Almost there!

It's been a busy last two weeks. The Gauteng Challenge will officially wrap up on Saturday afternoon. We've had a few bumps in the road, but all in all it's been a great and fruitful time of ministry and the outreach teams are doing a great job.

We started off last week overseeing 3 teams; 2 working with an AIDS/hospital ministry called the Oasis, here in inner city Pretoria and one team of teenagers working in Midrand (North Johannesburg) After two days, another half of a team was added to our charge after the rural church that was supposed to host them turned out to be unable to accomodate them. We were able to add them to our other teams working at the Oasis and they integrated very well.

On Sunday our teen team started to get sick and they've been dropping like flies ever since. On Tuesday we took three of them to the doctor and yesterday we had to make the decision to bring them back from their host church in Midrand and keep them here at the Pretoria Ministry Centre. It turned out to be the right decision because today one of the boys had a fever of over 40 C (= 104 F) and had to go home. For now, the sick ones stay at the OM base and sleep and Michael and I take the healthy ones to help out with children's ministry and practical work at the Oasis. They've been so wonderfully flexible to take in our homeless missionaries, thanks Ali and Paul!

Please pray for the health of our participants! This teen team has had the brunt of the health problems so far but we also have people on other teams battling the flu, bronchitis, asthma and, randomly, thyphoid and malaria (which were not contracted here in South Africa). It's putting a bit more of a workload on us; since the teens' leaders are sick, Michael and I have taken over leading their ministry times for the past few days.

So far, from the teams that we are in direct contact with, we know of at least 14 people who have accepted the Lord over the past week. Praise God! We can't wait to hear the stories from the 15 other teams. Keep checking the Global Challenge blog as more feedback from the teams comes in: http://challengesa.blogspot.com

One more full day of ministry and then on Saturday we have our final celebration and send everybody home. We'd really appreciate your prayers for all of that to go smoothly. We were impressed at how relatively easily we got everyone here and we know it was because so many people were praying for the logistics. Thanks so much for all of the little notes of encouragement during this time; I know we haven't been so responsive these last few weeks, but we are greatly appreciative nonetheless!

Sorry if this post is a bit rambly, it's almost 11pm and I'm about to fall over. We'll update you again soon!

Heather

The Gauteng Challenge

The Gauteng Challenge is upon us. Heather and I left on Sunday afternoon for the Magaliesberg Youth For Christ camp ground and Conference center in order to get set up for the up coming Global Challenge Orientation. The airport pick-ups started at 5 a.m. on Sunday morning and we didn’t get the last group in until after 1a.m. We didn’t have to go to the airport but I was in charge of sending people to the airports and bus stations and also for communication with the participants as they arrived at the different pick-up spots. Heather was in charge of housing and registration and Bonnie, who is our boss, was the coordinator for the whole thing. Heather registered people from 5pm to 1am on Sunday and then from 10am until 10:30 pm on Monday. About 15 other OM leaders as well as the 70 trainees who are on the training program were also working in support roles.

People were arriving all day on Monday until the program started in the evening. The opening flag ceremony kicked it off and the rest of the orientation went smoothly. We ended up with 236 people in total. It was so cold the whole time we were there. It makes it even worse since South Africa does not have central heating.

We are now overseers for three of the teams while they are with their ministries. Our job is to go visit the teams and just check up on them and take care of any problems that they can’t overcome on their own.

Go the official GC blogspot www.challengesa.blogspot.com for the story of our first Challenge miracle this year!

Michael

Confederations Cup

On Sunday the Confederations Cup kicks off in South Africa. It’s a one year precursor to the soccer World Cup. Eight teams will be facing off for the championship beginning with the opening game between South Africa and Iraq. It’s an important time for South Africa as a nation, as a trial run to see if it is ready for the influx of+/- 3 million people next year. While our outreach efforts are focused mainly on the World Cup next year, we are mobilizing prayer for the Confed. Cup teams and the nations they represent. You can download the prayer guides here: http://www.omsa.org.za//index.php/IPL.html

Adopt a team or two and pray through the guides with your Sunday School or small group Bible study. There are daily prayer points for your week and information on how God is working in each of these countries. Pray also that the South African church would be motivated to reach out to the many foreigners who will be attending these games. How exciting that the world is coming to us!

We will have more information for you in the coming weeks on the outreach options for the 2010 World Cup. There will be eight different ministry areas in which individuals and church groups can be involved. Start saving your pennies, we’d love for you to join us next year!

Heather

Shopping at the robot.

