Texan breezes in South Africa

It was a fun week. I'm sitting out on kind of a back porch area in Africa House drinking ceylon tea, listening to United Pursuit and enjoying cool breezes - I missed the sunset, oh well.

It is getting cooler and raining more - winter is coming and it is projected to be very wet. It's been alright though overall. Today was particularly fun because it was overcast and cool, there were very few people here at the house and there was a little drizzle coming down; it was perfect nap weather. :) I'm realizing that I only have three more weekends here and that I should probably get on the ball and act like a tourist. I was thinking of doing things like swim with penguins, hike table mountain and just generally walk around with a camera in my hand looking clueless - something I do well.

My pastors from back home, Ron and Janine were here speaking this past week and they knocked it out of the park. Can't even begin to tell you how comforting it was to hear a Texan accent. Ron taught on prayer, fasting and spiritual warfare in the mornings and we had extra class time with Janine in the afternoon as she expounded on warfare and by extension, inner healing. It was their first time speaking at CPx and all the students and staff enjoyed them. We have a married couple here from more interior Africa named Oliver and Rhoda. They have been married for 20 some odd years and have many kids. They are so awesome. Tall, stately, dark skinned, beautiful beautiful people who have enormous smiles and even bigger hearts. They are incredible servants with father and mothering characters. They came into class one day very dressed up - they had something to say before the day started. Everyone she was working with in the communities had been asking Rhoda where her marriage ring was because she didn't have one. Apparently exchanging rings isn't really something you do where they are from. Well, that cultural difference started to bother Rhoda and Oliver being the man of legend that he is noticed and decided to act. Last weekend Oliver grabbed Rhoda and went to the big mall 15 minutes walk from here ostensibly to buy some groceries. As they walked by a jewellery store Oliver pulled the ol' "oh look, a store, lets go look in it" routine. Rhoda had no idea what was going on, she said she didn't understand why they were walking in there - everything was really expensive! Oliver went all out on her. He bought her a beautiful ring for her left hand. She was floored. I wish you could have seen their faces when they returned to the house from that trip. She also bought him a handsome band for his ring finger. So, that morning in class they exchanged rings and renewed their marriage vows, there was such a sweetness in the act. I wept unashamed.

Highlights from the teachings:
-faith is spelled R-I-S-K
-people pay attention to the WORDS of the kingdom when they see the WORKS of the kingdom; i.e. I've yet to see people argued into believing in Jesus (or believing that God loves them for that matter) but I have seen and heard countless stories of people blown away when they are prayed for and God heals them or a relative or speaks very personally through the person praying for them. 1Corinthians 4:20 "For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power." (ESV) Or: "For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk: it is living by God's power." (NLT) Nuff said.
-one of the biggest way that we "war" is that we love people

Some things that Janine touched on this week (and a friend's blog post from a few weeks ago) got some gears turning in my head. I want to try and spit out a post later this week on lies, disappointment, vows, motives and impossibility. All stuff that God is dealing with me on. Fun stuff. In a good, cleansing sort of way though.

I wanted to share some pictures that God has been shown me lately.
I was feeling pretty sick last week so I was praying with Poppa Shane, he didn't hear God say anything but I did. God said that I was taking promises and plans for the future he had for me and was getting very stressed out over those things and it was making sick. So I had to come to a place of surrender (again) and start choosing to trust him more.
I had a picture a few weeks ago and I don't remember if I've shared it before, so I'll just do it again if I have. God gave me a picture of me with a huge backpack on with many different pockets and pots and pans hanging off it - like what the hobbits had on in the Lord of the Rings. I had this pack on and was walking on a path and I hear the words "you take what you want to have with you later." It's nothing crazy but still spoke to me in a deep way. God was saying that there is a grace on this time for me to drop attitudes, habits and mindsets that will only be destructive to me later on in life. Hallelujah.
I had kind of an intense picture from God a few days ago. First imagine the incredible worth and preciousness of Jesus' blood. Imagine one drop of the blood of Jesus with the realization that you could own all of the world and everything in it - sell it all and still not have enough to buy that one drop of blood. With that in mind imagine being covered in the blood with it pouring down on you constantly like a shower head. Imagine then as you "walk the road of life" with all that costly flow on you there is a path of Jesus' blood behind you - representing the goodness and faithfulness of God over your life. God was telling me about how much he adores me, how much I am worth to him - constantly and how my past is covered in the blood. Intense. Thought I'd leave you with that.

