Hello and welcome to a first time blogger's first trip to Africa! Let me first say what a great group of folks we had, and our many meetings, social events and prayer times really brought this team together before we ever left the ground in Atlanta. Tracy Herring was our fearless leader, and this was her second trip to Cape Town; she did a wonderful job the entire time, and we remained focused on the tasks at hand without incident! The rest of the group consisted of Darrel Richardson, Mary Mondol, Bri Marshall, Emily Lantz, Brian Sholly, Scott Riddle, Shawnie Merritt, Mara Hilterbrandt and last but certainly not least, Dana Stephens. These folks come from all over Atlanta and attend Northpoint, Brown's Bridge and Buckhead Churches. We had a couple of early hurdles with travel which is to be expected, and eventually our entire team was united in Cape Town. This place is beautifully green and lush, and Table Mountain seems to follow you around wherever you go...always looming in the distance. After a short night's sleep on Saturday night, we rose early and went directly to Old Mutual...a modern office park in the Pinelands neighborhood. Southpoint outgrew its original home on Stellenberg Road, but that building remains the home of Inside Out, the Attic and the church offices. After holding services at a nearby school for a brief time, a long awaited opportunity to utilize Old Mutual's wide open spaces and large auditorium for Southpoint Church services came to fruition. Volunteers arrive at 6 am to set up the entire place so it is able to host Waumba Land, Up Street and a huge common area featuring Connections, a wonderful cafe and plenty of room for people to gather and fellowship after the service. The band and production crew have to set up, sound check and work out any and all issues by 8 am so they can run through the service with pastor John Hastings before folks start arriving at 9 am. Church starts at 9:30 and lasts about an hour in the same format of a Northpoint Ministries service. After church that morning, we took a cable car to the top of Table Mountain where you can see the entire city far below. It was cool and breezy atop the mountain, and we eventually broke up in to groups to pray over the city. From there we headed back down and had dinner with the Hastings, Colin and Katya and the rest of our team. It was a great first day, although I think most of us were completely out of whack from jet lag and culture shock.
Monday March, 22 started off at the Southpoint Church Offices for a meeting with Derek and Wendy Coleman as well as Larry to discuss Starting Point, Small Groups and Strategic Service among the Southpoint community. That night we hosted the first of three celebration dinners at the same location for the adult members of Southpoint. They were encouraged to discuss different 'wins' they had witnessed while working with / at Southpoint, and we had one person from each table share their best story. It was very encouraging for all of these folks to hear such positive stories and remember what a great thing they are all doing in the community.
Tuesday started at the church offices again where we met with Colin, Kathy and Trudy to discuss the children's ministries such as Up Street and Waumba land. On a side not, when I say church offices, don't be confused. This is actually the old church which once outgrown was transformed to a place that can function in many useful ways for the church body. It has a big kitchen and open space as you walk in, several offices and restrooms and a huge auditorium in the back where church services used to be held. There is a wonderful patio outside with a nice side yard and playground equipment for the kids; this is such a warm place that I loved visiting! That night we hosted another dinner for the people who focus on these Children's Ministries and again discussed 'wins' in order to encourage these people in their daily efforts. It was really fun to serve dinners as a group so they could for once take a load off and just enjoy themselves and the success stories taking place at Southpoint.
On Wednesday we headed over to Camp Sonshine, just down the road from our hotel in
Pinelands. Alison Smith's mission there is to serve the children of Africa through excellent camps and after school educational programs to see them grow in to mature and productive adults. We played with the kids and took a ton of pictures...they do love the camera! That evening we broke up the team in to groups of two or three and went to different homes in the community to visit with several of the Small Groups that the Northpoint model so wisely focuses on. These Small Groups provide the church members with an intimate way to gather each week and focus on scripture, literature or study guides for example which keep them in a growing relationship with Jesus. I was lucky enough to end up at a brie hosted by Gareth's parents where most of the young folks were. I met the guys and what a cool group they are; most of them play in the band or are involved with sound and production in some way at Southpoint. We had a great time and I began to connect with them immediately on Facebook which will be huge for the rest of my trip!
We took a bit of a break on Thursday as the group piled in to the Toyotas for a trip to Somerset West and a tour of Lourensford Wines. What a lush, beautiful country this is, and I was immediately reminded of Napa, CA with the mountains, vineyards and wonderful sunshine accompanied by a cool breeze. We tasted coffee, chocolate and wine at Lourensford and had a great lunch outside under the tent. I have to admit my first real goof of the trip here. I was one of the main drivers for our team, which I welcomed as it was a chance to drive a manual transmission while sitting on the right side of the car and driving on the left hand side of the road. It's strange but not really too tough until you get in to turn lanes etc. I'm just glad the pedals and gears are laid out the same! I did, however, forget to turn the headlights off when we parked and the truck was dead as a door nail when we returned to leave. Luckily, a guy in the office had cables and got us going again pretty quickly. My car at home goes off like a burglar alarm if I try to exit and leave the lights on, whereas this car did not even so much as beep at me...lesson learned! Anyway, that evening we went to the Warehouse where Caroline told us how they sort and distribute their clothing, shoes etc to the needy people of the community. We then helped her sort clothes and organize the place, which is huge, followed by a team prayer before leaving.
Michael Hastings, Adam Stabler and Matt and Rachel Hastings joined us for breakfast at the hotel the next morning, Friday, to discuss Inside Out, the Band and Road Crew. All of these guys have so much talent be it musically or on the production side, and they really do make the services special through these gifts. Then it was over to the church offices to meet with James and Janet Senior to discuss their npo Metro Kids Africa. They hold Sidewalk Sunday School in the townships to let these children know of God's love for them and to show them a better way to live. What a sight it was to ride in the back of the Metro Kids Land Rover and watch the children spill out of the shacks as a young local announced on the bull horn that there was about to be another Sidewalk event. They came out in droves, and I believe we had over 1,000 kids there that afternoon. There was a drama about Easter and how Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and the kids were really in to it...not to mention that good behavior is rewarded with sweets at the end. It was a pretty emotional day, followed by our final dinner in honor of Inside Out, the Band and Road Crew. These young folks are doing so much at Southpoint and in the Cape Town community, and I am definitely feeling inspired to get more involved upon my return to Atlanta.
The next morning Becky Hastings met us at the hotel and a small group of us followed her over to a nice hike to get the blood pumping. About half way through, the rain came down and we got soaked on our descent to the cars...it couldn't ruin our time on the trails in such a great place, though, and we rushed back to the hotel for hot showers and breakfast. Then off we went to Boulders to see the African Penguins as well as the Cape of Good Hope a bit further down the road. Here you will find some of the most gorgeous views in the world, and we took some amazing pictures. We had dinner that night as a group in Haup Bay and celebrated another great day in South Africa.
Awesome to have you stay a little longer dude :)
ReplyDelete