The World Cup is over and so is our time in this beautiful country. Since we wrote you last, we spent two weeks in Cape Town with the Justice Acts people. They are fantastic. It was so amazing to be a part of what they are doing. We also spent some of our time watching the World Cup games at the FIFA Fan Fest in Cape Town and just soaking up the Jabulani/Ayoba atmosphere. After the soccer, we drove out through the Cape Winelands and eventually the entire Garden Route back to J'Bay. Today we got a chance to drive around a game reserve, tomorrow we're all packed up and Monday we're on a plane back stateside.
Thank you all so much for following along this journey with us. We look forward to catching up with you and sharing all of the crazy/amazing/funny stories that have been left out of this blog. We will have my cell phone (653-1659) when we get back so please give us a call so we can get together and/or come to Stroudwater Christian Church (our church, which meets at Cinemagic in Westbrook) next Sunday the 25th to hear us share about our travels and also hear Dave Wiggins speak. Dave has been one of the most influential people in my life and is currently a father, a husband and a stand up comedian in Auckland, New Zealand.
Hope to see you soon.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Jabulani Africa
Its been a while since our last post and a lot has happened. Most of what has happened as been different inductive studies of the Bible, so we can leave all of that out for now (although we're excited to share what we have learned with you when we return). The past few weeks have been busier and busier in an increasingly exciting way. A few weeks ago we went in to Cape Town to pick up our FIFA World Cup tickets. We hiked Lion's Head, a mountain in Cape Town, and got our first taste of the World Cup vibe at the V&A Waterfront. Last week we went to two games, England vs. Algeria and Portugal vs. Korea DPR at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. It was fantastic, so cool to be at a proper soccer match. We had two extra tickets to the games. We brought one friend from J'Bay and gave the other tickets to different people. One guy was a huge England fan, we met him first in J'Bay briefly, then in Dubai, and then again in Cape Town, so we figured it was meant to be. For the Portugal match, one of our friends didn't show up, so I walked up to a random, middle-aged man standing alone, asked him if he believed in God, and gave him the ticket for free. It was great, we spent the rest of the day with him watching the different games and talking about life. The atmosphere here around the World Cup is amazing, I wish you all could feel it, maybe our new videos and pictures will give you a glimpse.
So our time here in Worcester, South Africa has come to a close. This past week we finished our Bible Core Course. It was a great course, I would recommend it to anyone who would like to be challenged in their faith in a positive way. Tomorrow we head out for Muizenberg, Cape Town. We have rented a room in the apartment of a YWAM staff guy who works with the base in Muizenberg. We will be there for 17 days as part of a World Cup Outreach that is orchestrated by YWAM.
Our main focus during these next weeks will be with a ministry called Justice Acts, it is an anti-human trafficking organization that started in YWAM. If you are interested in what is going in South Africa at the moment and what we will be helping with for the next two weeks, please watch Justice Acts' short documentary video called Selling South Africa's Innocence. We will be volunteering with Justice Acts awareness/prevention campaigns, prostitution ministries and anywhere they might need help.
When we are not with Justice Acts, we will be working with Cape Town Baptist Church. They are hosting a variety of soccer and township outreaches. They are also one of the central churches involved with Justice Acts. They are located down town and are also running a coffee shop during the World Cup and screening all of the games for people on the street to come in and get a free hot drink, watch the games, and talk. Its quite cold here, not as cold as Maine, but here they don't have central heating. Some people have space heaters but for the most part its just as cold inside as outside. We will also try to be at FIFA Fan Fest, downtown Cape Town, for as many games as possible. Fan Fest is a free outdoor venue for fans to watch the games on multiple giant screens. We'll be there tomorrow for the USA vs. Ghana match, what goes around comes back around Ghana...