Japan

Ok, so let say first and foremost that the Amazon Kindle has changed my life. Like, no kidding, it is epic. I have officially lost my "post-literate" status because of this thing. Ok, enough free advertising.

I'm going to vulnerable here and share some of my heart here. This feels a little bit more poignant in light of the recent earthquake.

I love Japan even though I've never been there. I feel like God is calling me there to work, possibly long term. In November and December 2009 I was kicking around the idea "what would it look like to live in Japan?" I can't think of anything in particular sparked the thought - probably just God. In January I went to a weekend missions conference and met up with a dear friend who told me an interesting story. The story was that my friend and her mother had been talking and God dropped a word of knowledge on them fairly randomly. That word was "I'm calling Stephen to Asia" (and a couple of other places, but that's not important right now). When my friend tells me all this I was floored - talk about confirmation. Ever since then I've been praying and believing for that country. The earthquake kinda rattled me. I know it might be stupid to say that but it did. I was a little teary for a couple of days. Here at CPx we have two months where we go to different parts of the world to go love people and tell them about Jesus; and me and a friend of mine were talking about putting a team together to go do our outreach with the earthquake and tsunami victims. We sat down and prayed about it first though obviously. We both felt very strongly that God was saying wait on going to Japan. There was a lot of peace in that, so, good confirmation. It was a little bit disappointing but God, in addition to saying wait, said that He wanted to do some things there before I or my buddy (or the two of us together) got there.

The verse that everyone has been throwing around concerning the earthquake in Japan is the last part of 1 Kings 19:11 - After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. (NLT) It's kind of taking the verse out of context but it still rings true does it not? Not to start into a subject I know very little about but I feel that God is still good - even if things are not going well around us.

Contrary to what some people would say, I think, God loves the Japanese people. I think God has a lot of good things in store for that country, I think freedom will spring up there so that the unhealthy social pressures there will be relieved.

About 6 or 7 months ago I felt like the Holy Spirit led me to a portion of scripture that He was speaking over the land of the rising sun. It seems extra prophetic to me now.

Isaiah 61:4-9 (NASB) Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations; And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers. But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God, You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, Everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; And I will faithfully give them their recompense And make an everlasting covenant with them. Then their offspring will be known among the nations, And their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them Because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed.

Township

I wanted to talk about what we’re doing in Red Hill a little bit today. I realized that I’ve been telling stories from our days off etc and not so much been relaying what is happening on site. It’s said that things move slowly in Red Hill, and it’s true. There are 4 or 5 weeks left for us to be here in Cape Town and we haven’t seen that much “happen” per say. This really isn’t a discouraging thing – not to me at least. God has his own timing and we're being faithful to do what we are hearing Him say - so we're in His will.

There are now 7 of us on a team working in Red Hill. I personally wish that we could do more practicals for and with people, but we are somewhat limited as far as thought line of thought goes. We are trying to organize a pretty cool event right now. There is a movie called “Beat the Drum” that talks about AIDS awareness and debunks myths and misunderstandings surrounding the condition. There is a huge stigma surrounding people with AIDS. They lose their friends, no one talks to them, they can’t get a job and (if these things didn’t get the point across) are treated universally as out casts. Fear motivates that conduct. Fear of getting AIDS I mean. Beat the Drum talks about aids testing, how to avoid AIDS and how to get help if you do have it. Apparently there are a significant amount of people who have contracted AIDs in South Africa. Please note that I am not trying to demean this wonderful country in any way – just stating a fact. All that to say; we are trying to set up a way to show the movie in the township and have a free testing clinic if people want to get tested.

We are walking around meeting people and starting conversations about God. We have all felt the artificiality of this – not that it’s bad, just not natural. It’s not hard to bring conversation to the topic of God etc etc because we stick out like a sore thumb – white people in a shack town with no residents of that color and apparently the only Caucasians to come here come with a church group or something. Oh well. The M.O. we’re working under is to find somebody who is not a Christian or following Christ closely and who is spiritually hungry. We ask if that person is interested in doing a Bible study and if they are we teach them how we tend to do Bible studies, i.e. how to lead one. (I say “tend to do” because there are so many ways to do a Bible study or tell someone about Jesus.) We then go with them and do a Bible study with their friends and hopefully see these guys and gals fall in love with the person of Jesus and follow him just from what they see in the scriptures. The idea is that it’s not us, the foreigners, leading the group because when we leave the group will more than likely stop meeting.

