Hello everyone, i have that growing desire in my heart to share the daily adventures that are taking place in my life in this amazing community of Jeffreys Bay. Even though i have been staying in basically this one place for months now (which in itself is such a big challenge for me!), it's like i am still traveling and discovering every day. Facing new challenges, deepening relationships with the whole spectrum of people making this community alive: from the "Global guys" to the high school teenagers, the kids in the location, some of the surfing crowd, the homeless people and street kids and members of the local churches…and from carrying on building up on the several commitments i have taken at the Global Leadership Academy to the new projects and visions that are coming along the way.
Today was such a great example of what is happening on a daily basis.
I start the day by going to the teachers meeting at the High School, that takes place at 7.30 am. This morning i had the chance to share a few pictures i took during the "Great Trolley Race" that happened this past week-end at the Fountain Mall. The students had their weekly assembly meeting, which is the time for them to receive all the latest infos about the school and all the activities happening outside of the regular classes. It's also a good time and opportunity for the teachers to speak into their lives.
We then had scheduled a time together with PJ, we went for a coffee and the main purpose was to pray in pair for the homeless people we are seeing every Tuesday nights when we do "Church" together with them in the street. But this time with PJ this morning was actually our first time really spending time with one another after the 4 months i have been here. It's like we could never "connect" until today, but we had a lot to share and it was really uplifting for me. It seems like he went trough a lot of the same stuffs i am going through now and we also have a lot of similarities in our personalities, including a common passion for the youths and sports. But also a strong desire to share our Faith in non-religious and fun way, remaining authentic to who we are and how God made us to be.
A bit later, i had an other "date" this time with Jenine who is the tourism class teacher. The reason for this date was that a few days before during the morning teacher's meeting Suiyen felt in her heart that we should build up stronger unity amongst each other and spend more time together. So we all wrote our own names on a piece of paper and put every ones piece of paper inside a hat, we then all had to pick up one paper per person. So you end up having 2 dates in a time frame of about 10 days. The one with the person you picked and the other with the person who picked you up.
Jenine is the one who picked me up! So we went for a quick lunch together. I was happy it was her who picked me up and i could see God's hand in that because i have already been appointed about 2 weeks ago by the school principal to be helping her with her registered class The Grade 11E. So every mornings just after the teacher's meeting i stand beside her in front of her class, sometimes feeling a bit stupid and useless (but still enjoying it!) while she goes through the daily news with them. I also have the opportunity to share with them about anything they could be interested in but so far i haven't got much inspiration…I am praying for inspiration!! Also last week i have been helping Jenine and her class to build their Trolley for the Race, we had BP as our sponsor and we ended up building the coolest rasta pump-man out of our trolley, with a huge hat, sunglasses and dread locks all in the yellow and green colors. We didn't qualify for the top 3 best looking trolleys but i think it's because they were jealous our trolley was just too cool!!!
Anyway on a bit more serious level Jenine has been one of the person who has shown me the most friendliness and compassion, that was most needed in the last few weeks and therefore going have lunch together was just a blessing for me.
After that we rushed to the sport field, and i got to play hockey on the grass for the first time ever! It was a lot of fun, we were a teachers team playing against the school girls team. Hockey is basically like soccer except playing with that wooden stick, you look like a old men bending down under your own weight whenever you playing the bowl, and it takes i think a lot of practice to be able to do anything smart with that bowl and the stick but it is still a good time running around! We easily won 5-1 but i appreciated the teenage girls really trying their best and we the teacher playing fully and not down playing our capacities because we were playing against them.
A few of "my guys", the ones i coach soccer to, were either spectators, referee, or helping the girls team at the Hockey so after the game was over, we rushed from one sport field to an other one on the other side of town and met the rest of the team there.
This soccer thing has really been amazing since it started a few weeks ago.
Basically there was no more soccer team at the GLA school for the last 3 months because of a lack of commitment and motivation from the guys.
I actually had gone to one of the last soccer training on my first week in J-bay, to help Willem (the former soccer coach and husband of Jenine), but there were only 2 kids. And it looked like it would be over soon.
About 2 months ago from now, when i was in the "Three Nations" outreach in Zambia, God had spoken to my heart about starting the soccer team again, as i was playing soccer with the kids from the orphanage where we were staying in Linvingston, i was reminded of the good times i had experienced while playing soccer in my own childhood and teenage years.
So many times going to play soccer on the little field outside of the apartment, joining the other kids from the same residential complex, had been the healthy escape i needed from the heavy atmosphere of my home. We could play without stopping for hours, i remember those times as one of the main source of joy in my life, and what i needed to clear my mind and my thoughts and forgetting about the heaviness and pressure i could feel within my family.
