the music sometimes was a bit too noisy, but hey – This is Africa!

 

 

 

My final highlight from my whole trip was the dinner that Nomvula, Stella, threw me before leaving for Sweden. She prepared a delicious meal that I and all of us truly liked. She shared her heart and how she was blessed by having me there. My eyes were tearing up and I was surprised and so happy to get that in return. I know we somewhat need affirmation and encouragement and this truly made it through all cultural layers that sometimes hinder me from receiving compliments.

 

 

Summing up my time in Durban, the city I spent most of my time in or actually Burlington where my heart and inspiration flowed into, I really loved being there. I disliked it my first two months for many explainable and unexplainable reasons. I would say that it was because of spiritual heaviness, feelings and culture I had a hard time transitioning into the place. But wow how God and the people there redeemed that. I really enjoy looking back. The people on base, the folks in Burlington. I hate saying this cause it’s still such a negative word and need to get out of the system cause it’s only a way of discredit the country itself, but I just can’t keep it within me – Apartheid is still effecting the country, the extreme segregation between people groups. I’m so blessed though being a part of gatherings where color didn't matter and I have friends that are “boer”, “coloreds”, “Zulus”, “Indian” and I love the fact that I got the hang out with them all.

 

Glory to God

Peace out

Aunt Elsie, a wonderful lady who prepares food for nearly a hundred kids every wednesday morning. A few weeks ago I went to her house to help her out and we prepared the food, laughed and helped one another to get the most out of the day.

First out were four kilos of carrots and three pieces of cabbage. They were all chopped carefully and then boiled together in a pot to get soft.

Ten kilos of rice were cooked beforehand and the nest step was to fry six onions until they get brownish. While waiting aunt Elsie was quick peeling our three kilos of potatoes.

There after we sometimes have pumpkin and these five kilos are chopped into small pieces to boil in a pot. For sweet peeps sugar should be added, two tablespoons recommanded.

Just recently the circumstances changed and Elsie didn't have to use her parafin "stove" anymore. But at this time we did. Three kilos of mince meat was cooked and then mixed together with the peeled potatoes. At last some spices should be added to finnish one of all the meal variaties aunt Elsie got.

Elsies finnished the meat stew.

 

The great news of the month is that my friend Moosa, who is an electrician, joined me to visit anut Elsie. I introduced them to one another with a prayer in mind, that these two would somehow click and help each other out. Elsie needed a stove to be fixed and Moosa a challenge to do good without earning money (the one easier convinced than the other). I believe God introduced me to Moosa and by himself he went a few days later to fix aunt Elises stove. Amen!

The men's group gathering in Mpumalanga

Every tuesday men meet in the township Mpumalanga to have fellowship and read the bible in both traditional and creative ways, The men coming is great people and I really enjoyed being there to widened my perspective of reaching out to guys in a township. I'm not usually there, but I tagged a long with Ben just to see what they were up to. A sweet day to sum it up.

 
It seems like an american football is a great ice breaker. In this picture it's obvious that these guys are more used to play rugby

It's already two weeks ago since I visited Zulu-land and the deep bush up north. We met some sweet zulu-talking guys who had a hospitable spirit and welcomed us with a nice place to stay plus grerat conversations and two trips to the beach. The weekend was a perfect mix of meetings, talks and relaxation. The batteries are now recharged for the last month of internship in South Africa.

Margit, 83 year old lady, who made tasty waffles 




Last weekend my swedish friends from the orphanage "place of restoration" came by. We went to Margit and had a realxed they and followed up with a visit in Burlingotn. For me personally it was great just sharing what I do as ministry to remind myself what progress is visible but also just to encourage the team to peserver. We finnished our weekend together with a hectic ride on the afrotaxi. Daniel and Julia were close to miss their bustrip back to Margate. Thanks to God, they made it.

 

Have a great time friends. I will not update my blog, I believe, until having set my feet on swedish ground again. So therefore. Bless ya'll


I'm heading towards Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kruger, Middelburg and than finally a week in Durban!

Here I am, standing on a truck looking out of thousands of men attending ”The mighty men’s conference”

It’s already two weeks ago that I visited the mighty conference that Angus Buchanan started in 2004. He’s an old Scottish farmer who went to South Africa in the 70’s. He’s such an awesome character and man of God. He still lives on the farm he developed thirty years ago and he’s still living in the same house that his fellow zulu friends built for him 1979. He wasn’t a Christian to begin with, but as He got to know Christ his life was totally transformed. Watch the movie “faith like potatoes” and know that all of it is true. The conference has grown much since the first one when a few hundred attended the meetings and camped on his fields (normally filled with corn, potatoes or whatever he, as a farmer, decides to grow). This was the last year of having it on his field, but the vision is to see these conferences take place all over the world. Between 200 000 – 300 000 men came. CRAZY!

