P2P Earth News, Updates and Opportunties

They kept coming.

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:44:00 +0000

At Aphiwe we have a memorial and message meeting from 10-11am followed by CYC from 11-12pm. We started the day with 18 youngsters and 7 baptized members - and then the youngsters kept coming. Throughout the meeting they would arrive - sit down - get up to fetch a Bible - sit down - and then struggle to find a quote and page and page to find 1 Corinthians (discover they were in 1 Chronicles - and then the paging starts again) or even worse still find something obscure like 1 John. Today we ended up with 62 youngsters - all eager to learn ; eager to find every quote and have a turn to read; listening avidly; responding carefully. CYC followed straight after the memorial - no-one wanted to take a break.

Otilia and Yvonne have the challenge of teaching the little ones (ages 7 to 9). And I say a challenge as that is exactly what having a variety of ages; languages; cultural backgrounds; and religious exposure presents to you. Eric has the privilege of teaching the 10 to 12 year olds and he is following the Junior Correspondence Course (JCC) program with them. He has been very brave in offering to help out with these youngsters (as he was only baptized in September) - and working through the JCC will increase his own knowledge and spiritual understanding - while at the same time give the children a structured learning program and good background of the Bible. Leona leads the 13 to 15 year olds and the classes are dealing with doctrines through a series called "Doctor Doctor I am sick" - with Christ being the master physician and our 'illness' being sin. Lucas has the 16 and up group and either answers specific questions raised or giving good background and outlines of the Bible; different books and different people. A very very busy 2 hours each Sunday.

Many of the CYC could not go on the youth camp last year due to finances - but this year each child is being encouraged to bring R25 to church each month so that by the end of November they would have saved enough to attend the youth camp. In the past we used to relent and let some children who had not saved enough attend the camp - but last year the financial pressure would have been too much - so we had to stand very firm by our resolve and turn away a few hopeful faces. As difficult as it was to do this - it actually seems to had the desired effect in encouraging the children to save pro-actively already for the camp.

What has also been encouraging is that at least 80% of our CYC members attend Bible Class on a Tuesday night - giving us a turnout of between 40 to 50 people at Bible Class. Quite the vibe. The children also realized how much they have benefitted by attending Sunday School on a regular basis when at a games evening on Friday night the regular CYC attendees of more than 2 years now won the Biblical quiz without much of a challenge from other newcomers.

So from having kids come because "Mom said I must come to Sunday School to learn how to speak English" to others who have come to share their studies on Job or on Suffering - by the time they leave they have devoured 2kg of sugar; 1 kg of coffee; 40 teabags; had 2 hours of praise, worship and Biblical instruction and successfully worn-out 5 CYC teachers. But who is complaining? We realize that many ecclessia's no longer have Sunday School groups - and to be surrounded by such energy, enthusiasm and commitment just makes the day worthwhile.

With abiding love

Kempton Park Ignite2020 team

What a wonderful Sunday it has been!

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:53:00 +0000

There was great joy this Sunday afternoon as three new Congolese brethren were baptized at the home of Bro. Mickey Scheepers after giving good confessions of their faith. We were all humbled by the way God's word has again been powerful in renewing their minds to believe the Gospel message and respond to the call to become part of the body of true believers who are awaiting the return of Jesus to set up his Kingdom.

Our new brethren are Bro. Ramazinni Emena, Bro. John Kiza and Bro. Ebengo Pelele and it was a privilege to break bread with them and give them the right hand of fellowship soon after their baptisms. The Congolese ecclesia in Pretoria is growing steadily with about 6 more students attending the meetings regularly. It is very rewarding to see the joy they share and how the brethren are also very involved in teaching the new students.

Ramazini getting baptised

Ebengo being baptised

John Kiza's baptism

Bro. John Kiza

Bro. Ramazini Emane and his wife Salinga

Bro. Ebengo Pelele

The growing Congolese ecclesia in Pretoria with students, Sister Karen Scheepers, bro. and sister Michael and Lilandi Scheepers, sister Lauren Ghent.

End of Year Sunday School Celebrations

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:14:00 +0000

At the end of each year we try to host a prize giving and celebration for our Sunday School students. In the past we've had donations from all over the world to treat these township youngsters. This year we discussed at our weekly mission planning meeting how we didn't have any funds to do these celebrations for Lamontville, Clermont and Marianhill. We decided to go home and pray about it. Soon after, we received a donation from a former volunteer's ecclesia and another from a couple in Australia at the same time - the exact amount to do 40 gift packs for Clermont and Lamontville and send the Marianhill kids on an outing.

On Sunday we had a nice celebration in Clermont - we gave out food parcels to the regular attendees and chocolate slabs thanking those who had been so dedicated to running soup kitchen, teaching classes, etc. We were worried that we would not have enough, but there were exactly 40 children to receive the gift mugs. They were so excited to receive their soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, candy and small toy in a mug. It was very special to the children as this volunteer had worked with them for the past 2 years and it was coming from her family's ecclesia.

The Mariannhill Sunday school were transported to a special outing on the beach including a lovely picnic lunch and swimming. The remainder of the funds were used to buy clothes for 3 needy Sunday school students. A great day was enjoyed thanks to the blessing of a timely donation!

Westville Church hosts outreach day at Happy's School for the Disabled

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:27:00 +0000

At the end of September 2011, we organized an outreach day for Westville ecclesia at 'Happy's" school for the disabled. It was exciting to see how young and old were involved in the planning and service of the day. The JYC kids at Westville spent Friday evening making gift packs for the Happy's kids. Each family brought sweets and we packed them in with a few other special treats to give out as prizes for our game day that we were planning. The kids split up into groups to organize the game they would host - bean bag toss, face painting, shooting hoops, ring toss, soccer kick out and more! Posters were made, teams organized and they were ready for the day.

The convoy of about 40 left Westville on Sunday morning and headed over to Umlazi. We were blessed to have a few of our International Joyful Joyful P2P team arrive early to help us with the Praise and Worship session. While we were singing praises, a team was preparing popcorn and juice for all the students. Then it was off to the games for the kids and to tackle repair projects for the adults.

We were so excited to see new people on our outreach day, those that had not come before to the township projects - and it was so encouraging to see how we all were touched by the joy of these kids. After each round of a game, they would receive a sticker, then could cash in their stickers for prizes. The Westville Sunday school students were amazed at what the kids could do - in spite of their disabilities - they were quite successful in getting the ball in the hoop and playing the games.

The adults had a breaking of bread service and some of the older Happy's students (they range in age from 8-24) wanted to sing their song for us. This group of men were phenomenal in their talent. We were so blessed to hear their music. It was touching to break bread in such a humble and downtrodden setting yet to feel that you were top of the world in the people that surrounded you.

