It's closing time...
Here on the Masi team we are trying to finish our outreach phase
strong, seeking closure in relationships we will leave for a while and
also pressing in to see breakthroughs in people's lives before we
leave. We are seeing great things happening in Masi in our final weeks
here. We've all been working together, but in this blog post I'll
highlight a few of the individual team members' emphases. Sbu has started meeting with some of the gangsters of Masi, people
that have been neglected by the Church because they instill fear into
the hearts of many. Not our stalwart Sbu, however. He feels called to
minister to them and has seen a lot of favor in those relationships.
He's composing raps with them about the positive things they all want
for Masi. Lifa is spending a lot of his free time in Masi visiting the people
we've been pouring into, in addition to the Bible studies he helps
lead with the rest of the team. He is creating strong relationships
with potential leaders and leaving them with words of truth. Pete has been mentoring the Masi mama, along with Sbu and Mel, and
said he is excited to see a Xhosa woman catching the vision for
sharing Jesus with others. This mama is still in the Zion church, but
Pete believes she is being discipled toward a change in her beliefs
about Jesus. And when the church that is being built on her property
is finished, she'll then be able to bring this good news of Jesus to
even more people. Mel is providing key leadership and guidance to four young women who
have been meeting with her and Julianna the past seven weeks for a
Bible study. This week the girls came over to Africa House for a
make-your-own-pizza dinner and then to watch a chick flick. It was a
lot of fun, and the girls shared a poem they had written for Mel and
Julianna that thanked them for "A rain that change part of our life /
Where we feel the happiness in our lifes." (sic) Another girl who I
wrote about last week that is considering abortion has decided to
postpone it in order to think about her options more. Mel saw this as
a big step towards hopefully not choosing abortion. Julianna is developing a keen friendship with Hope, a Zimbabwean
woman. She is a powerhouse, and seems to share Jesus, counsel and read
the Bible with nearly everyone she knows. We rarely get time alone
with just her because inevitably someone stops by her house and joins
in our Bible study or prayer. Yesterday our whole team attended her
daughter's birthday 2-year birthday party, which took place in the All
Nations prayer shack in Masi. We prayed over her and ate chocolate
cake and had a great time of friendship and fellowship. Brandon is helping to mentor our Zimbabwean friend who is being
released to do great things for the kingdom in Masi. Brandon also is
providing great leadership for our team. This week has felt different because of the start of the World Cup.
EVERYONE in Masi watches all the games and blows their vuvuzelas at
all hours. It's created a party atmosphere in Masi. We haven't had any
negative experiences with drunk people yet though — people seem to be
trying to stay somewhat sober to actually watch the games. Instead, it
has been hard to find people. Over the past week we've had even more
missed appointments than usual. It's making it difficult to say
goodbye to people. This week we're going to try to make it to all of
our friends in Masi to say goodbye and give them pictures we've taken
with them. (Sbu says the best way to make friends in Masi is to give
them pictures you've taken of them. So we're going to try it out.) Speaking of the World Cup, as a team we drove into Cape Town Friday
for the opening game and watched it with huge crowds of people on a TV
in a cafe. It was a blast! Go Bafana Bafana! Last week was our final kids club with the Vulnerable Children
ministry. I'm attaching some pictures of us at Kid's Club. We've been
leading it every Friday afternoon during our outreach. We enjoyed our
time, even if we did leave feeling so tired because the kids sometimes
were a little wild. We focused on the attributes of God and each week
taught the kids a new one as we shared stories from the Bible that
illustrated the attribute. The kids learned that God is powerful,
loving, forgiving and wise. Now the kids club is going on hiatus for a
time as all the kids are on break from school and there's other
activities in Masi that Living Hope is leading during the World Cup. Tomorrow we're also rebuilding a broken roof as a team. One of our
dear friends lives in a shack where the roof is leaking HORRIBLY. When
it rains (as it often does here in Cape Town in the winter), the water
pours into their shack and soaks their beds. So as a team we're going
to completely redo the roof.
strong, seeking closure in relationships we will leave for a while and
also pressing in to see breakthroughs in people's lives before we
leave. We are seeing great things happening in Masi in our final weeks
here. We've all been working together, but in this blog post I'll
highlight a few of the individual team members' emphases. Sbu has started meeting with some of the gangsters of Masi, people
that have been neglected by the Church because they instill fear into
the hearts of many. Not our stalwart Sbu, however. He feels called to
minister to them and has seen a lot of favor in those relationships.
