Rustenburg, South Africa Week 1

So after we finally arrived to south africa we went to the YWAM base in Rustenburg to stay for 2 weeks. We arrived late friday night and I had to jump the fence and walk around the base to find someone to be able to open the gate that was closed. The next day we just relaxed, slept in and went to the mall. At the mall there was a great amount of England fans and also U.S. fans for the U.S. England game was that night. We also had to help plan for our teammate mohapeloa to be sent back to lesotho. That night we went to watch the U.S. vs England game at a friend of a friends house. It was a huge house with a nice t.v., pool, hot tub...you name it. I felt like I was back in the states and visiting a rich friend. It was great to see the first half of the game there...but everyone wanted to go back to the base to see the second half so we quickly left and tried to make it back in time for the second half and although I was a bit nervous we would miss some of the game we did make it in time. On sunday we went to the mall again and watched Robinhood...yeah it just came out here I dunno about the states but probably has been out for awhile! That night I went to Mcdonalds with the team...something I would never do in the states but outside the U.S. its not that bad. On Monday we went to a orphanage I guess you could say...except none of the kids live there...its mainly kids who come there after school or anytime they can..so they can be away from their houses. I think a few do live at the house but most do not. For the whole week outside of tuesday we planned things for them each day (11am to 3pm). These consist of teaching about a country of the world, a bible story, a craft, and a few games. After we are done with that we just go back and relax most days..or on tuesday we had a 2 hour intersession time which we are not used to. At our base we have a lot of intersession time but try to split it up into different days. On Tuesday we went to a squater camp to pray for the clinic's patients there. If anyone has seen District 9 that is basically what these people are living in. The government allows people to rent these shacks but gives them basically nothing else and they are surrounded by barbwire..its horrible. We prayed for about 6 different people that day including one lady that got stabbed in the face because a guy wanted her cellphone and attacked her for it. It was har to see these people in these kinds of conditions. Also many of the people living there are actually from Lesotho. What happens a lot of the time is the man goes to work in the mines and then brings the kids and wife and then he either loses his job and is stuck there or never finds a job. Also sometimes the lady and the kids come to live with the father then he leaves them and they are stuck. Instead of sending them home to their countries (most of the people aren't even from South Africa) they force the people to live in these camps. That night we had an intersession meeting and prayed for about an hour then as it got quiet the Rustenburg team tried to help to continue the prayer time by asking if any of us needed prayer and I asked for prayer. Over the past few weeks I had been looking forward to going home but at the same time feel like I will be in the same place I was before...eventhough I have changed as a person. As they prayed one of the staff members told me she kept getting the words, leader... This wasn't the first time people have felt the lord is calling me to leadership. I feel the Lord wanted to reiterate to me that yes he does want me to be a leader and I should keep looking down on myself. It was nice to hear that and it brought my spirits up. On wednesday through friday during the day we went to Martha's house, which is across the street from the Fifa stadium, which is the orphanage as we went to on monday. We again had a similar agenda and have been starting to get to know the kids better. On saturday we went on a second safari...yeah God is spoiling us. This time the safari was a bit different for we drove our own car and there where many many people there because of the world cup. Instead of having hippos charge us like last time..we actually saw a dead hippo, a bunch of wildabeast, a few giraffe, and a rhino (which we didn't see at the other place so that was cool). We also had a warthog come right up to our car and give it a love tap. It was funny that this warthog was just walking around the parking lot in the center of the park. Although it was fun...it wasn't the same as the park in Maun. Outside of those things this week we have been hanging out with a staff member named Ryan and watching as many of the Fifa games as I can. Our time in rustenburg has been luxury compared to the other places for we have a bed, a kitchen and apartment that we can use (which was for our base leader but didn't come..story coming..) Also can watch fifa with ryan..so its been quite relaxing and fun...So originally nathan our base leader was suppose to come for both weeks here but because of visa stuff that got changed to one week...then because mohape came back to lesotho he had to plan for his two weeks before we all came back and so it looked like he wasn't going to come.... We hadn't seen nathan for 3 weeks because he left when we where in the bush to go to a leaders meeting, but something we didn't know till a few days ago was that when he got back to his house he started to be hurassed by someone. For the past 6 days he found slaughted and mutulated animals on his doorstep. it seemed like it was witchcraft or something, which is everywhere in lesotho, and someone didn't like that God was with him. Because of these different animals that where placed on his doorstep he decided that it would be best for him to stay home and not come visit us in Rustenburg. On sunday we went to church and didn't have to plan it which was very nice and took the whole Rustenburg team out to lunch. On Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a short hike up to a prayer chapel on the mountain and had a great quiet time. Our time here so far has been a lot of fun and looking forward to next week but I am and have been for a bit counting down the days till I head back to the states I am ready to go home and be with my family and friends!