Then it was off to work. Repairs were done on doors, walls, gutters and rooms cleaned and bigger projects assessed for future work. The joyful joyful P2P team returned the next week to complete some of these bigger projects and had a musical praise session with them as well.

We are always touched by the kids at Happy's - how they brighten up your day - and the joy and excitement they feel just seeing us arrive to visit. There are so many in need of hugs and physical touch - the love of Jesus in action. I personally cannot wait to see these precious children jumping and leaping and praising God when Christ returns.

Sunday in Clermont

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Today as I drove into the township there was a buzz of activity. As I passed by the usually
empty World Cup soccer practice stadium, I could hear a local pastor shouting out his
encouragements to his congregation on the loudspeaker. The ladies were crossing over the
street to the water pump to do their washing. The children were playing in the street
with the bread loaf packages filled with air -instant soccer balls. The little Down's
Syndrome boy was standing waving to us with a huge grin on his face. That was about
all he had on - as usual. I had not seen him in a month or so and he had grown taller.
As we walked up the dirt hill I saw children shoveling up the rubbish into the front
part of an old tube tv. I wondered if they were doing this to clean up the neighborhood
or if they just enjoyed having something to do. Either way, the place was getting
cleaned up which was a rare sight! As I rounded the corner behind the house, I saw
one of the neighborhood boys about 11 years old scrubbing the stairs that lead up to
the toilet. Wow, two sets of children cleaning today.

Many of the Sunday school children had already gathered to play at our door. They were
always there waiting, hoping that we would come. I had been away for several weeks
and I felt like I was returning back to where I belonged. I had missed being here and
seeing these kids! Eventually we had about 20 kids come to join us as Antonia began to
sing the zulu hymns. She is a member of our church who owns the house in Clermont
where we meet. After a few songs, she leads a prayer. All the children have their
hands folded and their eyes closed, except for little Kwanda. He is always busy
and into something. His sister who is about 10 is his caregiver. His mom is not
around and there is an aunt in the neighborhood, but this 10 year old girl is the
mom. I feel distinctly called in Clermont to focus on these little ones that seem
"naughty." To hug them, smile at them and recognize that they are full of life and
zeal and have no one to direct where it should properly go. I look around at the
children and what they are wearing. Their clothes are tattered and too small.
Kwanda has on pants and when they fall down I can see some semblance of
underwear- the top elastic waistband and the bottom part around his legs,
there is nothing there covering his bum in between.

Another little boy about 2 years comes in part way through the lesson. He has a
huge grin and seems very curious. Immediately all the children start gagging
and holding their noses because he stinks so bad. Apparently he needs his
nappy changed. Antonia opens up the door to air out the room and we continue
on. I am teaching the lesson of Jesus' first miracle, when he came to the wedding
feast and turns the water to wine. We have appointed two children to be the bride
and groom and all the other children pretend to be the guests. They come one by
one to wash their hands in a small tupperware container in water that has been
fetched from down the hill. I ask them to imagine these are huge water pots that
could hold the amount of water in a bathtub. They all sit back down and we tell
them that they are at a big feast and there is an abundance of food everywhere.
We give them 2 biscuits(cookies) today and their eyes get big as they usually only
get one. And they usually have to wait until after class. They eat and eat and as
I expected, it becomes a big distraction to the lesson. I tell them that at a
wedding feast people would be talking and laughing very loud and I ask them to do
this. They look at me as if I'm crazy! I laugh and laugh and finally a few them
start smiling and one older, clever boy catches on and begins to laugh. Once
we calm down the crowd then we tell them about how we have run out of wine!
We ask if anyone knows how wine is made. One boy says he has seen it on tv,
but cannot remember where it comes from. I take a picture off of the wall of
a bunch of grapes and put it on the floor and stomp it - telling the kids that the
t is how you make wine. They don't seem to believe me. Out comes grape juice
I say. Then you put it into a glass bottle and put a cork in it and then you wait
and wait and wait, sometimes for years. I pull out the memorial wine bottle and
ask them to smell. YUCK they say - doesn't smell like grape juice! We talk about
t what a miracle it was for Jesus to have made wine not from grapes, but from water,
not in years, but in seconds and not just any wine, but the BEST wine that they had
tasted! How generous is our Lord Jesus!

We finish up the lesson by coloring in a page about the story. The kids are all over the
floor coloring - there are no tables to use. They enjoy it and take great detail to finish
their work. My 7 year old son is excited to be here and wants to serve up the juice.
He used to complain every week we would come - it's dirty mom, they smell, I don't like
it here. Now he comments that he's sad how torn their clothes are and wonders if they
have enough to eat today. At the break when they are playing he comes to get me because
little Kwanda has fallen and hurt his nose. "I didn't touch his blood mom, I came to get
you." They learn early here about the hardships of life that HIV brings. Poor little
Kwanda is there bleeding and I think, wow, I don't have any gloves either. It's just a
little nose bleed, so I quickly get my hand sanitizer, kleenex and bandaid, which is
all the semblance of a first aid kit that I have on me. Note to self, get a first aid kit
and gloves for the car and the building. I say a prayer asking God what I should do,
then come around to help. Antonia has already started cleaning him up. Once
again the situation is resolved by God for me when I ask. I say a prayer of thanks
and think about this little boy and how there is no mom to kiss his hurts. More
and more I want to be that person for him and all the children.

We get ready for our main church service. The regulars show up and we have 6
including Cam and me. He has brought Siphiwe, our teacher from the Bible
Education Centre to give the talk today. Then 2 more visitors come in. The
little boy with the stinky nappy decides to join us again. He seems to have
been changed, so sitting by him is more pleasant. He chooses the chair next
to me and climbs up. My son is sitting on my left coloring, so I give the other
boy some colors and he enjoys them. I notice he has on 2 different shoes and
that his hands are extremely dry and cracking- almost looking like an old
man's shriveled hands. It makes me think about how fast aging comes to
those who are impoverished and neglected. He is surprisingly quiet through
the talk until he yells out Unkulunkulu! Someone was reading a passage from
the Bible in zulu and said unkulunkulu, the zulu word for God. Wow - He
was listening! There goes God confirming my theory that children in the
service always pick up on something! One of the gogos (grannies) behind
him whacks him on the head to be quiet. Shame - I think - I love what
he yelled out! He eventually wanders back outside as our meeting draws
to a close. There are many songs, prayers and encouraging passages of
scriptures read. Most of our attendees have just returned from our
annual Bible conference so we are especially enthusiastic.