Thanks so much for sticking with us through this past year. We really appreciate everyone who has been keeping up with us and especially those of you who have been praying for us. Please continue to pray for us. We are heading back out for outreach, only two weeks, but we will certainly need your prayers, especially in relation to the Justice Acts work. There are so many of you that we miss so much. Over the past month I've been thinking about all of the people in my life and realizing that I must be one of the richest people in the world...
So our time here in Worcester, South Africa has come to a close. This past week we finished our Bible Core Course. It was a great course, I would recommend it to anyone who would like to be challenged in their faith in a positive way. Tomorrow we head out for Muizenberg, Cape Town. We have rented a room in the apartment of a YWAM staff guy who works with the base in Muizenberg. We will be there for 17 days as part of a World Cup Outreach that is orchestrated by YWAM.
Our main focus during these next weeks will be with a ministry called Justice Acts, it is an anti-human trafficking organization that started in YWAM. If you are interested in what is going in South Africa at the moment and what we will be helping with for the next two weeks, please watch Justice Acts' short documentary video called Selling South Africa's Innocence. We will be volunteering with Justice Acts awareness/prevention campaigns, prostitution ministries and anywhere they might need help.
When we are not with Justice Acts, we will be working with Cape Town Baptist Church. They are hosting a variety of soccer and township outreaches. They are also one of the central churches involved with Justice Acts. They are located down town and are also running a coffee shop during the World Cup and screening all of the games for people on the street to come in and get a free hot drink, watch the games, and talk. Its quite cold here, not as cold as Maine, but here they don't have central heating. Some people have space heaters but for the most part its just as cold inside as outside. We will also try to be at FIFA Fan Fest, downtown Cape Town, for as many games as possible. Fan Fest is a free outdoor venue for fans to watch the games on multiple giant screens. We'll be there tomorrow for the USA vs. Ghana match, what goes around comes back around Ghana...
Thanks so much for sticking with us through this past year. We really appreciate everyone who has been keeping up with us and especially those of you who have been praying for us. Please continue to pray for us. We are heading back out for outreach, only two weeks, but we will certainly need your prayers, especially in relation to the Justice Acts work. There are so many of you that we miss so much. Over the past month I've been thinking about all of the people in my life and realizing that I must be one of the richest people in the world...
Saturday, May 29, 2010
BCC and Cape Town
We're going into Week 9 of the BCC. Two weeks ago, we went on an outing to Cape Town (new pictures are up), followed by a jam-packed weekend with 25 hours of lectures on Revelation between Friday and Sunday. Next week, we'll begin studying the Old Testament with Deuteronomy and 1+2 Kings.
We celebrated our first anniversary with morning lectures on Revelation and an evening out in Worcester. The next day we were back to Cape Town for YWAM's 50th Anniversary Celebration. We heard from the founders, Loren and Darlene Cunningham and got the chance to catch up with all our friends from Jeffrey's Bay. We also were able to connect with Justice Acts, the anti human trafficking organization we were hoping to work with during the World Cup. It looks like we will be able to work with them during the few weeks we're in Cape Town in June-July. We'll post the details of what we're doing when we have a better idea. In the meantime, ESPN is doing a spotlight on Human Trafficking which will air June 5. It will feature Justice Acts and may give some background on the organization.
We're 51 days away from Maine. We are so excited to be home again with you all. Check out the new pictures.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The BCC
We're in Week Five of the BCC and it's going great so far. We've been keeping pretty busy with school work and the time has been flying by.
The BCC (Biblical Core Course) is a shorter version of the School of Biblical Studies offered through YWAM. In three months, we'll read through the Bible from beginning to end (out loud) and do an in-depth study of fifteen books using an inductive method designed by the school. Much of the idea behind the inductive study is to approach the text without preconceived ideas about its meaning and seek to understand it in context.
The school runs from Monday-Saturday. Every Saturday, we read a few books out loud in reading groups. The following week, one of those books will become the subject of our inductive study. The method is pretty comphrehensive, including color-coding, writing titles for each paragraph and creating charts that provide both a big picture synopsis and an in-depth analysis of each book. The school also hosts a speaker each week to teach on the book, providing historical information, scholarly references and personal perspectives and theories. All of our assignments are due Saturday afternoon, leaving Sunday our only free day (but it's completely free).
