I saw that phrase on a sign and thought it was so wonderfully bizarre it would make a good eye catching title. I've seen a lot of interesting thing. I've felt some strange things. Being the only white person, or one of two in a building filled with hundreds is strange. It's weird to feel noticed without doing anything.
There are a lot of things in this country that would leave a lot of tender hearted people weeping for a while. Children that are born to young teens for the meager amount of government given money that doesn't pay hardly enough to take care of one person. That money is supporting whole families. Grandma's take care of babies until they can no longer take care of themselves. d
I've learned a name-
Zuma- the corrupt laughing stock of a president that no one like but everyone keeps voting for.
Trevor Noah- a comedian who really makes a lot of attitudes and problems clear in a way you wouldn't expect.
Load Shedding- the semi-regular planned and warned about power outages.
In this world, the first world is living within blocks of the third world. It's not developing, it's getting worse. There aren't enough resources to take care of everyone and more come streaming in from other countries, living by illegal means, and killing those that would question that.
I've driven past those free houses, given by the government. They get a meager electricity usage. Like, two things can't be plugged in at the same time. Then they build shacks all around their house, with tin sheets and rocks to hold it together on top. They rent those shacks out to people from neighboring countries, and run illegal cables sharing that electricity.
People are desperate like that! And everywhere there are people without work, just laying down in the grass, doing nothing. There is a much smaller percentage working and paying taxes, and a much larger percentage that are expecting to live off of that. And a rich, fat leader who lives in a ridiculous mansion off of the tax payers money.
On the other hand, we have had two brai's in a couple of days, and that is Africaans for barbeque, so I think I'm going to stay here forever. That is some wonderful meat, I tell you what.
The more I learn, the more my heart hurts. The work on the phone gets discouraging too. The connection is bad, or they can't understand me. I keep hearing the voice in my heart saying, "Sow in faith. Sow in faith." And I force a grimace onto my face, willing it to be a smile, and I steel myself to stay postive for another call.
Results are in His Hands. There are a lot of longing souls here, People that are desperate to see reconciliation and forgiveness for what's happened here. To see unity between the people. To see changed lives and changed hearts. We can only thank God for bringing us here, for letting us be a part of His plan. It is an honor to serve the Lord, wherever He puts you. Thank you for your prayers! We need them! Our ministry here is going through some challenges with bureaucracy and inflexibility in flawed systems, and we could really use some breakthroughs there!
This whole country is in need of a powerful breakthrough to get out of these broken revolving doors of ignorance and apathy and a crushed spirit that doesn't dare to dream that it can get better.
Bless them Lord. Let our hearts break for what is beyond our understanding, but not beyond yours.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
We are now in South Africa
Hello my dear friends,
I am in Africa. I can hardly believe it. There are birds with long legs and bounce around and there are too many people trying to fit into one bus on the side of the road. There was a black lady that called me "Madam" yesterday. In a few weeks we will be touring in a car, and I have a whole new money system to get used to! Mårten bought a pair of shoes for R300. (R stands for rand) Which is a little under 30 dollars. The first night we were here, the power went out, and Denise said that happens quite frequently here. Fans are blowing all the time, and every window has bars on it, and a lot of people have gates and most have security systems and guard dogs. There are guard dogs here, four huge ones. They spend most of their time sleeping in the shade because it's so hot. If people want to try to send something via the post office, it might arrive between six months to a year later, if it arrives at all. Sneakers are called Tekkies. That's about as much interesting stuff as I can think of off the top of my head.
We've been here for almost a week. It's been an intense, jumping right in kind of week. We arrived late Wednesday, after a long day of flying. Funny how doing nothing but watching movies and dozing and reading can be so exhausting. Those are the kind of things I'd do on my own to relax on a day off. We had a program on Sunday, so we were busy learning lines and putting plays together for that.
We are at the office in Walkerville, which is near Johannesburg. We are kind of home based until the end of the month, when we will have to share our unit member with Denise, and go off by ourselves for a few weeks. Oh Lord, if you could send more people to us... It's the four of us, and it has been fun. Denise is a fabulous cook. And this building is big. I put together a house cleaning scheduale. I've organized a desk for myself. I've done a lot of organizing in the big old closet. I have projects planned for every room of the house. This must be really boring to read, this hashing of the domestic details of life. But it's what my brain has basically revolved around. Now Abigail and I are PRing and making housing calls, making plans to go to places that teams haven't been in a while.