As we turn to welcome our visitors that have come in, I meet a lady with a
gorgeous baby girl on her back. Emmanuel, one of the members, tells me
that she is the lady that lives next door whose husband is bedridden by
AIDS and that she is very sick from it. They don't have money to feed
the baby and have been giving her mealie meal (corn meal) in a bottle
with water. There is a great misconception here that the mothers with
HIV cannot breastfeed their babies, so they go uneducated and in fear
and aren't able to feed their babies properly. As we gather around
her to assess her situation I am amazed at how big and heavy this
problem seems and then with all of us working together in multiple
languages, from multiple experiences, backgrounds, countries and
cultures, we are able to come to a good plan of action for her.
The other visitor that came today gives her 10 rand for taxi
fare to the government social services office. Cam has recently
worked with this office in another case and is able to save her
300 rand (3 days wages) for an unneeded taxi fare back to zululand.
I offer to get a food parcel and can of formula for her and Funo
offers to bring it back by and help her fill out the forms. The neighbor
friend that attends her church originally found out her problem and
has been buying formula for her out of her much needed money.
When we leave there she is encouraged and relieved and not only
have we helped her for today, but she has a plan in place to get
help for the future. Our new visitor now tells me she is a certified
HIV educator and wants to come back to this community and run classes.
All of this in about 10 minutes - my head is in a spin.

It is amazing when we see how so many things come together if we are
just willing to ask God to guide us. As I was going into the store to buy
the formula, I run into a sister from another Durban meeting. We
chat for a moment and I tell her about my amazing morning and she
generously offers up a donation to help with the baby's formula. WOW -
God is definitely providing. As I drive home I think about how much
being a part of Clermont has changed my life. How I came here out
of a sense of duty to help them and how God has touched my heart
and the hearts of my children and brought us joy and peace from our
time spent here. I think about the passages we read in church this
morning from Hebrews 13.

"Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain
strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without
knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners,
and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering."

I immediately think of the passage in 1 Corinthians 12:24 "But God
has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor
to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the
body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part is honored,
every part rejoices with it. "

I rejoice in you Clermont - thank you for a God-filled day!

Out of Africa!

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:36:00 +0000

Hi everyone

What a whirlwind our time has been since we arrived in South Africa.

The first order of business was to get acquainted with South Africa again. South Africa has so many unique characteristics and challenges, but the rewards are high. We have found the African people really have a yearning for God. They are very willing to engage you in religious discussion, which I must admit is a welcome change.

There is so much need here whether it be spiritual , medical, housing , employment, or whatever it may be.

We as westerners have the ability to effect so much change, and to help on so many levels here in Africa.

Let me give a brief description of what we have been up to over the last month or so.

We have made contact with the majority of the current ongoing projects that are taking place locally here in KZN. That includes Marianhill, Lamontville, Claremont, Happy’s orphanage, and the Indwedwe project.

Rene is currently running cuddle courses at Marianhill and will soon be running one in Lamontville. We are hoping with Gods help to create a self sustainable education environment through the formation of relationships and friendship.

We are in the process of streamlining our infrastructure to make our building projects more efficient. We are in the process of getting very needed storage facility as our old storage facility has now been converted into a youth room . The tools are in a slight state of flux but that will improve with time.

Putting the kids to work!

We are building a much needed retaining wall in Marianhill. After each rainfall the bank has been collapsing much to the consternation of the neighboring property owner. We are retaining the bank and improving the drainage to try keeping the water from running down the bank. There are basic maintenance issues to be done at all the outreach projects which will be ongoing.

Education is a key issue in South Africa and tied in with the Crèche courses we are teaching will be the help we can provide the teachers to enable there locations to be safe environments for the kids. We have targeted a few young ladies who seem to be good candidates. As we carry on with the cuddle courses, this list will grow. We are compiling a database of needs that God willing as we acquire volunteers these needs can be met efficiently. - Grant

Ndwedwe

We were in Ndwedwe this last weekend and stayed over for 2 nights! It was sleeping on the floor, making cooking fires and no running water, electricity or toilets (there was a longdrop though). It was an amazing experience. Thank you Jabu for inviting us to share in your wonderful place!

The people are very receptive to the gospel and also very keen on allowing us to come in and assist them to create a self-sustaining environment that they can grow and expand themselves with the occasional help from us.

We are writing up a plan to help Jabu and Santhla who are very enthusiastic and will be great leaders in their community. Jabu has already established herself as a great asset with the local people and feed orphans weekly from her property. She has established a network of ladies that have absorbed these orphans into their homes and then come and feed them from on her property for a nightly nutritional meal.

The local leadership is 100% behind her and we have seen some locals coming to volunteer their time and labor in whatever capacity she would need them.

The local constable has volunteered the use of electricity behind his store just down the road from Jabu's property for us to come and do an event there one weekend.

We feel that God has got great plans for the people in this past "war zone" and want to establish it as an area of great hope and peace.

Grant is hoping to employ Sandla for the retaining wall project in Marianhill that will also allow him to attend the woodworking class and gain some much needed employment skills.

CUDDLE – Marianhill

We have started a new series of the CUDDLE course at the Marianhill Good News Center. At the first class three new ladies came to take the course. Despite having no electricity, we managed to work our way through!

At the second class seven new ladies arrived to my surprise and we had a class filled with laughter and got out hands “dirty” by making “playdough” and other recourses from waste materials and magazines. The ladies enjoyed this practical aspect and it sparked a lot of conversation about their individual circumstances. I will be running a “make-up” class for the newcomers in the weeks to come and I am hoping to organize a financial planning course next 

I have met with the local health inspector for Marianhill and she was very helpful and enthusiastic about our involvement in the community. I am sure that it is the beginning of a very beneficial relationship that will have long lasting effects. - Rene

For a more personal touch and more about our family please visit our website at : http://larsenfamilysa.shutterfly.com/

Preaching in tembisa

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:55:00 +0000

The Bible Class in Tembisa has been going for over a year and we are very excited about the growth in numbers. The three brethren in the Tembisa ecclesia wanted the Bible classes to continue throughout December month even though this time of the year is usually quiet as people go to their homelands. The attendance remained good however. The continuity seems to have has a good effect as we had 38 people at out Bible class on the 17^th of January. Half of the people there were school children who attend the Tembisa Sunday School on Sunday morning.

Sunday Mornings are quite a buzz at the Aphiwe Community center in Tembisa lately. The Sunday School kicks off at 8:30 and about 40 children turn up regularly for Sunday school classes. We have two different groups (junior –ages 10 to 14 and Senior group ages 15 – 18). The meeting follows after Sunday school and lately half of the Sunday School group remain to attend the meeting as well. On the 22^nd of February we had 30 people attend the meeting and we were particularly happy to see some of the ladies who attended the crèche course and three young boys who attended our chess club also turn up at our Sunday meetings. It is wonderful to build relationships with people that then lead to them wanting to attend our church.