 

 

Ben and Derek after attending the Saturday morning meeting. Comfy hay bales made a great seat for all visitors

I went with my friends Ben and Derek to this conference. Derek is one of Ben’s friends from back home in England and he came to South Africa more accurately to visit this event (he grew up here). Unfortunately Derek got stuck in SA as he was suppose to fly when the volcano at Iceland created a huge ash cloud which made his flight delayed a week.

 

 

This was during the Saturday night service, the high peek of the weekend’s visiting men. People on the conference said there was 550 000 camping tickets sold, but I don’t know about that. Here’s at least 200 000 men worshiping together

The conference was going on from Friday to Sunday with four meeting all together. The schedule had a lot of space for community and chilling out. We and hundred thousands of men had the opportunity to hang out, barbeque, talk, discuss, relax and just live life with each other and God.

 

 

 

The camp, or Angus fields, had three small dams where people could go for a dip

The dams were usually busy with folks swimming, mostly kids. But several times you could see people baptize one another and worshipping God spontaneously. At one point passing by the dams I couldn’t help myself laughing. Some guys were baptized in one of the dams; meanwhile guys in the dam beside had a big mud fight. I just loved the atmosphere on the conference. On the meetings guys praised God without shirts; people laughed while throwing mud, joyful guys experiencing their friends getting baptized and smoke from good smelling barbeques. People stood on common ground and building friendships were so natural.

 

 

In Burlington I got the chance to teach

Our dear ladies in Burlington meet four times a week as you know by now and I got the opportunity to teach there one day two weeks ago. I shared my thought of God as a redeemer and read some scriptures to back it up. Paul’s life is such an incredible story of our God as a redeemer and it was just nice being around those beautiful women that day. To give them a break from talking we baked chocolate balls with the intension to teach that some things in our past doesn’t taste good (cacao in itself) but that God uses it for good and adds the old experience in a new setting where it tastes good. He uses our past for greater purposes!

 

 

 

This is part of the small church in Burlington. This was a Sunday a week ago where about 20 adults and kids joined.

I got the opportunity to preach the same week I taught and was glad to be challenges that way. From the beginning my original plan was to include a local guy to preach together with me as he wants to become a pastor, as a sort of disciple principle. It didn’t turn out to be successful as he gave his cell to a lady and I couldn’t reach him all week.

 

 

 

We shared life and had communion together which was great

I got to preach about the importance of community and fellowship within the church, not only on Sundays but also during the weeks – with one another and our neighbors.

 

 

 

 

This is ”The place of Restoration”

Last weekend I decided to visit ”The place of Restoration”, an organization with such a success and it was truly encouraging to see how kids with HIV, kids being abused and orphans got embraced with love. The people working and volunteering are really making an impact in those lives. The great thing is that they want the very best for the kids and their whole surrounding. They offer therapy for the kids, but also for parents so that if possible the kid can be placed in the original family. They teach how to raise kids, finances, agriculture and every aspect of life that is necessary to live here in South Africa. Sometimes this treatment takes weeks, sometimes years, but it’s just great seeing them taking it so seriously and doing it with passion. This organization seems to be such a great complement to the country’s social care that slowly develops into something good.

 

 

 

 

Daniel and Julia, my two Swedish friends that now are volunteering at ”The place of Restoration”

I got to meet my dear friends who recently got engaged. Daniel and I met when we were fifteen years old at a summer bible school and have kept contact since then. It was great meeting them to just chill out at another place than Durban.

 

 

 

Something I realize being here is that I’m truly moody. If I wake up feeling something it usually effects my day and I easily let my feelings determine what my day will look like. I’m learning to master this behavior and try to persevere by being determined that God wants the best out of whatever day. I’m praying that God will give me a balanced view on life, belief, friends and future.

 

 

The Lord is our shepherd

This is just outside Stella’s house, close to the center of the small community

 

Burlington, a township like many other’s here in South Africa. With its 7000 inhabitants it’s a small township, but it still got fairly high criminality and poor living people.  They speak Zulu and are said to be prideful warriors and you can feel the hot cultural way of living by walking the streets in for example Burlington.

