And the first day of academy is in the books! Mykl here, filling you in after a long and tremendous day at the academy. We started our day off at the Sweet Home township, and then concluded our teachings and group activities at the academy.
One thing that really made an impression on me today was our morning visit to Sweet Home. It was amazing to see the way God was working through the township and to actually feel the hope that was present through out the township. As we were walking to our cars to go back to the academy, we noticed two young boys no older then the age of 8, playing with some pieces of cardboard and having the time of the their life. It really got at me seeing how these kids could have nothing and still yet be filled with joy and hope. It is definitely something that humbled me and made me think about the blessings that God has already placed in my life. On a side note, with this lack of communication thing I am really hoping my mother is reading this so she knows that I am alive and loving South Africa. I love you mom! :) I can't wait to see how God continues to show up and use the team here to make an impact on these kids lives.
P.S. How about them Seahawks?????? :)

*~*~*

Wood Here.

Just want to say how much I miss my beautiful 5 month old baby and wife. I brought a bunch of pictures with me and they help, but I miss his giggles and laughs. It was a long day today. We went to Sweet Home first thing in the morning as the rest of the staff went to pick up the kids for camp. We met some of them when we picked up Sisande, our CHE leader in Sweet Home. She drove with us the rest of the way into Sweet Home. We got to tour the new creche (pre-school), the kids come back this weekend from holidays so it was mostly empty, and the new St. Barnabus church. The old creche buildings, the only real brick buildings in the entire township, are now vacant just next door.

Please pray for the local political leader/mayor/prefect that he can work to better conditions of all the residents and use the resources for the community instead of personal gain. That said, the new plot behind it is just as functional as the old one and now includes a church. I had seen some early pictures of the church and it looked like and empty shell of a makeshift building. I don't know what I was expecting, but walking into it I felt a calming peace come over me. A large cross painted on the far wall, a single pew against the back wall with a rainbow and kids hand prints on the back wall. Prayer cards nailed to the barely 7 foot ceiling framing holding up a hodge podge of corrugated metal for the roof. A small "building" only about 12 feet across and 20 feet long. In the center, two small kids sleeping on small pieces of egg crate foam reminded me of my own baby at home. This was a holy place....This was a holy place.

As we left the creche, we passed three young men at 9am in the morning carrying three very large bottles of beer. We said hi as they passed and our way back to the car down the dirt road filled with glass and debris. I prayed a prayer of thanks for this place of peace in the middle of brokenness.

On the leadership side, tons and tons of schedule changes and unexpected duties. The principal at the academy is in transition and things are in a state of flux. We don't have the facilities we expected and there are a lot of extra duties we had not planned for. Add to that a few tons of unknown and welcome to Africa. We are getting through just fine, but please pray for the academy during this time of transition and pray for our team to have extra strength to power through the next two weeks. The first day is always the hardest and this was no different. Everyone is tired, everyone is in great spirits, no one is sick (except me and my sinuses are getting better...hopefully...please pray), everyone is looking forward to what God has planned for tomorrow.

I'm teaching about Sex and Marriage as I have done on all my previous 3 trips to Africa. I talk with the guys and my teaching partner Mykl is spending the group time with the girls. I left my students with Proverbs 5:3-14. The perfect verse, for the perfect moment. Amazing how a few lines of text can teach a life time of wisdom. God is great.

*~*~*

Siobahnne here to sign us off for the day.

Today was a big day for us as Wood and Mykl addressed. We hit the ground running, but a lot of new and interesting (and by interesting I mean somewhat stressful and confounding) hurdles have been tossed in our way. There's been confusion, exhaustion and a little bit of chaos too.

