"Police Please Protect Our School..."

We went to school today and found out that someone had broken into one of the second grade classrooms and made off with a computer and some random things. The principal told us that they were going to focus the attention on promoting the school, instead of just trying to find the people. So each class made a poster to hang on the fence with messages about their education and community. We were just sent out to help the classes with their posters. They really didn't need us, so we shuffled around and eventually came up on the room where the "burglary" happened. While the kids were competing to design a poster for their class, we helped the teacher put the classroom back together and organize all of her books. It was cool to see the pride that they had in their school and their respect for their community. 2 of the kids from that classroom knew who it was and told the police when they came. Tomorrow the parents are getting together and discussing this problem to the community leaders to stop this problem.
Tomorrow is my birthday, so we might be doing something fun.
Keep praying for us, love ya.

Sunset Video Part 2

I heard that the video from the previous post was shown at Sunset and it went over really well. If you are here because of the video, I heard there were some questions: Yes, I took those pictures, and you can see them on the right side of the page under "My pictures." Lately, we've had an off period work-wise. We've finished up the first part of our current projects. I've taken 840 pictures of kids that I now have to "organise" and put into yearbook-form soon. Today, we had an area sing-along which was cool. I led singing this morning for worship and that was refreshing because I tried liven everyone up and I think it worked.
On my way to church this morning, I went to pick up Peter (which is actually 20 minutes past the church) to find that he was still asleep and he would be coming next week. I was a little sad. He really likes hanging out with us, he just wants to get out of his neighborhood.
By the way, we drive through his "neighbourhood" at least 8 times a week and one of the members from our church was hijacked a couple of weeks ago there. They blocked the road and pulled him out of his car. For some reason, the car died and wouldn't start, so they left the car and didn't beat him up. All they took was his cell phone because he forgot his wallet. As soon as they were gone, his car started.
It was just a reminder of how careful we have to be.
So, pray for us, please.
Love you guys

Our first video...

Been a while...

So, a couple of things have happened.
On Monday (1 week ago), we were invited to come speak at a high school here, so we went to it and Johnathan gave an introduction to the bible for the school. That was a pretty neat experience. Afterwards we went into the library and they sent classes to us and we got to know some of the kids. It was a lot of fun, but it was a very interesting experience. I was talking to this one kid and he looked me in the face and said "Look at this, I'm going to kill someone" and he pulled a knife out of his sleeve. I didn't really know what to do; i thought he was just trying to see what I would do so I just told him I didn't want to see that. After class he told Johnathan that he had a bong and a gun in his bag and that he was going to shoot his "enemies" and while we were walking away, he started yelling "life of death, life or death?" And then someone set the fire hose box on fire and there was a thick black cloud of smoke that filled up the courtyard outside our classroom. It was interesting.
We'll be going back once a week.
Then yesterday we had an open-air worship service in the part of town where we do the soup kitchen. We sang and had a lesson in Afrikaans, which sounds like German. The lesson sounded like Nazi propaganda over the loudspeaker.

Women's Day

In preparation for Thursday, Women's day, one of the local schools that we're connected with through the church had an assembly and they wanted us to do a "presentation" for the kids. We had no idea what to do or how to do it. So we sort of decided to make a video for the kids. Once we got there, we set up and got everything ready, introduced ourselves and showed the video. It was a complete failure. The lady in charge actually made us stop it early. There were two problems with our presentation: most of the kids didn't speak English, and the concept of the video went way over their heads.
So that wasn't cool.

I vowed right then and there that I would never have kids.

Anyway, all the schools didn't have school Thursday and Friday, so we've been off, too.
We have some of the youth hanging at our house pretty much all the time, now, so that's cool. Yesterday, we had 4 at the same time, but usually it's different kids off and on at different times.
Sometimes it's inconvenient, but I'm here for them so I have to get over myself.

Ken and Judy are out of the house for the weekend, so that's a nice little change.
Party.

Love you guys.

People are empty fields, too.

Today, after school, Joey and I went out to take Peter, one of the volunteers, out to run errands. We were talking and he started talking about his situation at home: he is living with his mom in government housing in a township near the school, he has no brothers or sisters to help him take care of his mother, he has a little daughter named Angel, and he's unemployed. The house they live in was free, but he has to buy electricity and water on top of buying food. He's trying to start a photography business, but by "American" standards, his attempt would be considered a joke. He started talking about how it's only important for his mom to eat, she's diabetic and he wants her to have food. He said he regularly goes three days without food and if he ever gets money, it goes to bread right away. While we were picking up some pictures I had helped him print, we got him a couple of things for him and his mom to stock in their pantry. He was so grateful, he invited us straight back to his house and he cooked us eggs and tomatoes. He apologized because he didn't have any silverware, but we told him we were more than fine using our hands. He really opened up to us and got really comfortable with us being around. I'm excited for him because he really wants to come worship with us (I couldn't really get him to tell me what me believed other than he knows that Jesus died for us) because he doesn't attend church anymore.
Anyway, I realized that I get caught up a lot in my convenience and it was really good to get into the townships, finally. We saw mounds of trash with kids searching through trying to find whatever they could and children begging for anything that we could give.
And then I hear Peter talking about being humble.
And how God is good to his people.
Ouch.
Most people could easily say, "How can you say that, look at your position!"
But one thing I noticed in that community, is to them, there's always someone that's worse off than they are.
But God is good.

So...
Updates...
Another thing about South Africa is there's always something on fire.
We were driving to school yesterday, and that field from the last post was starting to catch on fire. Not too much of it was burnt.
They found the two kids. Nobody called the school to tell them they were going to be gone.
One of our friends in the youth group was stabbed in the chest out by where we do the soup kitchen. He's ok.
I'm not sick anymore.

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Leave some more.
Thanks for the prayers.
Say some more.
Love you.