 

This is Stella

 

Stella is one example of all women brought up in a hot cultural climate with a slight touch of warrior instinct. She became a believer of Jesus Christ two years ago which made her life change path. Her past is a mess, as she would describe it herself. Stella is a woman with four kids, all different men, and when the last one cheated on her she went over to his house with a bottle and beat him up so bad that he went to the hospital and she to the prison. She and people in her surrounding say she was known to be a hot tempered woman who had huge attitude problem and difficulties to bring up her kids. But two years ago she decided to follow Christ, not just like that but after getting in contact with one lady connected to YWAM Durban she got help and principles of how to live life. This lady became a safe place to go to when things got messy for Stella and an interest for Christ was born as the lady openly showed who Jesus was.

Stella is now famous in Burlington and she’s their social worker. She takes care of the sick, she takes kids to the hospital, and she gives elderly the help they need at home. She’s a woman of initiative and she takes care of her family and is loved in the community. The other day a guy said she should get an award for being a hero in Burlington.

This is my friend Benjamin teaching at the recently started community development course

 

Stella’s radical change of behavior and the way she was taking care of people opened up other women eyes and some wanted to do something similar. As Stella now is a part of YWAM and has done a course in community development we realized that a need for a course like that was needed. With short notice we had five interested ladies willing to give up four days a week (8.30-13.00) to be ready to serve the community. Benjamin and Johanna who are long term workers and experienced took the lead to develop a course that could fill the need.

Here we’re singing, praising and praying before going through the topic of the day

The course will be an eight weeks long community development course based on Christian principles and it’s just great seeing this actually taking place. The women seem to enjoy even if they’re not totally used to study as they finished school years ago. The atmosphere in the group is good and it’s meant to be as practical and light as possible to really make the important information stick.

Kids waiting in line to have their hands washed

 

The women are also equipped with leadership skills and the idea of the course is to encourage them to take more initiative in the community for everyone’s best. The feeding scheme that has been under the supervision of YWAM for five years is a great platform for the women to take their first steps to be in charge of something.

Hands being washed

 

The great thing with this feeding scheme is that just in two weeks the program has gone from being a thing that a DTS (discipleship training school) team has been in charge of and organizing to now become something that all locals are taking care of. The only thing we still need to do is provide money to buy the food, but other than that they’re taking over it all. It’s great!

 

After washing hands they are all put on the floor to participate in planned program. It could be songs, dances, teaching, dramas or whatever comes up

 

As the course is now in charge of the feeding scheme they operate, delegate and take responsibility for the whole event to take place and it’s encouraging to see that these women after just two weeks are ready to serve the community. It’s not because of the course, but they’re all longing to make a difference.

 

 

Kids lining up to get food

 

Another hero in Burlington is Aunt Elsie. She’s preparing the food every week and just said the other day that she wants to try to get the money to provide for the feeding scheme by asking different companies to support it.

 

Aunt Elsie preparing the food

 

So a big part of my ministry in Burlington is now focused on the development course - To get the classroom in order, some teaching prepared and also to serve the women whenever I can. When I’m not part of that I’m trying to foremost hang out with my manly friends around the community and have an impact by just praying, being and living life with them.

 

This is me and Sanele cutting down bamboo

 

One guy I’m spending time with now and then is Sanele, a carpenter who also is the landlord of the classroom/office we’re renting in the community. He’s like an answer of prayer. I really thought God had a carpenter and that I would get to reach out through that. Helping Sanele with this house has already opened up the eyes of especially the guys in the community. They get curious and wonder why a white guy would help out without charging and connection with new friends take place
 

 

Stella’s new house

 

The process of building a house is pretty simple. You get a few stable poles, stems to stick into the ground as corners and strong support for walls. Then you use for example bamboo to place parallel bars all around the house. Fill it with bricks, rocks and some cement and then plaster on the outside and it’s all done and can last for decades.

 

The beautiful view from the inside

 

The ministry in Burlington is exciting and I love spending time there. Prayers, money and lots of love is needed to see the community change. There’s still people going to witch doctors and both alcohol and drugs is common to get away from reality, family and responsibility.

We are now praying and fasting for a change and believe one way to go is through the course we set up. Hopefully the course next time or the next one after that is run by locals.

 

Have a great week

Blessings

We decided to go rope skipping the other night. We used a garden hose to make it happen and sure it was fun, but hurtful as well – at least if you weren’t fast enough and got the heavy hose on your back.

