Well... if you havn't heard by my Facebook yet... I will be coming home at 10AM the 29th of April from the Spokane Airport! Time flies, doesn't it. Yes, it is two weeks early than was set, but as Tag, one of the AIM leaders, said, "Man makes plans, but God allready had seasons." ... It sounded smart like that anyways... It basically means that even though a man put a date on the callander for when we would return home, God had a season for us. Our season is over now. Slowly as the days have gone by, God has been releiving us and setting us free of our responsabilities.
The decision to come home basically was unanimus in the end. After talking to Tag last Sunday, we all talked about where we were and what needed to happen as a team. Right now, we are all so broken. Basically trying to use everyone as a crutch, only to find that our crutch is borken. Really, we need to be in the arms of the ones we know, love and can support us through this greiving process. Life is difficult, but it was really God's timing, and our season here is over.
We are sad to say goodbye to our ministries, to our South African family, and our Team. This last week together has been really good. Finally, we are able to laugh with each other and our sillyness. Really, this is a good time to say goodbye, when we don't want last memories to be of times where we were angry with each other.
For this past week, we have been writing in each others books, telling each other how much we love each other, how much we appreciated each other, funny memories, doodles and much more.
Honestly, there is so much to say... which would probably end up being much larger than my other blogs, so I won't try to say much else... other than two things.
Louie Giglio, the one who made "Indiscribable" and other such DVD's heard about our team and sent us one of his other ones called "Hope". We just got it in the mail yesterday, and were so blessed by this man. For me, it was such a blessing to know that the man who talks on this DVD is the one who is praying for us half way around the world! Thank you so much Mr. Giglio!!!!
And last, I will be ariving at the Spokane Airport at 10AM on the 29th of this month!!! 4 more days!!!
Anyways... I hope to see some of you when I arrive... and if not, just give one of my family a call, and perhaps we can have you over for diner! I am hoping to have a welcome home party shortly after, just so I can see you all at once and show you the cool things God has done in my life, as well as the gifts I am brining home to you!!!
Thanks so much for the support you all have shown me. And this is not the end. When I do missions at Riverview this summer, "I got a job to work there," and in Kenya, I will still use this blog! So no need to fret. I will update this thing better when I have late nights at home where I am bored out of my mind because of 3AM jetlegg!!! Ha ha!!! See y'all soon... yes... I do say Y'all now... so do laugh at that... as well as my Sjoa!!!
I really don't know where to start with this blog. As the leaders said to me last Wednesday, "A lot of things are about to change... just be patient." They really weren't kidding. A lot did change, and more than the leaders probably knew. As you and people around the world have been praying for us, AIM has been praying for direction on our team and where to go from here. I was told by Scott, one of the head leaders, AIM has never had a death in the First Year Missions Program, the program that I am in. There are no manuals, no quick, "Ten Easy Steps to Get Over Greif," manuals.
In this time of AIM trying to decide what to do with our team, tough decisions have had to be made. This morning, three of my team mates left to go home because of different circumstances, and were told by one of my old leaders from last semester, Christina, when she landed Sunday afternoon to be with our team. They left this morning at 7AM, and they are missed by our team.
If you haven't heard, noticed or been counting, our team has been getting extremely smaller. Nicole and Victoria leaving to go home to be with their family, Sarah is now gone, and the three that left this morning has left only six of us to possibly continue on with the work we started here in Port Elizabeth. Leah has been staying with her family this past week, "her family came to visit her here in South Africa, and were here before Sarah passed away," which leaves only five of us and our three leaders from our team.
After deciding to have the three from our team go home, AIM also decided to send the remaining half of our team and the Jeffreys Bay Girls to Cape Town with a friend of AIM named Tom to process and lead us in the right direction of grieving for our beloved friend. All day.... "well... the longest nine hours of my life..." we drove from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town to spend what might be a week here. While us students will be processing with each other, the leaders were given a complete break from us to rest and get through some of their own grieving.
For our PE team, time will also be spent in seeking God's will for our team. Most of us jump back in forth between the ideas of staying or going home. Our team is so small, and our time is so short that for some, their time very well could be done here. I realize, as they do, that the last month we have, "which now at most, only two weeks of ministry left," will be spent saying goodbye to our ministries, friends and church family. As one of my team mate mentioned, this only prolongs saying goodbye. This time will especially be spent seeking Dad for the answers.
And questions are faced like, "What if three of the students are called home while the rest of us are feeling called to stay here?" or, "What if some of our leaders need to be home, and some are left here? Can students be left with some of the locals to finish out the work?" or, "How do we continue on and try to function when half of us are gone?" Things will not be the same, even if we do stay. So for this week, we will seek Dad's will. Please pray for us as all these things are accomplished.
