Life after South Africa

I am settling down in Glendora/Azusa again now. Getting ready for the next set of adventures God has for me as I finish up my senior year at APU. Follow me on this period of growth and adventure if you like! http://ypjohnny1.blogspot.com

Recap

Hey all,

I was prompted by my mom to finish up the blog and do a recap, so my apologies for leaving the blog so open ended for the last couple of weeks. I landed back in LA on Friday, July 23rd. There was definitely some culture shock upon returning. I had a nice big coffee drink in the Washington Dulles airport and that was totally a mistake. My stomach revolted against the sugary goodness. Ironically, the barista was South African, ha. It's taken almost the entire two weeks I've been back to get adjusted back to America. There is something in the food here (preservatives???) that just destroyed my stomach right when I got back. I still get a meal every once and a while that just gives me the worst stomach aches.

I have been confronted with this question a lot since landing, "what is the one highlight from South Africa?" One!? jeez, I was there for two months, can I give you one for every day cause I feel like there's that many awesome moments! Over the last couple weeks though I have been able to digest the impact of my trip enough to pull out some meaningful things to share:

1. The power of prayer. I don't think I've ever been involved with a ministry that was more committed to prayer. We constantly had all night prayer sessions and there were tons of teams doing 24 hour prayer movements for the whole duration of the World Cup. It was really awesome to see so many believers committed to committing our work to God! Was this ministry of prayer powerful? I met three ministries who had been praying against the sex trade in South Africa for a year prior to and for the whole duration of the World Cup. At the end of the Cup, CNN published an article reporting that the brothels in SA saw an 80% decrease in normal business during the month. They had been preparing for an increase in business, God is good.

2. God is mind-bottling, yes bottling, like when your mind gets trapped in a bottle. I met people from everywhere, from every walk of life and watched those particular people fit confusingly but perfectly into this HUGE movement that God orchestrated for the World Cup. I mean, I was there... an American raised on football and far more interested in rugby... leading soccer clinics for kids... yeah. It was a beautiful mess that only God could pull off, and I think he planned it that way so that the glory could go only to him.

3. Enjoy the small things. All my favorite moments are the small ones that God gave me the privilege of being a part of. When people ask for the best part about South Africa, I start to think of all the amazing little stories that I have to share. Raymond on the streets of Cape Town, the witch doctor family, etc. Sometimes we get so focused on the big picture, which isn't completely bad, we got to have that vision. But, it's important to rejoice and celebrate in the small moments. God puts us in them to enjoy watching us enjoy them.

4. "I can dream." Since returning from SA I have talked with countless friends who are having a difficult time with the job hunt. The American dream is quickly slipping from reality in my opinion. Live it up for the kingdom. JAM is a team with an average age of 21 years of age. Git founded the ministry when he was 18. Many of the JAM team members have visions of starting their own ministries after their service year with JAM. Never let yourself be pulled down to mediocrity for the illusion of "security." Live like a radical for the kingdom of God, do things that the world will call you crazy for. Start ministries at the age of 18, travel across the world to do ministry, chop up a dead donkey with a machete, I promise that even though it may be difficult you'll find joy and contentment in that.

I want to once again thank all of you who have supported me through your prayers and financially. This trip wouldn't have been possible without the loving support of my wonderful friends and family. I encourage you, go out and be a part of what God is doing in this world! "Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it spring forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the wilderness." Isaiah 43:19

Sermon on the Mount

So, when I was in Mavhusa Git taught one night out of the Sermon on the Mount. I really felt God convict me to memorize the Sermon on the Mount. It's been a challenging but awesome experience so far. I can recite chapter 5 vs. 1-16 pretty well now. I stil have a good two and a half chapters to go till I reach this goal (good luck to me). I really wanna encourage any of the blogs followers to spend some time in Matthew 5-7 in the next couple of days. Pick out some of Jesus' teachings and really digest what is going on. I bet you'll be rocked by Jesus. Much love!

Last week of World Cup!!!

I can't believe that it is the last week of the World Cup already! It seems like the last month has truly flown by. God has been doing so many amazing things all across this continent, I wish that I could truly express what an amazing season this has been. People reading scripture on loaves of bread and giving their hearts to Jesus. Forty little kids making a profession of faith in one day in one village alone. It has been a truly crazy month! I feel like I have had such low expectations of what God can do. After seeing the way He has worked in South Africa this season I so strongly desire to have faith in what God can do in Southern California and in the U.S.

