Discipleship in South Africa

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