9-30-12

9/24/12 to 9/30/12

We started Hearing God's Voice, Prayer, and Intercession week! WHOO! Lots of fun. Uncle Lysias (last week's speaker)...his wife (Momma T) was the speaker for the week. She is a very joyous, vibrant, and outgoing woman. (ABSOLUTE OPPOSITE of her husband). Her style of teaching was VERY different too! Once she started speaking there was no stopping and she didn't have a powerpoint so at some points she would say “point #1 is …..” then she would talk and talk and then before I knew she would say “and finally point #4” and I would freak out and scrabble to find points 2 and 3 :) But she is A LOT of fun and she was a really great teacher/speaker.

This friday night we went to youth group at the same place I had the water balloon fight at, but this week was themed “pitch black”. Over the past 3 days they created a maze made out of cardboard boxes and we had to army crawl through it in the dark ( no cellphones, lights, or anything.) Very scary! But it was fun. ( not suggesting that I will ever do that again in my life though!) :D well maybe...

Today we went surfing and spent a “family day”. Everything was perfect. I even caught a few good waves! :D

This week I wish I could say it was a good as today (Saturday), but it was far from it wonderful. I have a hard time explaining with out telling to much, because it is not all my story. But there was a lot of spiritual warfare that has been happening since the night of the water balloon fight. Now we are suffering the effects. When I know how the story ends, I will make sure I tell you because “God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose”. Please pray for us as a team, and if you would like you can ask God HOW to pray for us (something we learned this week) please definitely go for it! :) Thank you everyone for you support and prayers :) LOVE YOU GUYS :D

9/24/12

9/24/12

Thursday:

One of the leader's brother-in-laws, Matthew Willman, a famous photographer, came in and gave us a story of his work and his different views of South Africa. It was incredible and really cool to see it through photography. He has taken many pictures of Nelson Mandela, and his first photo of Mandela was a picture of his hand. It was the only one he was allowed to take when he first met him, but obviously it made Mandela inter. Here is website. http://www.matthewwillman.co.za/

Friend I met last year came to visit the base. (Youth pastor at Westville Presby). Had a really nice time talking, and started missing my youth pastor :(....haha but yah it was really cool. Probably going to that church next Sunday night and I'm hoping to make that my home church while I'm here. The church body just makes me feel at home. (Also cause it's so similar to Calvary hehe :D )

Friday:

Friday Night we went to the youth group that I did the water balloon fight with (the church we're staying at). Monday is a national holiday so we didn't have a lot of students, but there was a maybe 20. Crazy thing was that they were all a lot of older guys who were in their 20's and it was a hang out. I was the leader for the night and I had to plan a game and give my testimony. The game I chose was the “trash can” game or for them “the rubbish bin” game. Everyone holds hands in a circle and tries to get the person next to them to touch the trash can in the middle of the circle. It can be quite dangerous, but it is super fun! The youth group was made up of mostly guys in their 20s so they seemed to enjoy that. Also I gave my testimony about being in middle school because I thought, “ Oh yah, a youth group! Mostly middle school girls and guys I'll talk about being a white 'washed tomb' in middle school.” Terrible idea because they were definitely NOT in that age group! But I was able to apply it to their age group so it worked really well. :)

Saturday:

Went to the farmers market early morning. Great time! Got some really good food and had fun looking around! Also got to meet Geoff's wife, Michelle, who distinctly reminds me of another Michelle, my 7^th grade teacher *cough cough... ;D She has 130 cats! Shhhh Geoff doesn't know how many because she just counted them the other day, but last time he checked it was only 100! I'm probably going to get into some kind of trouble if he reads this haha :D Later us girls learned how to catch a cab to the Pavilion, “the mall”. No worries I sat behind the driver and was ready to slit his throat if he decided to be a scary evil guy :D. Any way had lunch and just had a good time. Got the same cab on the way back. Very nice guy actually, but he over charged us terribly so we probably won't be calling him again :/

New guy came and he is a chef! SCORE!!!