I still live on base and I enjoy it, I really do. At times it’s a bit too crowdie and difficult to get enough space to think, pray and be alone. Adding to that you don’t really want to be outside the base when the sun is set, cause even if Malvern is still kind of safe – there are things happening at night. Luckily I’ve now had some time to travel outside Durban and the base as a nice change.

Base director Wilson in full capacity teaching students at the classic DTS in Worcester, a city outside Cape Town

My first journey as an intern at YWAM Durban was with Wilson the other week and I got to observe him teaching and his way of being a leader in a class setting. I had four great days be his side and as good leaders do, Wilson challenged me to teach at the DTS – just a short session at the topic “Mission, God’s heart for the nations”. I was nervous but really enjoyed the opportunity to share my thoughts on mission, because mission as a word sounds negative to me. I don’t get all excited at once, hearing the word mission. But this opportunity made me think why I’m actually at a school of mission right now. I shared my struggles of mission as a misused term of going abroad to help others and changed focus to Jesus, Jesus as the ultimate missionary. I gave a few key points how Jesus brought the good news to people, friends and enemies around him and the class was gladly satisfied. A proud South African guy even said he was judging me before starting and wasn’t really open to listen, but was really thankful for what I taught. YEAH! It was such a good day.

 

 

Papa Mats and Mama Elisabeth posing at the southern coast of the continent Africa.

My two awesome parents could not help coming and visit me in SA. They picked me up in Worcester and we did some travelling for a week and a half and begun in Cape Town

 

 

We paid a visit at Robben Islands and the prison where Nelson Mandela was locked in for 18 years out of total 27.

Being in SA without touching base with its history and apartheid was close to unavoidable. We really enjoyed the tour and all we got to know throughout the visit. We spent more time at water front and admired the beautiful harbor with its nice setting and all the inviting restaurants. We also went for tourist sightseeing with one of those double-decker buses.

 

It was a time of relaxing, with a different language, familiar culture and nice people but I really missed my dear sister Matilda who wasn’t able to join. Luckily it turned out to be a really good vacation despite her not present. After Cape Town we went by bus for 24h to reach Durban and the surrounding I’m more familiar with. I showed my parents the neighborhood and some of the highlights in Durban.

 

 

My family love travelling, especially my mom, so we couldn’t settle with only one stamp in our passport but two. Therefore and also because of interest we went to Lesotho. The picture shows a classic village in the country at the height 9000f.

We got the chance to visit these villages thanks to a great guy called Steven who is a ministry director at Harvest Times Ministry. He took as alongside and we got to meet awesome people with amazingly open hearts.

 

 

This village had about 15 houses and according to tradition every village has their own king and queen. The queen is the one in charge and every decision has to go through her. Here she is to the right. When we went there we gave the kids a soccerball, and I started to play for a while when I realized the queen first had to give her approval. I gave her the ball, she touched it and nodded and it was all peaceful again.

We finished our short vacation by visiting my cousin Stefan with family and we celebrated Easter and Jesus way of defeating death! My cousin lives in Johannesburg and it was a nice final destination before split apart as a family and go back to “normal” life, whatever that means.

 

 

I’ve been recharging my batteries and I’m SO PUMPED to continue my work in Burlington and the other ministries I’m involved with. I want to be a part of giving hope to the hopeless, a future to the poor and the criminals. So these two last months will be great! Prayers and ministry will therefore continue and I will share more what’s it’s all about next week.

 

 

Bless ya! Christ is freakin alive!

South Africa - a beautiful country with rich nature and beloved people. It's a nation that strives for justice and equal rights for all people since the apartheid. The people here is very proud of Nelson Mandela and his radical way of wanting to change the whole nation and after watching movies like "Goodbye Bafana" and "Invictus" I can't do much than agree. He showed us what it's like to fight for the good, what we need to do to change, that it starts with us - for the South Africans that meant: not wanting revenge. It's crazy how people were mistreated during the apartheid, just 20years ago.

 

 

My four roommates; Daniel (Nigeria), Richard (Ghana), Edmund (Ghana), Larry (South Africa)

 

 

 

I've lived in the country for a month now and have a better insight what the apartheid really was like from a personal kind of view. I've had the opportunity to listen to stories in which the discrimination between skin colors was obvious. There were banks, stores and even benches in parks that were only for white people. The gap between blacks and whites was huge.

 

 

My schedule which is flexible enough so that I can go travelling, maybe study at a leadership school, teach guitar and observe leaders and missionaries in action.

