Where are we???

Orientations, folks, is so important!!!  And orientation is what we have been spending most of our time doing since arriving to South Africa.  Things are going well, life here is becoming more "normal", we are settling, making friends...  The Lord is so good, so beautiful and it is so fun to let Him take charge and guide us on this journey.

The kids have been making friends:

We are making friends too!!!  We have been visiting different churches, and trying to decide which one to make our "home church".  It is a decision we are asking you to pray for!!!  Some have the bonus of cute little girls coming to sleep in my arms, lively worship and dancing...  Others are more like what we are used to back home.

That said, going to different churches like that has been hard on Raph (who hates changes), but the Jelly Beans from Pastor Chris on Sunday are really helping.

The first week of July Mike and I had one week of training at Hope Africa Collective, where Terry (the director) provided orientation on well EVERYTHING.  We have been so blessed to join such a well run organization.  We were given schedules even.  It's hard to believe this is Africa!!!

Terry Hilliard

Terry and Jeremy (program director and also Terry's son) spent time with us discussing the mission, vision and values of Hope Africa Collective with us, going over the organizational structure and development path.  We talked about ministering cross culturally, about servant leardership, about transitions and so much more.  Our time together was very beneficial and we learned so much.  These American boys really like their graphs.

Terry also organized for many of the staff to speak to us about the area they are working in, so we got a really good idea of how all the programs are run and how successful they have been!!!

We had Amanda, one of the life skills facilitator, speak to us about the culture and history of South Africa and also the apartheid, ...  She gave us insight we had never gotten before.  Amanda is a colored African and she told us of her family being forced to leave their home and being put into a township.  It still sounds insane to us that this actually happened.  Because she is colored, some of her relatives who looked more white were able to claim "white status" and were not sent to the townships, where others (in the same family) had to.  You can imagine how family were torn apart and the damage this caused.  Amanda is such a strong and beautiful woman.  She's loves the Lord so much and it radiates through every part of her!

Cindy & Bomikazi (Abongile too I think) attempted to teach us Xhosa.  Just saying Xhosa is a challenge, for some...  Never mind speaking the language!!!  All those clicks sound really cool and fun, but it has been a real challenge (and again, nearly impossible for someone I won't name) to make our mouth do those sounds.  They got a good laugh, we were humiliated.  Good start for a great friendship I think. 

Cindy

Franklin presented to Life Development classes and both Mike and I were blown away by the stories we heard from him of transformed life through this class.

We also learned about the EPIC program, which stands for Equiping People In Christ.  And it is just that.  I could try to sum it up, but this video of Thembelani, a former student of Epic and now staff @ Hope Africa does such a better job than I ever could!!! 

Lastly Asanda gave us great insight into the Xhosa culture:

Stay clear of doorways
It is rude to stand in doorways in the Xhosa culture.  You also must ask people to take off their coats, even tho they will not since everyone is freezing in this weather.  If you have food, you have to offer everyone some of it.  This culture is so relational, it's such a beautiful thing!!!  They shake hands, hug and spend time properly greeting one another.  They are so warm and free spirited.  Relationships are more important than being on time.

He also explained to us the difference between man and boys, and how it was okay for boys to be bad and people expect it because they are still just a child.  It is also strongly encouraged by their culture for boys to have many girlfriends and have sex with them.  Girls are simply to have fun with, nothing more.  It's viewed badly, however, when a girl gets pregnant.  It's very common for girls to have babies young and from many different boys.  Most students we have met at HAC are mothers.  Boys become men when they get circumcised and then they are expected to behave more seriously and to get married.    

Mike and I are learning so much and seeing people's lives being changed everyday.  We are so excited for what we will all get to experience during our time here.  Until then,
Cheers!

The keeping of the Fast family

How is the Fast family keeping?  Are they safe?  How are they adjusting?  What are they doing?  What are they experiencing?  How is the Hope Africa Ministry?  Well folks, find out all this and more in this blog!!!  Right here, right now.  One-stop-find-all for all-you-could-possibly-want information on the most recent happenings of the Fast clan.  The best part???   It is free!!  Caution is still recommended when reading this extremely random blog.  Consider yourself warned. 

The keeping of the Fast family
It's hard to believe it's already been 2 1/2 weeks since we arrived to South Africa.  Here we are, in this beautiful land, seeing some of the most gorgeous places we have seen in our whole lives and trying to take it all in.  There are large mountains and a beach 5 minutes from our house.  We knew the landscape would be pretty, but I think that we were all a little surprised at how breathtaking it actually is.

Main Road, Muizenberg, Cape Town

However as many of you know, that's not the whole picture.  I wish I could tell you that all we had heard about the state of the townships where people live before we came here wasn't true, but it is very very true and real.  I will touch on that later in this blog.

