New Pietersburg

Well today I'm finally going to catch up on the blog!  That is a happy thing for me.  Will likely keep this a little shorter to help me get done before our day is over.  Some of you are probably saying "amen" to that.

First I should mention that on day one two of our team became ill and had to take the afternoon off.  John Rickenbach and Dotie Gerhart were not feeling well.  John came down with a stomach flu so please pray for him.  Dotie was having headaches and we think the sun was a little too much for her.  Please pray for her as well.

When we got up this morning at 4:30, to be ready in time, we found out that several more members of our team were feeling very sick with stomach issues.  Once again you seem to have to adapt and change plans for so many reasons.  We were going to be without Tony, Dotie, John, Josh, Anna, Jasz, Justic, Brennen, Kristi, Anne, Sarah, Peyton, and Grace.  Not all were sick, but didn't come because they were sick or were a family member of someone who was.  Please pray for our team members who are ill and pray that this bug would not effect anyone else.

So with our missing part of the team that would leave the rest of us having to pick up the slack and be prepared for a long day.  Today we were off to a school about and hour and a half away in New Peitersburg.  It was already going to be long because of the distance away and the size of the school.  They have about 740 students and we were not sure how many we would be able to work with but we knew they would send us students all day long!  This is a school with a mix of black and white kids.  It is also a more affluent school and one that Centershot will be starting a ministry in very soon in the future.  Jacques is excited about all the schools but this is the kind of schools that they are targeting often with Centershot in South Africa because the archery is something that can compete with all the other activities that these kids participate in.  If you get them to archery then you can influence them with the Word of God and schools like this will more likely have kids that will be the future leaders of this country.

This day certain did not go how we planned but we did feel it was a great success by the end.  We again had three stations with the kids.  Obviously some of the kids must have really loved archery or they just didn't want to go to class.  Some boys must have skipped class and kept sneaking back to join the archery over and over again.  It was an odd school in many ways.  Seemed to me there was nothing you could do to make these kids move fast.  It was a constant logistical battle trying to move them from station to station.  But at the end of the day we had a lot of meaningful conversations with kids and connected with so many unique kids.  We are grateful for how God gave us the strength on a hot day to have the energy to keep up the enthusiasm right until the end of the day!

It was a quiet long drive back after our 2:30pm lunch at a local fast food burger spot.  It was a welcome nap and the evening included some welcome down time.

We are thankful that many of our sick team members are feeling much better and will be able to help out tomorrow.  Please continue to pray for health and safety for everyone.  We are pleased that no more illness has hitter family and Crystelle's back is managing alright!  Thanks!

My last thought of the day is how wonderful it was to watch many of the girls playing games and visiting together in the lodge after supper.  I had just asked for prayer for this a day ago and already it is amazing to see how everyone is including everyone and age doesn't seem to matter from 8-25.  Amazing!  We appreciate your prayer so much!

First Full Centershot Ministry Day

From August 18th

I think that today everyone was pumped to hit the road and get to a school to start serving!  It was exciting to head into Mokopane to serve at two different high schools.  Our two groups had prepared and were ready to share archery and Christ with the kids.  The last moments before we left this morning were spent rounding up a few supplies for Crystelle's object lesson.  It's amazing what you can do with a rock, sand, golf pencils, a container to hold water, and and Scripture passage were Jesus has a "verbal object lesson" for us.  It was exciting for me to see Crystelle's willingness to step up and be one of the people to lead the Bible time with the kids throughout the day.  I know she has a gift in this area and will do a great job.  As we arrived at the schools it was fun to see the excitement of the kids as they were given permission to come join us for their special time.

