skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Right, I promised I would write about Summer Camp, and so I will. It's not quite as fresh in my memory, which is always a shame. Nonetheless it's worth writing about still.
The eastern region churches of SA came together at a place called Mooi River, about an hour and a half from Durban. We rented a school site for use for the 300+ strong group of campers that were coming from our churches, ranging between about 11 and 20. Everyone was multi-tasking, and lots of older youth were actually acting as leaders at the same time. I was a group leader, part of the ministry team, photographer, and part-time lead guitarist - which was a bit of a hectic setup. Some, like Ebz, the guy doing the video, worked far harder than me though.
What really made the camp remarkable though is how manfestly present the Holy Spirit was through the whole time. I think a lot of people spent more time on the floor than on their seats in the meetings! Previous camps have focussed a whole lot on mission and on "doing stuff". This one was focussed on the theme of being forgiven by God, and just stuffing these kids full of grace. It was powerful. I heard some of the stories that were coming out of these ministry times and you could begin to understand why people were not exactly being straight laced with all the stuff that's going on in the depths of their lives.
Normally I'm not one for the falling over thing (though I don't in principle have anything against it). I've not dropped before now (for which I'm sure many are grateful), nor did I this week. I spent much time scratching my head wondering quite whether a lot of things were right as people lay about on the floor for long periods laughing their heads off uncontrollably and staggering about after. "Drunk", as in Acts 2, is exactly the right description. Many use that verse to justify this sort of bodily incapacity, but I'm not sure it can be so certain as I think many would describe lots of people seemingly babbling away at the same time in the same way, whether or not they were dropping to the ground.
The guy leading the camp, Antony Eastes, is a complete loon in many ways, but he is a good man and is definitely annointed with power. He would often be the source of such collapse and "holy giggles", as well as doing the same himself.
As I looked at it through the week I had to conclude a few things:
- God can't be put in a box. When He's doing stuff it's bound to look weird sometimes.
- That a lot of time you can only tell what's going on by the fruit.
- That the church in Corinth shows God didn't remove His Spirit when people were being sometimes horrendous with their responses to His presence. Particularly with very young Christians lacking maturity, you probably will see some less than perfect outcomes to the Spirit moving and sensationalism and treating the Spirit like a gimmick.
- That the people I'm seeing involved are often people I think are very sound and godly people. I trust that they're not just buying into some empty psychology or demonic power.
- That we on the whole need to get to a place where God's presence is more manifest, and thus overwhleming, in our lives if we are to live in the biblical expectation. I'd rather make mistakes along the way than stand still.
What this camp did as well was to make clear to me not to limit what God will do because of location, resources, size, etc. He is no respecter of such things and does all He pleases. It was a great week, and I'm sure many young people will look back on it for years to come as a moment God changed their lives.
Hey, everyone! Sho! Everything is happening thick and fast at the moment. Loads of good stuff going on, but means I'm so, so busy!
Since summer camp (which I do need to still write more about) I've been working hard to prepare things for O-Week, which is like freshers' week in the UK. We're soon to have thousands of students coming, and in fact many are starting to arrive. Our aim is to connect lots of Christians into our church where we can spend time building into them biblical values and a passion for building church God's way, full of truth, full of the Spirit, across all boundaries. We've got some cool t-shirts for Hope On Campus, a whole bunch of flyers advertising our student society as well as advertising Alpha, and we've got a sizeable group of students who were with us through last year and are fast becoming amazing men and women of God. We're very aware though that this is more than a casual advertising exercise and we've really felt stirred to pray and act with great boldness in this spiritual battlefield. If we want students, we're going to have to fight for them. Please labour with us in prayer because the potential influence here is massive with students coming to Durban, being trained and filled with passion, and going back to their homes, their new jobs, their countries, etc. Hope Church has been so enriched with students who are bearing fruit every bit in line with the work we've put into them, and we want that to continue.