Maun

As we got to Maun we didn't really know how we would fill our week but we knew that the Lord would help us in that. We didn't have to stay in a tent for the first time in 5 weeks...we did still sleep on a floor but it was better than the tent. During the day it was quite warm but at night it was very cold and we froze in our sleeping bags. The day after we arrived we went on a safari and had to leave at 5 in the morning. As we got into the safari truck, which was just us and our guide, it was an open truck and well it wasn't warm. We all froze until the sun came up about 2 hours later. It took about 2 hours to get to the begining of the park. Before we even got to the park though we saw 3 of the 5 "big 5". First we saw the water buffalo, then we saw a giraffe and finally and the most awesome in my opinion was the lion. They said it was rare to see the lions before the park but we didn't just see them...we saw a male relaxing in the grass and we drove slowly up to him. We got within maybe 10 or 15 feet. We stayed there for a bit and it seemed to just pose for us it was amazing. After we started to go to the gate of the game park our leader realized she dropped her camera and we all looked back and there was the lion walking across the road we just where at..maybe 500 yards behind us. As we drove back the guide got as close as he could to give us more opportunities for pictures and to get the girls camera back which was in the middle of the road. After we went into the park we saw many other animals but it wasn't until we saw the hippo that made the biggest memories... Mohape first pointed them out and our guide was, "they are out of the water? oh crap." He went on to say that hippos don't having things between them and the water and well we where very close to being that thing. Our guide decided to gun it and try to get away from the hippo before they noticed we where in there way but one of them heard us. As we gunned the truck the hippo started charging us. I was in the very back leaning out of the truck and taking as many pictures as I could but then it got closer and closer and the girls started to scream. As the hippo started running at us and got within 5 feet I thought it may hit us so I then jumped in the truck and ducked but at the last second the hippo changed direction and ran into the water. Although it was a little scary it was also awesome to have a hippo run at us...great memories. Although nothing the rest of the day topped that we did see a few elephants. We got very close to this old male and actually got near him when he was releaving himself which was hillarious. He got within 10 feet or so and it really shows the amazing grandure that they have. Later in the day we also found about 10 lions lying on eachother and on their backs because they had just eating a water buffalo that was nearby. They where just relaxing and being lazy so eventhough we got really close they didn't even move. After that we didn't see to much else but just seeing the lions, elephants and a charging hippo it was so worth it! On saturday we did more yard work and just relaxed. On sunday we went to a local church where I told my testimony and talked about the importance of taking a step of faith with God and how he will bless you in that. We also helped with the kids church and after the church a random man in the congregation handed me 1000 pula and said he wanted to bless our team with that. 1000 pula is about 175 dollars. On monday we did yard work then went to a school to do a bible story and found out that prince harry and also the jonas brothers are in Maun and specifically the Jonas brothers are playing at this school...The school was the nicest school I had seen in a long time in the states or here. As we prayed to see what God wanted us to do with the money we felt that God wanted us to go to this local botswana hangout restraunt called choice and pay for different people's meals then sit down with them and tell them about the gospel. Before we did that in the afternoon we did a bit of street evangelism which for me is hard to do but the Lord blessed us and we talked to these two college students for about an hour. That night we ended up going to that restraunt...choice. This was also somethign I was nervous about because walking up to people is not my forte but I went with it. As I went up to talk to two guys they where shocked that they wanted to pay for them and although they where not that talkative I was able to talk to them about God for 45 minutes. After that I went to talk to another guy that was drinking by himself and he was way more talkative. Josh, Mohape, and myself talked with him and enjoyed hearing about his