At our school we were able to setup quite easily and had good locations for our games, archery and Bible time.  The school that we were at was an "all black" school.  These kids are so enthusiastic and willing to participate.  Unlike North American high schools were kids seem "too cool for high school" these kids are willing to be goofy and loving and seem to all get along so well.  I have never met kids that you can make smile so easily!  That is why one of the fun things that I figured out to do with them today while they waited to shoot bows was having a serious stare down no smiling contest.  There was only about 5 kids out of 140 that were able to give me a challenge.  Terrace also joined in and did pretty well and 'schooling' them!  Terrace was a huge help with the archery and is able to help teach kids that are her age and older without any issues.  I helped with the archery and we have learned that we always have to adapt our plan to fit the situation.  Helping to get the kids to go where they need takes a lot of work through the day but we managed to get a good system going by mid morning and only had to adapt a bit based on the size of classes that they sent us.  It was a wonderful day of sharing the gospel directly with them through the Bible lesson and loving them as Christ would through the archery and games time.  I loved being able to look over across the field and see Jaelyn in her element relating to kids of all ages and leading them in fun games along with a couple of the other girls.  How wonderful to serve between your two girls, while Crystelle was also just a hundred feet away telling kids about the importance of Christ in their lives!

I love the way our team also began to come together and start to bond even before they day began with the students.  While setting up and waiting for the students our prayer request for our girls to start bonding with the other girls was already being answered.  The interaction between the families and in particular the girls has already begun to grow.  I enjoyed playing tag with Grace before our day started and before long Grace and Peyton (our two youngest team members) where seeming more comfortable with our girls as well as the other team members.  It is a blessing to see the students gathering around all of our kids and wanting to be with them and touch their hair and have pictures taken with them! We will never know the effects of our trip until we arrive in heaven one day but we are thankful for the opportunity to love these kids and spend time with them just the way Christ would have when He was on earth as a man.
Matthew 19:13-15  We pray that some day because of our work here that the kingdom of heaven will belong to some of these children.

After we were done at our school we joined the other half of the team to finish up at their school and then we were able to eat some KFC at the school while we planned for the next day of ministry.  After we were done eating and planning a good portion of us opted to go to a "drop in centre" to serve and play with the kids that would be coming there.  This centre is in a part of the city that is very poor and where many of the homes are led by another child.  There may be parents but either they are single parents and have to work or perhaps are away in another location for an extended period of time for work.   Some of these kids are also likely true orphans and who knows what their living situations are like.  Some may be with grandparents if they are around.

This area reminded me so much of some of the poorest areas that we saw in Mexico.  The homes here are small brick square structures and may have wood or tin roofs.  There are people walking everywhere and their seems to be all kinds of activities going on all around you.  People selling things, sitting on side of roads, little business' everywhere.  The homes vary but are mostly very simple and have very little space around them.  Their homes and property are likely the size of your kitchen and living room put together.  No grass, few trees, just dirt and garbage everywhere.

When we arrived at the drop in centre there were only three little boys sitting there on chairs.  The rest of the kids would trickle in over the next hour.  The centre helps them in any way they can from giving them a place to be after school while parents are away, to feeding them, helping them with homework, providing life skills, and just spending time with them playing. We were going to try to do the same today for them!

To break the ice with these boys I just started some of our simple little games again such as "round and round the garden" that ends with the tickle and the guaranteed giggle from each of them.  We soon had enough kids for "ring around the rosie" and that leads to the obvious "monkey, monkey, baboon" again.  In half an hour our game had expanded to have about twenty kids it.  We had a blast!  Hope they did too.  The rest of the time included praying for the kids in a big group, then serving them supper of pap and chicken feet (yup that right, although some got that crappy back piece of chicken with all the bones in it).  The we played more games with hoops and balls and we finished up with Crystelle doing her object lesson for them and teaching them the importance of God's Word in their lives along with knowing Jesus.  We took a bunch of pictures, gave hugs, and prayed a blessing for the kids and the and to leave.  What wonderful staff and volunteers they have at this place.  They serve tirelessly to cook and help in  any way.  God bless them all!  The images in our minds and on our cameras will forever make an impact in your life.  The poverty makes me sad but the reality is it doesn't seem to bother them.  I've seen it in so may places now through several trips and even at home.  Sometimes I feel more sorry for our seriously spoiled kids in our affluent parts of the world.  They are harder to reach for Christ than these kids and seem to have far less joy!  The reality to me is that they all need Christ or they will never see heaven.  We need to love them all we don't and can't always fix their circumstances.  They just need a sense of purpose and to know they are valuable.  I hope we were able to give them at least one piece of that puzzle today!  I could not help but think of this passage today.  Matthew 10:29-32  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.  But even the hairs of your head are numbered.  Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.

