It’s been an amazing week.  Not only was it the last real week we have to prepare for leaving, but we’ve had the privilege of having pastor Vincent Nyathi and his wife, Gloria and their two kids Mandla (19) and Busi (14) in town.  They were hosted by friends Ben and Anna Adlard but spent quite a bit of time with various folks in the community here—and indeed there are many in this area who know Vincent and have even traveled to Mamelodi at one point or another.  While serving as interns with Africa Revolution we’re excited to spend a good part of our time working with Vincent and his church in the community of Mamelodi.

As you see in the photos above, we had a great time with the Nyathis which included a Durham Bulls baseball game, traditional North Carolina BBQ with our pastor Ru and his family, and lots of great stories shared.  Our teammate Will Brown was also in town this week for business which made it all the more fun.  Also, Gabe and Rachael Dagani, former AR interns, visited from Austin, TX.  With everybody here this week, our final Info Session on Saturday was rich.  We got to hear a number of great stories from Vincent and Gloria and the Daganis about how God is working in Mamelodi and what it means to step out in faith.  We ended our time with the Nyathis with a great worship service at our church where Vincent preached a really challenging sermon.  He shared a lot of interesting background information about South Africa and what things are like now post-Apartheid, charging Christians to “represent to Kingdom of Heaven” in response.   It’s definitely worth a listen (just click the play button below).

This is our last week of work— I finish Tuesday and Rebecca on Monday.  It’s bittersweet for both of us, both leaving jobs where we learned a ton.  But of course we’re also very excited about what lies ahead.  It will be nice to finally be there, after so many months of preparations.  And we get to be with the Nyathis again in just over a month!

Filed under: General by Nathan on June 29th, 2008. Tags: Africa Revolution, Dagani, Kingdom of Heaven, Nyathi, sermon, Will Brown | 2 Comments

Yo. This is Pippy. Champ and I aren’t sure exactly what’s going on, but today our parents introduced us to this girl– her name was Miss Meg, I think. From what we gathered, this girl is going to be our nanny while mom and dad are in Africa (I don’t know where that is, but Champ thinks it’s somewhere behind the woods in back of our house). All I know is our parents are super excited. Miss Meg respected my personal space and fed me treats, so I’m pretty much sold she’s going to be cool. Oh and our parents wanted us to pass this message along: “Praise God! and thank you to everybody who helped spread the word!” And mom gives a special shout-out to Rachel Lillis.

Filed under: General by Pippy on June 15th, 2008. | 3 Comments

Given recent violence that has occurred in South Africa (if you haven’t heard much about this – this article gives a quick intro), many have asked us if we’re still going, if we feel like it’s safe, etc. While we were concerned at first and not sure why the violence was happening or how widespread it was, I think we quickly came to the conclusion that we are called and safety issues or not, we are going. We are trusting God to guide our steps and help us deal with the situations in which He places us. We’ll act with prudence and caution but continue forward as He leads us. If anything, these recent events give us a feeling that what we’re doing is a serious endeavor and makes us all the more eager to get going (in 51 days).  If you love Jesus, we covet your prayers—not that we’d be spared from hardship, but that we’d maintain faith no matter what the circumstance we find ourselves in and be of use to the people there.  I’d also ask for prayer that we would be able to take in and digest all the ins and outs of the various political and social issues in South Africa, and know how to be wise without taking sides.

Based on reading a few blogs from Americans living in Pretoria, there may be opportunities to serve the refugees of Zimbabwe and other neighboring countries that were the targets of the xenophobic attacks. Many of them have fled to their home countries, but many remain in refugee camps, afraid to leave. We’ll of course follow the lead of the Powerhouse Church, and I look forward to seeing how God uses the church in this situation.

If you’ve something to share on this, an interesting article or what, please share your comments.

Filed under: General by Nathan on June 14th, 2008. Tags: Mamelodi, prayer request, south africa, violence, xenophobia | 2 Comments