 

I went the other day to Pietermaritzburg and visited my grandparents’ old friends. Margit, 83years, invited me to her home with open arms. She also told me some stories of the past in South Africa, how it was when she came in the fifties. Apparently missionaries (who went to help the black community change) got stuck in between the races. They didn’t like the mistreatment (of colored and black people) but didn’t want to break the laws and regulations (that were all about giving the whites privileges). Because of this they had to take a lot of difficult decisions.

 

When I followed Margit to the bank to do some errands the queue was long. Luckily they have a line for retired people so we went there. As she spoke to the bank man another guy came up to me saying “I and the others have been waiting a long time, standing in line. Why don’t you do the same?”. It was an uncomfortable situation, to sort of be accused for racism. At the same time I did admire the courage it took for that man to ask that question. That he was willing to take a step to make a change. I explained that I was with Margit and wasn’t standing in line and he understood that I wasn’t trying take advantage being white.

 

 

Petru and Nelly. I and a few others went to a high school to share our testimonies, teach some ethic and morals and just love on those students. That was a week ago and we’ll keep on doing that every second week. So this coming Friday we’ll be back

 

 

 

This is one of the biggest reasons I believe the ministry in Burlington is important. We want to see the community changed and the prejudices about different races to be laid down. I therefore spend a lot of time going for prayer walks and starting conversations with random people. I also believe I’m supposed to support, help and encourage a few men to take important steps towards a better future. I have no idea how that will look like at this point.

 

 

As you can see most pictures aren’t at all fitting the texts I’ve been writing, but that’s just because I don’t want to make my friends in Burlington “tourist objects”. I will bring my camera later on, when I know them good enough to be a friend taking pictures for memories and nothing else.

This picture was taken last Monday when all staff went to the beach to have fun and enjoy life. The waves were big and so much fun. Johanna is here sitting at the beach. She’s another Swede working in Burlington.

 

 

 

I appreciate this time a lot. I get to know some great people and also have some divine appointments that only God can set up. I was praying specifically for divine appointments last week at Wednesday.

 

I and Larry were praying and then I went. 20 seconds later, when I exit the gate of the base, an unknown guy came up. He didn’t introduce himself despite we’ve never met before. He just came up to me starting to speak. He spoke, talked and formed words forever. He shared how he feels the pressure to perform, that “everyone” wants him to be a world evangelist, that he couldn’t stand the spiritual pressure (at this point I was just bursting out in laugher, inside of me, because of what I prayed minutes ago) and that if he didn’t obeyed what his mind told him to do, people in his presence got hurt (it was like he was describing a curse or something). The incredible thing was how God lead me during this conversation. Because, as I mentioned, this guy - Efson - spoke a lot but God gave me a few words at times, usually questions that fit perfectly. And it was sooo sweet to realize that it wasn’t me at all, but God, the Holy Spirit – Jesus! who ministered to this brother. He got encouraged but was still talking and seemed upset, unsettled, stressed and pressured. Finally I felt that the Lord wanted me to pray with him, so after a 40min walk down to Burlington we prayed together. What a change in attitude and atmosphere! He calmed down, didn’t speak as fast and was so thankful. He didn’t mention anything about the long conversation we had, he was just thankful. An awesome divine appointment if you ask me.

 

 

 

I couldn’t resist paying a visit in downtown Durban to join a worship night with Jesus Culture. It was great!

 

 

 

I wish you all God’s peace and blessings

Life on base. A base not far from the heavy trafficed city Durban with beating night clubs and dangerous side walks (even though the area right where the base is, is really calm and nice), a city with a population of four million people. A DTS (discipleship training school) is in progress and students representing USA, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana alongside with staff from South Africa, Australia, England and Sweden are all occupying the base. A sweet mix of nationalities which makes life more fun and interesting

Creativity took over during valentines day

... and the guys on base served breakfast for the ladies. The nicest silverware, sweet background music and an honest smile made their day. It was nice observing the guys from other nations, not totally used to do that for valentines day


I've soon been here for two weeks and eve though it was kind of a rough start, not knowing anyone and trying to fit in, I really feel at home (I realized that the other day when I came back after a long walk in the city. I was exhausted and felt true joy entering the gate to my new "home") I've spent these two weeks in prayer and consideration - A lot of prayer walks (I even learned how to jog and pray at the same time, before I always needed to focus to keep up the pase "come on! you can do it!... etc. But not any more) and a lot of thinking. The schedule has been super flexible and I like it, most of the times and if I'm right it will continue to be like that even if I have my schedule written down by now.