We want to show the love of God in practical ways. Red Hill is a remote place with no running water. So there are big water retainers outside of the community that are supposed to be kept filled to be used by all of the residents, but sometimes are left empty. We have been able to bring some water to a couple of people we are working with who did not have any in reserve or were (according to them) did not have a lot of money for water from the store. We have done this once or twice. We have plans to help shore up a shack but we need to locate some lumber etc. It is very very windy in Cape Town for most of the year. We are trying to be wise with what we give and to whom we give such help to because, frankly we are poor students without a lot of financial backing to give aid on a large scale and people always love to take advantage of the Americans. Just a fact of life. Suffice we do a lot of prayer with people for practical needs like jobs and are seeing those prayers being answered.

My man TR leaves tonight. He has spent something like two weeks with and has been a huge blessing. He has been an awesome sounding board for our dreams and an open ear to the plans we have for the future ready with wise advice and/or a word from God on it. To give and example and to hint at the next post, TR helped me and a friend process the possibility of taking a team to Japan for our outreach months.

All that to say things are going well here, we are trusting for a revolution in Red Hill, God is starting to put dreams on the student's hearts and we all love our new friend TR.

An overview of recent happenings

It's been a very full couple of weeks.

I think what I will do is just give an overview of what's happened recently in this entry and unpack more thoughts and experiences in subsequent posts. Thank you for your patience. :)

A friend came to visit Bowen and I in the first few day of March. Tom is his name and loving and serving people is his m.o. I met Tom 10 years ago. He is a real joy to be around, he's a deep thinker and it's so cool to bounce ideas off and talk about life with. He has a unique, humorous and peaceful outlook; very untroubled by anything not of God. He met a lot of the CPx students and staff and blended in quite well. He, Bowen, some of the staff and myself on a day off went and made a day of it. More of that and pictures later. It was a sad thing when he had to leave.

God has been teaching me trust. The way you learn is to choose to trust even if you don't want to. It seems like you have to become like a child in order to learn (or relearn) to trust God. You make a simple choice, stop spinning your wheels and enjoy what is around you. Humility is key.

A bunch of us went to a rugby game on Saturday night. It was a Cape Town team versus a team from New Zealand. It was awesome. The only other time I've seen a rugby game was when I watched a buddy play a collegiate game a few years ago now. I really liked how it wasn't near as commercialized as American football.

We are deciding where we want to go for our 2 month "outreach phase" of our Church Planting Experience. I didn't really feel any strong direction so I went with my gut and signed up for Zanzibar and we'll see what happens I guess. I'd sooner go to Japan then anywhere else right now.

We got to skype with heavy hitter church planter David Watson. He does things somewhat different then All Nations. It was good though, David is very strategic in his approach to outreach.

We have cool kid here hanging out with the students for the next couple of weeks. I call him TR and he loves on people and tells them abut Jesus in countries where it's not allowed. Hence me not using his real name or adding a picture. There seems to be a trend of our speakers needing their identity protected because they are seeing cool things happen where Jesus is not allowed.

Let me just take a moment to say that it is because of our love for Jesus that we tell others about him. We don't want people to live without the hope of who Jesus is. He said "go and make disciples of all nations.... (Matt 28). And the gospel will be preached to all nations...and then Jesus will return (my paraphrase of Matt 24:14) We as humans are jealously loved by God - he came, lived a sinless life, was killed for our sin in order for us not have to be separated from God and then rose again nullifying our fear of death and sent the Holy Spirit to us so that we can be full of peace and joy until his return and see the dead raised the sick healed and the epic news of all the above spread to the whole world. And all this we do in love - not yelling at people about going to hell and being judgmental and not not telling people about him. *pant pant* *gets off soapbox*

So this guy TR, he's doing the whole telling people about Jesus in crazy places and is here with us to share his experiences and just listen to our hearts and give counsel about what we feel called to by God. It's a blessing to have him.

So, that's probably enough there. Sorry to go on a rampage there, but how can we must not remain silent and opt out of a life of obeying Jesus (in whatever we're called to) when our neighbor across the street is having a hard time in the States or there is such abject poverty of mind, spirit and resources and blatant racism in places like South Africa and when there is awful destruction in places like Japan.

So, I love you, whoever you are reading this (I don't think there's a big audience for this blog though). Thank you for reading this, know that my prayer for you is that you will have a deeper revelation of God's love for you. More pictures and actual details to come later!

