newsletter 1...24.10.2009

Hello family and friends!

We are now into our fourth official week of the DTS. This letter is quite long just as we try to tell you about the where we are staying as well as what’s been happening.

We finally arrived, a few days later than planned, but that was of course part of God’s timing! We learnt to rely on Him and His provision, which is always amazing!

Rollercoaster week 1!

Our first week was filled with a rollercoaster of events and emotions which is not so good but we are grateful to have a God who carries us through.

On the first Thursday a tragic accident happened at the base where we are staying. The base is quite large with different schools running (dts, school of biblical studies and church planting school). We awoke on thursday to no running water! During the early hours of the morning some thieves had broken into the base and had sawn off the main water supply tube (which is valuable, being made of copper).A student raised the alarm and the police arrested the men involved. Later that day in our class we were praying (during a session on intercessory prayer) in groups when we got news that a student had fallen off the roof and paramedics were trying to recussitate him. The whole base was then called together (including a 50 strong DTS class from Perth, Australia, visiting here for 2 weeks) and it was announced that he had died. The paramedic stayed and told us that medically she believed it was instantaneous on impact.

This was pretty intense to handle in our first week. Tim and I had met the student for a couple of minutes while talking to one of our now friends on the Wednesday. It highlighted how this life is not ours to worry about trying to protect but God has numbered our days according to His will! A very important thing to remember and try to grasp. The situation also brought our DTS class together very quickly.

The second loop of the rollercoaster involved a hospital trip for Tim on our first Sunday. As you all probably know, Tim is highly allergic to peanuts. However, peanut butter is a staple food here! There is always bread, marg, jam, marmite and peanut butter (in huge metal pots) available for making toast. We have both stayed well away from the toast station.
One of the staff had made chocolate fudge and a creamy-brown coloured fudge which we thought was ‘vanilla’ flavoured, to bring in some more funds for themselves. Tim bought a piece of the ‘vanilla’ fudge and ate it, saving a small piece for me. He gave me a funny look when he handed me the small piece. I ate it and immediately knew it had peanuts in it (Tim doesn’t really know what peanuts taste like because he obviously doesn’t eat them!). I think the fudge was made from smooth peanut butter because there were no conspicuous peanut ‘bits’. Anaphalatic shock kicked in and Tim self-injected his adrenaline. We called someone from the base to take us to hospital. Between injecting and going to hospital from nowhere about 5 african pastors gathered round and started praying for Tim. The prayers were so powerful. Usually these allergic reactions get worse each time you have one. The last time Tim was in hospital for 3 days. This time he was feeling better as our african brothers were praying and the hospital visit was only 2 hours; he went on a nebuliser, had a jab and took some anti-histamines. The reaction was so minimall to any previous episodes, that we believe God stepped in with some healing against this allergy. The hospital was nothing like a British hospital (we realise how priveledged we are to have the NHS) but the doctor was nice knew what she was doing!

We believe God has started healing in Tim against his allergy and are trusting for complete healing in His timing.

So in our first week, God dropped Tim and I straight into teaching us to totally rely on Him for all our needs (including health, which we so often take for granted) and we really have to because we can do nothing ourselves!

Muizenberg.

So... a bit about Muizenberg! The base we are staying in is a big old hotel so its not too bad. Some rooms are a bit mouldy and old fashioned. There is a small swimming pool which we havn’t been in yet because it hasn’t been warm enough and the water isn’t clean.
Muizenberg is a small coastal town south of Cape Town. It is famous for the surf (which Tim has tried) and brightly coloured beach huts. We have spotted seals and whales in the sea which is very exciting! It is REALLY windy here but is getting hot and sunny as it’s coming into summer! There is a small mountain behind the base (it takes approx an hour and a half to climb to the top, which we have done a few times). The local supermarket has christmas trees and snowflake decorations which is very silly considering christmas is during the summer and most South Africans have never seen snow!!

On the same road as the base is a christian coffee shop/ restaurant/ b and b. It’s called Kosie’s Place and is a family run business. They give you a Bible verse on a little piece of paper with your order. It’s a really friendly and comfortable place to go as well as being cheap! Food and drinks tend to be cheaper here. There has been a good conversion rate of 12 Rand to the pound. A proper hot choc or coffee may cost R12-14. Muizenberg itself is not very african, more like somewhere in Europe such as Spain. However, 10 mins down the road it is a different story...

The rich/ poor divide is very obvious, with just a main road separating the two areas. The poor areas are called townships. Townships are densely populated areas where people live in shacks made of junk; wood, sometimes brick and corrugated metal roofs. It is very shocking. We went to a township to visit a family we last friday. We prayed for a 16 year old girl with suspected tuberculosis. She went to hospital on monday and she is completely clear (her mum died one and half years ago from TB) and feeling well again. Praise God!

Chloë’s degree.

I have received some good news whilst being here. I passed my degree with a 2:1 classification!!! All the glory to God for enabling me to achieve this grade.

Tim’s local outreach.

A group of us are leading a local youth group whilst we are here in Muizenberg. It’s a very traditional church. We’ve had two sessions so far and the youth group doubled, so looking forward to some greater growth and more kids growing into their futures. They all appear to be coming out of their shells, especially when we’ve been asking them challenging questions about life and how they fit into it.

Chloë’s local outreach.

My local outreach is every wednesday at 2-4pm. Working in an orphanage (Sibongile. www.sibongile.org) for disabled children who all have cerebral palsy of varying severity, in a township called Khayelitsha, the biggest in the western cape. 1.2million people live in an area 12x8km! Families will reject children with disabilities believing they are cursed. Today we went to visit the two sites they currently have. One consists of 3 metal containers, in which one container there are about 10 children being cared for. The children lay on a mat on the floor with only 3 ‘mama’s’ caring for them. The rely a lot on volunteers to help give each child the care they need. The second centre is in a brick built house and is much larger, cleaner and brighter. The children were all out of their beds but lying together on a mat on the floor.
It was shocking to see the children lying there without sitting or lying supports. The mama’s look after them well and as best they can but there is so much more that should be happening, but they just don't have the resourses. I really want to use some of the orthotic knowledge I’ve gained to help the children to walk better (those who can), stand and sit, although there are no means of really doing this. Also to relax their muscles out so they don’t become too tightly curled up.

Our outreach phase.

Dec 19 to Feb 26th is the outreach phase of YWAM. Our team will be going to India and we will both be leading our group! So far there are 10 of us on the team all together but this may be subject to change. It’s going to be crazy to go to India, into the heat of spiritual battle, with so many people that are in desperate need of God. We’re really looking forward to preaching the gospel there as well as getting involved with the local churches, hopefully doing some conferences as well as street and ‘mercy’ ministries.

Next week.

We are going to a ‘Nations 2 Nations’ conference. It is along the coast in Jeffrey’s Bay. There are going to be DTS’s from a few differerent places attending, so about 250 people. The married couples are possibly sleeping in tents on the base, fun!