Sunday:

Went to church today where Geoff, our baseleader, goes. Very charsmatic, but it was really cool to experience different things than I'm used to. Went to the Pavilion ….AGAIN :) not very good clothes I'm afraid even though their prices are really cheap compared to America... Oh well. Had a head ache most of the day, came home napped, woke up for church and went to the church here. Oh yah David, the new guy, totally just made us the most delicious burger I'v had yet! Tastes like meatloaf, has an egg on top with bacon, cheese, sauteed onions, tomatoe, and deliciousness! All places gently in a fresh warm roll! :) I'm stuffed, I'm fluffed, and I'm ready for bed ! Goodnight!

Note: first time today that I talked to my family on Skype!!! WHOO!

Tuesday 9-18 and Wednesday 9-19

Tuesday 9/18/12

Classes today were really good. The main questions were “What is the purpose of the Gospel?” and “Do we really need a God?”. “Why?”. Then we looked at secularistic, animistic, and theistic views of God. Like A.W. Tozer says that our view of God defines us. The results of our studies lead to a huge realization that with out a solid foundation of beliefs the value structure will fail and then the actions will be negative producing bad character. It was like a tree where the beliefs were the roots, the values are the trunk, the actions are the branches, and the character is the fruit. So your beliefs essentially make your character. And by studying the different world views it is shows that only in Christ there is value in life, because if our beliefs are not solidly founded what use are good values? This led to a discussion on abortion and euthanization that really allowed us to challenge even some members of our teams beliefs and gave me a new perspective on how to talk to to people about it in love and in kindness rather condemning and judgemental which is sometimes something I know I can forget.

Wednesday 9/19/12

Hello! Yah so today we had classes today and it went really well. It was more focusing on learning what is the character and nature of God. How to define it and what is the difference. We separated into groups and then had a section of Scripture (Gen:1:1-26) and we had to (based on that passage) create a list of attributes of God and define them as either His nature or His character. It was hard than expected, but it was really good. Then we had to define it which my groups ideas were very different from the other groups but we were both right essentially. Really deep stuff that just makes my head hurt :) Tomorrow we have a new student coming named David. Pretty excited :D

First Day of School

9/18/12

Weekend:

This weekend was a bit of a strange one. There was definitely A LOT of spiritual warfare going on Friday night after my awesome water balloon fight and saturday morning. But God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose. Then Saturday night we had a movie night at one of the leaders house which was tons of fun! We played an intense came of charades or sha-rods (w/e. Silly English leader). It's harder to describe Abraham Lincoln to an Africaans guy and a Swedish girl than you may think :) Then we watched Invictus for like my 3^rd time. Good movie!

Sunday we went to a Zulu church which was incredible! It was a methodist church that is connected to the methodist church that we are currently staying at and the pastors occasionally circulate churches. So with the pastor from this church (Pastor John -prounouced in French) to there. The only music they had was the worship leader ( a guy with a mic), the choir (the church), a drummer (actually a pillow like pad that one of the younger guys slaps really loud), and the bell ( a tin cup looking thing on a tin stick that a girl beats with a metal stick). It had to be one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard! Soon I was dancing and swaying right along with them! May have to talk to Sean about that when I get back :) Just kidding I have no rhythm :), but yah that was tons of fun! Later that night we went to the young adults church here in Kloof. My friend gave her testimony and a small teaching, and it was really impactful, because she is an American who moved to South Africa not even intending to move here, but God has used her mightly even though it's not what she expect. After we all connected with a lot of the people after at “Burger King like” place called Spur.