We have also been doing some of our readings off base, which has given us a good opportunity to get out of the classroom and see more of Worcester. In the first week of the school, we went to the Botanical Gardens and yesterday we went to Goudini Spa, a hot springs resort, for the night. Our school leader has been posting pictures of us on Facebook - so you can find some there to see exactly what we've been up to! We'll post some of our own pictures soon.
Our school ends on June 24th and then we're off to the World Cup. We're still in the process of working out ministry, but we've been offered a place to stay at the YWAM base in Cape Town.
We'll post updates as our plans solidify - can't wait to see you all in July!
-bkwam
The BCC (Biblical Core Course) is a shorter version of the School of Biblical Studies offered through YWAM. In three months, we'll read through the Bible from beginning to end (out loud) and do an in-depth study of fifteen books using an inductive method designed by the school. Much of the idea behind the inductive study is to approach the text without preconceived ideas about its meaning and seek to understand it in context.
The school runs from Monday-Saturday. Every Saturday, we read a few books out loud in reading groups. The following week, one of those books will become the subject of our inductive study. The method is pretty comphrehensive, including color-coding, writing titles for each paragraph and creating charts that provide both a big picture synopsis and an in-depth analysis of each book. The school also hosts a speaker each week to teach on the book, providing historical information, scholarly references and personal perspectives and theories. All of our assignments are due Saturday afternoon, leaving Sunday our only free day (but it's completely free).
We have also been doing some of our readings off base, which has given us a good opportunity to get out of the classroom and see more of Worcester. In the first week of the school, we went to the Botanical Gardens and yesterday we went to Goudini Spa, a hot springs resort, for the night. Our school leader has been posting pictures of us on Facebook - so you can find some there to see exactly what we've been up to! We'll post some of our own pictures soon.
Our school ends on June 24th and then we're off to the World Cup. We're still in the process of working out ministry, but we've been offered a place to stay at the YWAM base in Cape Town.
We'll post updates as our plans solidify - can't wait to see you all in July!
-bkwam
Monday, March 29, 2010
Not home, but sweet, but still not home
We are here at the YWAM Worcester Base just an hour outside of Cape Town. Check out our base tour video. Also check out our pictures, we've added some.
The majority of people on this base are Brazilians, so lots of soccer, and then South Koreans who are participating in the YWAM English Language School.
A week from today we start the BCC (Biblical Core Course). This is an abbreviated version of the 9 month SBS (School of Biblical Studies). The BCC is a 12 week course designed to empower missionaries in a short period of time. In the BCC we will read every book of the Bible in block text (meaning we have to go through and white out all of the paragraph titles) aloud, and each book in one sitting. Kati and I have started this portion early because we are leaving early to participate in the World Cup Outreach (we finished Isaiah in 3 hours and 4 minutes, a new record). The main focus of the BCC is to teach a new method of Bible study. The first week of the course is dedicated to teaching the method and the next 11 weeks is applying the method to different books of the Bible, which means we will spend one week each studying 11 books.
The next two months will be rather uneventful as we study 6 days a week. We will leave Worcester on June 8th to participate in the World Cup Outreach. We haven't figured out exactly how we will participate, but it will probably be with a focus on soccer ministry or anti human trafficking ministry, we'll keep you posted and pass on the information about the situation here leading up to the World Cup Outreach.
We miss you all heaps and can't wait to be back stateside. We are very excited for this BCC and the World Cup Outreach and even more excited to see you all again. We will keep you updated as the school progresses. We have much better internet access here, so email and hit us with some knowledge on yourselves.
peace and love, but mostly love
><>kbk
The majority of people on this base are Brazilians, so lots of soccer, and then South Koreans who are participating in the YWAM English Language School.