life and eventually told him about God. Its amazing how open the people in africa have been about hearing about the Lord. If we did the same thing in the states it would have never worked. As I talked to these guys our other teammates talked to other people and we ended up talking to about 10 people that night. The next day we did what do you know...more yardwork..I must be in shape now! After the yardwork we met up with a few guys that Josh had talked to the other day and the girls talked to a few people that they met with the night before. As we eventually found the guys we where to talk more about God with a few more where interested in coming including one guy that knew the bible very very well and was preaching to me. Once we all sat down another guy showed up and found out about what we did last night and walked about 2 hours just to talk with us and so he sat down and we all talked about God. There was about 9 of us at this small table enjoying botswana food and talking about the Lord. Out of the guys that where most interested was the preacher and the guy that walked 2 hours to see us. After the others left these two sticked around for awhile to talk longer. I feel blessed that because of listening to God we where able to meet and talk to these guys. Just before we parted Josh gave the "preacher" his bible and the other guy was really excited about what we where doing and was interested in joining YWAM eventually. The next day we left in the morning because we wanted to drop by Ghanzi, our first stop, to see a few people we met with. When we got there we went to talk with the paralyzed kids again and we all felt that they should take off the bands that they had around their waists. They had got them from the Zion church and basically came from a traditional healer or witch doctor. We knew that the bands can come with many demons and felt they needed to take them off and burn them. We talked with them for awhile about it and eventually took them off which was very encouraging but once we started praying I felt they needed to burn it and not just place it in the room. I then mentioned they needed to burn it but as I told the mom she told me she had to tell the dad and then when the dad came back he said he had to talk to the church. At that point we realized they where only trying to please us by takign them off but they truly didn't trust that we where telling them the truth and they trusted those bands more thang God's healing. At that point we all prayed then said bye but all felt dissapointed and frustrated that they had only done it to please us. We feel sad that that happen but we know that we did all we could in the time we had. We just slept on the floor in the same house we stayed at when we where there the first 2 weeks. That next day we tried to leave for Rustenburg, South Africa and so we left early in the morning. We where suppose to be in rustenburg at 1pm but we didn't show up till 10pm... When we got to the boarder we all got through except for mohape because he had a temporary passport which is basically this piece of paper that anyone could have copied...can't believe he got all the way to botswana in the first place. Anyways South Africa changed the law while we where in Botswana and they refused to let him in. They told us that he would have to go to the south african embassy in Gabarone, Bostwana...which is about 2 hours away from where we where. So we rushed there to hopefully make it before it closed. Once we got there we found out that not only was it closed at 11am (we showed up at 5pm, and where told it was open till 4pm), but it was closed for the next 3 days because of holidays. We had to make a decision either drive back and stay with a missionary there..(hopefully), or to drive to a different boarder post and pray and pray that they would let him in at least to get to his home in Lesotho. When we eventually got to the boarder post two girls and mohape went to each post and had to tell them the story of where we had been to try to get across the boarder and each post said, well I am pretty sure they will say no but you can try. They eventually got to the end and got a lady to say yes he can have 3 days to get back to lesotho...which is surrounded by South Africa. When the rest of the team showed up and got to the south african side the same lady wasn't there....and they wouldn't let him in. So again we all prayed and explained to them what we had to do and eventually they did give him 3 days to get back to Lesotho. That night we drove to Rustenburg and just crashed. We realized mohape had to go back to lesotho ASAP now or he would be arrested but at least we got through! Hello South Africa!

