… to build new relationships and strengthen old ones.

…to encourage local missionaries like Tim and Maz, Daz and Leesa at the Village of Hope.

… to work along side a man named Saul who is laying his life down right now– moved his family from England to SA on his own dime to serve THEMBALITSHA full time.  His amazing passion was contagious.  Inspiring guy!

… to serve South Africa because God has given us a passion for this nation.

… because we were each obedient to the call of God on our lives for such a time as this.

…because the Bible says “that what you do unto the least of these, you have done unto Me.”

… because the book of James says that “…true religion is to look after the widows and the orphans.”

… because it’s what Jesus would do.

This trip has been amazing.  This team was incredible in their attitudes and service to one another and others. 

We have learned so much by being here in SA these past few days.  We are forever changed.

All of us are leaving a part of our heart here…

See you soon.

p.s.  I am going to put up the last pictures for this trip on the flickr site.  I wanted to leave you with the faces of those that you had a part in changing their life.  Your support allowed this to take place.  Thank you so much.  I know I speak for the whole team – We are eternally grateful to have gone on this mission trip.

hello everyone. karla here!  :)  and we’re all glad… heehee….

it has been a day today!  but first, let me describe what we have been doing…

today was our day off… we did some sight seeing!  but let me first back up to yesterday…

last night we went to a place called MOYO.  it is a dining place that give you a real african experience.  from the lovely decor (servers dressed in full africa garb)  to the music (real live drums, dancing, incredible singing, and such) to the food (ox tail, pap (kinda like mashed corn), antelope, springbok, lamb chops, etc.) — it’s a tradition that we have on our trips.  It is always a fun memory making time.  we each get our face painted like we are in an african tribe ourselves!  lovely!  and this team deserved a night of being treated like kings and queens!!  they have worked so hard!

now, backtracking a bit…at the VILLAGE OF HOPE (VOH), there is alot of work to be done.  i put their blog site in the note from yesterday so check it out.  we put our small stamp there.  we spent thursday night there in the volunteer facilities.  very lovely dorm style bunk rooms and such.  we woke early on fri. morning and had an incredibly intense and intimate time of prayer with the leaders of VOH.  it was a precious time of seeking god together and encouraging one another.

we then got to work — painting and deep cleaning the soon to be care facility for children (similar to our childrens homes in the states).  one team of guys rebuilt a shed and one team brought very, very heavy concrete cylinders down a steep mountain side to create a drain pipe in the river that’s on the property.  in the future this pipe will house a pump to supply water to the farm. (PLEASE SEE THE PICS…I AM GOING TO TRY AND LOAD SOME NOW)

so, after all of that we went to MOYO.  and then today, on our free day, we took a cable car to the top of TABLE MOUNTAIN in cape town (i am sure you can google TABLE MOUNTAIN and see all the cool facts about the thing!) and mareveled at God’s majesty and creation!  then we drove into the center of the city and did some souvenir shopping in the GREEN MARKET.  what a fun but intense time of bartering and haggling with the local africans!  it was great.

today ended with a gorgeous sunset in gordon’s bay.

we are now in for the night and resting up for church tomorrow.  brent will preach!  and then we’ll come together for a time of prayer and worship tomorrow evening.  awesome!

love you all!  see you soon!

we leave here monday night at 7:05pm this time (1:05pm there) and will arrive to Columbia, SC at around noon on tuesday.  see you all then!  

ta ta for now….

kg

wow.  our time here has flown by.  it seems impossible that it’s friday already…

the last 36 hours have been awesome.  our time at graceland preschool was so fruitful.  graceland is made up of LOTS of children, as you can see in the pictures (if they load right! )  a lot of these children’s parents are migrant workers in the near by farms.  and, a lot of these children have fetal alcohol syndrome.  they are TINY!!  are so, so sweet.  they love it when our teams come b/c the teachers say “you give them so much attention”.  so precious.

our men also painted the 5-6 year old classroom while we were there.  the ladies played ring around the rosy, itsy bitsy spider, monkey bars, see saw, and sat with the children while they watched a video.  we were there for about 3 or 4 hours and barbara was successful to teach some of the children a few english words!  go barb!  the kids there love to be held and loved on.  we did both!

at school of hope (high school to service kids that would otherwise be street kids with not much hope or dreaming) our time was pushed b/c we had a time to arrive in the evening at the village of hope farm.  but, we painted like crazy, tore out tile and did maintenance.  (check out the pics!)

we spent last night at the village of hope.  what an awesome place.  (i may not get these pics up until tomorrow)  their vision there is to be a community that services grabouw and thembacare.  the property will eventually have many small houses that will have ‘house parents’ and structures filled with kids from grabouw that have been serviced by the thembacare clinic but are able to be out of the clinic setting… (see thembavillageofhope.blogspot.com)

we worked HARD today.  the ladies painted and deep cleaned an apartment area.  the men were split into two teams.  one team, comprised of joe, tom deves, tony and keith, built a shed!!  in a day!  and the other team went way down into the woods to a river and dammed it up then put in a drain that is the beginnings of a future pump to get water access up to the main house.  both teams worked HARD and for many hours.  wonderful pictures will be posted soon!

thanks so much for all your support.  we miss you all… until next time…

(once again, thanks for enduring my grammar, no capital letters, and such… karla!)

Ok now…. It’s me again! KARLA!! Your favorite blogger!!

I am sorry for the very long but vague blog last night. I failed to explain one thing regarding the Cubana. We (Tom Digs, Brent, myself, Lindsey, Patti) had been at the concert to encourage our friends here in the SURRENDER BAND. (The leader of the band was at our worship conference this past year.) The worship experience that we attended is a movement sweeping through SA similar to our PASSION movement in the states with young people and students.

So, the service was over late and we had to find a place to eat. We were headed to but had grown weary of the SPUR, a place we frequent while in SA b/c the menu is vast and it’s open late. So, we saw this cool spot, CUBANA, and decided to get a quick bite to eat. Well, they did not want to let us in b/c Brent had on a hat and flip flops. Brent pulled the “I’m an American and don’t know better” card and they let us in! The only further detail you need to know is that the CUBANA was like a night/dance club/bar where we looked quite out of place! What a laugh, ey?

Anyway…. We are done with today’s work. We spent the morning at GRACELAND preschool where the men painted and did maintenance and the ladies played with, loved on, got crawled or should i say trampled on, and laughed with the kids there. We took TONS of pictures and will post them when we can. (This is also the place that our July teams of singles and youth spent their time. Their work still looks awesome.)

We then drove to Cape Town to the SCHOOL OF HOPE where we painted, fixed a few things, and Joe and Tom ripped out a tile floor. BRAVO!!  We then packed up into our 2 vehicles driven by the fearless Toms, and took the long trek back to Somerset West.

The work never ends here. The team is serving selflessly day after day.

We are headed to a brie (bbq) tonight at the VILLLAGE OF HOPE and will stay there tonight in their volunteer dorms. We will then work there all day tomorrow.  We are excited about this new experience.

Side note: it takes about 60 seconds per picture to load them on flickr so…. I will have to do that tomorrow.  So sorry!  I’ll do alot when I get the chance.

Bless you guys! We are missing home.

MUCHO love….