The point of the matter is, some of these things we have faced will not be easily fixable. For me, I don't think I will be completely back to normal when I get home. What I mean is, I think I will still be broken over Sarah's death when I come home. Emotions are not like bruises or scrapes that are healed quickly, emotional wounds are the kinds that have the capacity to stay with you for the rest of your life.
Personally, I now lean more to stay here, and really feel called to be with the youth at FireHouse, to return to Doreen's orphanage and help steer them in a direction of healing. Four weeks can be a lot of time with Youth, and I really need to be here for them. I only wish I had more time.
Pray for us now as we seek God's face for the future. And in the mean time, thanks so much for all the encouragement you have given me, and I love you all. Keep Sarah's family in your prayers. I believe her funeral in Minnesota will be Wednesday. Also pray for the parents of me and my team mates, as they all break for us in different ways. Thanks so much.
Love,
Andrew
PS The funeral here in South Africa was very beautiful, and you wouldn't believe how many lives Sarah touched at our church. They all love and miss her.
I just wanted to get you updated on things. I will be honest, things have been really tough for my team lately. This week has been full of sadness, greif and anger. We are all suffering in our own ways right now.
If you havn't heard by now, one of my team mates, Sarah Buller, passed away last Sunday in a terrible car accident. I was at home watching a movie at the time. Her and two of my other team mates, and one local were all taken to the hospital with Sarah. Sarah flew away home to be with Jesus Sunday the 5th of April at around 3:45pm.
My heart has been so broken for her parents, and her 8 other siblings back in Minisota. I actually got to meet her parents last month when they speant a few days with us, going to Sarah's different ministries. My heart is so broken that they will not see their oldest doughter untill we all speand life with God in eternity.
Sarah was a great ministry partner. She loved the kids at Doreen's just as much as I did. She had such a heart and passion for Christ and serving Him. You could see that in her decision to come to Africa for the 9 months she was willing to commit of her life. She left behind a beautiful family, four that were just adopted a little bit ago, to come here to the other end of the world... making new friends and a new family, touching the lives of all she was around. She tought me never to forget the famliy I am around. She will be truly missed by us as the PE team in South Africa, as well as her family and friends at home.
The first time I met Sarah, we were riding on a bus to Training Camp in Atlanta GA, awaiting what would be in store for us over the next few months. Her name was easy to remember, because of there being three other Sarahs on our huge team of 41 people. I will never forget the South African Team Tallent Show when all four Sarahs came out to do a tallents... where they just showed off the fact that all their names were Sarah. I really laughed hard. Over the next few months after we found out she was on our team, we had times of laughing together through the sillyness of our team... like our Bingo Family night where we all dressed as old people and pretended like our hearing was bad as our elderly wacked out leaders tried to read us the numbers... hahaha.
The day she died, the police came to our house to get her medical information. I was one of the first to find out that there was something wrong. As I searched the leaders room for her medical information, the police assured me that she was allright... they just needed to know if she was allergic to anything, and her blood type. Two hours later after everyone had started heading home from our Spring Break, Matthew came to the house to tell me that our beloved Sarah had died.
Later we would find out that the injuries she suffered was way beyond the doctors ability to save her life, and there was nothing they could have done to save her.
Today I believe that she is being sent back home to be with her family. We are celebrating her 19th birthday with our Church Family at LightHouse, remembering her and the impact she left on our life. I hope to see Doreen and some of the kids there today.
I have been doing allright. I cry here and there when I remember her. Yet, I feel such peace about her death, and such trust in Christ that He knows what He is doing. I have no doubt in that. I trust Him in this whole thing. I know we will all be together again. These feelings of greif are normal in seporation. As mom told me once, "Death is so hard because God didn't create us for it. He created us to live forever, and then sin entered the world. Seporation is hard on our spirit because it is not meant to be, and we are not meant for it." These feelings of sadness and anger that run in me are just normal...
Our team has hit a delema... what do we do now? Obviously there is a lot of greif still left in us. As Meghan J., "one of my other team mates," blew out her birthday candles, she cried and needed help to blow them out. There is almost always someone crieing in the house. Most of us have resorted to watching TV or facebooking from our cellphones to dea with our greif. We have started to spend much time here at Mug & Bean to write letters and skype from our computers... and yet nothing we can do will bring her back... and we just are left with the memories and the greif of her death.
What do we do we do now? What is to become of us after the mamorial service, after our Church family that are staying with us to help us through this hard time have gone home? How are we going to handle life when we start to do the chores again... after we go back to ministry? Will life ever go back to what it was before with us. As Dee Dee said last night at our meeting, "One way or another, thing will not be the same... and we will have to start taking everything differently."
Last night at our meeting, we talked about the fact whether the last five months was worth staying here. One way or another, we will have to process this greif. There is no easy fix... no manual that AIM can give us, no book that could help us all deal with this. There is no easy fix... and if we stay here, we could easily spend the rest of the time processing grief... waiting for the time when we could be home with our families.