The Bush Week 3

Another week in the bush and another week of more yardwork. On monday we did a small bit of painting, while the girls cleaned the missionaries house. That day the guys went ontop of this carport which the structure was made of wood but the roof was made of grass so it was a little scary since my leg would fall through the roof everyonce in awhile. We took off the tarp that was covering it so they could take the carport down at another time. That night I taught mohape how to play solitare and enjoyed the night. Tuesday we did a lot of weeding and yardwork at a different church plot but it felt just like all the other spots we have done yardwork at. This week I started to feel a bit down and looked forward to getting home and was in a negative mood for a bit until I got called out for having a bad attidute. Since then I have been counting down the days till I get back. I have been enjoying my time and looking forward to the rest of the time but also ready to go home...its a weird place to be. On wednesday a massive truck came with a bunch of supplies for the missionary family...The two drivers where from his home church in south africa and had everything from building supplies to batteries to chairs they left in their old house. We spent most of the day helping unload all the stuff. That night we spent a wonderful last night in the bush. They where nice enough to let us sleep in their house and allow us to pack up early so we could leave early for Maun. That night after dinner as an act of graditute and to bless us they washed our feet and affirmed each of us and we did the same for them. The next morning they blessed us even more by making great pancakes...who knew having awesome pancakes in the bush! We then got in the car and headed to Maun which is still a small town but known for being the tourist spot to stay if you want to go into the Okavango Delta. I will talk about that more in the next post on Maun.

The Bush Week 2

To say week two started with a bang is well a little too true. We went to a local village to pick up an ox (a male castrated cow) for a team that will come in a month or so. When we got there we had to help them rope the ox and then hold onto a rope to get it under control so they could slaughter it...I know now that was the plan but they didn't tell us when they where hey come over here and hold this rope... As we, about 4 of us, held the rope we got pulled around the ring and I was in the front very close to the cow. I definitly got an adreniline rush from pulling it to the ground. After we did that the cow everntually gave up and the local bushman took a large hammer and wacked the ox on the top of the head and it shook a bit then he did it 3 more times before it died. It was a shock seeing them do it like that but hey this is the bush they don't have any fancy modern items to kill the oxes. Once it was killed we pulled it on a trailer and took it back to our camp. At the camp myself and our team helped the locals cut up the cow and take out its guts and such. My white clothes, the only clothes i didn't care about getting dirty, where full of blood by the time that was done a few hours later. After they cut it into a few large pieces that was only the start. For the next 3 days we spent helping the missionary cut up the meat into steaks, beef stew pieces, and billtong (South African Jerky). A few members of our team got cuts from the very sharp knifes we where using and a had infected fingers. After we where done eventhough the meat was for other people we where giving a piece of it..About 10 pounds of ribs...we ate all we could and it still lasted for 2 more meals!!! Although the meat was a bit tough it tasted great! The next day we went to a village to go pray with them but we soon found out that a girl (about 16 years old)had been in labor for 2 days and needed someone to take her to the clinic and so our plans of being there with them ended and we prayed for the girl then took her to the clinic. You never know what will happen in the bush or africa! On Friday we went to Namibia and went to visit these HUGE baobab trees that can be seen in planet earth and the kids movie madagascar. The ones we saw where about 2000 years old...yes 2000 years old. The trunk was about 10 feet wide and we could easily walk on its limbs! It was great to hang out there for the day and have a picnic. The following day Dries and myself had to go back to Namibia to get gas becauase most of botswana had a gas strike going on. As we where half way to the small town that had gas we saw a 10 foot black momba cross the road. As we slowed down it stood up and a third of its body was in the air! It was great seeing another black mamba! There was chaos at the gas station because that gas station was also out of gas the day before and this day the gas truck just showed up so there was a large line to get gas. That night we also watched the Super-14 Rugby championship game which had 2 south african teams. Dries was really into the stormers a team from his local home town and so we rooted for them and had a lot of fun watching rugby in the bush with him. I never have been to much into rugby but after being told of the rules and strategy it was a lot more interesting that it had been for me before. Sunday we relaxed most the day and Joy did a short sermon for the bushman at a local village. It was cool to sit around in a circle with bushman and have a worship time with them. We also prayed for the local "healer" or witch doctor. He was very open to what we had to say and was open to be prayed for. I never thought we would be praying for a witch doctor and with one that is as open as he was about christianity. Well we spent 4 more days in the bush but will talk about that in the next post.