Differences

The prayer room

Other side of the prayer room

Thought I'd hit you with pictures

All the locks here are big skeleton keys!

Outside of Africa House

Walking in to Africa House - the entrance

Door on the right is the kitchen, door on the left goes to the hall where bedrooms and bath rooms are

The kitchen - Mama Louisa and Sylvia are cooking something up!

Long hall with my room there at the end

Community room!

An odd picture someone took of me...not that there's any normal ones

Well, we're due for another post I think.
We're on our normal schedule now, there was kind of a lot that needed to get crammed into the first 2 weeks so we were pumping on all cylinders. It's nice to have a break. Today is Monday. We have Saturdays, Sunday afternoons and Mondays off. We "work" on Sundays. Meaning that we are in the communities talking to people and doing Bible studies because, honestly, the people who tend to not go to church tend to be the people we want to love on and point out the love of Jesus to.

Something came up the other day that really made me laugh and yet cry at the same time. A guy (I'll talk more about him later) was spoke to class about the Holy Spirit for a few days and some Americans (me included) and Africans were just talking about it all. The Americans told the Africans that there are a lot of churches and Christians who don't believe that Gods heals people any more or that the gifts of the Spirit are still active. I wish I could have taken a picture of the African's faces when they heard that. Jaws hit the ground and didn't come up for a while, they were seriously stunned that people thought that and were confused as to why they would think that AND preach against it. Things supernatural and the Holy Spirit moving - bringing healing, speaking words of knowledge, giving prophesies, giving pictures, giving supernatural protection etc etc are just a fact of life for most who call Jesus Lord here. Just saying, it was an interesting cross cultural exchange.

Now. I must apologize for not having photos of our speakers this week. I totally didn't even think to get photos of one and the other they asked us to protect his identity as much as possible.
The wee little man from Scotland, Joe Ewen, came and spoke to us concerning the Holy Spirit, His gifts and operating in them. It was a good time. Joe is a pastor of a network of churches in Scotland and also has a real prophetic anointing on him. He gave time to meet with students one on one while he was here to speak wisdom into us and give a word according to what God was saying, if that makes sense. So, for example. I signed up for a session with Joe and told him a little about what was heavy on my heart - the things that were hard for me here and my fears for life post CPx. And he just spoke to those fears and frustrations with simple, practical and Biblical wisdom and truth. As it is said, the spirit of prophesy is encouragement. As our time came to a close laid hands on me, prayed and had an encouraging/timely word that God spoke.

Our other speaker we had I'll call pastor Joshua. Joshua is seeing an insane amount of churches start then start more churches in closed countries. He had a real passion to disciple people in love into a knowledge of God's love for them gather several people like that - start a simple church from that allow those guys and gals to reach their friends with that good news and so on and so forth. Joshua was once (I should say at least once) almost executed for his love of Jesus and telling other people about it. He was speaking out against senseless killings and pillaging that his country's military was committing and made one particular high ranking officer very angry. This commander had Joshua arrested, tied up and lined up to be shot. Joshua was praying and told God that he would be fine with going home to Heaven but he wanted to save the commander first. As they were about to shoot him Joshua asked if he could talk to the commander for 5 minutes, commander said "spit out your nonsense." Joshua told commander that God created the world and man. Man sinned and lost perfect relationship with God. And God was so broken hearted over this that He couldn't stand it and came to earth as a human, lived a sinless life and was killed to atone for all sin there after for those who accept this gift. This was all so that those who believe in and follow Jesus would not have to be separated from God when they died and could have joy, hope, peace and life on earth in the mean time. And that this gift of the blood of Jesus was for commander too. Commander said "let this man go, he is insane." A few days later he came to Joshua's house and became a believer, was discipled by Joshua and his team and is now a church planter too. The Holy Spirit used that same simple story that has been told and retold for 2 millennium to burn in commander's heart and caused him to fall in love with the living Jesus.
Joshua is intense. He walks into Muslim nations where, if he was caught by the government with a Bible in hand or preaching the good news that Jesus is alive he would be killed and sees radical moves of God in those places. All of the students were really affected by Joshua's testimony, life, stories and approach to telling people about Jesus. I have been challenged to the core.

That's it for now I think. I think I'll put another post up soon to give yall a better idea of what we need prayer here for most etc. Thanks for putting up with these long posts.

