Dream and Reminder

What an amazing week this has been! I moved into the church house campus at Jeshua Community Church and became an official member of Team indiAfrique. We are five young people who are living in intentional community and doing outreach projects for the surrounding community and in area schools. There is one South African of Indian descent, one Black , one Colored, one American and one German.

         
As Team indiAfrique Craig, Robert, Elzemieke, Daniel and I went into three different schools this week. At Lenasia South Secondary School we met with thirteen grade tens who are very interested in doing community service projects. We encouraged them to see themselves as leaders in their own school. We are hoping for continued contact with them during the remainder of the school year. At Ennerdale Secondary School we motivated the grade twelves to work hard and to work smart so that they can have 100% pass rate in their class. We also met with the RCL students and encouraged them similarly as the students at LSS. On Friday we met with Dale Abrahams the Principal of Sierra Nevada Primary School about the possibility of offering workshops during the coming week. He was very excited by the skills we could bring through drama, teaching, games, and discussion. We will be at Sierra Nevada from Tuesday through Friday of this week.

          
We also had the opportunities over the last week to meet Christopher Jaftha, a working stage actor, clean the bathrooms with Aunty Elizabeth, open our home for visitors a few times, and take prayer walks through the neighborhood together.

I have absolutely loved living in community. We have to share the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning, but we eat together and joke to together and learn from each other and have become good friends very quickly. I am sad that we only have one more week left of this intentional community living experience. I truly value the lessons I have learned from Elzemieke, Robert, Daniel and Craig.But I know that this will be a blessed week of beloved community and personal growth. Your continued prayers are appreciated. I will leave you this week with a little phrase we've learned from Daniel, “Ich liebe dich.”

All Of My Friends

Last weekend was very busy and I was unable to post. The following is the blogpost I wanted to post last week.

This past week was very similar to the week before. I spent most of my time at either Amakhaya or with the Naicker Family. However, this week brought the arrival of Daniel Kolditz to South Africa from Germany. He is also interning with Seth. This afternoon I will be moving into the living space at the Jeshua Community Church along with the four other current interns. I'd like to introduce you to Daniel, Craig, Elzemieke and Robzin the Poet.

Daniel Kolditz is a 21 year old, blonde haired, blue eyed German guy. He is in his second year of Bible College to become a youth pastor. He was on iThemba in 2010 and met Robert Morgano (Robzin the Poet) who recommended Seth Naicker as someone with whom to study. As apart of his program in Germany Daniel has to do three internships; one each year and he chose to study with Seth instead of an easier program incountry and with YFC (Youth For Christ). Daniel is extremely friendly and is able to strike up a conversation with literally anyone. He has been here for just under a week but God has already used him to touch my life and encourage me. I have learned so much about socializing from his example. I am blessed to know Daniel and I thank God for his life and I rejoice in the gifts that he has been given.

Elzemieke, (EHL-zuh-meek) or Mickey is a beautiful 19 year old girl whose father is Indian and mother is Afrikaana. She finished her matrik (senior year of highschool) and is in a time of waiting for the summer term to begin so she can go study at university to be a primary school teacher. She lives with her family at the House of Compassion; a home and rehabilitation center for men with substance abuse addictions. Her father, Uncle Barney, runs the non-profit home. Mickey has helped me adapt to this culture because of her love of laughter, her willingness to serve and her ability to be very direct. I am really looking forward to getting to know her better as a roommate! I pray for her often that she will have the courage and financial ability to complete her degree. She also has a brilliant mind for languages and can speak at least three languages almost fluently.

Craig Augustine is 24 years old and finishing his degree in Economics. Craig is the Youth Leader at Jeshua Community Church and also leads worship sometimes using his vocal and guitar skills. He is extremely intelligent and loves deep discussion. His favorite quote and inspiration for life is Bob Marley's "Emancipate Yourself From Mental Slavery". Knowing Craig has allowed me to ask myself where am I mentally enslaved and too want something more than that. From Craig I suffer a lot of teasing but I am thankful for the experience because its teaching me to be strong and sure of myself.

Robert Morgano is a young black South African guy who is a poet by nature. He is currently employed at Wits University and works with the international students. He officially interned last year with Seth Naicker but he is such a great guy that Seth called him back to live at the house with us. He has been teaching me a few dance moves and has more than once said something to me out of the blue that was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. I see God's hand in having Robert in my life!

I am very excited for the weeks of living together this team will have. I continue to thank God for the work he is doing in my life and the lives of those I meet.

The Lord Is My Light

Happy Easter everyone!

I must confess that homesickness struck this week. Between Musical Menus, learning that I was not cast in a show I auditioned for, and Easter I felt very keenly everything I am missing back home. Although that really put a damper on my week I also had one of the most fulfilling weeks so far.

I spent the majority of my time at the Amakhaya Home for children. The home is a small house with a kitchen, two bedrooms (one for boys and one for girls), one bathroom with one toilet, an office and a very small eating and hangout space. There are two staff members, a young women and a young man, who live there 24/7 with the 12 children (7 girls, 5 boys). The children all come from very difficult backgrounds that include rape, HIV+, death and physical and emotional abuse but some do still have access to their families.

Some of the challenges of living there were the food (many time their meals are comprised of various consistencies of mealy-meal), the lack of toilet paper, and the fact that all but one of the residents speak Sotho as their first language. They can all communicate in English as well but not easily or clearly.

The blessings of living there was being privy to the entire lifestyle of these children, witnessing firsthand how quickly orphans can move from hysterical laughter to sullen silence and discovering that I can indeed use theatre to help orphans the way I have secretly hoped for years that I could.

I wasn't planning on directing a skit with the children but they asked me to teach them to act so they could perform at the Good Friday service. I don't know where they got the idea that it was an option, but I was very willing to try. With a script that I had written a week before with this project in mind (before the plans changed) we jumped right in. It was challenging because none of the children had acting experience and English was a struggle for them, but the amount of passion they had for the project was inspiring. Even when we took breaks from rehearsing they continued to talk about the project and encourage each other to learn their lines and speak better English.

We only had two full days to put the skit together and by the middle of the second day we were all getting irritated with the process. The children kept stumbling over the same words and the same moments. I was tired of giving them the same instruction and their lack of focus at that time concerned me. I didn't want them to get up in front of people the next morning and make fools of themselves and I knew that they needed to master the lines but I didn't seem to have the power to inspire that commitment.

That evening Aunty Joyce, the women who runs the home, asked to see the skit. She was able to get the children to be more expressive and to understand the time restraint upon memorizing their lines. I was so grateful for her directness with the children and for using her status to help them place value upon their hard work.

The performance was a success. All of the children did extremely well and the church body really appreciated their performance. While I am glad that the performance went well, I am more excited about what the project did for the children. One of the girls has been told that she has a learning problem and will never be able to learn well, and English is quite difficult for her, but she got up in front of people and spoke memorized English lines with clarity and focus. The boy who played Jesus also struggled to memorize the lines and speak them clearly in English, but with the encouragement from myself, Aunty Joyce and the other children he made the strides to confidently present himself in front of people.

I have now seen in action the power of theatre in the lives of children. There is power in getting children to speak, in getting children to express and to perform and when the experience is over the children are so proud of themselves and of what they have accomplished. They have been made aware that they have potential and they have been given the experiences and skills to accomplish great things in their futures.

I have now been here for one month! There is still two months left for learning but time will go quickly! Please continue to keep me in your prayers. I love you all!