First day with ALL the kids and Women's Day

Hey Friends and Family!!!
Molly here! We had a big day today. We started off early going on our first trip to Sweet Home, the township we work with. Today is Women's Day in South Africa which is a holiday here. (one I think we should petition for in the US haha) It was definitely an exciting day of getting to see Sweet Home and meet all of the precious little kiddos and people there. They welcomed us with open arms and ready to be held and played with and just loved on. It really stuck out to me how happy the kids were to do so little and to just sit in our laps or be held in our arms. Such great moments for us as a team. Kristy- I am pretty sure your little SoSo was there if it was the same one. We will try to post a pic of her. =) After we got back from Sweet Home we prepped for tonight with the Academy kids who were arriving back from their holiday this evening. We were so excited to finally meet the kids we have been praying and planning for all this time leading up to the trip. It was a crack up trying to learn how to say their names. They were all giggling at us giving it our best shot. We played some great group games with them. A highlight being groups of the students and team members making up cheers for their team. So hilarious. Big props to Tammy and Brennan's team The Springbocks for bringing home the win for the cheer. We continued the night with more ice breaker and name learning games and finished out the night worshipping the Lord together. So beautiful to hear them sing loudly to our God. Please keep praying for health on the team and the energy to keep up with them. We loved reading your comments from yesterday too! Thanks for the Love.

Greetings All!! Ryan Here...As Molly mentioned, today was Womens' Day in Sweet Home. Today was a day that I have been looking forward to for months. As a part of the Sweet Home team, we have been preparing for this specific day for months. Our anticipation and expectation of what this day would hold was tremendous to say the least. We had specific plans of what today would look like, but as we have all come to learn quickly, nothing turns out exactly as expected. That being said, we started out the day with a few road blocks...literally. As we made our way to Sweet Home, we were first blocked off by a street full of concrete bricks and all sorts of rubbish that had been tossed into the street this past weekend during a protest of some sort. We later were blocked off by a massive herd of goats that were blocking off the entire road. Despite our initial road blocks that set us back about an hour, we eventually made it into Sweet Home and began setting up for Womens' Day. For Womens' Day, we had a handful of special events planned including a photo booth for all of the CHE's (Community Health Evangelists) to take pictures with their families, lessons taught by Tammy and Trent, KFC for lunch, worship, etc. In all, Womens' Day in Sweet Home was a great success. Outside of the specific Womens' Day events, I was super excited to simply be reunited with all of the kids of Sweet Home that I came to love last year. It was a surreal experience to be back holding the same children that I had held just a year ago and to see how much they have grown. It's strange how powerful of an experience it is to simply sit with and hold the children in Sweet Home. There's really no words to express how much joy and love is felt through such a simple act. We always expect big, grandeous events in life to shape us, but as I have come to learn through the children in Sweet Home, sometimes it's the simple things that have the ability to peirce us in the depths of our hearts.

We again thank you, our readers, for the support and prayers. If you could continue to pray for us we would be greatly appreciative. Specifically pray for rest as we all are completely exhausted from our first full day, pray that we may begin to develop impactful relationships with the students here at the academy, pray for the VBS team that will begin their program tomorrow in Sweet Home, and finally pray that we would be continually led by Christ spirit as we continue God's mission here in S0uth Africa.

What's is women's day in South Africa

From Wikipedia

National Women's Day is an annual public holiday in South Africa on August 9. This commemorates the national march of women on this day in 1956 to petition against legislation that required African persons to carry the "pass", special identification documents which curtailed an African's freedom of movement during the apartheid era.

On August 9, 1956, 20,000 women staged a march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act (commonly known as the pass laws) of 1950. They left bundles of petitions containing more than 100 000 signatures at prime minister J.G. Strijdom's office doors. Outside they stood silently for 30 minutes, many with their children on their backs. Those who were working for Whites as nannies were carrying their white charges with them. The women sang a protest song that was composed in honour of the occasion: Wathint'Abafazi Wathint'imbokodo!(Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock.). In the 54 years since, the phrase (or its latest incarnation: "you strike a woman, you strike a rock") has come to represent women's courage and strength in South Africa.

Day 2!