In regards to this last week, it's been rough at times. I was super tired on Monday. Hit the brick wall after Mavhusa. Luckily I had off on Tuesday so I got to sleep in and relax and then go into Cape Town to watch the Netherlands vs. Uruguay game. It was a lot of fun eating all you can eat sushi for super cheap and sitting in a bar with people from all over the world to watch the game. Today I went back to Sir Lowry's Pass which I just love. That place is so cool. We had an awesome kids ministry and I painted South African flags on so many little kids today it is crazy. I was covered in paint afterwords. I only have one more outreach day during this World Cup time. Wow. I come home so soon as well. I am mind blown at how fast this summer has gone by. I miss everyone back home a lot though and am excited to back and finish my last year at APU.

Haircuts, Witch Doctors, and Dead Donkeys

It is July 3rd and I have arrived back in Cape Town to the cold winds and crazy pedestrians! It's good to be back but Mavhusa was definitely a highlight of the trip. It was an amazing two weeks with amazing people. We were so welcomed by the people of the community. I can't count how many times we were told by people that they viewed us as angels walking their streets. They would constantly call us in to sit with them and pray for them. The children were really cool too. Unlike the crazy kids in Cape Town who mob us and can be super disrespectful, the kids of Mavhusa were really attentive during the children's ministry. Mavhusa itself is a really neat place. Almost everyone lives in round huts with thatched roofs. The roads are all dirt and every article of clothing gets super dirty within five minutes of getting out of the car. I have some really dominant memories from the trip

1. I got a haircut on the streets of Giyani. Giyani is the biggest town near Mavhusa in the district of Limpopo. I walked up to a tent on the side of the road with two other Americans and a colored guy who was with us named Davey (Davey himself is a fond memory of the trip). The guys looked at us like we were crazy. They proceeded to attempt to cut my hair, having probably never cut a white persons hair before in their lives. One young boy just sat in front of me with a look of pure concern on his face the whole time. At one point Davey decided he knew better what to do then the guys so he took the trimmer and went at my head jabbing and poking me with it. Then my buddy Nathaniel came in and helped trim it up so it's sort of neat... it looks pretty funky but it'll manage. I'll try to put up a picture.

2. Donkey Day. The mission station in Mavhusa where our JAM team is based at in the area has a newly finished bathroom, which is awesome. We were the first team to have flushing toilets and running cold showers. The one thing was that we needed some maggots to throw into the french drain that is a little down the hill from the camp. There was a dead donkey on the side of the road and we decided to go hack it up and get some maggots off of it. I of course volunteered for the job, not wanting to pass up the opportunity to make any memories. Needless to say, there was the malungu "white person" on the side of the road hacking at a donkey carcass with a machete. Oh the life of a missionary.

3. In America, Satan turns away the generation with materialism. In Africa, he turns the generation away with spirits and witch craft. To be politically correct I should call them traditional healers, but I don't care about that, they are witch doctors. We were inside praying for this lady who was deathly ill and there was a witch doctor graduation ceremony going on across the street from her hut. For half an hour we are talking with this woman and praying for God's healing over her body and spirit with the sounds of drums and chanting ringing in the background. Their ceremony lasted all night as well. I learned a bit about it. During the night they go through the village led by the spirits trying to find the heart of some dead animal which is buried before the ceremony. If the spirits lead them to the animal heart they have graduated and become witch doctors. There were times where it sounded like they were marching up right over the hill into our camp. It was pretty crazy. Even more crazy is this. There are dozens of reports of the witch doctors saying that Christians are completely untouchable with their magic. They say they see walls of fire protecting around the Christians. Crazy. God is powerful.

4. Zone 2. Zone 2 is another village that we worked in close to Mavhusa. It was by far the poorest community that I have ever seen. Git said that in all his travels across SA, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and parts of South America that Zone 2 is the poorest village he has ever been in. The huts are all falling apart. What is left of them is held together with a mortar combination of mud and poop. The whole village wreaks of human feces because their is no proper sewage or longdrops (you can figure that one out). Zone 2 has no running water so the kids have probably never bathed. They smell, they are dirty, they have open and infected sores. Their school is a roof held up by rotting wood with mesh net around it. It is truly a crazy place to have seen in my lifetime. I am so thankful for the experiences that I have been a part of out here but Zone 2 will forever be burned upon my memory as an image of the brokenness of this world.