Mpumalanga is where we have been calling today. Abigail dies of laughter finding places here and having me try to pronounce them. Mmm-poo-mah-lang-gah. It's not too hard. heh heh.
I said I'd let you know how you can pray for me, and here's a few things.
-That my poor brain can understand the accents of people here. I know, I'm American, I'm the foreigner, I'm the one with the accent. But I have trouble, and it's embarrassing to ask people to repeat themselves and still not get it.
-Open doors for ministry. We have empty Sundays from the 22 Feb- 6 March, and we want to find schools and nursing homes (over here they call them Aged Care Centre's!) and youth groups for the midweeks. We also need to find a lot of housing.
-Especially open doors in Swaziland! I want to do ministry in as many countries as possible, and it may be possible to go there! Swaziland and Lesotho are countries that are in within South Africa.
-RECRUITS. I know, I already said that. I guess I could add the thing I ask the Lord for everyday. That is wisdom. I have so much to do, I could work 24/7 at that desk I sorted out. And that is line learning and play blocking aside. I have a huge stack of recruit information to go through. I pray that someone in that bundle of papers is going to see how great the need is here and will be excited to come and fill it.
We are in Africa and I'm so glad you care to listen to me, and pray for us, and believe in miracles with us. It's going to be amazing.
Lots of love,
Katie
I am in Africa. I can hardly believe it. There are birds with long legs and bounce around and there are too many people trying to fit into one bus on the side of the road. There was a black lady that called me "Madam" yesterday. In a few weeks we will be touring in a car, and I have a whole new money system to get used to! Mårten bought a pair of shoes for R300. (R stands for rand) Which is a little under 30 dollars. The first night we were here, the power went out, and Denise said that happens quite frequently here. Fans are blowing all the time, and every window has bars on it, and a lot of people have gates and most have security systems and guard dogs. There are guard dogs here, four huge ones. They spend most of their time sleeping in the shade because it's so hot. If people want to try to send something via the post office, it might arrive between six months to a year later, if it arrives at all. Sneakers are called Tekkies. That's about as much interesting stuff as I can think of off the top of my head.
We've been here for almost a week. It's been an intense, jumping right in kind of week. We arrived late Wednesday, after a long day of flying. Funny how doing nothing but watching movies and dozing and reading can be so exhausting. Those are the kind of things I'd do on my own to relax on a day off. We had a program on Sunday, so we were busy learning lines and putting plays together for that.
We are at the office in Walkerville, which is near Johannesburg. We are kind of home based until the end of the month, when we will have to share our unit member with Denise, and go off by ourselves for a few weeks. Oh Lord, if you could send more people to us... It's the four of us, and it has been fun. Denise is a fabulous cook. And this building is big. I put together a house cleaning scheduale. I've organized a desk for myself. I've done a lot of organizing in the big old closet. I have projects planned for every room of the house. This must be really boring to read, this hashing of the domestic details of life. But it's what my brain has basically revolved around. Now Abigail and I are PRing and making housing calls, making plans to go to places that teams haven't been in a while.
Mpumalanga is where we have been calling today. Abigail dies of laughter finding places here and having me try to pronounce them. Mmm-poo-mah-lang-gah. It's not too hard. heh heh.
I said I'd let you know how you can pray for me, and here's a few things.
-That my poor brain can understand the accents of people here. I know, I'm American, I'm the foreigner, I'm the one with the accent. But I have trouble, and it's embarrassing to ask people to repeat themselves and still not get it.
-Open doors for ministry. We have empty Sundays from the 22 Feb- 6 March, and we want to find schools and nursing homes (over here they call them Aged Care Centre's!) and youth groups for the midweeks. We also need to find a lot of housing.
-Especially open doors in Swaziland! I want to do ministry in as many countries as possible, and it may be possible to go there! Swaziland and Lesotho are countries that are in within South Africa.
-RECRUITS. I know, I already said that. I guess I could add the thing I ask the Lord for everyday. That is wisdom. I have so much to do, I could work 24/7 at that desk I sorted out. And that is line learning and play blocking aside. I have a huge stack of recruit information to go through. I pray that someone in that bundle of papers is going to see how great the need is here and will be excited to come and fill it.
We are in Africa and I'm so glad you care to listen to me, and pray for us, and believe in miracles with us. It's going to be amazing.
Lots of love,
Katie
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