Safety 1st
Our first few days here were really hard in regards to security and those types of things.  We are far from Niveville, Manitoba where locking your doors is "optional" and going out at night is never an issue.  We are dealing with gates & locks to get in AND OUT of our house, looking over our shoulders and learning to be street smart.  It's a hard balance to find between being safe without becoming overly paranoid, to be smart and careful yet not become distrusting, etc...  

As seen in the Bible
2 verses that the Lord has already given me in this regards to fear:

Psalm 56:3 "When I am afraid, I will trust in You"
Proverbs 3:24 "When you lie down, you will not be afraid; you will lie down, and your sleep will be pleasant."

The bottom line is that fear is not from God and we don't want to be overcome by it.  We want to defeat it and live by faith.  "See ya later bondage of fear, I don't need ya."  We would ask that you continue to pray for us in this area.

Where in the world is Hope Africa Collective?
The facility is in a rented space from an other ministry called Beautiful Gate, situated right in the township of Phillipi.  As we drove there, we saw townships that extended so far we couldn't see the end.  It is a sea of shacks or informal settlements side by side, many without electricity or sewage.  It was hard to see such poverty in real life and not just in pictures.  It is currently estimated that 3-4 million of people live in the townships.  Phillipi alone is 750,000 people, the size of Winnipeg.  It is considered a colored township.

Yet they have hope!!!  When we went to the HAC base the first day, we heard children singing in Xhosa (from part of a Beautiful Gate winter program that is running there is no school currently).  The singing is beautiful, and how amazing it must be for God to watch African kids singing and dancing in the middle of a man-made slum!

Unique Hope Africa staff
June 26th (on our wedding anniversary) we finally got to meet the Hope Africa Collective staff in it's entirety and see the facility.  Hope Africa has a variety of rooms and spaces they are using for ministry and Mike and I were so excited to finally see what we have heard so much about in preparation for coming here!!!  It sure looks like they do so much considering they are such a young organization.  We cannot wait to find out more about all the different aspects in more details.

Meeting the staff at Hope Africa was one of the most unique experience Mike and I have ever had in our whole entire life.  There is a lot of love & laughter in the air as people jest and joke with each other.  Most of the banter is in Xhosa (or English we can’t understand?), and it is fun watching the interactions in the room. 

Even during the introductions, you could tell this group likes to have fun.  It was great to hear everyone's role and what they loved most about the ministry.  Most highlighted things like they get to serve where they are gifted and how the ministry uses a holistic approach that makes a real difference in people’s lives and communities.

After the introductions, it was turn for Mike and I to share about how we felt called by God to come here.  Once we were done, they had a time of prayer for us where all 15 of the people pray at once.  It has always amazed me how prayer can so effortlessly cross through barriers that seem so large in other areas of life.

Words of truth
The staff prayed for us with a passion I'm sure can only be found in Africa, and spoke the most amazing truths into our hearts.  They spoke words we will always cherish, words only God could have given them as we had just barely met them!!!  We humbly received their words as if spoken from Jesus himself, letting Him minister to us in a new way, touching places in our hearts that needed healing, letting God strengthen us and prepare us for what is ahead.  They spoke of our children, they addressed our fears for them, especially in this new place, spoke of the care of our Heavenly Father and His love for them and of His joy in having us being obedient in coming here.  They also spoke on our need to completely trust Him on this new journey and the importance of a fresh start and freedom to serve Him with what He's equipped us to do.  I cannot really explain it well, and for that I am sorry.  It was simply an amazing way to be ministered to, a way our Father wanted to blessed us in, smiling on us the whole time I'm sure.

Adjusting 101: Ears
Life here is quite different, people talk with a really funny accent, and we REALLY struggle understanding people on the phone.  This made things like getting a car REALLY difficult!!!  We find ourselves getting people to spell out many things, using our expensive and precious cell phone minutes on trying so hard to communicate simple things.  Street names are in Afrikaan which we're not at all fluent in so even our Tom Tom GPS isn't much help if we can't spell things.  

Pit stop
That said, we found a good (hopefully) car, "understood" the seller, and went to pick it up last Friday!!!  It is by the grace of God (actually like ONLY) that I didn't crash driving the rental car home in a completely backward way than I'm used to!!!  And on a standard :)

For those of you who are interested, hint hint, it is a 2006 VW Jetta (silver).  I don't think you can tell from this picture much about the car, so I'll take the guessing game out of this blog...  What you can tell, is that Mike and Raph are happy about the car, and that's really all that matters.  We hope it will last us a long time.
 

Thank you for praying :)

I have so much more to say, but there will be more blogs, more chats, more time :)  This post is by far more factual than I intended, so you will have to stay tuned for the hilarious moments we have had so far in the next post!!!

Until then,
God bless.