Last night... I thought to myself that for me, I need to stay here... to be with the Youth. I can just picture what a trajidy it would be to not only see Sarah leave, but the rest of us go because of her death. What about Doreen's Kids? They deal with so much allready, having so many people die in their own lives, only to have me leave them too... left to deal with their own grief coming back that they didn't deal with before. What about all our team mates? We especailly need each other now more than ever... and yet... will we all be here in a weeks time?
Last night... I was totally against the idea of going home early... but this morning as I woke up... I thought seriously about going home early. I have so much to do. I have so much support to raise for Kenya, and pluss I will be around people who love me and care for me... and who support me at home. I can finally lay my head on my mom's lap and snuggle with her in the ungodly hours of the morning... I can finally go to the movies with Dylan, I can go into my sisters room and get the support I need by talking into the long hours of the night, I can see beloved friends like Querida, Ashly and Krista and cry on their sholder as the pain comes up again and becomes to hard to bare. I can see my new baby cousin, and be part of people at home's life again. I will be back in December to see people again here in SA, it won't be goodbye forever here.
What about my family here? How can I say goodbye to my South African Mummy, Carol? How can I say goodbye to my friends like Juan-Luis? To Jethro? To Tristen? To Andrew, Brad, Berry, Nikita, Bart, Doreen, Vuyo, Tsepo, Tina, Qua Qua? Faith? My Team Mates that will stay behind? The people at Debreif that I havn't seen since December? How can I give up all that?
What do I do?
I am at a cross road, a fork in the road... which turn shall I make. I honestly don't know what to do. I have to admit... this is what angers me... the stress I feel because of all this. Last night after our meeting, I grabbed a GrapeTizer glass bottle, went out to the park out front and threw that bottle at the tree to break it because I was so angry. I needed to releive stress... and the crazyness of this whole thing hasn't helped. I don't feel I have had time to connect, even with Matthew who I often confide the depths of my heart in. We are too tired at night to talk. I sleep late in the morning because I need the rest... and think to much during. Our crazy life has left us all hopeless on what to do... and because of all this... we all wonder whether our time here is up.
I don't know what to do now... I am so tired, stressed and angry that I do not know what to do now... and I am left to try to move on with life, when I miss the life we had before all this happened....
I figured that since I have been telling everyone... "Hey, I have a blog, come and look at it... I try to keep it updated as much as I can..." that I should probably give you all something better than a depressing blog that I posted last week. These past few weeks, I have really seen God's blessing on my life and what I am doing. I can see His work on my life and how much He cares about me through the prayers of all my South African friends, the family I have here, and the family and friends I have at home.
I am happy to tell you all that since last week asking you all to pray for me, God has been giving me so much grace and blessing me with rest and refreshment. Last Sunday when I wrote my blog... thinking I had nothing left to give and feeling like I had defiantly hit the end of my rope... through all your prayers, God gave me the energy and strength that I needed, and more... I feel so rested, as if I had just taken a month off and jumped back into ministry with enough energy to carry on to the end of the trip... and I can't explain all this energy and rest any other way than to say that God heard my cry, "literally... I did cry... just ask my marmy," and had grace on me giving me the rest and energy I needed on Monday! It was completely amazing... and I don't know how else to explain it.
Truly, I have lately been also blessed by the people at home being such an encouragement. I was able to reconnect with a few dear friends of mine at home over the past few weeks, and they have been exactly what I needed. I have found such encouragement in them for all the praying they do for me. Prayer is truly an amazing tool to reconnect with God.
Sadly, my time is so short here, as I probably wrote in my last blog. To the date I write this blog, I have 14 days left of going to Doreens, 4 days left with the FireHouse Youth Group, and a month and a half left with my team-mates. Truly, from my heart... I could again go into a sad state about how much time I have left here... but I really want to honor God and write the blessings I have already felt this semester here in PE.
At Doreens, God has given me 15 beautiful and amazing children, who I love and will truly miss. I have been able to be used in mighty ways by God to be part of their growing process, and be someone in their lives who they can remember loved them and cared for them. For Doreen, someone who listened and cared for her just as much... who even took time to spend the night to give her a break from life. Currently, I am working with another church to get Doreen's boys a spiritual father figure that will be more dependable than I am able to be, and can continue on the work I have done in growing and maturing these orphans in Christ, someone who will point them towards their Heavenly Father and fill the gaps of abusive and parentless abandonment they have had to deal with in their own lives. I hope that they will someday feel the same love I feel from my heavenly Father.
At FireHouse, God has put me in the lives of so many Youth, to be someone in their lives who cares and loves them... through their messes and accomplishments, someone that will always be there to pray for them and encourage them. I love all the kids there so much. I pray that as I leave, I will have left an impact of someone who truly followed Christ, and who they also saw Christ in me.