We will be moving our BEC (Bible Education Centre) from a shopping mall into the Tembisa townsip itself. The one room of the Community Center will become the new Bec and we are excited to have the BEC right in the hart of the community where we are bound to reach many more in our preaching efforts.

With abiding love

KMP Ignite2020 Team

Advanced Cooking Course - Aphiwe

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:15:00 +0000

You have read about the cooking course well we started an advance cooking course.

After the normal cooking course was done most of the ladies came to me and asked if there wasn't any other cooking courses for them to attend so they can learn more, after a long planning session we started with the advance cooking course.

The advance cooking course is were the ladies can make there own food, instead of sitting behind a desk and taking notes we give them a chance to make and experiment with new food ideas. We made it like this for two reasons according to me you learn by doing but also to teach them how to work with food as well as how to work with knives, it was scary to see how these ladies worked with knives and that they use one knife to do every thing.

: Ladies before they started cooking

After the four week cooking course the ladies get invited to do a 1 day advance cooking course.

In this course the ladies make there own food I am only there to help and give advice. They all ran to the table with the ingredients and no one stayed behind to heat up the stove or to sort out the table, after I spoke with them they started to send two people at a time to get the things needed. This helped them to be more effective and get the meals done in time.

: Hendri explaining what the ladies are to do

With the first advance cooking course past, there are a few things that I would change and add to it not just to make it easier but also to make it more fun for every one there.

The ladies needed to bring the following with them (a pot, a pan and there own knives) all these things were needed to make the day easier. They started with a starter Veg. fries (looks like French fries but made out of carrots and pumpkin, they then made an energy bomb for dessert that needed to go into the fridge. When all these where done they started making their chicken curry pot.

: Chopping food for main meal

: Ladies getting to know one another as they cook in teams

We told the ladies to halve the dessert recipe because it is very sweet (125ml sugar, 4 42g bar-ones, halve a cup of syrup and 100ml margarine and four cups rise Crispies) they then went and only halved the rise Crispies and left all the rest of the ingredients the same, this made it extra energy bombs, EXTREMELY sweet.

: Busy making the Bar one dessert

After all the groups were done we dished up for every one, they had of both the pots to also taste what the other groups pot tasted like. There were a panel of judges that day to help to choose a winning team, they decided both the pots tasted so nice that we gave first place to both teams.
They all were winners just by attending the course.

With love in Jesus
Hendri and Liezl

cooking course , aphiwe

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:13:00 +0000

Here in Guateng we started a cooking Course, with me Hendri the presenter. The look on the lady's faces is priceless when they see a guy presenting the cooking course.

The reason, we started the cooking course was to help the lady's to make new meals for the children but also improve there cooking at home to have a better balanced diet. The cooking course does not only help the people to make food but also we teach them about safety in the kitchen, food preparation, how to fold serviettes and how to lay a table. The small things we use they did not now how to make or do.

In week one we, start with safety in the kitchen, when we have gone through all the things they need to know we start with the making of food. In the first week I teach them how to make small breakfasts but high in protein, we make scrambled eggs, window sandwich (piece of bread, where the centre part is taken out and replaced by a egg) French toast and omelettes, most of these the lady's never knew how to make, every time I ask them if they went home and mad it, most of the time they say yes.

In the second week we make ginger biscuits, where after Liezl takes them and show them how to fold serviettes and how to set a table. Every time they ask a few good questions like what type of plates to use with what type of party, what type of wine glass to use for what wine. We also show them how they can bring the serviettes they fold into there table decorations.

In the third week we show them how to make a cheese and onion bread and a pasta and cheese souse, with this week we start working with more types of food so we start with food preparation and food safety. In this week we show them every thing they need to know about working with the meet groups and vegetables.

Now as we come to week four, we do a chicken stir-fry with them and prize giving, the prize giving would normally take half and hour to go trough 25 certificates, but with the lady's in Tembisa this takes about one and a half hours. With every lady you call to get her certificate she has her own song and so do the next and the next all got there own song to sing.

With the first cooking course we had about 15 ladies and on the second, one we had 26 ladies, we are in the second week of the third cooking course and already we have 19 ladies on the course. It is amazing to see the facial expressions as you go trough the work with them.

That's all for now from the Kempton-Park team

God Bless

Hendri and Liezl

Love the Lord your God.

Stationary donations - Gauteng

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:06:00 +0000

We would like to tell a story on how we experienced the thought and fact of God knowing what we need and not WANT and providing that very thing at the perfect time.

We have been receiving many donations over the past year and been distributing it to many people we have come across in Tembisa as well as in Kempton Park. So as we were busy making up 100 – 150 food parcels we got a phone call from a sister in our ecclesia. She said that her manager from her company was giving away 10 boxes full of stationary and it must be picked up within the next 2 -3 hours or else he is throwing it away. So four of us set off to Johannesburg in the busiest time of the day to pick up the stationary. We made it to the store in time, which is all thanks to God as it usually takes much longer. Thanks to Hendri's amazing packing skills we got all of the boxes to fit in to the back of the bakkie. The stationary was brought home and repacked into smaller packs which were made for many school going children who .... well would you know... are needing stationary for school next year!!

: Hendri busy packing the stationary

: Last bag of stationary being packed

Hendri and I attended a dinner which was held for all the volunteers who help with the soup kitchen, there we met a lady who is the manager of a safe home for 18 school going girls. She told us how they need to find money to buy stationary for all the girls. We could then, thanks to the donation, help them out too by giving them a bit of the stationary that was given to us, only a few days earlier.

: A few parcels given to the safe home

Another way we got to distribute the stationary was with the food parcels we give out at a local school in Tembisa. How excited the children were to receive new stationary. We also had the Braambos camp that was coming up. We made a stationary parcel for each person attending the camp. After all this there is STILL stationary left!! Makes me think of the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 people. How great it is to be able to give and give and give some more.

BEC sale , Kempton Park

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:04:00 +0000

One of our latest events we had going on at the Kempton Park BEC, was to have a two day sale. We got together all the stock we have gathered over the past 2 – 3 years and put it out on some tables just in front of the BEC stall. We had such a great time talking to many people who came to look at books and buy some as gifts for other family members or for themselves, some books were on deep Bible studies and others were on more practical life issues.

Setting up the tables early in the morning with a cool breeze coming through the door, smiling faces of the people walking by, we were excited to spread the good news and advertise our BEC.

We had a lady who came and bought some books for her grandchild, the parents aren't believers but she reads the Bible to the grandchild to teach him God's way.

Another lady came to buy some books for her son who is doing some mission work in an African country, he can't speak their local language so has no friends and finds comfort in reading the books his mom sends.