I've also had my friend Jat visiting me from the UK from Thu-Wed, which has been great. I've had to be working here and there, but largely we've been able to hang out, catch up, and do some of the things I've not been able to do so far. One of those things was to go to Hluhluwe/Umfolozi game park, where we came up close and personal with Zebra, Giraffe, Boar, Wildebeast, Buffalo, Nyala (and various other sorts of deer like creatures), Black Rhino, Hyena, and some more besides. It was a great experience, and an eye opener into what SA is like when you take away the modern developments. The week as a whole has been great and myself, Jat, and a number of Hopers (I think that should be the new name for people from Hope Church) just hung out and did stuff. I've got a stream of visitors coming between now and the end of April, so it's a tough balancing act between having fun, spending too much money, being a good host, and doing the work I'm here to do. It's so nice to have people visit though - I think I'd much prefer it to visiting home, which will come soon enough!
The other big thing that's been going on is that we've managed to pick up where we left off with the Cato boys. Myself and Themba took them to the beach the other week, where we soon got out of the water after receiving jellyfish stings (not serious, of course). We went along the beachfront the the public open-air pool and swam there instead. The water was only ever about a metre deep, so it was more of a place for fun and games than swimming. There is another pool a little further down that is deeper, but you need to pay to enter. The seemingly unwritten rule, as with the canteens at John Ruskin College when I was there, was that white people go in the paying pool, and black people in the free one. I'm sure there's more than mere economics to this one, but we went along to the free pool and I was one of two white people there. The fact that I was there and taking these boys there meant lots of people were dumbstruck, but it was fine really. At some points when I was just standing in the pool looking around some people looked at me with a look of fear, like I was some pool guard or something who was going to tell them off. Just weird. But it was fun. The boys were doing all manner of stunt dives into the pool, one where two of them linked arms to form a closed loop which the others proceeded to jump through. Feeling brave I decided to take a turn, figuring I could dive through and stop myself with my hands when entering the water. No chance! I landed on my right side hitting my arm, shoulder, and head, with a small scrape on my shoulder. It didn't actually hurt too much and it was a good laugh, but I won't be doing that again!
This week we brought them over to my place where we could swim in a proper pool. Again, it was good fun, and we cooked up some meat on the braai that I had left over from when Jat was around and we had a student's return party. Amazingly 6 boys managed to demolish two whole loaves of white sliced bread, along with a bottle of ketchup, and the meat. Apparently white bread is marginally more expensive here, so they tend to end up with brown all the time and white is a rare treat. So strange for us, where it needs to be some herb flavoured foccacia type to be "treat" bread.
This would be all good in and of itself, but in doing so we found out that one of the boys, Fana, was still not in school. He told us the schools were full and wouldn't take him, which Themba originally suspected to be a lie as schools aren't allowed to do that. Nonetheless we're finding what schools should do and what they actually do can be two different matters. So we've taken him to school, spoken to the head, paid his paltry school fees for the year, and got him in. He actually seems very happy to be in school, but not all are so happy. We met his former teacher who would be his new teacher also and she went ballistic. Apparently Fana has been a bad boy before, but she would have nothing of giving him a second chance and was losing her rag in front of us and even other pupils. Left unchecked a frustrated teacher of 45, underpaid and overworked and undersupported, could do serious damage to a boy like this as she pronounced verdicts that he will always be a troublemaker and what not. So we went back today and the head, despite having to grapple unions and education board and such, is going to look into it and make sure it's sorted. Fana was back there of his own accord today and another teacher was helping him, arranging books, etc.
From there we went to see another of the boys, Lindo, who is not in school. We visited his house in the township and spoke with his parents. We're going to find a way to pay his fees (which are about £25 for the year), and they are going to get the necessary paperwork to get him enrolled into school only these few weeks late. Without school these boys literally have nothing to do and can only get in trouble.
It was so good when we arrived at Lindo's house as people said, "Look! There's the people from Lindo's church!" We're really getting known in the community, and at a face to face level, which is great.