Team Building and Terrace Gets Good News

Today we woke up at Shikwaru to another cool morning but with lots more people around!  That helped to make things warm up a little quicker in the restaurant during our breakfast.  It was fun to watch the new team members reaction as they were seeing Shikwaru and Africa for the first time in daylight.  The grounds here are truly beautiful although very brown right now because of it being the end of Winter and their dry season.  

The plan for today was to have a team building time and hopefully get to know everyone little better.  Kevin started our meeting with a great devotional on excellence versus perfection.  The passage was from Malachi 1:6-8 the people ask Malachi how they have displeased God and he explains by not offering acceptable or excellent sacrifices.  They were not giving their best but rather their “leftovers”.  Because God is excellent in everything He does we need also to be excellent in our service and offerings to Him.  The challenge was to work together on this trip to serve with excellence the people we are ministering to, the team members we are with, the staff at Shikwaru Lodge, and our God and Saviour.  There was also the reminders of the difference between excellence which is good and perfection which negative.  Our prayer is that as a team we will do our best to serve in an excellent way everyday of or trip.

I should also mention that today both our girls had the chance to try school in South Africa.  Terrace decided to stay with us for the Centershot team building but Jaelyn took the opportunity to go to school and see what school in South Africa would be like.

To end our morning session with the team we played of the property  some team building games and then it was time for everyone to get a tour via a game drive for a couple hours.  Just as we were heading outside for the game drive Eugene the PH (professional hunter) came to Terrace and said we have some good news!  Can you believe it, when we were not even thinking about it they had headed out again to look for her impala and today they found it no more than 300 yards form the blind.  They figured it had been dead shortly after the shot and that we had just not been able to find it.  Thanks you Lord for such an added blessing.  Terrace had tears of joy fill her eyes and when she told me I couldn’t believe it and had to fight back a few tears as well.  It was fun to get the news at that point with the other people around that we had told the heart breaking story to the night before.  Now many were congratulating her and giving her hugs for her accomplishments.  

So our plans were now to go see where they found it and then take pictures in the field with it as it was still in perfect conditioning and had not been found by any scavengers despite the time it took to find it.  We were able to have a little game drive of our own to get her impala and celebrate in the usual Shiwaru Lodge African way when you take your first game animal.  Terrace had to have a special song sung for her about “We love to hunt in Africa…” .  If you ant any further details about that story you can ask us and we would be happy to share with you.  Our only regret was that because of school Jaelyn was not there to be apart of the pictures and celebrating.  Although, I think that Terrace enjoyed getting to tell her the news after she returned from school.

After lunch we had multiple team members who have never had any formal Centershot Archery training.  Kevin had asked me if I would be willing to lead an abbreviated training session for them all.  It was fun to be able to spend an hour giving a crash course in Centershot outside in Africa.  Everyone worked hard to learn and we had fun spending some time learning the safety rules and how the range works but we also learned about the many ways that we may adapt things for our various situations here in South Africa.  Rick and Ardon know what I mean as we often have to change our best laid plans at the schools since you really don’t know what your dealing with at each school until you are there.  

Mid afternoon we had a special game drive that we all went on to Etebeni.  This is a huge wildlife preserve where you have the chance to see all the African animals that you can imagine.  It is a great opportunity to see the animals in their natural environment (if your driver can find them) and take pictures.  We learned a lot about tree on this drive as some of the animals were hard to find for most of the afternoon.  The drive goes right until dark and ifs a really fun experience.  We saw a lot of wildlife but two that we did not get to see that I saw last time were elephants and giraffes.  We did end on a high point seeing a rhino and then two cheetahs but by that time is was getting dark and difficult to get good pictures.  What a way to experience God’s creation together with our family and our new friends.