Monday:

First day of school...duh duh duh ….DUUH! It was actually really cool. To be honest I was running a minute late to the class which is on the same property :/ long story, but our lecturer is from Zimbabwe and he is really cool. We have to call him Uncle Lysias, because it is a sign of respect in his culture, and we call his wife Momma Tanya or Momma T. This weeks topic is the Character and Nature of God. He really challenged us to look deeper and to think really hard for the questions he asked. I really enjoyed his style of teaching and the way he asked hard questions, but gave us time to think and then answer with out telling us the answer before we could think of it ourselves. I am excited to see what the rest of the week will be like :D

First Week of School

9/11/12

First day of school :D Everything went really well. I have 3 others in my class. Ashley (18 from Perth, Australia), Jaques (21- Pretoria, South Africa), Brittany (23 – Georgia, USA :D ). Our leader Tshpeng (South Africa- group leader), Geoff Kingsford (Australia - base leader), Ben (England- teacher) and Johanna (Sweden -  elder). Today was chill and was more of a getting to know eachother day and just chillin.

9/12/12

Today was orientation. Had classes in the youth room. Toured Kloof (the county i'm in). Made dinner (curry) with Brittany and Ashley.

9/13/12

It's super busy here. Woke up this morning had classes at 9. before we have breakfast at 7am-7:30am. Then til 8am is personal devotions and then we have work duties of cleaning til 9am. Finished orientation. Went shopping for craft supplies to design our creative journals for the school. Pretty chill day. Raining, lightning, thundering, and haling :)INTENSE!!! sounds like a war zone lols.

9/14/12

YAY! Free day :) today we are suppose to go tour Durban to get a feel of the surrounding area and I'm excited, but it looks like rain once again so we might just go to the Pavilion (the mall).

But it has been a pretty busy week! We all have work duties that we switch every week and it's mostly cleaning and cooking (being a janitor in my last few jobs has not been a bad practice). Most Africans that we would consider middle class are used to not working because having a domestic helpers (maids, gardeners, etc.). Having two American girls and an Australian girl in the DTS is kind of funny to the two african guys because we actually know how to work hard. Everyone here is fairly tidy so far so it's not that much work either.

One big culture difference though is the “white” africans ( People are known as black and white, because they are all African so it doesn't help calling them anything else, and they don't really care.) Any way, white africans will talk and talk, but as one of the American leaders here put it, it takes forever to get to the point!. Americans can be very frank. We speak our point and then stop (most of the time compared to africans :D ). But having patience for that is something God is growing me in right now :D This Friday and Saturday are free days so I'll have a bit of time to write :)

9/15/12

BEST DAY EVER!!!! So today started out pretty just okay. It was rainy and SUPER cold, and we decided to go out :/ why? Idk :) but we went to get some coffee but we went to the beach first. It was really cold and wet; then we got coffee then went to the mall. Ended up getting slippers because ITS COLD! Came back to base and our idea was to chill out and decorate our journals make dinner (pizza) and relax. BUT there is an American girl here named Chloe (26- Buffalo, New York). She actually works with the church youth group not YWAM. Here in SA all youth groups are on Friday night so there is a bit of competition. The presbyterian church I'm staying at has full out war against this anglican church's youth group. Now the anglican church was supposed to come and attack the presby church but NOOOO! They dont stand for that nonsence :D hehe. So the youth pastor, Brad, bought every single water balloon in the area (literally he went to every place that sold them and bought their stocks). Everyone had a bucket of water baloons! So in the very, very cold damp night we all hid in the gardens, trees, rooftops, bushes, you name it! I was with Chloe and this other girl named Dan. Chloe and I were running on straight adrenline! It took forever for the youth group to actually get there and they kept driving past because they were sissies and did not want to face us! But when they did get there OH BOY. Let me just say.....AMERICA!!!!! WHOOO we kicked their butts! Chloe was like a mad woman throwing balloons kicking the gate open and rushing them I was the archer in the back with balloons hitting them. We drove them back and we used so many ballons WE RAN OUT! So I grabbed the hose and filled the buckets and together Chloe and I rushed to the front lines. Like good Americans we stood back to back I had the hose and she had her bucket of water. Anytime someone came in reach was SMOOTHERED!!!!!!!!!!! MUHAHAHAHA!!!! Very cold though. I could see my breath and couldnt feel my feet :D IT WAS AWESOME!!!! Don't worry I took a hot shower had a warm cup of tea and got in my comfy pjs and new slippers :) I'm very toasty you might say, and completely satisfied that the other youth group ran home with their tail between their legs :D