Algoa, the place with the disabled Kids, I don't know if I will ever be back to that place of love. A few weeks ago, God started to release me from that place, allowing me to work more with more of the Churches ministry. However, with the time I was there, God showed me His heart and love for even the most hopeless cases I have ever seen... to get passed the smells, past the disturbing images and see the true child that was in each of the kids, even the ones who will never be able to get out of bed. I pray that God would start and then continue to give those children joy, and I am excited for them... for the time that they can walk in the fullness of God, being able to talk and play in God's glory like they have never been able to.
My team-mates all the way through have been so amazing. I truly feel loved by them and cared for. Through them, I have really felt the community I feel I have never had, and have grown and still am continuing to grow through them. For the past seven-and-a-half months, I have had to share a bedroom with others... and I have loved every minute of it. Through these amazing guys in my life, I have been filled with the love of guys in my life, like I have never really had in my life before the trip. They have grown me as a man of God.
From my leaders, I have learned and grown so much from the leaders on the trip, especially Matt S. and Tag T. They have both been such great male figures in my life. From Tag, I have been challenges so much more as a person and living out this thing called a Relationship with Jesus Christ, and from Matt, I have seen and learned so much from his example of what a real leader looks like... someone who has been such a personal leader... yet real guy in my life. I love them both, and miss them so much. I don't think I have truly expressed what they really mean to me.
One of the main focuses of this blog I wanted to make was where I could have been, and where I am now. God is constantly reminding me through little and significant things from the life I wanted to lead so badly last spring, saying, "See Andrew, how much better My plans for your life are?" I know if I had only lived things a little differently in that dream life I wanted so badly I wouldn't have the joy deep within that God has given me in knowing I am where He wants me to be. As I reflect back on these past months, back on the life I have lived here, "yes, this has been more than a mission trip, it has been my life," I don't think now that I would have wanted any differently.
As you know, I will be heading off to Kenya after a few months at home. I have to admit that this is scary for me to yet again be gone for another year... but looking back at the life I have lived here and how blessed I have been by following in God's plan, I know that I can expect to be equally blessed to give another year of my life to Christ.
Oh my word... this blog again is WAAAAY too long... I will stop it short... but I miss you all... and just about 7 weeks until I am home!!!
How are you all? I have been okay. These past few weeks have been getting harder and harder for me. If you haven't heard, or haven't been doing the calculations, two months from the time you read this, I will have been home for a few days! It is exciting to think about it, but it also saddens my heart deeply. As the days go by, I bond more with the youth at FireHouse, more with the people at LIghtHouse, more with the people at my ministry, and more with my fellow team-mates. I have truly loved everyone I work with and see, and right now, I feel so at home here. I feel as if I could stay here for a longer period of time, but God has other things in mind for me.
One of the biggest struggles our team has started to face is how short of a time we will actually be here. Nicole, one of my team-mates, just left to be with her family in the states a week ago. As her trip ended, we saw how much people had bonded to her and their sadness as she left. This all brought a new atmosphere to our team dynamics. It brought a new realization to the people at LightHouse Family Church of how short a time we are here, and how cautious we all need to be with these next few months, that there won't be too much despair and heart-ache when we leave. Yet, I feel as some of them do that getting attached and getting closer is something that naturally happens when we all work so closely together, and is hard to stop.
Within our team, a lot of us now start to long for home, counting down the weeks and days until we finally get to go home. The passion is starting to die off from excitedly working for Jesus to not wanting to go to ministry. On the other hand, there are the few that realize how much more work is to be done here and are pushing ourselves to give everything our all, but fall into exhaustion, becoming physically, emotionally and spiritually drained, as I have started to feel.
Ministry has been hard lately. With Doreen, "the Walmer Orphanage," she has started to get more and more stressed out because of the fifteen kids she has. The stress is causing high blood pressure and nose bleeds. Lately, sleep has become something that she does less and less. Recently, she got four more kids in her house, which added to the stress she was already feeling. I felt like I needed to help her, so I took my day off and stayed at her house to help her with the new kids. There was so much work, and so much to deal with that I really didn't feel like I helped out that much. She still only got 3 hours of sleep when I stayed there. I am getting so worried for her, she needs a break, perhaps someone to also live with her 24/7 to help with the kids, but none of these things are happening... I am afraid that if she continues on with this getting no more help that it would probably kill her. Please pray for Doreen that she would get more help from somewhere and be able to take the break she needs.
FireHouse, the Youth Group, has been recently under spiritual attack. Individuals have been having trouble with this especially. It is more prone to attack because of what power this youth group holds, and how much Christ is working in them. Please pray especially now that God would protect the kids going there.
In me, realizing there are two months left on one hand I push myself more to making the days I spend with people count and memorable... pushing myself too much. If you ever remember my life last year while in High School, College, five music classes and everything in between, my life looks pretty similar, except instead of schooling, ministry, and I push myself to exhaustion, and beyond. On the other hand, realizing there is only two months left here, I think more and more about what life will be like when I get home. I know I shouldn't do this, but I already have started to stress about what life will be like when I get home.