Greetings Family and Friends!

Brent here... We just completed our first solid day here in South Africa at Bridges! Today's schedule looked a little bit different because none of the students from Bridges have yet quite arrived.

We had the opportunity to spend our day outside, enjoying the beauty here in Africa! The landscape here is truly unique and set apart from most anything we have in the States! We all got to take in the beauty of the colors in the sunrise, the smells, and sounds of native birds and other animals were awesome. The morning and afternoons focus was mainly one enjoying South Africa's beauty and spending time growing closer as a team.

Later in the afternoon we finally unpacked all of our supply bags, sorting everything as we prep for Women's day tomorrow in Sweet Home. We then spent some time polishing up our Beiber dance moves (yup, you read that correct) for our grand Bridges talent show show-stopper!

We ended our night with some devotion and final preparations for tomorrow. We have an early start and we'll be hitting the ground running! Continued prayers for health (some sort of sniffle yuck has been going around) and for the arrival of all the academy kids tomorrow!

PS-Thanks for all the comments! We love reading them aloud nightly after devotions!

RH in South Africa Summer 2011

Here's the team just before checking in at LAX on Friday...keep them in your prayers & take a look at the previous post to read the first update!

It's true- we're here!

Hey guys!
Meghan here! We made it safely to South Africa after a long couple days of traveling.
We are settling in at Bridges and all getting ready for a good nights sleep.

Thank you so much for your prayers. All of your support just getting us here to South Africa has been a blessing. Please continue to pray for health, unity, rest, technology [so we can get updates out to all of you fabulous people!] and God's movement through not only the people we come into contact with ,but also His movement in our lives as individuals and as a team.

Thank you again for joining with us in this journey!

Love and God's blessings to you
Megs

Team arrived safely

We just got an email that the team arrived safely and is settling in.  There is usually an update after their first full day.

Packing Party: 4 days and counting till we're off!!!

The countdown is in the single digits! We're off in just 4 days! Almost 6 months in the making has boiled down to the last frantic days of preparation!

Yesterday the team had our last training followed by our packing party. Not the packing of our personal belonging, rather the 20 bags of supplies we'll be taking with us over to South Africa. Our packed supplies ranged from dodge balls, art supplies, training manuals and VBS materials. There was such an excitiment as we all packed our bags with supplies we all anxiously await putting to good use! HUGE thanks to Keira Kirby for buying all of supplies and visiting 22 stores! What would we have done without you?!

We ask for continued prayers this week as everyone makes final preparations to take flight this Friday! Prayers that we can tie up loose ends at home, work, and school, leaving everything behind with our minds and hearts focused on our goals and all the students that await us in South Africa. Prayer for safe (and non-turbulent) travels would also be great!

Again we want to thank of our of supporters who have made this trip possible for everyone on our team! Everyone who has supported us financially and prayerfully, we truly could not have done it without you!

I can't believer that the next blog update will be coming from direct Bridges Academy! God's got big things in store for the team and Meghan and I so excited to have the privileged of keeping everyone at home updated on all we're doing in South Africa!

WE'RE GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA!

Send One Up & Send Them Off!

If you are reading this I assume you already know that...

The Summer 2011 RH Team will be headed to South Africa VERY soon...so let's get together and send them off with prayer. We'll be in the "Library" at RockHarbor's 3080 Airway building at 7pm on Thursday, 7/28.

What??? You can't make it? Well, just in case that is your situation check out this prayer calendar that you can use as a handy reminder while the team is in South Africa to pray for specific topics!

Second to last training...

Hey All~ Meghan here...

The SA team is getting down to the wire..we had our second to last training on Sunday. It was filled with all kinds of amazing information.

Pastor Todd from Watts came and shared with us about the character trait of respect. He gave us a reminder of respect to take with us. A travel toothpaste with the verse 1 Timothy 6:1 on it which reads

All slaves should show full respect for their masters so they will not bring shame on the name of God and his teaching.

This verse will remind us to respect our leadership and each other to help fully show God's love to all we will come in contact with!

We learned more about some of our team members in sharing defining moments. It is awe inspiring how as we learn more about each others' lives and stories how much God has truly knit this team together before we even knew individually we were going to apply!

