We finished our week at Holiday Club and found the whole experience to be fantastic. The team is still processing our time here and I have seen so many changes in each of us.

Today we are off to see the city before jumping on a plane tomorrow morning. Thanks for your continued prayers these past few days!

Please continue to pray as some on the team have gotten a little virus and the rest are just plan exhausted. We are all up and about this morning and looks like everyone is back to normal!

OCEAN VIEW is a township of nearly 20,000 “coloured” people. We are putting on a Kids Club and a Teens Club at their Multi-Purpose center from 9am-12Pm, and Teens from 2pm-5Pm. We’ve been in contact with nearly 400 of the locals because of the Kids/Teens Club. The club is similar to what we know as Vacation Bible School in the states. It’s a place where the kids come to dance, sing, laugh, learn about the love, LIFE, and TRUTH of Jesus, and eat. Although we are only here for merely a week, I feel like this is a huge part of the kids’ “Holiday” (the 3 weeks of break before school starts back up). I also feel like it’s been a place where HOPE is taught and where the small amount of Hope that they currently have is rooted within them and multiplied.

I know personally today was awesome but quite different. It was wonderful being able to minister to the kids and to the teenagers. However, don't get me wrong, they ministered to us just as must as we ministered to them. The organization called Mocha club has a shirt that says "I need africa more than africa needs me." This is so true. They have a joy that we do not know. They lack material things but they are still smiling. What is it? The American Dream says we need money and things to be happy. This is not the Ocean View dream or the dream of any other township. Their dream is to survive, to not be another number, to have joy in the midst of poverty. There are many lessons we can learn from them.

Coming to Africa has been the most unbelievable experience in my life so far and it has only been two full days! The words I have to say cannot even do justice for what we have already experienced. It's still hard to believe we are here and being able to experience all that this place has to offer. We often find ourselves asking, "Where are we?" and saying, "We're in Africa!" So needless to say God has truly blessed us in only the first couple of days of our trip.


We have just completed our first day of doing "Holiday Club" in Ocean View and our hearts have already been touched in beautiful ways while at the same time being broken. Before starting with the actual club activities our group of workers from all over the world (London, Nashville, Cape Town, and maybe more) had the opportunity to go out into the community and do a "call out" for all the children to come and have a fun day at Holiday Club. We were able to see firsthand the conditions that most of the children were living in and see a glimmer of how tough their lives may be. Despite these rough conditions when we made it back for the circle games all the children from these rough conditions were filled with so much excitement about everything that was in store for them.

After a wonderful breakfast we headed to King of Kings Baptist Church. We were greeted warmly; and experienced a service with heartfelt worship, great teaching, and a real sense of community.


We then headed to the township of Masiphumelele for another service. This was our first chance to see how the poor live in South Africa (later we drove through Ocean View, the township we will be working in this week). It was like we had crossed into a third world country, only blocks away from the suburban wealth and comfort. The church service there was incredible. Several woman led out in song from the congregation (the woman next to me actually startled me because she sang so loudly), and beautiful children ran around all over the place. I didn't understand a word we sang, but I felt a sheer sense of joy.

What a day it has been. We are now at The Team House where it is 1:15AM and 7:15PM back in Nashville. Traveling was as best as it could be. There were no conflicts with any of our flights...except that maybe my leg fell asleep during one of my many naps on the plane. Our longest flight today was roughly 16-18 hours and was broken up into 2 take-offs/landings. Our South African Airbus 600 stopped for an hour in Senegal to refuel so we could take on another 7 hours to Johannesburg. If you're like me, I don't know much about Senegal. From what I saw, there were many buildings/houses in the shapes of rectangles with square windows. Mostly the colors of white and burnt orange, and the town pretty bare. But beautiful in its own unique form.

Please pray for safe travel!

“To bring the hope and compassion of Jesus Christ to the chronically sick and dying in a holistic way and do everything possible to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS”

We are honored and humbled by your prayers and support! We are hoping to post some pics and videos for you all to see so check back later.

Blessings!
Posted by Christy

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I am quite sure that no one wants to leave. All of our lives have been changed here and we have each encountered God in a new and radical way. I am excited to take my experiences home and share them with those that I love. I pray that the fire for God that has been lit or rekindled inside each of us on this trip will not fade as we leave. May we not forget what we have seen here, who we have met, and what we have done. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to journey to South Africa and serve Him here. He truly put together an amazing team and He has used us in some mighty ways here!

This afternoon we will return to Red Hill for the last time to say good-bye to the children that have captured our hearts. I cannot imagine how hard it will be to leave them behind and head for America. Please continue to pray for the people of Red Hill and the volunteers working with ACTS. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers throughout this journey that our team has been on! We look forward to seeing all of you soon!

P.S. A little piece of excitement- J.J., Crystal, Liz, and I all rode camels yesterday afternoon! It was probably one of the most fun and adventurous things I have done on this trip (besides eating all of the strange food)!!

Posted by Kellsi

Oh yeah, and our regular van has now been replaced by an older rental van which we have fondly named, “Death Bullet”. He’s a hard working little fella, but sometimes we just don’t know if he’s got the goods to make it up the hills.



Today our group split up for our morning work. Dan, JJ, Ruth and myself went to King of Kings church and put sod on bare patches in the yard. While we were doing this, Christy, Liz, Kellsi and Crystal hung curtains for patient rooms at Living Hope health clinic and helped draw out an emergency evacuation map.


Later this afternoon, we are going to one of the beaches to watch one of our fellow American volunteers, Melissa, get baptized. That’ll be cool.


Yesterday, the weather became very windy and rainy. As we drove along the coast we were struck by (no, not lightning) the awesome beauty of the ocean. As the waves rolled towards the beach the wind pushed against them causing the waves to turn into spectacular shapes. Lets just say it was incredible. Don’t worry, I took a few pictures =)


Anyway, we’ll see you people in few days.
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!

P.S. Dan and I have teamed with our British friend, Rob, to form the 3 man vocal group, “Two Yanks and a Brit”. We start U.S. tour next summer. So be prepared.

Posted by: Austin