We definitely could use some more prayer:

Emily, please continue to be on spider duty.
The kids need a lot of prayer. Coming back to all these transitions has been tough, and they seem restless and are pushing boundaries. Pray for adjustment and peace. Also pray for relationship and honesty. The curriculum we're working through with them addresses some heavy topics, and they are topics that can't really be properly handled without a lot of blatant honesty and a willingness to discuss.
Pray for the Academy. This have been really up in the air and crazy, and the folks here could use the prayer support. Pray that good decisions are made, and the energy and heart is there in everyone to move forward and persevere.
Pray for the team. We're already feeling tired and a bit emotionally drained. It's been a rough day for a few and we could really use prayer for patience and endurance. We're been truly learning the meaning of the "best laid plans of mice and men," and could use some peace and purpose in the chaos.

There's been a lot going on in all of our minds and I pray we look beyond the internal battle to God's truth.

If my first thought is
"I'm weary"
Let my second be
"God sustains"
If I think for an instant
"I'm weak"
Let me remember
"God is strong"
If, even for a moment, I hear
"I can't do this"
May I pray that
"God's will be done"
And when I kneel in awe
"How wonderful"
Let me be thankful because
"You've already won"

Let our team respond to every moment, good or bad, by turning it over to the Lord.

Tomorrow is another day, and its fast encroaching on this side of the world! Thank you again for all the comments, love and prayer.

We made it!!!

Siobahnne here!

Wow. Just, wow. I don't think it became real for many of us until we saw that stamp in our passport. The million hours worth of flight time (slight exaggeration), the plane food, the airports, the cramped seating and long bathroom lines... none of it felt real until we actually got here.

But we're here. We landed safely around 8am this morning, went through customs easily (except Jared, who was detained without us knowing at first... but he's okay!) and were greeted by the friendly staff from Bridges ready to help us wheel our luggage to the vans and head to the Academy.

We want to thank you all for your prayers for safe travel and all the support you've offered us. Our team is really bonding. The long flights and just the feeling of being so out of our natural element have helped to cement our bond as a team. It's been such a blessing to watch us all further get to know one another, share in inside jokes we weren't even aware we had yet, and laugh over the absurdity of being THIS tired.

We got to the Academy, were shown our rooms and given an hour to freshen up. I've never seen so many women sharing one bathroom at a time, but you'd be happy to know it was well handled and we even had to deal with our first spider! We made sandwiches for lunch and sat down to orientation. Many yawns later, some wonderful prayer, and accidentally using dish soap in the dishwasher instead of the dishwasher stuff (oops...), we're now resting in some shape way or form. Many are napping, reading and journaling. Some of us that were still awake got to tour the school facilities as well!

We're excited. Tomorrow begins all the craziness and we're praying for the strength and wisdom to get through it all. Please check back with the blog often and leave comments for us to enjoy. You can help by praying too!

Pray for...
...The team, the staff and the kids: may our hearts be in the right place and our hands firmly reaching for God in all that we do.
...Health, both physical and mental. We're already a bit tired, and we're bound to get more tired. Emotions may run high and stress can get to us all. Pray that we handle it well and support each other in all of this.
...Our spiritual relationships. We're all seeking to be closer to God in everything that we do, and I know many of us our yearning for a deeper closeness with our Heavenly Father on this trip.
...The people we are going to meet and the opportunities that will present themselves.

We're really here friends. And God is with us. And so starts a beautiful journey.

Much love and blessings,
The January 2011 South Africa Team

And they are off...

Tonight we gathered at LAX to send off our January team! Here they are packed and ready! Pray for them as they fly off to this amazing adventure ahead!

Team leaving today

Today the team leaves from LAX at 8:35 pm.  We fly to London and have a 6 hour lay over, they fly directly to Cape Town.  It's a long long flight so don't expect a quick blog update, but we'll try and post something when we arrive.

See you in two weeks!

Community meeting - Prayer event

The South Africa community at ROCKHarbor met tonight for our monthly event. Keira hosted the event in the ROCKHarbor Library at 3080 Airway.  She created this prayer calendar for the month of January which will give you specific items to pray for as the team is in country.

Packing Supplies

We had our final training and packing event today. It's always hectic as we gather all the supplies together and separate them into everyone's bags.  We then regroup all the supplies when we arrive.  We also went over last minute trip details, lead a devotion, prayed and discussed fears and doubts. Everyone is ready, the supply bags are packed and we just have to get on the plane at this point.  Just a few more days.