Lotta Glowray

Awesome shot I got

Another awesome shot I got

Some of the long termers chilling

All in all it has been a good last couple of days. This is a big change of pace from how the last 5 days have been. It’s hard to describe what was going on but to sum up I just wasn’t feeling great. A very big part of that was the fact that I am an extreme introvert and there’s very little opportunity to truly be alone living in one building with 30 other people. I am learning a lot!

Part of Red Hill

We, the All Nations Church Planting Experience class of 2011, were split into our own “simple churches” this week. We had to choose a township to apply to work in for the next 3 months and the staff divvied out the teams (read “churches”) into those areas. I felt drawn to a place called Ocean View; think I touched on it in the last post. But I wanted to hear what God was saying about that so I took Sunday morning and prayed it through. I went into the prayer room on the property and asked what He had in mind. He didn’t answer right away. It was a little frustrating. So I finally asked Him “God, why are you not just saying what you want me to do? I mean I WANT you to tell me.” I heard Him speak this (pretty much word for word) very clearly – “I know you, you can be really task oriented. If I just told you what I have in mind you would just clap your hands say ‘ok great, let’s go git r dun’ and just leave and not spend time with me. To me - you investing in our relationship is way more important than getting an answer to a question that I will address in good time.” Suffice to say I chilled out and just relaxed in the presence of God, maybe an hour later He told me to go to Red Hill. Long story short I hooked up with a team going there. There are 6 of us, four Americans, two Africans, 4 men and 2 women. Our “job” is to be church – worship God, study the Word, love each other in community and reach the lost and replicate that model in our community of Red Hill. I would like to take a moment to emphasize that people and places are not projects. We do want the inhabitants of this camp to come to know the raw love of Jesus but I want to stress the fact that we love them with no strings attached. If I spend all 3 months in this community discipling people who don’t choose to make God they’re shot caller then it’s ok. It really will be.

A street level view of part of Red Hill

The team talking and driving out to Red Hill

Dan Baumann

     After our first afternoon in our township on Thursday we as a church (plus one of our coaches) went to a place near the local YWAM base to hear a lovesick man named Dan Baumann. This guy blew my socks off. He was falsely accused of being a spy while sharing Jesus in Iran and thrown in prison for 9 weeks. He has an amazing testimony of allowing God to change him at his lowest of low points in prison and see his captors as Jesus sees them not how fear would dictate. I highly recommend getting and reading his two books A Beautiful Way and Imprisoned in Iran. So, we were in a big rented meeting room not far from the YWAM base. It looked like there were a couple of hundred people to hear Dan, both YWAMmers and the “local crew” like us. God was moving in some fun ways that night. All glory to God. He used me to speak a couple of things He wanted to say to a couple of random strangers that He pointed out to me. I don’t normally have a hard time giving a word to strangers but it was hard this time to tell these guys what I was hearing but what God was saying was kind of intense. Those words were a step up from what I normally hear so it would be more awkward than it probably would be otherwise if I heard wrong. But God was good and the guys I prayed for were blessed. My gut says that if God is giving me more and bigger words for people He is growing the prophetic gift in me. Worship was intimate and the stuff that Dan said was challenging - he talked about loving your enemies. I felt like I needed to respond and come up to the front for prayer when the invitation was given after the talk so I did just that. I felt like God said to ask one guy on the prayer team specifically for prayer so I did. It was one of the most powerful wonderful encounters I’ve ever had with God. I and about two other people praying for me got a picture of a big nail or bolt or something being pulled out of my heart and chest. Deliverance of crap, it’s a beautiful thing. There really isn’t room to go into what all God did and is continuing to do but I can say that some very deep seated lies were pulled out by the root, lies specifically dealing with my view of the goodness and faithfulness of God. I’m a heavy drinker of the Spirit and His love, if you know me well I think I hardly need say that my friends had to carry me out of there. I couldn’t stand or walk under my own power I was so intoxicated in and by the love of Jesus. To God be the glory. That was Thursday night. Ever since then I’ve felt lighter, happier. Ever feel like all of a sudden weight is lifted off of you emotionally? You should take a moment right now and ask God if there’s anything He wants to say to you about that. He doesn’t disappoint. Friday morning we woke up, came to class and Dan Baumann was there to speak to all of the class that morning so we all got to hear from him. It was a real treat.

Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit…. Ephesians 5:18 (NLT)

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth--for your love is more delightful than wine. Song of Songs 1:2 (NIV)

...If you find my lover, tell him I am weak with love. Song of Songs 5:8b (NLT)

Worship team at YWAM

Everybody at the YWAM thing

Week 1

Floyd blushing as Sally talks

George, what a man

This week we have been getting settled. We are figuring out and talking through how a multi-cultured, mixed gender residence will work. We have listened to a little bit of Floyd and Sally's story today and it was cute, seriously, they're one of those slightly older couples who are so sweet to each other and cute together that you throw up in your mouth a little. Some good friends for the McClungs came and spoke for a couple of days about unity and holiness and purity and honor. They were a fun couple - a (I believe) Zambian husband and an American wife with a cute baby. George, the husband, was fiery, he has a lot of passion to see servant leaders raised up in Africa. I have been told that a big problem in Africa is that it is "over evangelized" with precious little actual discipleship happening. Many ministers and pastors live in a very hierarchical system and expect to be served and honored with really investing in people, without serving people themselves. So to hear of this man all out raising up young people in an opposite attitude - working and investing themselves into where they are called - it is an uplifting thing.

*I would like to take a moment to explain something. In South Africa people are referred to as "white," "black" and "colored." "Colored" is not a derogatory term in South Africa. When I was told that people were referred to that way I freaked out. As a non racist white American it's really hard to coexist with that term. But it is cultural and not a word I came up with. Colored people are varied in they're ancestry. They are not fully white and not fully black. Some look vaguely Latino or Indian or Asian. ***So if I say "colored" people please please know that that is simply what people say. It is NOT meant as a racist statement in the least little bit. I am not racist, I do not refer to people in racist ways.*** If you are at all offended I am sorry that you are offended but recognize that I am not calling YOU anything and that I am not doing anything unacceptable in THIS culture. The labels came about when the South African government classified people according to how they wanted people located geographically. The labels stuck.

This week we have prayer walked three different communities that All Nations is involved in. We will be split into small groups on Monday and we will choose one of these towns to work in for the next 3 months. They are "townships," places where under the appalling law of Apartheid non- whites were forced to settle, ghettos essentially. All these places have distinct feels and atmospheres. Unfortunately I was not able to get any photos of any of them because of safety reasons. If outsiders specifically white folk walk in with watches and cameras and wallets we make ourselves targets. these aren't the most safe of places.
-Wednesday we walked Masiphumalele (Masi for short.) It is a community of some 35,000 people in shacks. It's a tough area, it's urban in the sense that it's mostly composed of shanty shacks built of scrap metals and woods. Dirt roads connect everything, there are a few better built homes on concrete slabs with a few layers of cinder block walls but they're maybe 2 rooms big. Now that I think of it there were a few nice homes which I was told belonged to the big league drug dealers. Walking through the village the children were calling out "mulungo!" which means "white boy!" Kind of a derogatory term I'm told. As the team I was with were praying and walking we passed some guys on the corner hanging. One guy passes us as we pass them walking very fast, he looks over to the corner guys and tells them that he's gonna shoot them and keeps walking. I'm told gangs, drugs, alcohol and violence are big problems in Masi.
-Next day we went to Ocean View. It is a slightly smaller ghetto that really reminds me east Austin or north Philadelphia. There's a lot of project apartments and small houses, not really the shack town that Masi is. I'm drawn to this town most although it is possibly the most dangerous. There is a lot of drug abuse, domestic violence and some gang activity. Lotta Rastafaris and Muslims in Ocean View. It's pretty developed, no shacks here, just small houses and apartments next to paved streets. There have been a few prophetic words that this is OV's year, that God is really gonna move. That gets me excited because this town has the fewest All Nations long termers in it. I'm still praying about applying to work here.
-Finally we walked Red Hill today. Red Hill is very different from the other two ghettos. It is up on a mountain in a remote part of Cape Town. It is a small encampment of about 2 thousand people total. It is very peaceful and is pretty safe. The atmosphere is different in that sense, I sensed no hostility, no one looked at you aggressively, no children ran up to try to take your watch without you realizing it or pat your pockets looking for a wallet. There isn't a lot of drug usage there and no gangs. I was told that there is a fair amount of alcohol abuse by the men which ends in fights and wife beatings but it is all kept under wraps and not addressed publicly really. Not really attracted to working there.

I'm realizing I'm obsessed with mountains

Soccer out on the lawn after dinner

More soccer

So, be blessed fam, I'll have more to say later, there's a lot going on but it's hard to put it into a blog post. :)