Youngsters Helping out to

All the children who bought something received a FREE sunhat

We had a gentlemen who bought a Bible for someone who just got baptized that day, he also spoke to us for quite some time of how great God's Kingdom is going to be. We had our Brother Andrew also giving one on one classes to interested students.

Altogether the two days went really well and we got to spread the Gospel a bit more.

God Bless

Hendri and Liezl

--
Love the Lord your God.

Opportunity knocks

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:05:00 +0000

Opportunity knocks and who are we to keep the door closed on opportunities, 9 June 2011. Lilandi and I took our kingdom kids group to Lory Park Zoo for their annual end of term Sunday School outing. We had great fun with the children as for some of them it was their first time at a zoo and as it was father’s day they had special exhibits like a 3 meter red tail boa and tiny leopard tortoise hatchlings. There we met Mark Kingsmill from Earth Beat Echo who work with animals and was looking for a charity he could adopt, we got talking and he invited us to come with him to a wolf sanctuary and we agreed.

October 2^nd we rounded up 5 of our Kingdom Kids at 6am in the morning to take them to meet actual wolves at the Husky Romi Rescue and Wolf Sanctuary just outside of Reitz, Freestate. It was quite a drive to get there but it was worth it! This old cattle farm was converted into a home for 127 wolves and 66 huskies that were rescued from circus owners that mistreated these majestic animals, or from homes where people imported the wolves and just could not afford to keep them anymore. The kids were excited and scared at the same time - little did they know that they would be stroking and hugging a wolf by the end of the day. Mark taught the kids the 3 major differences between wolves and dogs and he helped them to overcome their fear of the wolves and by extension dogs.

After the lessons taught and learned we went to The Timber Wolf restaurant for some grub and good conversation.

It was such a great experience for all of us and its really great to see more of God’s creatures. And before you ask, a wolf can be deadly but it can also be a big, loving, overgrown puppy that just wants to be loved and cared for. Hugging a wolf is like hugging an 80kg teddy bear that likes to slobber J

In closing I would like to remind those of us who do own a pet, that we need to love and care for that animal as it is also one of God’s creations.

With Love in Christ

Michael Furstenburg

Gauteng P2P

International Family Bible Conference October 2011

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:52:00 +0000

This year was our second International Family Bible Conference and as last year it was a great week of fellowship, spiritual growth, learning, strengthening of old friendships and making new ones. Bro. Stuart Walker from the UK led our main studies. His theme was “the superiority of Christ and the superiority of Faith” and he brought out many wonderful aspects whilst giving us all a better understanding of the book of Hebrews. It was very heart-warming at the end of the week when one of the ladies who attended the conference as a student, spontaneously came forward and thanks him for helping her to “at last” understand the letter to the Hebrew. She called him forward and gave him a big hug much to the delight of us all.

Other sessions were given as variety sessions and covered a wide range of interesting and intriguing topics. Lots of times in between sessions and over eating times conversations about the talks were overheard. We were particularly thankful that so many of our brethren and sisters from the new ecclesias in townships could make it to the conference this year. There was a wonderful embracing of cultures during the week and the singing of hymns and spiritual songs and English and Zulu was a wonderful experience of what the Bible means of being one in Jesus. The surroundings at the conference are stunning to say the least and reminds one daily of God’s awesome creation power. The mountains, green environment, blue skies and flora reminded us all the time of how wonderful the Kingdom is going to be when Jesus restores this world to the glorious earth God intended it to be.

We again incorporated a very unique feature into the Bible conference. One of the afternoons was set aside to go and do community outreach work at a children’s village for orphans near the bible conference venue. It was again, as last year, amazing to witness how much of a difference 100 brethren and sisters can make in a mere 4 hours to the lives of other people in need. More amazing was to experience again how much of a fellowship and bonding event it turns out to be. Amidst all the activity and work brothers and sister get to talk to each other and relationships are enhanced immensely. During our work there we chatted to some of the people about the Gospel and what it is that compels us to do this kind of work. As a result eight of the people at the village signed up for the Bible correspondence course! The community outreach has become one of the most cherished slots of our Bible conference and is SO spiritually rewarding as we get chance to put theory learnt at the school into practice straight away.

On the last day we had two baptisms and then breaking of bread meeting which brought the Bible conference to a perfect close. We all were sad to leave but our hearts we glowing warm with the knowledge that we all would meet again and that it could be in the Kingdom soon where we will, by God’s grace get the full experience of “all nations, and kindred’s, and people, and tongues, (standing)before the throne, and before the Lamb” together as one family in Jesus Christ.

Your brother by grace

Lucas

Saturday Bible Club v2!

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:57:00 +0000

Always ready to copy good ideas, especially ones that originate with our dear COPT colleagues in Tembisa, we started our Saturday Bible Club in Gamalakhe township this week. The venue where we hold our youth club, in conjunction with Indumiso Group, is available to us the whole week – if only we had the time! But after a committee discussion it was felt that Sunday Schooling was something we could fit in – but not if it clashed with our Sunday School here in Margate – so Saturday Bible Club was born! It started with just 2 children at the start time but a walk round the block and some singing attracted a few more, so we reached a grand total of 11 who learnt about how the Son of God was born not in a fancy palace or hospital but in a cowshed! We all had fun and we know that the Almighty can work big things from small beginnings so we pray for his blessing on the Club in the coming months!

with love in Jesus - the reason we do it

Caz Parsons

Ignite 2020 Margate

Clothes, clothes, clothes, FUN and jumble sale

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:24:00 +0000

We had a donation of clothes from a school in Pretoria. They had
gathered together over 9 tons of clothes, shoes, blankets and towels.
We received about 50 bags which were packed in the back room of Aphiwe, there was so much stuff that it was about 2m high and 3m wide. We decided to host a games evening for our Aphiwe youth so that we would have 30 odd hands to help unpack all the clothes and pack them out on the tables for a jumble sale.

After playing some games with them and singing songs, we had the
children (30 – 35 of them) line up from the back room to the main hall and they started throwing the bags to one another in order to get all of them to the main hall. We had Hendri join in and throw far and hard and it caused chaos because now all the children were also seeing how hard they could throw one another with the bags. Once all the bags were in the main hall we had a massive pile which became the landing mat for some children who decided to jump on it. Hendri and Rachel also joined in the fun and jumped on the top of the pile.

The children started throwing bags on top of them and Rachel just disappeared beneath the clothes. We had to jump in and save her! We got everything in order and under control again and the children started packing out the bags on to the tables and some girls helped me clean the back room which was to be cleaned and organized for Lucas who was arriving in less than 5 minutes to host a business club!!!

