My Weblog

Hey everyone!

Well, we’ve been here in South Africa for a little over a week now. After 24 hours of travel time, we made it to Refilwe exhausted, but safe and sound. Thankfully we arrived in the evening and were able to head to bed. We didn’t have too much time to recover from jet leg, (we are all just finished recovering now, a week later!), as the next day they had has working hard mixing concrete by hand! Luckily it was a Friday, so it was a short day, and we had the weekend to recover our sore muscles and jet leg! We, over the week have experienced the massive gap between the 1^st world, and 3^rd world. Saturday we spent a good portion of the day at the mall getting some essentials and groceries, and even enjoying a movie together as a team. Sunday we enjoyed 2 church services; one at “The Barn” which was pretty western feeling, and the second here at Refilwe, which was truly African. Monday through Friday, we split off into separate teams to serve in various ways. One main way we’ve been serving here is on the “site” team. This consists of all the construction, and grounds keeping jobs, everything from mixing concrete, to digging up roots, to building brick walls. Also, we’ve been working in the nursery. Every day there is about 15 kids under the age of 2. They are a joy to be with, and most definitely rambunctious. Finally a few of us had the opportunity to visit the informal settlements. It was definitely a heartbreaking experience to see how people live with next to nothing. Apart from these 3 formal ways to serve, we are enjoying building relationships with the people living around us. We even had an opportunity to spend an evening in prayer and worship with 2 other teams who are here to serve. We also took part in a youth service Friday night where we were able to minister through drama. After putting in a week worth of hard work Wayne (Josie’s brother) blessed us with an evening at his place after a day shopping and experiencing an African market. We were so incredibly thankful to be able to relax fully. It was truly a blessing for him and his family to take us in and make us feel so welcomed.

This past Sunday morning, God proved himself amazingly faithful once again, as an amazing financial gift was given to some members of our team at church this morning. Throughout the week we had many times where God provided for us and protected us in amazing ways. Bethany got a stick in the eye during work one day and had to visit the hospital to make sure there was no internal bleeding or scratches on her eye… thankfully God’s hand of protection was on her and her eye is completely fine. Also, a couple of us have been pretty sick, one involving another trip to the hospital. Thankfully Dortje did not have to stay overnight but was ordered 3 days rest; it was only a viral and a bit of bacterial infection in her system. She is recovering well, thank you for your prayers. God is so good. Jessica also had an amazing God orchestrated visit with her brother in Johannesburg. That was incredible blessing not only for her but for the whole team. It has been awesome to see God move in many ways.

Thank you so much for all your prayers.

Love – The Africa team! Matt, Jessica, Jonathan, Rochelle, Dortje, Bethany, Diane, and Cheryl.