When i came back to J-Bay, after the three weeks outreach, i immediately took up the challenge of trying to start the trainings again. I was invited at one of teacher's meeting, and encouraged to share my heart about my willingness to get more involved with the High school activities and spend time with the students.
The outreach had been for me the greatest opportunity to reconnect with a part of myself that i had "lost" or neglected for many years, because of the choices i had made in my life. It is like God had given me back my natural connection with the Youth. It is like he was giving me back a part of my heart!
And the soccer was one of the chances he was blessing me with, to spend time with them.
The trainings didn't start right away after i returned, it took time, a few weeks, i think it is often the case when God puts something in your heart, he builds up the will and the desire in us, and also he wants to show us that it's really coming from Him and not from our own strength.
Before we even announced to the students there would be soccer practice on again, there were already a few of the boys asking their teachers about it, they had the desire to play again…we then announced the day when the first training was going to be on, and many of them were excited. The first training, at 4pm, on a Tuesday there were 11 kids on the field! That IS just A team!!
I knew God was doing it, end even though i had no previous experience in coaching soccer, i was trusting the Lord to show me and lead me. I have been a Snowboard Instructor and coach for many years so i feel it is a skill and a gift God has given me to lead a group of young people, while doing an outdoor activity, but i know nothing about soccer technics, trainings and tactics except for just playing a endless game for hours at the time, and enjoying doing it!
I only had one exercise in my trick bag, that was strongly in my mind to make them do, and i got it from watching a local team training while in Linvingston, Zambia.
The exercise consisted in splitting the group in 2 separate teams, and have the team try to reach up to 10 passes while the other team had to try to intercept the ball and do the same in between their teammates. It is a good exercise to build up quick, constructive playing…but the result on that first day was quite far from what i saw those guys in Zambia doing!
Anyway the kids are apparently having fun during the trainings and they often come to greet me, thank me and help me pack up. It has been almost a month of trainings on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we have already been playing 1 game (let's not focus on the end result of the game which was 10-0 for Plattensburg team!!!) and there has been almost a full team every time, sometime even more, last training there was 14 of them.
My goal is not to reach high technical level and performances with those kids, but build up unity, respect and have fun together, finding opportunities to speak into their lives. And i definitely can see the Grace, help and the hand of God every time we meet.
For the last part of the day, but not the least, i rushed down back to home at "DaHub" after soccer, and Celeste picked me up to go and attend our "Church" gathering with the homeless adults.
Last week we decided to split our small group in 2 so that one group could stay in town, with the homeless guys hanging around and sleeping in town and the other group would go outside of the city, near Kabeljous where more homeless people stay in the bush there.
So the "outdoor team" consisted in Jax and myself, when we arrived to the place at the beach, near Kabeljous campground, the people were not there, but we still spent time praying, for the grounds, the area and the future meeting that will take place there. Then we drove around trying to see if we could see them from the main road, we then took a smaller road and there at the intersection with the railway we saw kids running around what seemed to be an abandoned house, it was in really bad shape with broken windows. We decided to turn around and go talk to them. There was an adult with them, so we asked her if she knew where the other guys where staying. She said she knew but there was a lot of walking in the bush to get there. So finally Jax and I decided to spend time with this lady and the 2 kids. We asked them if they wanted some soup and bread which we had with us in the car. They were all for it! probably quite hungry, so we set up our big table clothe on the roadside, by the house and served them the food. While Jax was talking to the girl that looked like in her late twenties, i spent time playing with the little boy, we played marbles games with two stones. The sun was setting, the sky was beautiful and i felt the same way as if i was on a journey, traveling. When life gets really spontaneous and you meet people randomly along the way…and you don't understand much words of the conversation going on, but you still feel connected and in the right timing and place (because they were colored people and could only speak Afrikaans).
We had a good time together, sharing the food, and later 2 other guys join in as they were walking on the side of the road, coming back from work, or whatever they were doing. One of the guys was drunk (which doesn't surprise me anymore, alcoholism is such a stronghold in this community!) and the other guy was quite sharp and spoke English. They told us the house was belonging to the railway company, where the grand-father of the family used to work, but he had lost his job a while ago, so the house was just being squatted. Themselves only one had a job and it was a part time small job, just looking after some the furnitures (big clay potteries for house yards) that were being sold a bit further down the road.
We ended up praying for the lady and the 2 kids and gave them a few clothes we had brought with us, they were really thankful and so i was to them because for me it had just been a blessing to spend this time with them. On my journey to rediscover my own kid's heart, have it soften again by the Lord, and walls build up around it being put down brick by brick, this was a moment to enjoy!