There are so many last minute details that are coming into place and we would very much appreciate all of your prayers as we get down to the wire!

*Please continue to pray for finances as we are not all the way there yet!

*Pray for Emily anda who are both already in Africa

*Pray that we would continue to diligently prepare supplies, lessons, activities and whatever else we are taking

*Pray for continued unity and growth together as a team!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. The team is getting commissioned tomorrow night during 3rd Wednesday at Rock Harbors central campus @ 7. 3rd Wednesday is an amazing time of worship and prayer and we would love for you to come!

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

T-minus 3 weeks!

Meghan here!
Hey everyone~
Just wanted to share with you some pictures from some of our trainings/socials/watts. Put some faces to your prayers for our South Africa team! Another exciting training coming up this weekend.
Thank you again for all of your prayers!

An awesome dance rehearsal...

Our rocking social...getting to know you!

The SA team...mingle mingle mingle!





Once again thank you for your prayers! We are completely blessed by all of your love and support as we prayer to go to South Africa!

photos by: chrystina.blackbird.portraits

Mingle Mingle Mingle!

Hi everyone!
Meghan Here!

The South Africa Team had an amazingly fun social last night. With exactly four weeks to go we spent more time hanging out, laughing and getting to know one another even better!

Along with doing some healthy competition in the form of Molly's trivia game we also were able to pray for one another and hear about what God has been doing in our lives. God has truly been blessing and leading the path of this team! We thank you for your continued prayers and support!

As our countdown continues please remember to keep us in your prayers still! Things you can pray for:
*Emily who is leaving this week to begin helping and working at Bridges.
*Kathi who is leaving this week as well to start a trip throughout Africa ending up in South Africa with us!
*For the team as we continue to prepare and gather supplies to take with
*For health as we get closer to our leaving date
*For any finances that still need to be raised
*And lastly and importantly for continued team unity and strength in God together.

Thank you again for your prayers! We can't WAIT to see and to be able to share with you all of the awesome things God does in South Africa

The LORD your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

Monday June 27th

Good morning readers! Brent again!

Yesterday our team finished another packed training! We’re beginning to ready ourselves for our trip in just little over a month… It will be here before we know it!

We were joined yesterday by Kathi Winter who will be joining us during the second week of the trip. The team is so excited to have her knowledge and expertise of HIV/AIDS education. We’ve have the privilege of collaborating with Kathi in designing curriculum to teach the students at Bridge of Hope while we are in South Africa. The team is very excited and prayerful to see what God is going to do as we approach teaching the very culturally sensitive subject of HIV/AIDS.

Our training was concluded with some Watts debriefing and reflection, then we met within our smaller teams to discuss lesson planning and activities we are going to do with the students of Bridges Academy. Emily created flash cards with the name and picture of each of the students. We all had fun trying to practice pronouncing the names of each student! Thank goodness they’ll all be wearing nametags when we first arrive!

After each training a sense of excitement seems to build as our departure dates draws closer and closer. The team is beginning to connect on deeper levels and it already feels like we’re close friends! We ask for continued prayers for preparation and for fund raising.

Powerhouse Church!

Hi readers! Brent here!

This past Sunday our team had the opportunity to serve together at Powerhouse Church in Watts. What a privileged it was to join in the amazing things that God is already doing in Watts through pastor Todd and his incredible family! We learned that church at Powerhouse is an all day event including breakfast for the local students in the community, a church service, Sunday school, followed by a lunch gathering for the entire congregation. What seemed like a whirl-wind morning and afternoon was just another Sunday for the Powerhouse congregation! So excited we got to be apart of it!

Our team had the opportunity to serve together for the first time. Some of the team spent time in childrens ministry, teaching Sunday school, others went out into the surrounding community and personally invited people to the day's activities. But what might have been the most laborious job was the amazing cooks we had in the kitchen, cooken up some good eats for a hungry congregation! Props to Evelyn, Jessica B, Monica, and Meghan for the delicious Mexican cuisine! I'm feeling pretty confident we'll all be well fed and taken care from now on!