We've managed to make headway so suddenly and almost without trying to into this community. Having dropped the boys back on Tuesday after coming to my place, being back there to enroll Fana in school, being back again to make sure he's settling in and to try to help Lindo, visiting his house.... suddenly it feels like this township is open to us as we get to know families and the school. I sense an immense opportunity here - please pray again that we press through with all that God has planned for us and for them.
More to come... thanks for reading!
Sniff, sniff. I booked my ticket to come home yesterday! I'll be arriving early on the 17th June 2008 at Heathrow, and it all seems too soon! Granted, it will be another 5 months before I even pack my bags, which means I'm not even halfway yet, but still it feels like there's so much that I want to stay for. The church is still in its infancy, with this year promising to be a lot different from last year, and next year a lot different from this one. I'm really enjoying being a part of this church, being in Durban, continuing to learn new things and meet new people, etc. I would still love to go back to Zim for a bit, go to Jo'burg, spend some time with the churches in the Cape that are a lot more established than Hope, and so doing a lot of very cool projects, and just generally do life here.
Nonetheless I am coming back home, even though this place really feels like home to me too. I'm sure I'll be making a point to collaborate with my new friends here, to have them come over to the UK as and when, to organise teams to come and serve out here while they learn, etc. I want to take back so much stuff with me, but realise a lot of it can't be exported. Trying to think of some of what I want to really, really keep, and I think it can only be described as atmosphere. There's just a different feel about this place to London. People are different, the climate is different and obviously less gloomy, there's more interaction, it's got room to breathe. There's such an amazing depth of community here in the church too with almost everyone a part of everyone else's life. I know as a church gets big that gets lost somewhat, but we've got a lot of people and it's still going. I guess it's not true that everyone knows everyone, but there is a core of probably 40-50 people who all know one another. It's great to have a large group of friends who are all friends with one another, especially across the cultures and ages we've got here. In SA particularly it's a great accomplishment.
Anyway, enough premature nostalgia. Coming back to England I'm gonna need a job and a place to live. I'm looking at teaching regarding the first one, and not sure about the second one. These are two things you can pray for. Also, if I teach I won't start until Sept, which means I'll have a long "off" period. It'd be good to get some cash doing wedding photography, so keep your ears open for me, huh, folks?
Wishing I could be in two places at once
Andrew
Hey! Just thought I'd remind you all that I'm still alive. Been away for a week at the eastern region youth summer camp where I was a group leader, lead guitarist, ministry team member, and official photographer. It's been a non stop week, and even quite non stop today, and non stop leading up to New Years with the wedding and what not.... it's been busy recently! :o)
I'll let you all know a bit more about the camp soon, but it was definitely a week to remember full of powerful visitation of the Holy Spirit. It was a great privilege to be leading the 19-20 age group with people from all over the country and beyond and seeing them not only open up to me, but also to the Spirit. It was a pumping atmosphere most of the time too.... these folk between their African culture and their youthful energy do not hold back when it comes to praising God! In England it can often feel like you've got a couple of hundred individuals next to each other who aren't interacting at all, but here it's like everyone is joining in and responding to each other's praise as they dance, shout, and celebrate the greatest truth there is. It's truly corporate worship and it's great stuff.
Like I said, more from that later. Been looking at my calendar along with the church's for the new year and I think I'm going to be pretty frantic for the next four months too! There's visitor after visitor and a trip to Ghana, and possibly a trip to Zambia too. I'm not going to be able to make it to Prayer and Fasting in Cape Town, but I really don't have time for it anyway! Before I know it it'll be June and time to come home. Argh! I still want to go back to Zim for a while, spend some time in Jo'burg, get a week or two in the Cape in some of the township works, hostels, and HIV works that they're doing there as a long established group of churches, and some more besides. I know it will not all fit. I don't know how, or when, but I'm sure I'll end up coming back here even if it is for two weeks at a time!
Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. I dropped someone to the airport at 6am this morning, so I need to sleep. Will touch base with you all soon! Peace!