We got the job done with a few seconds to spare.... In the process of
sorting out the clothes we had two girls, Annah and Thato, lose their jackets and a hat.... Now to try and find their clothes in between ALL the 1000's of clothes lying around was almost impossible. We couldn't find Thato's jacket but did however find Annah's hat the day of the jumble sale... lucky girl ...

The children could all choose 2 items of clothing which they could
have, this was to say thanks for helping us sort out the clothes, many
of them took ages to decide, so we started counting down on the
microphone we had set up... the closer we got to 5 seconds the
louder the girls would shriek to say they need more time!! Everyone
got their clothes at the end of the day and all of them got a food
parcel too. The next day we had many people from the community come and support the jumble sale, all the items were either R1 or R2. We had ladies buy 3 to 4 bags full of clothes and they would pay only R180... what a Bargain !!!

We managed to raise a good amount of money to subsidise 2 of our youth, 1 sister and 5 students from Aphiwe to attend the International Family Bible Conference. Lord willing there will be 2 of them who will be baptized at the camp too.

Liezl Viljoen

Baptisms at the International Family Bible Conference.

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:08:00 +0000

It was a day of special joy on Friday 7^th October when Eric Mphalela and Mpho Mahlangu was baptised into the saving name of Jesus Christ. Eric and Mpho have been attending the Tuesday night Bible classes in Tembisa for over a year. They have also been part of the core group that meet together every Sunday in Tembisa and form part of the satellite ecclesia in Tembisa.

This all is really the long term result of the 2010 and now Ignite2020 preaching campaign that led to us doing community outreach work in Tembisa. The outreach work led to the establishment of a community centre that gave us a permanent presence as well as a venue to have Bible classes.

It has been a wonderful privilege to see Eric and Mpho grow in knowledge, understanding, wisdom and faith. Both Eric and Mpho managed to organize leave and funds to go to the International Family Bible Conference that was held from the 2^nd to the 7^th of October this month. They were interviewed by different brethren at the Bible Conference and each gave a good confession of their faith.

The setting for their baptisms was beautiful as the Bible Conference venue is situated in the Drankensberg. Those who attended had the privilege to witness the baptisms against the backdrop of majestic mountains and wonderful surroundings. We were all vividly reminded of God’s creation power in Genesis chapter one but also the new creation He has done in Eric and Mpho through Jesus his son.

We praise God for the growth in our ecclesias and pray that he will give us the strength and wisdom to walk together in unity and fruitfulness as a family in his son.

With abiding love from the Ignite2020 team in KMP.

First sisters class in a SA Township

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:29:00 +0000

The touch and teach dimension that we have added to our preaching since the 2010 campaign is a long term approach to preaching. It means that we first build relationships and trust with people through the works of love we do because of our love for Jesus and God that compels us to do it without seeking any reward. We know from experience however that this will increase our opportunities to share the Gospel with people on a more natural basis. The more holistically we live the truth the more our good deeds will so shine before men that they will glorify and seek God.

A great example of this is the latest development of the sisters class at the Aphiwe community center in the Tembisa township. In 2005 there was no preaching or outreach work activity in Tembisa. Since the building of the Aphiwe center (a Community Outreach Program Trust project) we have established a presence and a continual outreach to the community. The CUDDLE project that provided pre-school teachers with quality training is one example.

From our interaction with the teachers and the building of relationships came a natural outflow of inviting these woman to the sisters class that sisters Leona, Liezl, Lilandi and Otillia presented. At first some of these ladies were provided transport to the classes that was held outside of the Township. As the numbers grew the class was held at the Aphiwe center every second week and an average of 4 ladies attended.

Last Wednesday (21st September) sisters Rachel Price and Mary Gaston visited from the UK and sister Rachel presented the sisters class. Ten ladies turned up and Rachel taught them about Elijah while Mary with her artistic talent added great value to the class with illustrations on the white board.

Afterwards the ladies enjoyed refreshments and then stayed to help with the (SNUGGLES) project that involves the knitting together of crochet squares (crochet by sisters in the USA) to produce blankets for needy children in many of the child care centers. It is a great and fun time for enhancing relationships and in a sense we have come “full circle” as the outreach work in the beginning led to an interest in the Gospel message which again leads to the local population also doing outreach work amongst themselves.

We praise God for the wonderful opportunities that abound but that He has made us aware of and helped us to make use of, to practically demonstrate truthful living and in so doing grow spiritually. We pray that our continued example and preaching will lead those who are seeking salvation to take on the saving name of Jesus our King.

The KMP Ignite2020 team.

A new door opens in Margate!

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:03:00 +0000

We have been blessed to be given a more permanent venue for reaching out to the youth of Gamalakhe township, just outside Margate. This has come about through our ongoing relationship with the dynamic Mrs Zama Mbele and her community-based group, Indumiso. The local councillor offered Zama sole use of a local hall in which to run something for the community, and she asked Ben & I to be closely involved in starting the scheme. At an opening meeting we discussed various options including life skills for adolescents, Sunday School, counselling, exercise classes, after school support and a community café, but at the moment we are only able to offer 2 evenings a week and so we have started a youth club and youth Bible study. In only 2 weeks we have had a great response with over 30 kids at youth club this week!

It is a lovely opportunity to reach out to a whole new group and teach them about God's love and wisdom for their lives. Funds and manpower are a little thin on the ground at the moment so please pray that we heed God's directions in this new venture and those we come in contact with will see his glory!

Ben & Caz Parsons

Ignite 2020 Margate team

Grade R course making a huge difference in Tembisa

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:02:00 +0000

Every Tuesday Lilandi and I run GrR (Gr 0) classes at Aphiwe. We came to the realization on how desperately necessary these courses were when we were visiting the various play centres on Friday mornings.

Due to various circumstances a lot of GrR children do not receive formal preparation for school (be it due to finances, overcrowding at schools, transport problems, local primary schools not having the facilities, parents ignorance) - and thus when they are tested for school readiness they appear stupid, 'slow', unlearned. This is not the case. It is more because they have not been exposed to any of the tests previously; a language problem (for example words like second, third, before, after are not easy words to understand if English is not your first language); lack of proper worksheets and programs from the teachers themselves.

The GrR program that we follow then encourages macro-movement (through games, music, outdoor play) and a lot of singing (with accompanying movements and teaching new English words which are often used in school readiness tests (example: forwards, backwards, left, right, top, bottom, front, behind). We especially try to focus on concepts like sequencing, visual and auditory perception, cross-lateral movement, eye-foot co-ordination and balance. Each month we expose the children to a different area in the school readiness program. The teachers of the GrR's are encouraged to join in with all the activities and yet at the same time do observation and assessment of the abilities of their own GrR's. Quite a challenge - as it is a massive learning curve for all of them as well.