5. JAMmers. Jammers are the young people in the community who the ministry of JAM disciples as young leaders. I loved these guys. A handful of 12 young men and woman who shared so much of their culture with us as we taught them about following Christ. I was able to really teach this group of guys and because of that Mavhusa felt like a place where God really truly used me this summer. I was able to impart of a lot of what I have learned about who God is and the relationship between Jesus and man with them while they taught me how to sing and dance like a real African. It was an awesome time and they are people I will always remember: Gift, Vincent, Jabulani, Clement, so many amazing young men who will change Africa.

This is all I can say for now. I am still lost in thoughts and very tired from the long travel days, but wanted to give some sort of update on the trip. I drove for about an hour today, the last leg of the trip from Stellenberg Church to Apostle Battery. It was my first international driving experience, I was pretty pumped on it. Much love everyone!

World Cup Updates

Hey all. The World Cup is well on its way. Last night was the start of the second round of each pool. South Africa got murdered 3-0 by Uruguay... it was pretty depressing. The outreaches are going well. This week I worked in the Hout Bay and Imizamo Yethu outreach. It consisted of a lot of Soccer clinics, childrens ministry, soup, house visits, and screenings of the matches. There were a lot of younger folk from Stellenberg Church. They are grade 7-9 Afrikaaners from a pretty nice community. Needless to say some of them had some difficulties on their first outreaches. I don't think I've ever been on a ministry team that had so many people cry during an outreach. I realized that I really don't enjoy soccer all that much, so it is a stretch for me to really be into running soccer clinics. Tuesday night we were hosting screenings of the soccer match that night. I was at a church in Hout Bay helping set up and I just happened to glance across the valley and saw flames shooting up out of Imizamo Yethu. The fire was 100-150 yards from the community hall where the other half of our team was hosting a showing. They had to evacuate our team from the community hall. Fortunately no one was harmed in the fire but an estimated 20 people lost their homes. I was going to go into IY wednesday to help clean up but got caught up in a bunch of other stuff on the otherside of town. That is just how this ministry goes. We have come under so much attack from the enemy this week it's been crazy. But amidst all that God continues to show how he is faithful and good. In about an hour I start to make the long journey to Mavhusa. The trip will take us two full days of driving, and I mean full days. It will be much more rural then Cape Town and we won't have much access to internet so don't be expecting a post until after July 4 (Happy Independence Day for everyone back home!). Much love for everyone!

No Greater Love

There are some moments in your life when there is no doubt in your entire being that there is a divine God who is good, who loves his children and provides in such an amazing way. Tonight was one of those nights. I was in the City Center of Cape Town doing some street ministry with Git. If ya'll know me pretty well you'd probably know that street evangelism is one of my LEAST favorite things. It just seems so shallow to me. Tonight was completely God ordained though. We were standing on a street corner and there was a young man standing about 20 feet from us leaning on a wall watching the crowd pass by towards the new Cape Town Stadium for tonight's soccer match. Git began to talk to him. He didn't really feel comfortable talking in english so I stood by and smiled and prayed while Git conversed with him. Later on in the night I was able to pick up some bits of his story. His name is Raymond. Today is his 25th birthday. He was standing waiting for his shift to start at a restaurant he works in. As he waited he was watching all the people going by to the stadium celebrating, blowing their vuvuzelas, laughing and having fun. He was reminiscing all the birthdays he had as a youth when his family would celebrate and laugh with him. He has only seen his family once in the last three years. He moved to Cape Town in search of work to support his family back home and has only been able to accumulate enough time off to visit home. Tonight he was thinking about how alone he feels on his birthday. He has no friends in Cape Town and has spent a lot of time lately questioning his existence, questioning God. Tonight we were able to celebrate his birthday with him. Though it was brief and only consisted of a can of Coke and a muffin from the 7/11. It meant something to him. He said that tonight was an affirmation of the questions that he had been asking. God cares about him. God desires relationship with him, and he wants that relationship. Thursday and Friday are his days off so we are going to pick him up Wednesday night and bring him out to stay at Apostle and come along our outreaches. God is so so good. Not the we have done much for him, but that God had divinely appointed us as a blessing in his life tonight. Greater love has none than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

The Time is Now!

The World Cup has finally begun. South Africa opens the tournament with a monumental draw against much higher ranked Mexico. I kept saying I was going to cheer for Mexico (or Meksiko, if you spell it in Afrikaans lol) and all my JAM buddies gave me the dirtiest looks. You'd be amazed by how united this Country is behind their team, Bafana Bafana. We watched the opening match at Stellenberg High School. Stellenberg being a predominantly white suburb usually wouldn't put much thought into soccer but all over the place people wear their countries colors and fly the South African flag. Yesterday the U.S. ended with a draw against England, the strongest opponent in our pool. If we continue to play well we should make it past the first round. I must say that I particularly liked the way the U.S. team plays more then any other teams I've seen yet. They are physical, like any American should be.

