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!
keep it up amigo!
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