In America, when we drive up to a red light (they are called robots in South Africa), all we do is wait for it to turn green so we can carry on with our day. In South Africa, this is not so. Oh no, not by a long shot. The first thing one must do before even stopping at the robot is to check that there are no shifty looking characters waiting around to smash your window and take your stuff such as a purse or maybe your car. Once you have confirmed your safety, then you have to decide whether you are going to give anything to the myriad of beggars. Heather and I have decided that we are not going to give any money to the people since many of them are substance abusers but since bananas are so cheap here we buy “beggar bananas.”

Now comes the third tier of people. These peddlers have a whole array of goods that they are willing to sell at a price that is greatly discounted from what you could get from the store. Most of the goods are legitimate. The pirated DVDs are obviously not but there are many things that are actually legal. The merchandise ranges anywhere from avocados to plastic cloths hangers, shot glasses, sports jerseys, world maps, flags, stuffed animals or sunglasses. Among my favourite robot buys are the Rubiks Cube© and feather dusters.

The fourth echelon of robot vendors are the people who are actually employed by a business. Among these are the newspaper sellers and house rental flyer guys. The best way to escape hassle from any of these except the thieves is to just put your windows up, avoid eye contact and not to even glance at what they are selling. Once you glance at them, they are all over you.

Sometimes they have something that just really catches our eye. We have bought newspapers and frozen fruit ice things and we are currently on the hunt for a set of hangers. Now keep in mind that all this takes place in the time it takes for the lights to cycle which might be anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. So you have to find what you want, haggle the price and then pay them all in that time frame.

Michael

Abba House

Last Friday for our ministry day we went to a ministry called Abba House. This is a place where mothers can give up their babies for adoption when they are born, drop them off when they are several weeks or even a couple months old or in really sad cases they are found in dumpsters. Our job was just to love the babies.

I am sad that I can not post a picture. We were not allowed to take pictures while we were volunteering.

Abba House has two rooms with babies. One room is for new borns up to three months. The room we were in is for babies 4 months an up. There were 7 babies in our room, the oldest of which was about 10 months old. Like I said before, our job is to love the babies. We hold them, play with them, and change them. I did change a diaper (nappy in South Africa). It was my third one ever.

The little boy I held for a large part of the afternoon is named Macawe. He is sooo cute. He was so happy to just sit in my lap and watch everyone else. We were chillin' on the couch. I turned up my iPod loud and set the earphones on my chest(no, I did not put them in his ears). He really liked the audio stimulation. He then proceeded to pee on me. He completely filled his nappy to overflowing and he had been changed just before we got there.

The permanent volunteers all said that it was a really relaxed day because so many people came by. At one point, all the babies in the room had some one there to hold them. We really enjoyed our day of loving the orphans.

Michael

Hi everyone.

I would really appreciate your prayers over the next few weeks as I just found out that my uncle passed away a couple of hours ago. He died suddenly of a massive heart attack. That side of my family doesn't know the Lord and I'm not sure if I'll ever see my uncle again. I'm also dealing with the difficulty of not being there with my family for the grieving and the funeral. Please pray that God would work through my Mom to make Himself known to my family in a very special way during this time. Thanks so much.

Heather

Ministry Day

So, aside from working in the office getting ready for the Global Challenge outreaches and going on the outreaches, we have the option of taking one day a week as a ministry day. A whole day every week away from computers and phones and out in the community ministering to people. I'm not sure which ministry I'll be joining, so I'm going to spend the next several weeks visiting all kinds of different places.

This week I joined the AIDS Hope team for their CrossRoads classes. CrossRoads is a curriculum written by Campus Crusade for Christ that teaches HIV/AIDS awareness. It's a great curriculum. It starts out for the first few months just learning about the life of Jesus and how to develop good character. From there, it moves onto topics such as healthy relationships, God's plan for sex within marriage and both the dangers of and prevention of HIV/AIDS. The OM AIDS Hope team is currently presenting this program to middle school students in three different schools each Wednesday. The exciting thing is that only one of these schools is a Christian school. What a privilege to be able to teach about Jesus so freely! In a country where 1 person out of every 4 you meet has HIV/AIDS, prevention education is crucial to preserving lives in the years to come. It's a tremendous opportunity to share the love and truth of Jesus.

I'm not sure if I'll make this my weekly ministry or not, I still have some others to check out. Next week I'll be visiting Abba House, a ministry that takes in abandoned infants until they are adopted. Some time in the future I'll also go to Esther house, a place that offers a home and counseling to women in crisis pregnancy situations who have decided to keep their babies. I'm really excited to be branching out in new directions!

For more information on Campus Crusade's CrossRoads program, visit www.crossroadslink.org

Heather