The outreaches have begun. The team for Prince Albert left today. The Imizamo Yethu team of about 80 will be arriving at Apostle during the day today at some point. I will work on the IY team until I leave for Mavhusa on Thursday. Just a side note-- Mavhusa is a two day drive north and I will not have internet there so there won't be any posts on Mavhusa until I return to Cape Town on July 4th. Yesterday we had a big rally in Sir Lowry's Pass (a colored township that we work in). It was awesome because it was organized and put on by two leaders in the community who JAM disciples. They are both ex-gangsters with rough backgrounds but they have huge hearts to serve the Lord and see Sir Lowry's Pass transformed. God used the day to reaffirm something that He has been putting on my heart. I watched these guys put on their rally featuring a soccer tournament, dance competition and various other little activities. They did a good job, but their skills in organizing and putting on a big event was really lacking. The tournament was difficult to manage and the times when the Gospel was meant to be shared were difficult to understand and get people to pay attention to. These guys need to be equipped. Their passions are high but their skills are few. Now, God obviously can still work with a willing heart, but people like this ex-gangsters are all over this world with the passions to transform their communities, but the lack of training to make it happen. I want to develop a way to take what I have learned in my ministry program at APU and equip people from these communities with the necessary training and tools to advance the Gospel effectively in the ways that they so strongly desire to.

Catching up

Hey all. Sorry for not posting in several days. Time is beginning to speed up and days are beginning to blur together. This week has flown by with all the "normal" scheduling. Been doing work around Apostle Battery (Jam's campsite in Cape Town). Cleaning bathrooms, yardwork etc. Today we put in a new fire pit. A victory circle South African style as I like to call it. That was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I continue to build awesome relationships with the JAM staff. It is truly a blessing to get to work here. Yesterday (Thursday) was our day off. We went into Cape Town down to the waterfront with a girl from Imizamo Yethu. I hope that it was a blessing to her, it was really awesome to take her out. She is disabled and doesn't get to go out much. Her name is Gloria, by the way. As I said earlier the days are beginning to blur together. I am finding myself into the niche of JAM ministry but find myself missing things from home in lulls in time. I miss stuff like mexican food, the NBA playoffs (Go Lakers!!!) and driving... on the right side of the road. God reveals to me the life of a missionary.

Here's what I've been dwelling upon:
"And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." And calling the crowd to him and his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power."
Mark 8:31-9:1

That's a mouthful... sorry, but it's so powerful. I've been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer and he talks about how to fully embrace discipleship of Jesus Christ we must fully embrace the sacrifice of the Cross... meaning that we know God loves us because he gave his Son and so we must also give of ourselves as well. So to sacrifice sometimes we must miss Boni's Tacos, Taco King, the NBA, BBQ with mom, chilling with roommates, etc. For me to live is Christ.

Ramblings

Hey, so just finishing up some days off. Here's what went on. Wednesday night we picked up a couple of other Americans from the airport (Nate and Lauren from Kansas). Thursday, with most of the staff off doing their own things at home, we Americans all had a fun tourist day in Cape Town. Went to the waterfront, looked in shops, blah blah. Friday we drove out to Stellenberg which is a primarily white neighborhood of Cape Town where Gerhard and several other members of JAM are from. Stellenberg Church is also a big partner with JAM, Gerhard's dad is the missions pastor there as well. Hung out with Anton (Gerhard's brother who I also met at Hume last summer) all day Friday. I gave him a tapout sweatshirt and he gave me rugby jersey. Great trade. Friday night was a service for Team 1000 (The outreach movement that we're working with for the World Cup, more to follow on that). Saturday I watched Rugby all day, it was awesome. This morning (Sunday) we led worship at a church in Hout Bay, five minutes away. It was awesome I thought. More on the church service to follow.

Now for the good stuff...

