Back in Jeffrey’s Bay it seems like have been away for at least a month! Reality is that it was only two weeks, but looking back at everything that I experienced, all the ways I have grown and how God has changed my heart, time must have stood still at some point!
We started out our Transkei project with some “blikskud” in Port Elizabeth to raise money to buy materials to start out project. By God’s grace and provision we raised R35000 in four hours of “blikskud” – lots of fun, but very humbling. Our first destination was Coffee Bay where our project was to restore a skew school building called “Plankie” and gave it a new roof. The breathtaking view of the cliffs and sea from the work site made the work much easier! Camping and working in the rain, sometimes not having water to drink or for showering and loud drumming from the Backpackers late at night added some character to the experience. It was amazing working with the kids there and being surrounded by such beauty every day!
From there we went to Canzibe in taxi's where we served with the missionaries and spent some time with the locals. We had to use translators because no-one could speak English. Luckily we have Thuli in out team who can speak fluent Xhosa. It was such a learning experience just to listen to their stories and to learn what their culture is all about. I got the chance to use my Phsio skills when we encountered a ten year old boy on crutches. Helping him also gave us the chance to minister to his family and his grandmother got healed from severe neck pain. It was amazing to see that while the locals living in that area had very little, they were still so content with what they had.
We left Canzibe very early in the morning in local fashion: we crammed 22 people into a small pickup truck on driving on a very muddy and slippery road. You could actually feel the truck skidding on the road!
At 7:00 we started our first Amazing Race style challenge. We had to get from Mthatha to Jeffrey's in a day and a half with only R200. That’s like 600km! Also had tasks to do with our time and money like buying a chicken as our travel companion, catching a pig, eating walkie-talkies and dressing in traditional Xhosa clothes. After being done in by our one taxi driver we had to blikskud for money and left Mthatha at 17:00 and arrived in Jbay at 2:00 in the morning and slept in a shopping mall! Never felt so glad to be back!
There were so many supernatural encounters and divine appointments where we got the chance to share the Good News and speak into peoples lives.
Please keep praying for us as we prepare for ministry at an orphanage in India. We will be ministering to about 500 kids and every member of out team will have the chance of preaching about four times in that month!
Please pray that God would continue growing and challenging us as we follow this great calling!
Comments
Well said Roelof.