Our day ended with a planning session to figure out how to break up our teams to go to two different schools and what we would do at each school.  I was asked to be a co-leader with Kevin for our team and it was fun to see how everything seemed to fall into place for our team to serve through archery , games, and the Bible lesson.  I know that Crystelle was feeling a little more stressed than most people as she agreed to lead the Bible study.  That always requires more planning and prep before feeling ready.  She developed a great plan to teach the kids about a firm foundation.  The need to build your house on the rock and not the sand from Matt 7:24-27 was the theme, with an object lesson of a mini log house built with pencils that is stable on a rock but washes away when we build it on sand.  Please pray for kids that hear this lesson through the week that they will understand the importance of basing their life on God’s Word and accepting Jesus into their lives to save them from their sins.

We are getting further and further behind in our sleep so please pray for quality rest if not quantity.  Everyone is healthy but perhaps a little sore from being on our feet a lot.  The girls are doing so great with the schedule and we are so pleased that we all came together for this experience.  Please pray that our girls will all bond with the other young ladies and kids that are here and that they would be able to be mentored as well as be mentors and friends for those who are younger than them.  We have nine girls here from age 8-25ish and they all could be a great team of their own.  What a blessing to have this variety of young ladies here to serve!

Sunday Worship!

Today we were honoured to be able to attend a church here in the rural area that was started by Dr. Blessman who has his own ministry outreach and partners with Reaching a Generation on various projects.  This church was at one of the schools that I was able to be at last year with Centershot.  It was an amazing drive to church to see how the Blessman’s and their extended family assist to pick up so many people for church.  All along the highway to the school were families or just kids dressed in their Sunday best waiting for a ride to church.  

We had the privilege to meet Sarah who was in charge of the children’s church and we were able to assist her and her helpers to run the children’s church program this morning.  There was about 30 kids that attended all dressed beautifully with their best cloths I’m sure.  These kids are all so loving and make you feel so welcome as they run to give you hugs and climb on your back or touch your hair (if you have any).  It was fun to just love these kids and help them to participate in the songs, crafts, and Bible stories.  Crystelle was even able to assist by reading a Bible story to them as they all sat in a circle and listened intently.  

It was a certainly a different style of worship in the main service for the portion we were apart of but you could see the love these people have for the Lord as they sang and danced and even pulled a few members of our family into the aisles and to the front to join in the praise (I won’t mention any names of church staff or children of mine that may have danced).

After the service we were thanked by so many people and we thanked them for the opportunity to be a part of their church today.  We certainly felt welcomed!  I’m not sure how many people actually were there this morning but we know that we assisted them in breaking 100 people at their church for the very first time since it started just a few months ago.

When we returned from church we were hoping to hear some good news that Terrace’s impala was found, but still no good news.  They still assured us that they would keep looking and after reviewing the video again today, with a frame by frame option, we had a little more hope again as the shot looked good.  We would just have to wait and see when they could look again on Monday morning.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and spending some time together while we anticipate the the rest of the Centershot team arriving tonight.  It will be exciting to meet everyone and renew some past friendships as well as make some new ones.  In the meantime we had a wonderful supper with Jacques and Lizzy.  We were able to discuss some of our thoughts about our future and if that might include RaG.  At this point we don’t know but it was good to hear advice from Jacques and Lizzy about what things should be important in our search.  We talked about RaG and their desire to always have good people joining them.  We also discussed the importance of ‘“values” and making sure that your values and a missions values are the same.  It was good to start dream about what we are looking for and Jacques has done well to help us try to identify what it is we may envision.  We are far from knowing at this point but we see how God has been taking us on this journey and teaching us to trust Him in each “next step”.  Just seems these steps keep getting bigger!

Later in the evening it was great to see the vehicles pulling in with the team!  We greeted everyone and it was fun to see the excitement in all of them that we felt arriving a few days ago and that I felt last year when I first arrived at Shikwaru.  We really look forward to working together with everyone.  I’m anticipating great things through the upcoming archery ministry this week.

The Highs and Lows of Hunting

Warning: This blog entry has the details of a big game hunt.