This verse came up for the second time (Pastor Todd at Watts, and the devotion) so we've decided to use it as our team verse.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

January Team Commissioning

The January team was commissioned tonight at Third Wednesday tonight.  This is a monthly gathering for prayer at ROCKHarbor. The congregation gathers to pray for issues at the church, the local community and in this case the global teams that are leaving in January. Here are some pictures of the team (not everyone) as they were praying.

Final January Team Training

We had our final training today. This was not originally on the schedule, but there were a lot of loose ends in the plan and the team rallied to get as much done as possible before we leave.

We gathered as a team to talk about last minute logistics, then broke into different groups for 40 minute planning sessions.  These groups were for the Leadership academy we are teaching for the first week.  The OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) support group camp the second week, then the Sweet Home informal school and sewing business groups.

Our final training, the packing party, will be just before we leave.  It looks like things are coming together very nicely and the team is going to be ready for anything.

January Team Social

We gathered as a team and the Andre's house. This is a great time to get to know everyone a little better. In fact, this was a pajama party and everyone was in the Christmas best.  Lots of great food, cookies and time to socialize and pray for the upcoming trip.

Prayer, Pizza and Purchase night

The South Africa community at ROCKHarbor gathered for our monthly event tonight. It was a prayer night where we gathered to pray for issues at the Academy, for the students to do well, for the staff at the academy, for Sweet Home and the CHEs who are working in Sweet Home and for the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) in Sweet Home.

Afterwards we had Pizza then attended the ROCKHarbor event that allowed all of our global partners to sell items made in the communities where we work. Market of Hope was there to represent South Africa, specifically Phillipi and Sweet home have the beading business and the sewing business that has been slowly evolving in Sweet Home. The event was very well attended and Market Of Hope was very happy with the results and many people were able to help others while getting some very unique Christmas gifts.

Here are some pictures from the event.

January Training #4

We had one of our final trainings today.  We spent a lot of time talking about the difference between relief and development.  We did a couple of CHE (Community Health Evangelist) lessons to learn more about the model that Bridges Of Hope uses in Sweet Home. We gathered in our various teams to prepare for the events we will be leading. These include a Leadership week for the students at the academy as they prepare to return to school after the holiday break.  An OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) support group camp we will run the second week.  Then the work with the informal school that leaders in Sweet Home are trying to start, and the on going work with the Sewing business.  There was a ton to cover as usual and the team is coming together nicely.

Watts serve day

We served as a team together in Watts today. This is a great opportunity to learn about the team dynamic and to make a difference in a local community as well. We partner with Powerhouse Church and Pastor Todd Grant who went on our summer 2010 trip. Some of us helped with Sunday School, some lead worship, some worked in the kitchen, some walked the streets to invite the neighborhood, most of us helped server lunch and everyone had a great day.

Pastor Todd was amazing today. He was talking about boasting and it was heavy on his heart that he caught himself bragging about his education.  He proceeded to open each of his diplomas and tear them in half.  It was very very powerful.  He is an amazing Pastor and we are lucky to serve alongside him in Watts.

It’ll All Make Perfect Sense Someday

Siobahnne here.  I have to say, I’m excited to share about the ways that this trip to South Africa is changing my life.  We’ve already finished 2 training days and our first social and January is encroaching on the horizon!  Every time I meet with these amazing people, as a group or one on one, I learn more about our Heavenly Father.

God is so much bigger than we are.  He is infinitely smarter, more creative and more caring than we can comprehend.  And yet sometimes the hardest thing to do, is trust that He, in his omniscience, really does have everything taken care of.

About a month and a half ago, myself and 10 other people all got a phone call inviting us to join the Rock Harbor Mission Team, and to go to South Africa.  The opportunity arose, the community responded and out of all the applicants we were the ones chosen to go.  A team of people, mostly strangers, pulled together for a common cause: serving God and his people.