He's composing raps with them about the positive things they all want
for Masi. Lifa is spending a lot of his free time in Masi visiting the people
we've been pouring into, in addition to the Bible studies he helps
lead with the rest of the team. He is creating strong relationships
with potential leaders and leaving them with words of truth. Pete has been mentoring the Masi mama, along with Sbu and Mel, and
said he is excited to see a Xhosa woman catching the vision for
sharing Jesus with others. This mama is still in the Zion church, but
Pete believes she is being discipled toward a change in her beliefs
about Jesus. And when the church that is being built on her property
is finished, she'll then be able to bring this good news of Jesus to
even more people. Mel is providing key leadership and guidance to four young women who
have been meeting with her and Julianna the past seven weeks for a
Bible study. This week the girls came over to Africa House for a
make-your-own-pizza dinner and then to watch a chick flick. It was a
lot of fun, and the girls shared a poem they had written for Mel and
Julianna that thanked them for "A rain that change part of our life /
Where we feel the happiness in our lifes." (sic) Another girl who I
wrote about last week that is considering abortion has decided to
postpone it in order to think about her options more. Mel saw this as
a big step towards hopefully not choosing abortion. Julianna is developing a keen friendship with Hope, a Zimbabwean
woman. She is a powerhouse, and seems to share Jesus, counsel and read
the Bible with nearly everyone she knows. We rarely get time alone
with just her because inevitably someone stops by her house and joins
in our Bible study or prayer. Yesterday our whole team attended her
daughter's birthday 2-year birthday party, which took place in the All
Nations prayer shack in Masi. We prayed over her and ate chocolate
cake and had a great time of friendship and fellowship. Brandon is helping to mentor our Zimbabwean friend who is being
released to do great things for the kingdom in Masi. Brandon also is
providing great leadership for our team. This week has felt different because of the start of the World Cup.
EVERYONE in Masi watches all the games and blows their vuvuzelas at
all hours. It's created a party atmosphere in Masi. We haven't had any
negative experiences with drunk people yet though — people seem to be
trying to stay somewhat sober to actually watch the games. Instead, it
has been hard to find people. Over the past week we've had even more
missed appointments than usual. It's making it difficult to say
goodbye to people. This week we're going to try to make it to all of
our friends in Masi to say goodbye and give them pictures we've taken
with them. (Sbu says the best way to make friends in Masi is to give
them pictures you've taken of them. So we're going to try it out.) Speaking of the World Cup, as a team we drove into Cape Town Friday
for the opening game and watched it with huge crowds of people on a TV
in a cafe. It was a blast! Go Bafana Bafana! Last week was our final kids club with the Vulnerable Children
ministry. I'm attaching some pictures of us at Kid's Club. We've been
leading it every Friday afternoon during our outreach. We enjoyed our
time, even if we did leave feeling so tired because the kids sometimes
were a little wild. We focused on the attributes of God and each week
taught the kids a new one as we shared stories from the Bible that
illustrated the attribute. The kids learned that God is powerful,
loving, forgiving and wise. Now the kids club is going on hiatus for a
time as all the kids are on break from school and there's other
activities in Masi that Living Hope is leading during the World Cup. Tomorrow we're also rebuilding a broken roof as a team. One of our
dear friends lives in a shack where the roof is leaking HORRIBLY. When
it rains (as it often does here in Cape Town in the winter), the water
pours into their shack and soaks their beds. So as a team we're going
to completely redo the roof.
