Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Worship in Africa
I got an opportunity to play with the worship band at Rolf's church Kaleidoscope. It was quite an African experience, a lot of fun and dancing.....check it out.
Update from Nance
Well, the roadblocks continue, but we can feel the prayers from home and confusion is lessening somewhat.
Our school shoe drive idea, was a good one, but unfortunately, our timing is terrible. We met with the principal of a large white school today, and found out that because of the xenophobia, everybody is collecting for the refugees. As we walked in, there were bags and bags of clothes, blankets, and shoes, already collected. He was very sorry, but didn't think he could possibly ask the parents to give again so soon.
In case you didn't read Mike's blog about xenophobia, it's the hatred for, or fear of, foreigners.
About 2 weeks ago (coincidentally, right as we arrived, the township people rose up against the foreigners and began killing and beating them, and destroying their homes. They were fleeing by the thousands, but here's the worst part......they have no where to go. Most of them are refugees, who have come here to escape some worse place! I went to one of the non-denominational churches that had taken in about 900 of them. It was amazing to see the volunteers and the wonderful organization all in the name of Jesus! I couldn't believe the amount of food that had been donated....it looked more like a grocery store than a church! The newspaper actually did an article on this church saying that the refugees that found themselves there were the luckiest of all because not only did they have an abundance of food, clothes, and blankets.......they also had 24 hour medical assistance. This is really important because many of the people are HIV positive and on top of that, TB and meningitis are breaking out!
So now.........what to do? Again, the needs are everywhere, but we are determined to do what we're called to do.
Our hearts are still fully toward our little school and tomorrow we will go out there and once again try to get a CLEAR vision for what God wants. Right now we think the most pressing needs are warm clothes and shoes for the kids and/or some sort of structure that will help keep them warm and dry. It's been raining now for a couple of days so tomorrow we'll get a better idea of what the kids deal with on a regular basis.
Thank you for your prayers and for bearing with us as we move from one idea to the next trying to find God's heart.
Our school shoe drive idea, was a good one, but unfortunately, our timing is terrible. We met with the principal of a large white school today, and found out that because of the xenophobia, everybody is collecting for the refugees. As we walked in, there were bags and bags of clothes, blankets, and shoes, already collected. He was very sorry, but didn't think he could possibly ask the parents to give again so soon.
In case you didn't read Mike's blog about xenophobia, it's the hatred for, or fear of, foreigners.
About 2 weeks ago (coincidentally, right as we arrived, the township people rose up against the foreigners and began killing and beating them, and destroying their homes. They were fleeing by the thousands, but here's the worst part......they have no where to go. Most of them are refugees, who have come here to escape some worse place! I went to one of the non-denominational churches that had taken in about 900 of them. It was amazing to see the volunteers and the wonderful organization all in the name of Jesus! I couldn't believe the amount of food that had been donated....it looked more like a grocery store than a church! The newspaper actually did an article on this church saying that the refugees that found themselves there were the luckiest of all because not only did they have an abundance of food, clothes, and blankets.......they also had 24 hour medical assistance. This is really important because many of the people are HIV positive and on top of that, TB and meningitis are breaking out!
So now.........what to do? Again, the needs are everywhere, but we are determined to do what we're called to do.
Our hearts are still fully toward our little school and tomorrow we will go out there and once again try to get a CLEAR vision for what God wants. Right now we think the most pressing needs are warm clothes and shoes for the kids and/or some sort of structure that will help keep them warm and dry. It's been raining now for a couple of days so tomorrow we'll get a better idea of what the kids deal with on a regular basis.
Thank you for your prayers and for bearing with us as we move from one idea to the next trying to find God's heart.
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