I will probably spend about 20h a week in Burlington, the poor township - it's my main ministry being here and I will aim to share life with young men. Beside that I'll teach some guys the guitar, having some time to organise and plan events like preaching and worship sessions, some carpentry and maintenance on base, travels in the country and observing leaders in action - like joining the base director Wilson to Cape town while he's speaking at another base.

This is Wilson. He's got a great heart and he's a leader I will learn a lot from. His leadership has an African relational touch to it, which I like and will gladly observe his way of making things happen.


As I told you before my main ministry will be in Burlington where they all speak zulu - so that's also on my agenda, learning zulu. The criminality is high and as I was talking to a lady I was told that the police doesn't care about murder happening over there any more. Because the whole village is like one family and will never tell the police what really happened. Their mentality is more like tooth for a tooth, eye for an eye with revenge as a result. The lady told me that a man once was dragged to the centre of Burlington (right where the church is located) and they lit him on fire in the middle of the day in front of the inhabitants, kids and women... The circumstances are bad as you can understand, eve if a positive trend is visible. The base in Durban have been distributing food the last five years to the people over there and it has been helpful in the process of building relationships. Nowadays the people from this base are safe walking in the village and kind of protected because the people accepted us. The feeding scheme is meant to serve women and kids in the community, so what God put in my heart is to disciple a few young men. We'll see how that turns out.


I recently got home from a Sunday service at the church in Burlington. It's a church with few members, 20-30, but they are alive in Christ! A pastor from elsewhere is coming every Sunday to preach and to worship they use an awful keyboard with awful sounds accompanied by a beating drum machine. It's noisy and awesome! They also dance up "stage", sometimes in a more African groove but now and then the young woman in the group starts dance moves you would use on the dance floor at a club. It's funny and God gets glory. They're part of the body of Christ, my family and it's great

I still try to get tickets to the world cup and if the economy allows me I will enjoy atleast one game at the new built stadium.


I've got a zulu name by the way - with a CLICKSOUND - yeah! My name is Nqobane (Nq=click sound at the same time as you pronounce the letter "n") Igami lami Nqobane (My name is Martin/Nqobane in zulu)



Over and out
Peace, love and understanding.
Jesus is King
Tjipp

Crazy! One continent to another

 

 

Log:

·         31 Jan – Belize (took the kayaks out, snorkeling equipment , a fishing spear and Luke to catch a fish and a conch to later prepare and eat )

 

·         31 Jan – USA (because of 20h waiting in Houston TACA airlines gave me a sleepover at a sweet hotel (worth $399, yeah!))

 

·         1 Feb – 7 Feb  – Sweden (Met family, surprised friends, ate sour milk, fruits and cereals (Amen!) and went sledding )

 

·         8 Feb  - South Africa (Got to Johannesburg and as I didn’t think click sounds were used in zulu  I was surprised by the way a guy working at the airport introduced himself (with click sounds))

 

 

 

I arrived after 19h of travelling to Durban and James, my mentor and friend I’m gonna have one-to-one with, picked me up. He gave me a ride to the Durban base, where I’m supposed to stay for four months.

 

the base in Durban

 

While being here I’ve been using my time preparing for what God has for me here. I’ve been taking prayer walks (went for a 3,5h long walk around the neighborhood and prayed for different locations in Durban, different people and areas in my life where I have no clue what’s gonna happen.  It was sweet and I got some words that I think is guiding from God – grrrreat). I’ve also been jogging around the neighborhood just to get a better picture of what the community looks like. The base in itself have some ministries going on through the staff working here so I’ve been trying to join as many different ministries as possible and will keep on doing that for the coming week.

After consideration and prayer I think I will work more towards a poor village close by, Burlington. The needs are big and there are a lot of things you can do to help. I think I’m meant to share life with men in their twenties, thirties to just show them how life could be like. During my time in Mexico our team decided to help a guy by replacing a front door to his house. I enjoyed serving in that way and would love having some locals joining me doing that. One thing I know I want is consistency and ministry which is not in the need of me but Jesus and people being obedient. I also think it’s important to get the right people on the bus, that I can’t be available for everyone but invest in a few to bring the kingdom glory.

 

the view from the base, perfect spot for prayer

 

We’ll see what the upcoming week shows

A multicultural country with several languages is fascinating

I’m doing great and I’ve got a few friendships to build on

 

Glory to God!