I worry about what friendships will be like when I get home. I hope and wish that everything will be the same when I get back, as if I have pushed pause on my life at home and will be able to start my life where I left off as soon as I push play. But as I wrote earlier to a few friends at home, I know how sorely wrong I am about this. Not only will people at home have changed, but I have changed myself. I am not the person who got on that plane in Spokane last September. I have changed so much even within myself. I have seen heart-ache, sadness, poverty. I have overcome emotional wounds and have learned to forgive, and have grown so much closer to God. With all this change, I scare myself thinking that thing will be so different between me and the ones I love that there will be nothing left in common, and friendships will have been lost. This has especially scared me.
One thing great that happened was I got a job for when I get home, working at Riverview Bible Camp in Kitchen Staff. I am so excited, it has been confirmed that this is where I am supposed to be this summer, but at the same time I think of how this place is two hours away from where I live, which means even when I am home, I will still be far away. In a sense, I will still be on the mission field, which I am excited to continue working for Christ, yet I will not be home, close to the ones I love... to be able to go to coffee with, to a movie with or truly have time to catch up and be with everyone I love. I feel that everything will have to be done by appointment over a very tight weekend. I wonder if I will even truly get time to rest after this adventure.
All of this in combination and with a spiritual attack that happened last night, I started to shake and worry. I even got worried that something might have happened at home and panicked. I had my mom call me, and when she did, I wept from the stress that I have been going through for 15 minutes, letting out all this emotion bottled up inside of my spirit... the frustration, fear, sadness, stress, tiredness, everything relieved inside of me as I cried. After it all, I took out my Bible and read the Psalms to comfort me through this stress.
I especially need prayer with these last few months that God would renew my strength and give me rest, so that I could continue with the work I do here in South Africa to the end. And do pray for my team. We found out yesterday that another team-mate, Victoria, has been called to go home to be with her family and will leave in the next few days. Pray for me as well that the Lord would relieve my stress and give me joy that I might continue to keep the people around me laughing with joy as well.
Thank you all so much for praying for me, and for all your support. I love and miss you all.
Love,
Andrew
PS-I DID IT!!! Finally... a two page blog, instead of one.
I am excited to be writing to you again!!! How are you all doing? I have been doing pretty good lately... I think I am now noticing myself to get a little more tired every day, but a good kind of tired... it lets me know that I am working hard for Christ, which is probably a good feeling for a missionary to be getting...hehe. I was talking to Leah Rush the other day about how crazy it is to think we are missionaries even though we feel quite normal... except for the whole EXTREEM God stuff and our work aspects. Though it is weird, I do feel quite blessed and thank God every chance I get for allowing and giving me/us these wonderful opportunities to serve Christ and show our love back to Him through our work.
So today I decided to take the day off, "we get 5 days to take off this whole semester... this is my first day off since the beginning of this trip since I didn't take any days off last semester," and get some work caught up on, like writing this blog and communicating with my lovely family back home. Yesterday was the first day I was able to get on Facebook and my email in a long time, and after spending almost four hours talking to family and going through emails, I still had more work to do. So it will be nice to get some family work done. In this time of not being on the internet, God has so blessed me in my relationship with my team-mates, wonderful new church family at LIghtHouse, the Youth Group kids and my ministries that I work in between, "for more information about these, keep scrolling down until my last blog, it will tell you there..." He has also blessed me in my feelings towards myself. I think I have told you that for a while, I was going through a pretty bad depression within myself wondering where I belonged and not finding my place here. All that is gone now, and I feel so healed of all that. God is truly the healer... isn't He?
Oh... Thank you all so much for praying for the Taxi Strike, it did end that Friday, so this month, we have been able to get to ministry all right! So.... Thank you again.
I have been writing letters to people and I feel like a lot of these things I am about to say I have a least written four times, so please forgive me if I fall asleep to my own writing and start jumbling up letters here... I am sure you will have much entertainment in what I am about to say, even if you haven't heard already. And if you have heard.... Just wait for the sleep marks... and the rest of you should get a kick from me.
So I was able to spend the night in the Walmer Township, "this is the township that Doreen's Orphanage is at," twice. The first time our whole team went into the township to this church that wanted to host and have "some fun" with foreigners... so they took us in. The stories are pretty crazy, and I am sure you want, most of my other team-mates have probably already posted stories on their blogs.... One of the stories was when Kevin got to sleep in a twin bed with his big host dad!!!! HAHAHA.... We all got a hoot out of that story!!!