 

Thank you all for your prayers I will try my best to keep you updated. I'm sorry this one is soo long :( Goodnight! :D

The Journey

9/9/12

Hello Everyone,

I'm here in Durban, South Africa, finally! It was a long hard road, but I'm still alive.

New York:

The flight to New York went well, but trying to get to the right terminal I was yelling at myself for not getting the guitar case with the backpack,but I made and I still like my case :)

Got to the gate and waited and waited until they finally called us in, but instead of everyone getting up when their row was called EVERYONE just got up and went into a large crowd and just stood by the gate. I tried to wait it out, but it was hopeless so I went to the back of crowd and I met a girl who lived was coming back to her home town (Durban) to see her father, a minister over here. She now lives in Pennsylvania with her husband who was the son of missionaries to Durban, South Africa...PRETTY CRAZY COOL! so it nice to have someone to semi-travel with.

Johannesburg:

The flight to Johannesburg seemed to be a lifetime and I had forgotten how much I hate flying :) 3 +15 we have 18 hrs. of travel not including lay overs. But Jo- berg did not work too well for me :P Not the exact times but this is kinda who it went. I got off the plane went through customs which took forever and I finally got out of that at 9:10a.m. And my flight was in 30 mins. I ran to the baggage claim which took until 9:25 to find my bags and guitar. Ran to the check-in and there were only 2 people working and those were for the special flights not mine and then the other lady came over and helped 9:35. Finally ran to the security (this entire time I'm running like a chicken w/ it's head cut off asking for directions only for them to yell at me from be,”the other way!”). Two guys tried scamming me by making me pay for directions I only gave them less than $2 worth of rand to get rid of them even though they kept begging me for the equivalent of $20 in rand }:P) Got to security, and it said flight left 15min ago :O.....then they let me pass the line. I ran through the halls got to my gate and they guy was kinda tiffed that I got there just after he closed his boarding program, but w/ his help I made it on the plane in time! Whoo!

Durban:

Oh yah, I got to Durban with everything except my guitar ....NOOOO!!!! it was stuck in Jo-burg but they promised to send it ( got it later today :D) ...but walked out met my old friends from last summer (who were picking me up to stay with for the first few nights) and the YWAM people who were sent to pick me, as well! I'm sure there was just a miss communication, because I'm pretty sure I remember sending an email explaining that I did not need to be picked up, but oh well. It's a good thing that happened, because they moved the base! Yep. I would have gone to the wrong base otherwise! Going to visit the church at YWAM tonight :D

YWAM INTRO:

Went to the new YWAM base in Kloof , Durban. A really nice base looks like a little home. Really cute little church (similar to Calvary style). Fun stuff :)

Welcome to Pray4Shae

Hello Everyone!
Just wanted to say thank you for visiting my blog. Not sure if it's working yet :\ BUT I'm headed off for a 6month missions training trip (Sept. 8 - Mar.4) to Durban, South Africa. Just wanted to say thank you everyone for their support and prayers especially Calvary Chapel Sarasota (church & school) for preparing me and providing for me! Thank you! I will do my best to keep everyone updated on my experiences and adventures from South Africa.

I'm super excited to leave this Saturday morning. My flight is at 6ish a.m. at Tampa International. It's probably the only part of this entire trip that scares me so I would really appreciate your prayers, but I know the Lord will be there with me through it all!  The couple I stayed with last time will be picking me up from the Durban airport on Sunday, and they will take me to the YWAM campus on Tuesday.

Thank you again for just looking at my blog, and I will do my best to update it once a week. Thanks again!!!

Love, Shannon