South Africa - post 2

First, I figured I should introduce our team, since I didn't do that on the last post. :) This is us at Imhoff Farms (gorgeous and yummy food) after church on Sunday.

(photo courtesy of Kathy)

Right to Left - Brian, me, Karen, Amandi, Evan, Jenny, Kathy, Mary Lou, Reggie, Chris and Tim. Tim is actually from South Africa and was our driver, but he really became part of our team and helped us out.

So, just like last year, while we were in South Africa, we were hosting an Arts Camp for 20+ impoverished South African youth. These youth are selected by their churches to be a part of Hope2Africa each year. Throughout the year these youth get together twice a week; once for a Bible study and once for rehearsal. They have a director (Vuyo) who organizes their meetings and checks in on them and reports back to the Hope2Africa President and Board here in the US. They rehearse songs and dramas that they use to share the Gospel in their community.

Here we are having a team meeting before starting our first day of Camp.

We started our days with a devotional and brief meeting. Kathy and Chris aren't in the picture because they were cooking breakfast to take to the youth that day.

While we're there, we have Bible Study/Devotionals every morning and multiple art classes. We start by feeding

The picture above is from our first day of camp and first devotional time. After devotional we'd break up into smaller groups to discuss that day's lesson. The rest of the day consisted of different classes. There was music and dance, which everyone participated in. Then there was also Art, Computers and Hand Sewing, which the youth had to pick which one they wanted to go to.

Here are a couple of pictures from Music Class - led by Karen.

Here is Mary Lou's hand sewing class. They made these cute draw string bags all by hand in 1 week. Pretty awesome.

(photo courtesy of Kathy)

Here are some action shots of Dance class, which was led by Amandi. Dance was new to our camp this year and it was a HUGE hit. Amandi was great instructor and taught the youth about glorifying God through dance!
(photo courtesy of Kathy)

Art was another class. Brian and Evan led art class. Here is a photo of their mural in progress. Vuyo, the Hope2Africa Masi Director, coordinated with Living Way to paint this mural on their office wall. This was a draft.

The art class also made Wind Chimes out of anything they could find in Masi. They talked about how the Holy Spirit is like the wind. The Spirit is always there even though you don't see it, but you'll see the effects of the Spirit, like hearing the chimes of a wind chime.

Reggie and I led computer class. We learned about Google Documents, some Facebook privacy items and budgeting. :)

There was also Drama class worked in with Music class this year. The main point of camp is that the Youth learn these songs and dramas and develop a repertoire. Then they go out into their community and use the Arts to share about Jesus with their neighbors.

So we had these classes for 4.5-ish days. We'd end camp each day with prayer and something we were thankful to God for, and surprises! I'll get a third post up soon about surprises and how we ended the week of camp - with the youth performing in Masi!

Thanks for reading (and being patient with me getting all this up). :)

South Africa - post 1

Hey Everyone,

Well it's been a few months since we got back from South Africa, but I still wanted to post about our second trip to South Africa. We had a great time loving life and praising God in South Africa. We traveled about 30 hours to get to just outside of Cape Town, South Africa to "work" with 19 youth for 6 precious (way too short) days.

We arrived late on Thursday night in Cape Town and pretty much crashed. We had a pretty tight space for about 18 hours. This was the "before" picture. We were looking pretty rough afterwards. :)

However, we started bright and early Friday morning with a team R&R/fun day. It was a little strange, but we had our team day first, instead of last (as it was last year), because that's just how it worked out best for the schedule.

Anyway, Friday morning we hopped on a boat for a ride out to Seal Island, where parts of shark week are filmed. We did not see any great white sharks, however we had TWO sightings of humpback whales!! It is whale season in South Africa, but usually you see Southern Right whales, not humpbacks. It was a great experience. I am also thankful that I did not get sea sick at all on the boat ride.

Amandi, Chris, Becky and Brian on the front of the boat.

Us on the boat :)

The view going out to Seal Island.

All these black dots are seals!

Then we also took a scenic drive around. No scenic drive is complete in South Africa without seeing some wildlife. This time we saw imfene (baboons).

Then we were able to have a little meet and greet with some of our Hope2Africa youth on Friday afternoon. It was great to meet some of the new youth and see familiar faces from last year.

They sang for us and we introduced ourselves. We laughed and danced and had fun. Then we had to leave them and get ready for Camp Day#1 starting the next morning.

The next post will have more pictures and info about Camp. :)

Christmas Season!

YAY for Christmas! I figured I should blog, since we haven't in a LONG time...sorry anyone who reads.

We had a great time in South Africa, and I kept meaning to finish a blog about that and just haven't...so hopefully soon you'll see a blog about South Africa.

We had a great Thanksgiving, seeing both families. The morning of Thanksgiving, we "earned" our turkey by running/walking a 5K race as part of the Atlanta Half Marathon. My brother ran the half marathon (very quickly - a PR for him), and Brian and I ran most of the 5k and my mom and sister walked the 5K. I also did a personal best time of 32:45 minutes. I walked some, so I think I can easily get to running the entire 5K at 30 minutes or less. That's the next goal. :)

Then we drove to Lake Sinclair to enjoy lunch with some of our extended family. My dad and I thought the food was even better this year, for some reason. :) Thanks to all of those who cooked! :)

Friday, after my black Friday shopping (and Brian's work day), we drove up to Cumming to spend Thanksgiving weekend with the Fox family. We enjoyed left over turkey and BBQ. Watched a sad GT/UGA game and played some fun card games. I learned how to play Spades. :)

So back to Black Friday shopping. This year I shopped by myself (kind of weird), but a quick trip. I bought gifts for everyone (minus a few online purchases).

We just enjoyed Christmas with my side of the family this past weekend at the lake. We had a great time playing games and hanging out and eating way too much. My mom loves to cook and this year was very yummy. We had a new red velvet cheesecake that was awesome along with our traditional roast, green beans, rice, homemade crescent rolls and another new addition - roasted cauliflower (really good!). My family also always makes sausage balls, sausage pinwheels and homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas Morning. So I'll be making sure to hit the gym this week. :)

This week B and I have to work some, but we're also getting our furnaces and condensing units replaced. That replacement might get their own post.

Anyway, we hope you're having a Merry Christmas! We're excited about Christmas, Part 2 coming up this weekend with Brian's family.