When we started we thought we would have 30 children max per Tuesday. The idea was that grR teachers (together with their GrR's) from various play centers would come to Aphiwe for a 2 hour session where Lilandi and Leona would run the classes - and then these activities would be practiced for the rest of the month back at the individual play centers. The new knowledge gained would hopefully also be exposed to the 4 year olds and give guidance to the teachers on what they actually need to focus on.

Well - we soon had to start rearranging our program. The need was so great that we ended up with a maximum of 70 (strictly enforced from our side) children per Tuesday (which we teach in 2 consecutive 2 hour slots) from 29 different play centers. In a month we thus teach on average 250 - 270 children. Our lessons also needed to be simplified even more - as many of the activities and concepts taught were totally foreign to the children and teachers. Every Tuesday we comprehend how blessed we are with our first world background, exposure to educational toys and equipment from a young age, encouragement of movement and exploration from a young age - and how vital this is during the first 6 years of a child's life.

We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves; the children love it; the teachers are exhausted (not used to having to hop like a bunny or jump like a frog!).

And most rewarding the feedback that we are getting : "You are making a difference." "The children are more confident when exposed to worksheets." "Us teachers are now more focused and have direction. We have a monthly goal to work for."

How thankful we are that we able to have a small role to play in the lives of these young children, and hopefully help them to become confident, responsible future citizens for our beautiful country.

Leona Scheepers

Saturday Bible Club at Tswelopele Community centre.

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:34:00 +0000

Life has taken on a new dimension for over 70 children in the Delmore Gardens township and surrounding areas since the Tswelopele community centre has been in operation. Every second Saturday Lilandi, Michael and Leona provide the children with Bible club. Previously these children had nothing offered to them in the neighborhood in terms of informal education or constructive leisure time activities.

It has been very rewarding to see the happy faces of these children during the Bible lessons in which they enthusiastically participate as well as the smiles when we send them home again – usually with some item they made during the lesson. The Bible club lasts for two hours. The first hour focuses on teaching the three different age groups/classes Bible principles from a Bible story. After a short break during which the children get something to eat and a cool drink they then play some fun games.

The photos show a Saturday when the theme was on faith as a mustard seed. Leona taught the junior class about the bible that is like a seed that should grow in your heart. Both Lilandi and Michael did the parable of the mustard seed with their classes and the children made a card and planted an actual seed in a little container that they took home to water and see it grow.

After some refreshments and games the children all went home with smiles on their faces. We feel blessed and privileged to bring God and Jesus into the lives of these children at such a young age.

With abiding love in Jesus

The Ignite2020 team in Kempton Park.

Distribution Channel becoming a very effective project.

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:38:00 +0000

We are privileged to hand out over 150 food parcels every month. This is as a result of the generous contributions of one company and the Christadelphian UK Meal a Day fund who have enabled us to make the food parcel distribution a sustainable monthly project. The parcels are handed out to 50 children at a school, various needy people in an informal settlement in Tembisa, a group of children called the KINOS (Kids In Need Of Support) group, an home of safety, a feeding scheme that provides food for 70 street children.

The purchasing of the food in bulk, making up of the food parcels, and distributing of the parcels has now become a fun, streamlined and well organized project that brings joy to us and the recipients of the parcels. We are thankful to be able to do this rewarding work. It has enabled us to build relationships and some of the people are also now participating in our Bible correspondence course. We include some Bible literature, crosswords etc in the parcels from time to time. It is a humbling experience to see the severe need of some of the people but also how long (two weeks) a parcel can sustain them when we have so much and are hardly ever in need of anything.

We are hoping to and praying for a facility that can function as a small warehouse so that we can take our DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL project to a higher, more effective and bigger level.

With abiding love in Jesus

Kempton Park Ignite2020 team.

Saturday morning Bible Club at the Tswelopele Community Center

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:22:00 +0000

Saturday morning Bible Club has been very popular at the Tswelopele community center. So far three of these clubs have been held and between 45 and 74 children have turned up to learn about the Bible in a fun way. The group is divided into a young, junior and senior group and three teachers usually have their hands full in teaching energetic children who want to learn. This Saturday past the theme was the sower and the seed.

The children were taught about the parable of the sower and how the seed represented the Word of God. Each group also got an activity to do which related to the lesson. they then took home their creative work which would serve as a reminder to them through the week ahead of what they learnt. After the class time of an hour it was time for refreshments (oranges and cool drinks) and then some games were played. Before leaving for home they each also received some sweets.

Judging by the smiling faces and enjoyment they had we are sure that we will see them again in two weeks time.

With abiding love in Jesus

Kempton Park Ignite 2020 team.

Launch of the Tswelopele Community Center

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:47:00 +0000

Thursday the 11th of August saw the launch of the Tsewlopele Community center in Delmore Gardens. The community center was again a partnership project for Altech Autopage and the COP Trust. The project followed the same model as the Aphiwe community center launched in Tembisa over a year ago. A House was purchased and modified to serve as a center where Bible and other types of education would be provided for the community.

"Tswelopele" is the Sotho word for "PROGRESS" and we believe the center will indeed live up to its name. We chose the location for the center because of preaching related work we started doing at a pre-school two blocks away from where the center is now established. A lady in the community needed help with Bible classes she was running on Saturday mornings for the young children in the area. Bro. Jonathan and sister Megan Sabo from the USA cemented the Saturday Bible Club into regular events and provided the children with great Bible lessons and fun activities. After they left Lilandi and Michael continued with the work and took ownership of the community project. It was great to see the house being modified and turning out into a great facility to serve our purposes.

Plans are to provide a weekly Bible class as well as the Read your Bible Effectively seminar there as soon as possible. The response to the Saturday Bible Club has been overwhelming. The first Saturday at the new center saw 70 children turn up for Bible Club. A week ago 74 children turned up. They are split up into three classes ( very young, junior and senior) and three teachers have their hands full but the children learn a great deal about God, Jesus and the Gospel. The community center is located in a small suburb that is again located in between two large informal settlements. We foresee that the CUDDLE project will also be very popular once it is started. This will in turn again open up lots of possibilities for preaching the Gospel to the communities in the surrounding areas.

We praise God for enabling us to serve Him and Jesus in this way.

With abiding love in Jesus

Ignite2020 team in KMP

When reaching out comes back to you!

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:53:00 +0000

Seminars at Gamalakhe

Ben presents the 100% attendee with some fun gifts

Caz gets a gift from her latest creche course delegates

Caz helping to dish up at Nkulu soup kitchen on a v cold day!

We just want to share the exciting Sunday morning we had last week. We met the founder of Indumiso Community Based Group, Mrs Zama Mbele, by 'chance' – she saw our car sticker advertising Bible courses and said 'I've got this youth group – and what we really need is Bible study.' We were happy to oblige!