Matthew and I got put together to go to our hosts house. He is about a year or two older than us and he had all his friends over. We walked about a half hour to his house with his friends, then walked to the grocery store, which was another half hour away, and got a bunch a junk food, "AND THESE AMAZING LAYS CHIPS WHICH ARE CALLED BALSOMICK VINIGAR AND ONION CHIPS WHERE ARE FANTASTICK!!!!" and walked back to our hosts house. Then we ate the junk food and his friends left by then because it was getting late.
Then we had dinner with his family, and soon after, I went to bed because I was pretty tired, and Matthew was soon to follow. Our wonderful host gave us his queen bed and He slept on the floor. I have to say that Matthew Hussey is a blanket thief.... But that is ok, because I am too. We got up, went to another three hour sit down church service, "ok... well we did do the stand up, sit down , stand up, sit down thing which was once referred to as what a man in Jeffreys Bay calls, Christian Aerobics," and came home. It was a great experience to be able to talk with all the guys. I was truly blessed by this experience!
So one of the other things I have been doija;lsdkfja;sd f asd;fas........*snore snore*l;aksjd;flaksd fla;sd*snore snore some more*;asldf a;lsd;aeir ......... just kidding....
The second time I spent the night in the township was when I stayed at the orphanage with Doreen. I had such a great time there. The kids were so excited for me to be spending the night that they wouldn't even believe me until I didn't get on the bus that should have got on to go home. Doreen had me start a Braii, "the South African Version of a barbeque," and she made one of the most wonderful potato salads I have ever tasted to go along with lamb, chicken, three bean salas and much more. It was a very good treat to have for diner. We had a braii because one of the other students from Switzerland was going back home. It was very tasty.
When it was time for bed, I took over for Doreen to give her a break and got the kids ready for bed. I slept in the boys room that night, after telling Doreen to go to bed early, "she goes to bed at 12AM sometimes and has to get up every day at 4:30AM, she is often very tired and stressed because of it all," and that she had to stay in her room until 8AM, and I would lock her door if I had to, to keep her in bed. Luckily, I didn't have to do that because she slept in until 11AM that morning!!!
When I got into the bedroom, the boys were all arguing on who was going to sleep in bed with me, finally I allowed Voyo to sleep in bed with me. It was pretty hot and we were all sweating, so I asked if I could open the windows and Voyo said, "No don't open the window, the bad people will come and put snakes in our room if you do that." Obviously they were allowing their imagination to get carried away with them, so I waited until they were all asleep and opened the windows. I was half asleep the whole night, so any movement in the room I kept my eye on. Then, I saw a hand reaching into the room and, "being scared for my life," tried to act brave and figure out how to break this man's arm without getting stabbed. Then I looked at the shadow on the wall to see the outline of the man's face... only to find it was just the cat going in and out of the bedroom!!! So all that worrying was really for nothing, *Andrew rolls his eyes in embarrisement.*
Later on that morning Voyo woke me up poking me and saying, "Who is that?" I said, "It's me... Andrew." Then he said back, "Oh Andrew.... I forgot it was you..." Then he started talking to me a little, "this was all about 4AM," then he finally said, "Andrew, I need to go to the bathroom." So I told him to just go then and he said back, "No, I don't want to." So I waited in silence for two minutes and asked him back, "Do you want me to go with you?" Then he said, "Yes please, I just don't want the bad cat to come and bite me!!!" I laughed to myself inside because of this.
Needless to say, I got up an hour later, "for those of you that are not good at math, an hour later is about 5AM..." and started getting everyone ready for school again by waking them up and making them cold cereal with..."this is what Doreen told me to do... I was not being cruel and unusual to them," heat up some milk and make a concoction of half milk and half water to give to them... "EW hugh!!!" I fed them and they went off to school at about 7AM, and I went back to bed and slept for two hours. Later on that day, I told Doreen about my experiences with sleeping with the boys and she said, "Those boys are such scardy cats... they are even worse than the girls!!!" It is true....
Another thing I have been keeping myself busy with is the drama. I think I told you about how Leah, Matthew and I have been working on a drama called Everything by LifeHouse, well, this last Saturday and Sunday, the students were able to perform it!!! We bathed it in prayer and it had such a HUGE effect on the Youth and the Church. I am still working on film editing it at the moment, so be a little patient with me... it will be up soon. You are probably not the only ones that want to see it, I think that the Church will want to put a link to it so the LifeHouse. By the way, their website is http://www.lighthouseministries.co.za/ if you ever want to check it out! You can listen to some of the sermons, or just check it out. I have to say I have really found a Church Family here in South Africa... I have felt so at home here at this Church, and I will really miss my South African Church Family....
But getting back on to topic... I was so impressed with all of the students involved. We also did it with live music. I don't think my camera did the show any justice, but at least you get to see some of the fruit that has been coming from this.
Well... I think yet again, I have written you all a book!!!! So I will let you go for now.