A week from today we start the BCC (Biblical Core Course). This is an abbreviated version of the 9 month SBS (School of Biblical Studies). The BCC is a 12 week course designed to empower missionaries in a short period of time. In the BCC we will read every book of the Bible in block text (meaning we have to go through and white out all of the paragraph titles) aloud, and each book in one sitting. Kati and I have started this portion early because we are leaving early to participate in the World Cup Outreach (we finished Isaiah in 3 hours and 4 minutes, a new record). The main focus of the BCC is to teach a new method of Bible study. The first week of the course is dedicated to teaching the method and the next 11 weeks is applying the method to different books of the Bible, which means we will spend one week each studying 11 books.
The next two months will be rather uneventful as we study 6 days a week. We will leave Worcester on June 8th to participate in the World Cup Outreach. We haven't figured out exactly how we will participate, but it will probably be with a focus on soccer ministry or anti human trafficking ministry, we'll keep you posted and pass on the information about the situation here leading up to the World Cup Outreach.
We miss you all heaps and can't wait to be back stateside. We are very excited for this BCC and the World Cup Outreach and even more excited to see you all again. We will keep you updated as the school progresses. We have much better internet access here, so email and hit us with some knowledge on yourselves.
peace and love, but mostly love
><>kbk
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Graduation and our next step
This is us: before and after. We finally graduated on Wednesday night and have spent the last few days relaxing. J'Bay is gorgeous this time of year and the ocean is finally warmer than the Atlantic in Maine.
We wanted to update everyone on our next move. As many of you know, our plan was to do two schools here: the Discipleship Training School and the Biblical Core Course. Now that the DTS is over, we're onto the BCC, which will be the more academic and less ministry-focused portion of our time here. Beginning in the lecture phase, we discussed enrolling in the BCC at a different base. We've spent some time praying about it and now feel this is the best decision. Our plan is to go to YWAM Worcester, the hub of YWAM South Africa. Moving will give us the opportunity to see more of South Africa and more of YWAM, which we're excited to do. We'll also be much closer to Cape Town, which is our final destination for the World Cup games and outreach.
Our plan is to leave on Tuesday or Wednesday for Worcester. We will spend the next few weeks on a break as the school doesn't begin until April 2.
Thanks for all the continued prayers - we'll be sure to send another update when we've settled in at Worcester.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
All's Well That Ends Well
So our time in the Philippines has come to a close. We were in San Pascual for the 5 weeks and it was amazing. We both really enjoyed the culture - especially the missionary family that is pioneering the YWAM base in the province of Batangas.
After our mini-vacation, we continued with the same ministry as before - "friendship evangelism" in Santa Clara, campus ministry and kids programs in Balayong. The final part of our schedule was a three-day trip to Libjo, in a Badjao community. The Badjaos are a Filipino minority, originally from Mindanao. Well-known as "sea-dwellers," the Badjaos are deep-rooted in Islam and have a long history of displacement (it is actually uncertain where this minority originated). Here, they are known as the modern-day "gypsies" of the Philippines -with no real place to call home, they are either on the streets or living in shacks along the sea.
We actually only spent one night with our team for the Badjao trip. The youth from one of the local churches invited us to attend a Valentine's Day fundraiser dinner, so we left the Badjao community for that and the following day we spoke at the Love, Courtship and Marriage seminar in Batangas City. We shared our testimonies and participated in a panel Q&A with one other couple on love (we know a little), courtship (we don't really know what that is), and marriage (the other couple was 44 years more seasoned than us in that department). It was a great experience though - and we were so happy to get the chance to work with young people. We also really connected with the youth at CCFI, the church that held the Valentine's Day dinner - and were able to spend the next day at church with them while the rest of our team was in the Badjao community.
