South Africa - Running Diary - Part VII

I lazily attempted to keep a running diary of my daily events during our trip to South Africa. What follows below is that lazy attempt. The words in quotes are the actual things I wrote in my journal, followed by a brief description (if necessary) to describe the words I wrote and the significance behind them. Whenever possible, I tried to document the time (local time depending on what time zone I was in) at which these events occurred. Hope that makes at least some sense…enjoy.

Friday, January 22^nd – 7:35 pm: “Red light (robot), Green light (robot).” Friday night, we lead the youth service at church. By this point, most of us were exhausted for the non-stop pace of the week...but this was our last commitment for the evening, before we could go back to the Mission House and crawl into our beds for the night. We started the evening off with a few games that we were familiar with, but they had never heard of. We played Red Light, Green Light (they call their traffic lights ‘robots’. Weird, I know), and Limbo with the youth. The kids had a blast playing along with us and competing with each other. Next, everyone filed into the church where we lead worship for them. That’s right, I said “we”…I sang in the choir…and I even shared a microphone with Nicole. Apparently my voice wasn’t too horrible, because no one left…although I’m not 100% certain that our mic was even on. Regardless, we led worship for the youth; they sang along, motioned with us and praised Him. Next, a couple people shared their stories for the kids. At which time, Katy felt called to share hers as well. She wasn’t planning on speaking that night, but the Spirit led her to speak up and tell all the kids about what God had done in her life, and what He can do in each of their lives as well. So, she stood up, spoke, and shared the Gospel with them. That night, 3 kids were led to Christ!!! As if that wasn’t cool enough, after our night of worship and speaking was finished, we all went back into the Hall to play some indoor soccer. These kids may have been only 16 years old or so, but I now see why soccer can unite the world…and why the US lags a bit behind the world as far as talent goes…these kids were amazing! The boys played against each other, the girls cheered, the guys waiting to play jumped around and sang soccer chants. Oh, and we (Bongo, Ian, Ryan and myself) ended up beating all of them in a few games that night…icing on the cake.

Friday, January 22^nd – 10:30 pm: “Late night and ridiculous stories.” After arriving home quite late that night, many of us were too charged up (or sweaty) to just head straight off to bed. So, we stayed up and shared stories about our lives. A couple headed off to their rooms, others showered or ‘cupped’, and the rest of us sat around and chatted. There were stories told about former jobs, old habits, and ‘restroom humor’. After a long, intense, but rewarding week, this night had been a great chance for all of us to bond in a different way, get to know more about each others lives back home, as well as gain a clearer idea at the things that made us laugh. Two ‘restroom’ stories stood out in my mind…my beach encounter and Ryan’s startling discovery at Starbuck’s. These tales left us all horrified and laughing until our sides hurt. Want to know the details? Ask me sometime...