How is everything going at home? I have been doing pritty well. I feel as if now I am settled, and I am really ministering to the people of Port Elizabeth. I have been involved with my ministries for at least two and a half full weeks and have had a great time. I just love it here. So here are my ministries and a little bit of the explination.
Algoa Frial Center- I go here two days a week for a few hours. Here is where all the extreme physically and mentally handycapped children in the Port Elizabeth area go. They have about 250 kids between the ages of 4 and 30... "even the 30-year-olds look and act like kids here," live here. And somewhere between 150 and 200 have Cerebral Palsy, "I hope I spelled that right." Many of them are orphaned becuase culturally it is a discrase to have handicapped children.
Sadly, there are so many kids and too few nurses that these kids don't get too much individual attention, especially for physical theriepy, so they a lot of them have it so bad that they have started to curl up and because they don't move their bones have fused together. One of the girls there has her legs all the way up by her head, and her arm goes over one of her legs, yet all of it as well is fused together. This place has a lot of hard things to see. I think I have cried being there two times in the short time I have been there, but there is so much room for love. To be able to go in and she these kids that they are valuable, and they are loved is one of the most precious things I have done here.
It is so much fun to go in there and love them by singing songs/ teaching songs to the few that can sing, tickle any and everyone that will giggle, hold the fused hands of Cerebral Palsy children, and just sit there and rub the legs of the ones who cannot move and mentally are not there. I love those kids to death, and they really are so precious, even in Jesus sight. What a blessing to show God's love to those who need it the most.
Walmer Township Orphenage- Walmer is the name of one of the many townships here in Port Elizabeth. In this Township, there is an orphenage with about 15 kids between the ages of 3 and 15. I go here 4 times a week for about 4 hours to love on and play with the kids. Dorine, "the owner of the orphenage," is so excited to have me. She told me that most of the time they have girls going in, and for the four boys there they never really get a father figure, so for the next few months, my main focus is on the boys, loving on them, as well as the other children, being that fathrer figure to them. I mostly just go and talk with Dorine for a few hours, do a few dishes, and hang out with the kids. It is very easy going, so there is a lot of room for intentional relationship building. The kids adore me, and I love them to death as well. I miss them so much... which I will explain later...
FireHouse- This is the Youth Group for LightHouse Family Church, the chuch our team is partnering with. Here I help out with the Youth Group, help with the Worship team, hang out with the youth on the weekends, get involved in their lives and I am actually starting FireHouse's Drama team. I am so excited to do this. We are starting with LifeHouse's "Everything," Drama first... which should be good. I will give you all the tag to Youtube later when we do it. It is looking so amazing!
So back to why I miss the kids at the Walmer Township Orphenage. I actually have to ride the bus system to get there every day. But lately the taxi's have been on strike and it has gotten pritty nasty. They have started to shoot people who pick up others from the township to go to work, "which no one can go to work because of the strike," they have set a taxi on fire so it would blow up and the buses are afraid to drive anywhere because of all this. So, because of all this, even the buses are afraid to drive into the township, and it is probably not safe for our team to drive anywhere near there, so because of all this, I won't be going into Walmer until this strike is over. Sadly, the newspaper and people are saying this strike will last the rest of this month, so I might just have to find something else to do untill then. Please pray that the Taxi's will stop their strike soon, or that God would show me where else He would have me to go.
Also pray for the people who are being affected by the Strike. Many cannot get to work, and so they can't get any money, so they stay home and drink. Kids can't get to school as well... so the adult men that are on strike or can't work are bored allong with the kids that cannot go to school. As I have seen in St. Francis Bay, this combonation is really bad for the kids because there are more chances of them getting raped. So pray for protection for them as well.
As the weeks go by, "which they are going by extreemly fast," I start to grow more in love with my team, and God shows me more of how I can love Him. As the weeks go by, relationships start to grow, friendships start to increase, and I start to love the people of PE so much more. I know that I will be so brokenhearted when I have to leave. Even now, I hope to come back to PE one day, and possibly live here, I have loved it this much, yet I know that God has bigger plans for me, and will take me to many more different places in the future, yet I will never forget the people of PE, and how much I have learned here.
Oh, good news, for my total support, I only need $1,075! I am so excited, and I would love to get it all paid off by March, so now, if 11 people could please pledge to give me $100, then I will have ALL I need for the rest of the trip! I really need to get it all paid by May, so if God would allow you, please help me pay off the rest of this support! Thank you so much for your support at home, financially and prayerfully. I miss you all, and hope to hear from you guys now and then!
In Christ,
Andrew
PS To those who have started to send me letters, I have been getting them in and LOVE THEM!!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!
"This was written a few days ago.... God has provieded all of our furniture... and we paid verry little for it. God is Amazing... I will write another blog by next Sat.... if I can actually get myself to sit down long engough and write it... hehe"
Hey Everyone!!!