At the Team 1000 outreach meeting, the message moved me in a couple of ways. Because of the FIFA World Cup the speaker spoke along the terms of winning the battle against the enemy (like winning a soccer game you know). He challenged us as to whether or not we're winning the battle against the enemy. We get so caught up in our own personal life, our own personal growth and performance that we lost sight of the fact that we as the church have a global mission of winning this world for Christ. Today in church there was a presentation by some YWAMers on sex trafficking in South Africa and all the specific ministries being done during the World Cup in response to this issue. Not to take away from the heartbreak of something like sex trafficking but God took my focus to something else. I was thinking about all the people who will be doing ministry here because of the World Cup. It's great that so many people are committed to impacting the world at this point but I got to thinking about how the church should be concerned with reaching the whole world all the time. I think of the book of Revelation where John talks about seeing a multitude from every tribe, nation, and tongue praising God. Such a feat is possible if we all had this "world cup" mentality towards the world all the time. People would always be concerned about social justice issues like sex trafficking, poverty, malnourishment, etc. People would always be concerned with the American teenagers drowning out the voice of God with Xbox and iPhones and the man losing his family the the pursuit of the American dream. How do we turn a whole generation, worldwide, back to the heart of God?

Rugby with Jesus

We were in a township this evening. I got to play rugby with Jesus. I could tell it was him because I recognized him in the beautiful smiles of all the children who out of the midst of so little showed me so much love, hope, and peace. God is breaking my heart in such a marvelous way.

This Beautiful Mess

Jet-lag is hitting me bad right now. Slept for several hours today... still feel like I could sleep more and more. Did an awesome outreach today in a community called Imizamo Yethu, also called Mandela Park for any of you having trouble pronouncing that (as I am, ha). I would like to list off the languages that I encountered today on our outreach: English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Spanish, and Portuguese. Imizamo Yethu is a black township, most the children spoke Xhosa, the JAM staff primarily speaks Afrikaans and English, and the Brazilians speak Portuguese and a broken Spanish with me and the other Americans. It was amazing because in the midst of confusion across the languages, God's love felt so strong. It was a beautiful mess. At one point a Brazilian woman was using one of those little block things that folds in different ways with pictures on it of the Gospel message, trying to speak in English and reading off a cheat sheet to a bunch of kids who only spoke Xhosa and only showed any response to the words "Jesus" and "love." It's awesome out here. God is doing great things. Thinus, JAM's second hand man was telling me that a lot of people have been prophesying over the country lately saying that a great revival is going to start in Cape Town and work its way northward over the whole continent and eventually the world. Let's pray for that to be true. God is moving a lot of interesting people into interesting places in this country before the World Cup and I can only imagine that if we are faithful to serve He will do something truly great. Keep it real. Love God and love others.

The Surreal Deal

I have safely landed in South Africa and arrived at the JAM base in Hout Bay, near Cape Town.  The flight was long and uncomfortable, California could not be farther from South Africa.  The country is beautiful.  The first thing I noticed as my plane was making it's decent into Cape Town was the grand contrast in living styles.  Looking out onto a hill I could see beautiful houses, as I followed the ridgeline my eyes crossed a road and there was a shantytown.  Wealth and poverty mixed together like I've never seen.  Git (Gerhard) wasn't at the airport to pick me up.  I guess he was confused and thought my flight landed at 12 midnight when I landed at 12 noon.  This was cause for an adventure.  I hired out a tourist/taxi driver and with no phone number and the wrong address for JAM we started to try to find the camp.  Got to drive through Cape Town which was beautiful.  It's a city unlike any oher I've been in.  Let me tell you, South African drivers make LA drivers look like the best in the world.  I'm thankful I won't have to drive while I'm here because between the reverse side of the road and the pedestrians running everywhich way it'd be bad.  Anywhoo... Long of the story short we found a phone number and got directions and I made it to JAM's base at 2 pm, walked around, napped, chatted with Git for a while and then left to go on an outreach.

The outreach was awesome.  We ran a soccer seminar for a couple of hours with a team from Brazil.  The Brazilians are traveling around to different communities putting on these mini-soccer camps (which they were excellent at doing).  They partnered with JAM to work in some of the communities where JAM typically does ministry.  JAM functioned more as a facilitator for this outreach which meant my job was helping the Brazilians with English and picking up cones when their was the need for that.  Don't know exactly what's on the plate for toady, some outreach somewhere.  This guy named Derek is here checking out JAM and might be going on full time with them to help disciple the JAM interns.  I might run some errands with him today in town while I wait for the outreach tonight.  Continue to pray for me, It's been an awesome first 24 hours in SA.  I must admit, it's good to get out of LA, and the USA.  Keep it real. Love God and love others.  

LAX

I am all checked in at LAX. It really started to hit me in the car as we were pulling up to LAX, this trip is finally happening!!! Now I am settling down the excitement, nervousness, and anticipation as I wait for my first flight to depart. Give or take 30 hours from now I'll be in South Africa. Hope that I'll be able to get some internet once I arrive in SA so I can give an update on safe arrival. If not, just trust that God has delivered me there successfully! Keep it real. Love God and love others.