After the phone call, on my way into work for the night, I was floating on a cloud.  My heart had attached itself to the South Africa cause the moment I heard of it.  There has been so much going on in the last year, so many different personal trials, and so much of God’s faithfulness, that when I got the phone call it was like all these little puzzle pieces fitting together.  This is what God had been building me up for: he had been building me in spirit, in knowledge and in heart one step at a time to send me out into the world.

It felt so right.  So much of my life has been in chaos, but I found myself in absolute peace about being sent across the ocean with a group of people I had yet to meet. 

So many people joke that they fear giving themselves 100 percent to the Lord because He might ask them to go to Africa; I gave myself to God and prayed He’d send me to the ends of the earth for Him.

I didn’t really start to feel nervous until that first meeting.  I’m not always very good with meeting new people.  I tend to get nervous, and the larger the group, the more I’ll sweat it out.  People take work and sometime I’d much rather just bury myself in a pile of broken equipment I can fix.  This is something God has really been working on in me.  He’s walked me into opportunity after opportunity to deal with these types of situations and it was slowly getting easier.  It wasn’t until this first meeting though that a revelation really began to hit me.

There are no strangers in God’s family.  Maybe a few wacky relatives we’ve yet to meet, but no strangers.  Walking into the room with the team, I was awash with the same sense of peace that settled my nerves the first time I met my life group: that sense that God had it all in hand.

The Africa leaders prayed for us, much as Jesus prayed for the Apostles.  They prayed for a team of people to come together to serve, and we were the answer to that prayer.  The people in this room weren’t just random people, but fellow brothers and sisters. 

Even then, a part of me wondered how I fit into it all.  There were so many things presented to us to worry about: the money, the immunizations, the paperwork, the time off, or the things that could happen while there.  Instead, I fell prey to worrying that I couldn’t possibly fit in this group of awesome people.  I can be a bit of an oddball, and after years of not ever fitting in everywhere, it still amazes me how much acceptance and love I’ve found in the community of Rock Harbor.

This was one of those moments where I needed to be reminded that just because it doesn’t make sense now, doesn’t mean it isn’t part of God’s bigger picture.  So I took it to prayer and prayed to trust God to be in control and to know that there was a reason I’m supposed to be there.

Every time we’ve met as a team since, I’ve been blessed with insight as to how this team came together.  We’re a unique group of people: teachers, coaches, business folks, fashion folks, and entertainment people to name a few.  Outside of this cause, we may have never met, let alone ever have become friends, but God brought us together because as a team we have the ability to serve.

We met for our first “Social Event” this past Friday, and it was so much fun!  Monica and Wood graciously hosted it at their house with their adorable dog there to greet us(and entertain us, especially Claire).  Baby Brandon quickly went down to sleep, and soon it was just the team.  We shared delicious foods, chatted and bonded, and shared defining moments that further opened my eyes to God’s greater purpose.  While on the surface I may never have found anything in common with these people, as I dig deeper and get to know them, I find common threads among us that are slowly being woven together to create the bigger picture.  I’ve been finding an amazing sense of joy in seeing how the team will fit together, and in seeing how I fit in with the team.

One of the things we talked about that Friday was an ability to trust in God.  Many of our defining moments recounted events in which we learned that God is faithful.  Many of us are in transitional periods of our lives.  This is one of those God things.  We come together, trusting God to light the way and lead us to South Africa. 

I look forward to further training, serve days and socials.  I look forward to seeing how God weaves our teams tapestry, our threads intertwining and blending.  We may not understand it all yet, we may not know quite what God has called us out for, but every time we place our trust in him, the bigger picture becomes a little bit clearer.

My prayer for our team is this:

I pray for strength, for health and for heart.

I pray for wisdom, compassion and trust.

I pray for closeness.

I pray for purpose.

I pray that we continue to grow together and raise each other up to the Lord.

May we be a source of support and comfort to each other and the people we are going to serve.

May we rest assured that God is faithful and loving and does not lead us to be lost.