As you all know, I am now living in the new PE house. You can't imagine how nice it is to know that I won't have to move again for another four-and-a-half months! After having to move everything all the time, I am excited for stability. The house is pretty sweet. I am trying to make a movie about it, so if I get it done I will let you all know. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms. All my girl team-mates are staying in the largest room that has a bathroom in the closet... "I know... hahaha," there are 9 of them all together. They have three bunk buds that are three beds high, "It is scary, thinking about rolling of the top bunk onto the floor... I did that at UCSA a few nights before we left, and it wasn't fun... I think I still have that battle scar on my leg from falling." Then Chelsea and Dee Dee are staying in the second largest room with a bathroom in the closet as well. Matthew, Kevin and I are staying in the third largest bedroom. This does not have a bathroom in the closet. We have two bunk beds with two beds on each, so for three guys we have 4 beds. I am sure we will have fun with that. Becca, our third leader gets a room to herself, "which she is very excited about because this is her first bedroom all to herself!"
We didn't have any furniture when we moved in. We had to buy a few bunk beds, which sounds like it took up quite a bit of the budget, so when we moved here all we had was a refrigerator and three extra beds. One of the beds went into the guys room, "hence the four beds in our room," and the rest are being used for couches... hahaha.... Except one of them doesn't have a cushion on it yet... and Kevin broke one of the boards from standing on it... so for now, we don't use that "couch". So, we had two beds for couches and a refrigerator when we moved in. Then Bigger and Better came into the picture. Two days ago, the leaders split us up into three teams and gave us all paperclips. The point to this game, Bigger and Better, was to go around our neighborhood and meet the neighbors while taking this paperclip to the neighbors and asking for something bigger or better than this paperclip, then when you get the second item, you go to the neighbors and ask them for something bigger or better than that. I played that in my youth-group days and came back with a HUGE stuffed dog and a broken computer.
This time was AMAZING, "we have very wealthy neighbors." The leaders not expecting what would happen at all, a team came back with the book, "The Purpose Driven Life," some nice African Jewelry in a frame, and our team pretty much won with two pillow cases, a water heater, "which the list from now will actually be some things we needed but didn't at all expect from this game," an iron, a microwave, and a HUGE REFRIGORATOR!!!! That's right.... Pretty much my team won. We needed a second refrigerator and a microwave, and they both work very well!!! Perhaps when we play the game next time, we might be able to come back with a television!... I don't think we will be playing the game again though...
This week has actually been pretty chill, all we have done would basically be described as moving in and getting settled. We haven't been able to start our ministries yet, especially since we don't know what they are yet. We will probably start soon sometime next week. Tonight we are going to start getting involved in the Youth Group called FireHouse, and we are all pretty excited to help out. I have heard, but haven't seen yet, that the Youth Group has about 100 kids come each meeting. So they will need more leaders. I am going to get involved. I have been thinking for the past few years that God will probably someday, "whenever He is ready to put me back into the American Society," have me working with Youth. This will be such great training for working with youth. I am very excited to possibly be one of the leaders. I met a kid named Charlie that I am really excited to get to know better. It will be fun to get to know all the kids better.
So lately I have been trying to spend more time with God. I think I had a rant on this blog already about how all my life I have been leaving phone messages and not even trying to have an actual "phone" conversation with God. So my prayer life and devotions have mostly been spent learning how to stop asking for things and start finding out what God wants me to do with the time He has given me here in PE, to actually get to know my creator in a MORE personal way than finding out about Him through what others have told me. It is crazy to think a year ago I would have never believed I could actually hear God talk back to me. I have been going through this book called, "The Art of Listening Prayer," a book that the head guy from AIM wrote. It is basically a devotional that teaches you how to actually have conversations with God, and making this so called relationship we have with God into a REAL relationship. It is quite good and really is teaching me how to actually hear God and making His heart for things more accessible to me.
The Devotion is set up with a bunch of questions, basically they are question the book wants you to ask God, then you just listen and wait for answers, questions like, "Are there ways in which I have offended you?" Something interesting I wanted to give you an example of was today when I was going through the devotion, I skipped ahead to tomorrows devotion because I felt like God was giving me the silent treatment today, "which He really has every right to do that because that is all we ever give Him back," and the first question that I read asked, "How do I hear Your voice?" and God told me, "Just listen. You have the ears to hear Me, so hear." God is so smart... in my own life, I think even before the reason I rarely ever heard God was because I never gave Him the time of day to answer back. I was on my own schedule and wouldn't give God the time that He needed to answer back. Think about this, if you called your mom and only you talked to her for three minutes at a time when you needed something, do you think you would ever be able to hear her talk back, or have an authentic conversation with her? Often, that is how I have treated God. So this is how I have been spending my time, trying to learn to listen to God's voice better, and part of that has been just sitting and listening to hear His voice.
Well... I think that is all for now, I will write back soon!!!