Prayer Requests Pre-Trip

Only a couple more days until I depart for South Africa. My bag sits packed at the foot of my bed only needing the minor details to be packed into it now. Out to run some last minute errands like buying a second camera battery and printing pictures of friends and family to share with people over there. With so much of the preparations completed, and what feels like so much time left before I leave I turn to spiritual preparations for the trip. Through some awesome personal conversations on Sunday, God pointed me to the book of James for personal study this week. While I could write for days on the wonderful lessons God was teaching me from James, the most profound for the preparation of this trip was found in chapter five where James’ exhorts his audience to pray saying, “the prayer of a righteous man has great power as it is working.” Prayer is all I have left to prepare me for this trip. I invite you to join in partner ship with me as I pray over the following issues. Firstly, the anxiety and worry of this trip is hitting my mom much more than it is hitting me. I’m praying that God will comfort her in her apprehensions about my trip. I am 100% sure that I am following in God’s will and have faith that God will protect me as I travel. I am praying for travel mercies. I continue to push to the back of my mind the horrible daylong flight that I will have over the Atlantic. If only traveling from New York to Johannesburg didn’t take 24 hours. May God grant me an uplifting spirit during the long time of travel so that all who I encounter along the way may see Christ alive in me. I am praying for the full time staff members of JAM. During the upcoming week and a half they will be preparing to launch the winter ministry that I will be partnering with them in. We will launch this campaign of outreaches on May 26^th. Pray for the FIFA World Cup. With such a large venue to be held on the stage of South Africa, eyes from around the world fill find themselves on the country this summer. With such a great opportunity come great risks. Pray for God’s hand over the entirety of the country during the event. Pray that God’s heart would permeate the people who travel to the country to follow the tournament. Pray that God would open the eyes of all who travel to the country so that they would realize that while they sit in a beautiful stadium supporting their country’s team, only minutes away disenfranchised youth live in some of the most extreme poverty. Finally, pray that God would refresh my heart. As some may know, I have grown restless in the past months at school. I eagerly await this opportunity to go into the world, to live an adventure with God. Pray for a refreshed passion for finishing my schooling at APU in the fall and for clarity and direction in God’s calling for my life once I graduate from APU. Thanks ya’ll. Keep it real. Love God and love others.

Oh, this was a cool idea thought of by Pastor Chris at FBC Cambria Sunday for how to remember to pray for me. Anytime you see or hear something about the FIFA World Cup on the TV or Radio throw up a prayer for me!

Pre-trip jitters???

I am nearing in on a week until my departure to South Africa. I must admit that it seems surreal that this moment of my life is actually coming. For any who know my story, I had times where I doubted that God would be taking me to South Africa at all. With the door to study abroad through APU’s South Africa Semester closing, the door to serve with Jabulani Africa Ministries opened. I met Gerhard Duvenhage, founder of JAM, in the summer of 2009 while working at Hume Lake Christian Camps. Throughout the course of the 2009-2010 school year I began to pray about and plan a mission trip to work with JAM this summer. I fly out of LAX on Saturday, May 22 at 11:40 pm. On May 24^th at noon I will step off of the airplane in Cape Town, South Africa. I feel prepared for this trip. God has worked so much in my heart to prepare me for the ministry that I will be walking into. I still do not know exactly what my role with JAM will be for this summer. When I ask, Gerhard simply replies by saying “a little bit of everything.” Earlier this week while on a brief road trip with some friends I was praying through the fact that the best year I’ve had at APU had just ended and that I was about to leave my closest friends and family to travel half way around the world. Somewhere on the road God blessed me with the contentment that I can leave my American life for two months without it being the end of the world. While I will greatly miss friends, family, sitting in this beautiful Cambrian coffee show where I write from, my mind and heart turns towards poverty, towards the shantytowns, towards the drunken masses that will follow the FIFA World Cup. John 15:13 reads, “Greater love has none than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” On another account Jesus tells the disciples, “If you love me, you will obey my commands.” Yet another time, “He who gives up his life for my name’s sake will find it.” I wait in great anticipation for the next two weeks, I have decided to take my laptop and do my best to blog on my time, as well as update facebook for all who will follow to see how God is working in South Africa and in me this summer. I look forward to thoroughly sharing God’s passion for South Africa with everyone when I return. Keep it real. Love God and love others.