We have spent the last week in Jeffrys Bay South Africa, participating in the Awakening (a discipleship conference for the FYM participants in Africa), Visiting the field staff in Jeffrys bay, and observing the different ministry sites that AIM participates in.
Here is the breakdown of the last six days. Our first full day in J-bay was Thursday. We spent the morning attending one of the seminars from the Awakening. The Participants are going through two different tracks. There is a discipleship track and a leadership track. Around lunch time we took a driving tour through the townships where The J-bay FYM team does much of its ministry. As we drove we learned about the poverty in the townships, that 50% of the people there have contracted HIV, and how all the people living in the township make up ¾ of the population but only own 1/3 of the land.
Thursday afternoon was the Christmas party that I spoke of in a previous blog. It was great to hang out with all the kids, many of them did not speak English, so conversations were limited. It was just wonderful to watch them laugh and splash around in the ocean, to see them just being kids. These kids are the ones that live in the township that we drove through earlier.
Friday was spent in seminars with the awakening and visiting with many of our missionary friends living in J-bay.
Saturday and Sunday were very unique because everything in the area closes down. There was a lot of time spent in relational ministry and buildinga/encouraging those that live in the area. I also had opportunities to talk with Allie Melon and some of the FYM students that she was recommending for leadership in the Ambassador program. These were all good conversations to have.
One other thing that I remember from Sunday night was worship on the beach. The moon was in the sky, the waves were crashing and a group of missionaries were singing praising their God. A number of passer-bys stopped to see what we were doing. As I reflected on this time it was really cool how our worship was the testimony that we shared with people.
Monday was more of the Awakening seminars. It is now Tuesday here and we are planning on going back to many of the ministry sites in the township (I hope to share with you about our experience there). On Wednesday we will be off to Swaziland (traveling most of the day). Thank you for praying for us.