The Bush Week 1

Just to get to the bush we had to leave a main road that was 3 hours from the "big city" of Maun...which is really just a small town with a bunch of tourists and from there we hit a dirt road that takes 3 hours to go 120 km or 80 miles or so. As mentioned in the previous post we had now 11 people in this SUV and it was well cramped. Once we got there we again pitched our tents and expected this to be a very simple place to be...we had brought all our food and water for the next 2 weeks as we thought we would have no modern anything. Well as we see over the next few weeks we where blessed over and over again. If you remember from the previous post about the random african that came with us to the town we where staying at, Mahopa... Well he ended up staying with us for 4 days and we fed him everyday... It was hard for me to feed him since we had specific food rations and he never did anything with us...but God showed me a lesson about that later on... HE WILL PROVIDE!!! I will have to split my time there in 3 different posts because I don't have time at the moment to say all that we did. The first week we went to a local church and did an amazing amount of weeding and cutting down trees and making a large space for a huge garden that will later go in. We also saw a small black momba...one of the most deadly snakes in africa.. the local bushman kids where playing with it and then showed the speared snake and I had to bury it! (I also saw a huge one the next week)... We did that for the first 3 or so days and later that week the base leader and his family had to leave to go to a conference so Josh and myself drove back to where there car was...120 km away on that 4x4 road. Once we dropped them off Josh and myself had to drive back on that road and he drove the first third or so and then it was my turn to drive the manual SUV. I had had a few lessons about driving a stick from my brother and Lodie but it just didn't stick but when I did it this time I didn't stall once (well I forgot the e-brake was on twice and that messed it up but that doesn't count) and I feel fine driving that stick and hopefully can drive when I get home as well. Later that week we started to do some yard work in Dries' yard and then relaxed for the weekend (which isn't normal for a DTS). On sunday we went to a small..(4 people small) church and met some off the locals which was fun. They actually had two church's going on that one (where we did the yard work at) and at Dries' house. I went to the first one but didn't go to the second. Oh I also forgot that in that week we bought a goat and slaughtered it and in the bush we had goat meat for about a week and a half. Ribs, steaks, stew, we where spoiled! The second week we where even more spoiled but that is for the next post!

Ghanzi Week 2

Hello everyone sorry I haven't had a chance to update you on the past 3 weeks I had a second week in Ghanzi and 2 and a half weeks in the remote bush of northwest Botswana staying with some missionaries. In this post I will talk about the second week at Ghanzi. On monday I had a chance to teach a small group of teenagers that we had been ministering through the time there. I talked about identity in God and how looking to the world for identification is not the way and to look to God for his fatherly love. The next day I also talked again except this time I talked to a large group of prisioners at their assembly. I also talked about Identity in God but I geared it more toward fatherly love and told them about the vision I had a few weeks back of when I saw the gates of heaven and I saw Jesus there in a white robe and he gave me a white robe as well. I told them how God wants to wash away there sins and give them a white robe of righteousness and that they are rightful heirs to the kingdom as long as they follow the Lord. The next few days we went to the same disabled kids that we saw the week prior and prayed more and more for them. Although the healing we where hoping for didn't happen the last day we did see that they where wearing these bands around their waists that came from a traditional healer basically a witchdoctor. We have also found out that many of these things come with things attached like demons and as we left to go to the next city we asked them to take them off and allow us to pray for them once again. Although the older sister was ok with it her mother was not and it was not her decision. We still feel the Lord is going to do something with the paralyzed children and we have decided to on our way back to visit them one more time before we head down to South Africa. During this week we also did a lot more yard work and door to door ministry. We talked again with the old lady and a family we had met and prayed with them. We also spent more time with the teenagers going to a talent show (that happened to have a 2 hour talk on AIDS and how to prevent it...we eventually left cause we couldn't handle the heat anymore) and the next night we went to a choir competition that had a huge steak dinner for us at the intermission..first time that has ever happen at any of my choir concerts. We also spent some time working on a roof to cover the people we where staying at's patio. The time in Ghanzi was great but the time in the bush was something unexpected. Before we left we had a plan to have our leader and his family leave their car and jump in our car (a SUV) for the final part of the trip because it was 4x4 only section for 120 km or about 90 miles. This road was going to take 3 hours with 10 people and a trailer...but unexpectedly we had another guy show up that was suppose to come with us. of course we didn't know anything about it and ended up to have 11 people in a cramped SUV for us 6... Only in Africa....