As our day at Powerhouse came to a close, our team has grown so much closer to one another. We learned how to be flexible, intentional with one another, and how to give ourselves wherever needed. Just from serving together this one time, I'm so confident and excited that God is going to use our team in BIG way this August when we arrive in South Africa!

South Africa Movie Night!

It's that time again....South Africa Ministry monthly gathering is taking place on Thursday, June 9th in the "Living Room" (a.k.a. the High School room) at the 3080 Airway Building. Join us at 7pm as we gather to watch the movie "Skin". We're really excited to be able to watch this film together, learn more about the country of South Africa, and just fellowship. Please feel free to invite anyone (the film is rated PG-13 so keep that in mind when inviting younger guests). Hope to see you there!
Here is a synopsis of the film...
SKIN is one of the most moving stories to emerge from apartheid South Africa: Sandra Laing is a black child born in the 1950s to white Afrikaners, unaware of their black ancestry. Her parents are rural shopkeepers serving the local black community, who lovingly bring her up as their ‘white’ little girl. But at the age of ten, Sandra is driven out of white society. The film follows Sandra’s thirty-year journey from rejection to acceptance, betrayal to reconciliation, as she struggles to define her place in a changing world - and triumphs against all odds.

Training # 3

Meghan here!

The August 2011 South Africa team is in the midst of training and unifying together!
We just had an awesome 3rd training where we learned and gained a lot of information about so many different aspects of our trip.

Andrew Richards came in and spoke to us about RH Globals mission statement and really helped us as a team discuss more about why we are going on this trip and remind us to be open to God's movement.

We also were able to discuss and learn about different aspects of South Africa's history in order to slowly grasp more of what the country is about and the foundation of it.

Our next training is in Watts serving alongside Pastor Todd's team! Please keep us in prayer on June 5th as we serve together as a team.

Three ways you can continue to pray for us:
*That each team members finances would slowly come into place
*That individually each team member leans on God through this process
*That we continue to grow and unify as a team

James 4:7-10 [the message]
So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.

It's that time again!

Time to introduce a new team! Here is the first photo of our August 2011 Team. Be praying for the new team as they prepare for the journey that lies ahead.

Letters to South Africa

• It's time once again for our monthly gathering...come and join us on Thursday, April 6th at 7:00pm! We'll be meeting in "the Library" at the 3080 Airway building.


• Come prepared to write letters of encouragement to the students and staff at Bridges Academy in South Africa.


• We will also be spending some time in prayer for the ministry as well.


• Anyone & everyone is welcome to join us!


• Bring your own letter writing supplies or share some of ours. :)


• Find us on facebook at "RH in South Africa"

South Africa 2011 Video

This is the video that played at ROCKHarbor this past weekend.

South Africa from ROCKHARBOR on Vimeo.

RH South Africa Storytellers

What is our ministry’s story?

Come and hear from some our most recent teams about their time serving and connecting with individuals in South Africa. Join us on Monday evening, March 14th at 7:00 pm in the Box at 345 Fischer. This evening will be dedicated to sharing stories about experiences in South Africa and working with our ministry partner Bridges of Hope. Who knows…you might be the one to be sharing the stories next time!

Andrew and Joen

All the way back in September when i was first thinking about going to South Africa with Rock Harbor, i wasn't sure if God was calling me there.  My work wasn't real comfortable with me being gone for 2 weeks and i was uneasy of being in such a different culture and environment.  But God, in His unique and amazing way, made it crystal clear that i was supposed to go on this South Africa trip.  

Things with work cleared up in a matter of hours and my uneasiness turned into excitement. Excitement to see what was going on across the world, excited to visit a country so far away, excited to see what God would do through me. 

I came back humbled that God would use me in such amazing ways, from bonding with 11 and 12 year old kids that knew no English to using my passion in working with high school aged kids in a athletic environment.   I came back amazed at the strength of the people of South Africa and how inspiring they have become to me in so many ways.  A day doesn't go by without me thinking about one of the kids from the academy, ovc or sweet home and the joy that they brought me and the rest of the team.  

So many times, we hear of stories of people going on a missions trip expecting to change those they interact with only to be changed themselves, and this trip was no different for me.  God has forever changed me and sparked a Love for the people of South Africa that will never be extinguished.