(The group is actually a 30 member strong community group which feeds needy elders and orphans 3 times a week in and around Gamalakhe township 5km inland from Margate. They also go into the homes of housebound elderly and wash and feed them. 'Indumiso' means 'praise'.)

Within 2 weeks of our first meeting with Zama we were holding our first of 8 seminars, 'The Jesus Story', looking at the gospel accounts of Christ's life. The group consists of churchgoers of varying denominations but for many of them the terms 'parable' or 'Sermon on the Mount' were unknown so the emphasis was on reading and understanding what you read, with Bible study tips to help encourage the group to study the Bible for themselves at home.

The members were so enthusiastic and some of the workshop sessions were really exciting, with the young people asking searching questions about church practices and applications for their own lives.

The culmination of the course was a certificate presentation last Sunday morning, we paid for transport down to Margate and adapted our Sunday service times so that the group heard Ben's final 'seminar' talk that morning, on 'The Road to Emmaus' - where he pointed out that Christ used the scriptures, rather than his personal presence, to prove who he was – a recommendation for Bible study if ever there was! The most recent crèche course had just finished and so we invited those ladies to come for the same celebration service and also recent students of the correspondence courses.

In total we had about 25 visitors that morning, with the Indumiso choir singing some lovely Zulu songs with beautiful harmonies and deep basses from the boys.

A spokesperson from Indumiso stood and thanked us all for our support and presented Ben & I with a gift!! Then, the crèche teachers stood and presented me with a gift – a very large one!!

It really was a Sunday morning to remember for the Margate ecclesia.

The fantastic thing about the Indumiso group is their emphasis on serving God through their work, they approached us initially for Bible study and they have stated they want to continue Bible study with us so we are discussing how to continue with youth classes in the coming weeks.

Ben & Caz Parsons, Ignite 2020 Margate team

Monkey Orange

noreply@blogger.com (P2P Earth) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:43:00 +0000

S'up? Alright? (To those other than the English, 'alright?' is a general greeting and doesn't mean I think there's something wrong with you)

It's about 5 weeks to go till I return to Blighty and about 7 since I arrived from Australia and I'll give you some highlights of the last few weeks.

Clermont Jumble Sale/Dress Up

By far the most hectic and potentially random events have been the township Jumble Sales where we take a bunch of donated clothes to either Clermont, Lamontville or Marionnhill, sort them roughly into piles of 'Mens', 'Womens' and 'Kids' and then allow chaos to ensue. At Lamontville the ladies are literally pressing themselves against the windows to get a good sneaky peeky at the potential bargains before the doors are opened and they run to the middle of the room and then spin around a couple of times before making a decision as to which table to go for. The Sunday School kids at Lamontville are really cool and were helping us out in exchange for first dibs on clothes at even more discounted prices and a couple were helping me with making up the prices and taking the money. It tended to be a bit haphazard as our pricing structure largely depended on sugar highs and lows from a secret stash of Fizzers. We weren't that hard to barter with, because as soon as any kind of disgruntled look came from the customer we would usually end up in reducing the price much to the interest to all the beady-eyed ladies next in line who then demanded the previous discounted price as there starting price. However, even this didn't stop some of them throwing clothes out of the window to waiting accomplices outside. We sent the Sunday School security to investigate and the guilty individuals are recovering well and should be discharged from hospital in the next few days. Clermont Jumble Sale wonderfully emerged from the chaos as a kids dress up party.

Dance sesh at Inanda Dam

I had the pleasure of being an honoured visitor on the Marionnhill and the volunteers girls outing to a sweet place called Inanda Dam. So, 2 Yanks, 7 Zulus & 1 Brit went trekking off into the forest to find wild Zebras and we succeeded! Very cool. The other guys also succeeded in finding a Monkey Orange and convincing me that they had all tried one and it was gorgeous, obviously it was disgusting. I had an inkling as I suspiciously eyed their cheeky faces so I only licked it which was enough to make me shudder and contort my face. They hooted at that! Then on our return to the car we had a great dance session in the car park and returned home.

I gave the Sunday talk at Marionnhill a couple of weeks back which is always interesting because you never quite know what is going on. I was asked to come up and speak and just before I get up there the president starts singing and everyone joins in and I have to sit down at the front until they finish. Meanwhile the president goes to sit down in the audience whilst he is singing and I wait until I'm definately sure no-one is going to start singing again and then do my talk. It was about the law of Cities of Refuge and I started by pretending I was banging in a nail, and slipping with the hammer, and killing a brother in the audience and then pretending to run to the next township. I finished and sat down thinking my work was done and then got a bit of a surprise when the president also asked me to pray for the wine!

Yesterday we had our monthly food parcel run which is where we deliver 2 tons of food in 200 bags to those who need it. We deliver to two places, the first being at Wyebank in a library car park and the second is to a HIV clinic in Clermont. Wyebank has gotten a bit of a 'mare recently as we've found out that our list doesn't match up with the lady who organises it so we always have more people there than food parcels to give out! The food is supposed to be for orphans and this time we decided to take a picture of each child with a number so we could then make sure the same people got a bag each month. This turned out to take quite a long time and at one point we told a girl that she had to go find her brother so they could both be in the picture and she replied "oh, he's with my mother"! Ah, so you're not an orphan then. We asked the next boy and it turned out he had parents too. Flip. Rethinking required.

An exciting project Katie & I are working on are filming people's life stories. We've experimented on Mary Wilondja who works at the BEC and is from the Congo. She was chatting for about an hour, no idea how we're gonna cut it down. We haven't actually looked at it on the 'puter yet, so we don't know how well it turned out what with the background noise particularly one guy who constantly shrieks "Banana, one rand, banana, banana, one rand" in a high nasally voice. It's almost worth buying them all just to shut him up and then I suppose I could start selling them for two rand and make a profit. Anyway, hopefully the video will show how amazing Mary's attitude is. She sees everything as God directing her to where she is now. She had to escape the Congo when the war broke out and her husband was the other side of town so they had to escape seperately and she had her two kids. She and her husband didn't know each other were alive for a year until she found him in Malawi, by which time he had been baptised as a Christadelphian. They then came to Durban but she stuck to her Roman Catholicism until she had a horrific accident in a mini-bus taxi where the whole thing caught on fire and everyone else died apart from her. If your lucky she hoiks up her dress to show you some impressive scars from the skin grafts (not in the video!). In hospital she started reading her Bible and started listening to her husband (she's pretty stubborn and had refused until then!) and then got baptised. Our next interview will hopefully be with Pierre who is from Rwanda who apparently had an equally fascinating story.

Mary Wilondja

God Bless,

Simon