I thank God for this opportunity to grow, to get to know more of this amazing Godly family, and to see him at work in other parts of the world.

I thank God for his love, for his truth, and for his light.  I thank Him for every member of the team and what we have to learn from each other.

This time before our trip can be one of great vulnerability.  I pray we stand strong against the enemy and find peace in the Lord.

How lucky are we to serve our amazing Lord?  Sometimes, the best place to be is at our Lords feet, not quite knowing what is going to happen, but willing to put our faith in Him to make sense of it all.  

God Bless!

Team Social

We met at the Harter's for a team social.  Everyone brought some food and we had time to just sit, relax and get to know each other.  Each member of the team shared their testimony and we had a great time getting to know each other.

Community Gathering - Game Night

Keira put together a super fun community gathering this month with a game night. It was a Jeopardy style quiz show where there were 6 teams, each with a buzzer and a jeopardy screen projected on the wall.  The winners were Emily and Nicole.  Great prizes and great fun.  At the end we spent some time in prayer for Bridges Academy as there are a lot of issues they are facing right now and asked us for specific prayer requests. If you could please spend some time for the protection of the Academy, the staff and the students they would greatly appreciate it.

Training #2

We finished our second training. After worship and devotions which we always start with, we talked about the history of South Africa, the our special special guest Kathi Winter shared about HIV/AIDs in Orange County and we learned a lot about the disease, it's effects and the current treatments.  We talked about defining moments which everyone will be sharing at the next team social.  We split into groups and spent some time planning for the trip and also watch a clip from the movie Closer Walk.

Our next meeting is a team social on November 5th, then we will be serving together as a team at Powerhouse Church in Watts.

We finally got a team photo.

This week's memory verses.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Psalm 115:1


For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

January 2011 Training #1

We had or first (formal) training this weekend.  We spent time in prayer and worship, had an ice breaker event, learned about our Core team of leaders and went over the team covenant.  Trip coaches and roles were assigned and discussed.  Everyone will need to return their skills assessments so we can begin to work with Bridges Of Hope on how to use each individual.  We also watched the movie Dear Francis and had some discussion.  Having spent time in Africa and having allowed kids to put questions in an anonymous box has always been heart breaking and extremely hard.  There are hard ships kids face that are heart breaking and unimaginable. This movie is a great example of how hard these trips can be emotionally and is a good way to prepare so our teams are a little less broken when things like these come up and more able to respond to the kids.

Our memorization verse for the next training week is.

Submit yourselves, then , to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. James 4:7-8

Community Gathering - Skype Night

Our monthly community event this month was a Skype night with the students at Bridges Academy. We all gathered at 7:30 at Matt and Kristy's and started the conference at 9pm.  That's still pretty early in South Africa, but the students are eager to communicate and it is always amazing to spend some time at the Academy even if it is through a Skype chat.

First (unofficial) training

Since we are behind on the trainings due to the team selection process taking longer than expected we decided to have our first training for as many people who could make it and than meet individually for those who couldn't.

We covered immunizations, trip safety, travel plans, how much work is expected and did some ice breakers so people could get to know one another.  The first training is always a little overwhelming and this one was no different. Just a lot of information to get through and not necessarily a lot of fun.

January 2011 Team Selected

 A team was selected for the January trip.  We will be taking 11 people in January. The plan is to spend a week preparing the Bridges Academy students as the prepare to return to school and to spend a week working in Sweet Home.

This is our schedule.

Trip dates: January 7th - January 23rd
 
January Team Training Dates
Sunday, September 26th
Sunday, October 17th
Sunday, October 31st
Friday, November 5th (Evening Team Social)
Sunday, November 14th (Serve day-8:30-5:30pm)
Sunday, December 5th
Friday, December 10th (Evening Team Social)
Sunday, January 2nd (Packing party)
Sunday, January 30th (Team debrief)
Feb. 3rd/Mar. 3rd (SA community gathering)


As you can see, one of the dates is already past and we will be making that up this weekend with those who can make it.