Today was set up for us to have a great family day without any actual ministry time.  We were given the opportunity to assist with moving game animals from one area of the farm to the large free roaming area.  Along with moving these animals was having the vet administer medications to help control ticks and other diseases.  The process for this job was to ride out in the back of the truck and have the vet shoot the chosen animal with a tranquillizer gun.  Then once the animal was sedated we moved in to assist to hold it for medication administration and then carry it to the truck to move it to the new area.  Once in that area the vet would administer medications to reverse the sedation and we would watch them get up on their wobbly legs and head off into their new home.  We were able to assist with moving two sables and one impala  all before breakfast.  

After we had breakfast Banie was waiting to take us out to the hunting blind for us to watch Terrace attempt to hunt impala again.  The plan was to hunt until about 2 pm and then come in for lunch and then head back out for an afternoon hunt.  We all wanted to be together to experience this as a family, so this time around Banie had to put up with us all in the blind for the morning.  As we drove into the area the blind was at we saw several nice impala that spooked and ran away.  We could only hope that something would come back into our area, but at least it was encouraging to see animals right away.

After about two hours of sitting with the girls entertaining themselves with cell phone games and making bead bracelets they were starting to get a little bit goofy and stir crazy again.  Then Terrace says, “look there is three impala right there”.  She is such a kidder that I didn’t even believe her but looked out of the window to be sure there was nothing there.  Too my surprise she was not joking!  Now we could see several more coming in to feed and there was several really nice ones in the group of 9 impala.  It became quite comedic watching the action inside the blind I’m sure as I tried to video record the action as well as coach Terrace.  At the same time Banie was also trying to help pick the right animal and coach Terrace while Crystelle and Jaelyn were trying to get a view of the action.  The impala kept moving around and Terrace had to switch back and forth between the two shooting windows.  Twice she almost took shots but then something would happen and it was’t a perfect opportunity so she would have to reset herself.  She showed great patience and stayed very calm through the whole process.  Finally one of the nicest impala settled down and stayed in one place.  Terrace really took her time on the shot and made what appeared to be a good shot but maybe just slightly higher than ideal.  I managed to get the action on video although the quality of footage before hand shows that my focus was not really on cinematography, but rather helping Terrace.  Before you knew it all the animals were gone and Terrace was left asking, “Did I get it?”  The answer was “yes” but now the waiting begins before you pick up the trail to find the animal.  What an absolute high to be able to share that whole experience together as a family!  After reviewing the video footage several times we felt pretty good about the shot.  

Once we got on the trail to find the impala it was really tough going with very little blood or signs of his tracks.  As time went on the hopes started to turn to anxiety.  No one wants to wound or lose an animal when hunting.  Now we were hours into the search and still minimal sign of the animal.  Finally some hope after the girls had gone back to the blind to rest I found the arrow.  It was encouraging but after we still made minimal progress in finding the impala.  To sum things up we spent the rest of the day searching for the impala with no reward.  This even included having the two P.H.’s looking and Jobulani the top tracker at the game farm.  It was tough and discouraging for us all but especially Terrace.  What an ultimate low in hunting!  As we returned to the lodge it was tough I’m sure for Terrace to keep a good attitude but I’m so proud to say she did.  She really tried to focus on the hunt as a bonus and knows that the purpose of our trip is to serve God through missions.  Eugene assured us that they would still keep looking on Sunday and that it would likely show up somewhere.  Jacques looked at the video and didn’t seem confident that the impala was dead.  That was even more discouraging for Terrace but she appreciated the honesty I believe.  We all had slightly different opinions about the shot from the video but I still felt like it was a pretty good shot.  We felt good knowing that Jobulani would keep looking.  All we could do was pray about it and commit the situation to the Lord and know that whatever the result God has a lesson in it for Terrace.  I was proud about how well she did on the hunt, waiting for a good shot.  In the midst of all these circumstances she was keeping a good attitude.