We returned to South Africa on Thursday, February 18 and spent our last week in a small community called Loerie. We were really blessed there with organized ministry and great hosts - it was the perfect way to end our outreach. We spent the entire week holding mini Young Life-style clubs each night for the senior youth and ended with a program on Friday night that was open to the whole community. Also, in South Africa, Christian teaching is embraced by schools so we went into the school twice to perform dramas in their morning assembly and speak in the classrooms. The community seemed really excited to have us there and sad to see us go and we left feeling like we had really made an impact on some of the young people. Brian and one guy, Theo, really hit it off. They spent a lot of time together outside organized ministry talking about what it is to follow God and set an example. As one of the older guys in the community, Theo has such potential to set the pace for the rest of the youth in the future.
We arrived in Jeffrey's Bay last night around 11. We have a couple days to debrief with the other two teams and then we graduate on Wednesday. We're glad to be back and ready for round 2 - the BCC. It's hard to believe we're only at half-way point! We're also looking into outreach for the World Cup. We are trying to get in with Justice Acts, an organization doing anti-human trafficking work, to do work while we are in town for the games. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we try to sort out the details for the second half of our time here, Biblical Core Course and World Cup Outreach. Hopefully we will be able to give you more frequent and detailed updates now that our bouncing around is done. We will let you know more about the BCC and the Justice Acts work as we make arrangements with those organizations. We're really excited to see what God has for us over these next few months and even more excited to be back home with you all in July!
After our mini-vacation, we continued with the same ministry as before - "friendship evangelism" in Santa Clara, campus ministry and kids programs in Balayong. The final part of our schedule was a three-day trip to Libjo, in a Badjao community. The Badjaos are a Filipino minority, originally from Mindanao. Well-known as "sea-dwellers," the Badjaos are deep-rooted in Islam and have a long history of displacement (it is actually uncertain where this minority originated). Here, they are known as the modern-day "gypsies" of the Philippines -with no real place to call home, they are either on the streets or living in shacks along the sea.
We actually only spent one night with our team for the Badjao trip. The youth from one of the local churches invited us to attend a Valentine's Day fundraiser dinner, so we left the Badjao community for that and the following day we spoke at the Love, Courtship and Marriage seminar in Batangas City. We shared our testimonies and participated in a panel Q&A with one other couple on love (we know a little), courtship (we don't really know what that is), and marriage (the other couple was 44 years more seasoned than us in that department). It was a great experience though - and we were so happy to get the chance to work with young people. We also really connected with the youth at CCFI, the church that held the Valentine's Day dinner - and were able to spend the next day at church with them while the rest of our team was in the Badjao community.
We returned to South Africa on Thursday, February 18 and spent our last week in a small community called Loerie. We were really blessed there with organized ministry and great hosts - it was the perfect way to end our outreach. We spent the entire week holding mini Young Life-style clubs each night for the senior youth and ended with a program on Friday night that was open to the whole community. Also, in South Africa, Christian teaching is embraced by schools so we went into the school twice to perform dramas in their morning assembly and speak in the classrooms. The community seemed really excited to have us there and sad to see us go and we left feeling like we had really made an impact on some of the young people. Brian and one guy, Theo, really hit it off. They spent a lot of time together outside organized ministry talking about what it is to follow God and set an example. As one of the older guys in the community, Theo has such potential to set the pace for the rest of the youth in the future.
We arrived in Jeffrey's Bay last night around 11. We have a couple days to debrief with the other two teams and then we graduate on Wednesday. We're glad to be back and ready for round 2 - the BCC. It's hard to believe we're only at half-way point! We're also looking into outreach for the World Cup. We are trying to get in with Justice Acts, an organization doing anti-human trafficking work, to do work while we are in town for the games. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we try to sort out the details for the second half of our time here, Biblical Core Course and World Cup Outreach. Hopefully we will be able to give you more frequent and detailed updates now that our bouncing around is done. We will let you know more about the BCC and the Justice Acts work as we make arrangements with those organizations. We're really excited to see what God has for us over these next few months and even more excited to be back home with you all in July!
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