It was hard to head to bed that night and not think about the events of the day and be a little discouraged.  But God is so good and has blessed us with such a great opportunity to serve Him here and that has not changed.  We felt very blessed for the family memories we had created together no matter the results

First Full Day At Shikwaru

From August 14th

Today we woke up in a warm room after a good nights sleep.  The “cabins” or large thatched roof huts at the Rafiki site of Shikwaru are a lot warmer than our Zambian tent was.  Although I really enjoyed our time in the tents.  They really were quite the luxury tents!  For the girls and Crystelle it was the first view in daylight of how things are laid out here on the beautiful grounds.   They have don't a great job creating a location that is so suitable for so many functions from weddings or corporate gatherings to youth events or weekend getaways.

We (Terrace and I) were instructed to check our hunting bows first thing in the morning to make sure they were still in good working order after our overseas flight.  After the time our bows spent with Delta they did need a little work to get them sighted in again.  As a part of this trip there is the opportunity for team members to hunt African Plains Game on the property.  This is one of the ways that Shikwaru raises money for the ministries here in South Africa and Zambia.  At our own expense we did intend to do some hunting at the end of our trip but Shikwaru staff wanted to bless us with the opportunity to hunt prior to the rest of the team coming in.  So the plan was to go on a hunt sometime today.  So we shot our bows before breakfast and for a little bit after breakfast until we felt confident they were working well.  Jaelyn was also able to try a crossbow that she may attempt to hunt with later in the week. I am looking forward to the opportunity for the girls to hunt while we are here so this was an added blessing!

During our breakfast we were able to meet with Roelene who helps to manage many of the ministries here at Shikwaru and RaG.  We went over various options for the next two days schedule.  Her hope is to help us accomplish what we want in terms of learning about their ministry and creating chances for us to assist in serving as well.  We found out that we would be able to attend a Centershot Club this afternoon at one of the schools that our Centershot Mission Team visited last year.  It will be fun to see some of what has grown out of our ministry from last year when I came with the Centershot Team to kick off the archery ministry at this school.

By mid morning we were able to head out with Eugene, the Professional Hunter (or P.H.) for the game farm, for a mini family safari.  This would be Terrace’s first big game hunt of any kind and with a bow yet!  You got to know I was excited, but to make things even better it was great that Crystelle and Jaelyn could come along to join us in the elevated “hide” for her first hunt.  It was a good experience for her to see how the hunting really looks in Africa and to experience sitting and waiting, as well as seeing some animals come in range and how to prepare to take a shot.  We had two impala come to the area but both were younger rams and too small for her to shoot.  It was exciting to be this close to the animals and watch them interact and eat.  Terrace did really well and we all look forward to the next chance for her to hunt.  You can see by the pictures that hunting with your wife and two girls is a lot different than normal.  Again we had some great family time together having a lot of fun and being goofy.  I’m not sure any of the people who meet us over here will think that we are normal!

After about 2.5 hours in the hide we came in for lunch and then headed to Mokapone to the school for the after school archery club.  It started at 1330hrs. Here in South Africa most schools run from 0700-1300 hours.  Then there are extra curricular activities and after school programs that run for the afternoons.  At the school we attended today there was about 30 kids who came to the Centershot Club.  It felt good to be able to know how we could help and serve with a ministry that looks familiar to all of us.  It was fun to meet Louis and work with him again at this school.  He is the youth pastor at the church associated with this school Centershot ministry.  We were also able to say “hi” and talk briefly with Pastor Rolf and Elizabeth who helped to start the school Centershot ministry here and were with the team last year when we served at this school. 

After the Centershot club we drove back to the lodge and had another amazing supper.  This is certainly not the place to lose weight.  They have been treating us so well and all the staff here go out of their way to take care of you.  We feel very spoiled and sometimes are left wondering who is serving who.  

Today Terrace was not feeling very well around supper time and actually did get sick to her stomach.  We think that she got a bit of a flu bug but nothing too serious.  Please pray that we will all stay healthy and that sickness will not get in the way of our ministry time here.

Despite Terrace being sick we had a relaxing evening and were able to spend time together and worked on catching up with blogging and contacting friends and family through Facebook.  We thank the Lord for a chance to connect with people back home and hope that this helps you feel more a part of what we are doing while we are here.  So many of you supported us financially and we want to thank you again for that.  Your prayers and financial gifts have made what has happened so far a possibility.  God has been so good to us!