Saturday, December 15, 2007

More About Life, Work and Kayamandi

So I am settled until the end of January. I have a bed room, even a window and I am grateful. It is secure and I feel safe there. I stay with two other girls and our place is about 270 sq. ft. We are a 20-30 minute walk from Kayamandi. It is a great place and I am thankful to have so much support here. I am feeling comfortable going into town and finding my way around and have even found a place that offers a bottomless cup of coffee : ).

I am feeling settled, but have plans to move in with a co-worker in Kayamandi soon. I was invited by Sis Pulma the social worker I am working with here. I am really excited about the opportunity and feel privileged that she would want me in her home. It will be a different life though; I will not be able to walk alone after 5:30-6pm and never after dark. I will also not be able to keep things of value there—I will keep my guitar at the office and other items of value—just take my books and clothes. I have had a lot of requests for guitar lessons from the kids and have already given three lessons. We have a couple of guitars at the office in addition to mine but the strings are really bad. I am hoping that living in Kayamandi will help me learn Xhosa more quickly—tough stuff let me tell you.

As far as work goes I have narrowed my scope considerably through March/April. I am working on Kuyasa’s the Policy and Procedure Manual, Job Descriptions, Contracts and some other structural elements. This will take quite some time to get together. Please pray that I will be wise about everything here, I want the system to be more than functional but really make things easier for the people on the ground not more complicated. It will also require some change—so pray that we will all weather this well.

My second work focus is the Group Therapy lessons for 8-12 year olds. I am hoping to be able to use the curriculum with some the kids at Kuyasa in conjunction with Pumla and possibly another lay councillor. I have been given a larger role and am revising, adding, creating and redoing much of the material under the Project Director’s supervision. I am really motivated, the material is creative and powerful; I enjoy working with it. It is basic, "user friendly" and the best part is that it is so universal. It has been drafted to fit any context; though putting it through the trial run in various contexts will be proof in the pudding regarding its versatility. Please pray that God would open doors with this project if it is his will that I continue with it, it is an opportunity for me to do something that I really feel is deep in my heart. Briefly, the Lessons are based on emotions that typically result after trauma (sadness, fear, avoidance, anxiety, guilt) they help children identify what they are feeling, how it effects their thinking, body and life generally, why they feel it (normalizing)—what is the root, understanding the importance of expressing the emotion and then giving safe coping skills to handle and express the emotion in a constructive way. It also teaches life skills, crisis and emergency intervention skills, as well as, enhancing self-esteem and training children to identify “safe” versus "unsafe" people around them. Each session uses puppet shows, metaphoric stories, games, experiential learning activities, Memory Book pages, visual art and Bible stories to walk the children through the concepts. The objective in to crate a safe and supportive environment for them to heal, learn and build resiliency. It will be tested in Liberia come April/May, the idea is to train group facilitators in many different countries and have these lay people be the ones to conduct the sessions under supervision. There is a general core curriculum composed of 20-32 sessions depending on the severity of the children and then additional 10 lessons that focus on coping after specific situations (Loss due to AIDS, sexual abuse or rape, war, Tsunami). So that is the basic concept—really exciting and also somewhat intimidating, but there is a solid team working on the project, so I feel good about the chances for success.

Other areas of focus that will be on-going are language skills and relationship building with our kids and the community. Xhosa is very difficult for me, it requires that my mouth make sounds and shapes that it has never made before—sounds that used to be reserved solely for special effects that accompany highly descriptive stories are now a part of everyday language. We have just returned from Summer Camp were myself and others helped to lead 80 youth through four days of Adventure—Experiential Learning Activities and Value Based Bible lessons. It was a lot of fun. I got to focus on a group of 11 smaller girls who dubbed themselves the Pink Shooting Stars (our group bandannas were pink). We had a lot of fun together complete with shadow puppet stories on the wall before bed. This was a fantastic opportunity to build relationships. The Pink Shooting Stars are meeting weekly for Bible study and shooting star fun. Our cheer “WE ARE! WE ARE! THE PINK SHOO--TING STARS!” We made our group poster last week. The oldest in the group is 12, I thought we would have a nice time colouring together and read a few verses—instead we had a lengthy conversation about Apartheid and what it means to be part of the Born Free Generation (at the request of several group members) as well as voting on how many friends each member should be allowed to bring next time. Pray for my stars. Especially Zintle and Abulele, they have a tough time following directions.

Some big news that is more on the personal side--myself and six other single adults, have made the choice to take in a 16 year old girl. Her name is NaNa. Cindy (my current roommate) and I are the primary care givers—she is living with us. Neil, Cindy’s fiancé’ is helping quite a bit. NaNa has been attending programs at the Center (Kuyasa’s Center) and built a strong connection to several staff. There were no options for her accommodation—this is really the short version, but I want to be careful with her story. I wish you could all meet her. She is a special girl; I am going to post some of her poems on my blog. We committed to take her in for one year and find good accommodation for her if we can’t have her next year. Cindy and Neil are very committed to caring for her and when I move out, Jenna (another Kuyasa staff person) will help Cindy care for NaNa. I will be spending Christmas with NaNa—just her and I. I am really looking forward to it. If you’d like to know a little more about her feel free to email me.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!! Mine will be different but good. I love you all, thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Monday, November 12, 2007

New Work

Hello Everyone,

I have made the sad but exciting transition out of ALICT to full time work at Kuyasa. I miss my friends from many nations and have been emailing regularly with many of them.

I want to thank all of you who were willing to help my friends that were mentioned in the last entry. One in particular is still in great need. He works as a Missionary in northern Ivory Coast and is struggling to feed his family and keep a roof over their head. I wish that all of you could meet him, he is the most gentle, humble and full of faith man I have ever met. His trust in God is amazing. Please let me know if you would like to get in contact with him or would like more information about him. I would love to help him find some on-going supporters. I will be sending a portion of my tithe to him.

I am in my second week at Kuyasa. I have been praying and thinking through all the options with both Kuyasa and continuing with projects linked to ALICT. I have been observing the Kayamandi community as well as Kuyasa and another NGO in Kayamandi called Prochorus. I have a lot of amazing options and everyone needs help, of course. The difficult thing about everyone needing help is that it is easy to do things because others express a desperate need and sympathy is very compelling but, it is important to take the time to find what will be the most effective in this context as well as, what God has put in me to give.

I have been using a lot of the information I received in training at ALICT to connect to the community, do research and network with different NGOs. The strategic planning of projects is also something that is and will continue to be a really important tool in the next several months. It is important for me to be able to finish what I begin here and ensure that my objectives are realistic. The following is the narrowed list of projects that I would like to be involved in over the next two years. Exploring the specifics of each project, my role and the partners I will be working with will be the focus of the next few weeks. Please pray that I would have wisdom and understand how to use my time the most effectively.

  • Creating and illustrating 14 page manual for children and youth on creating Food Gardens to be used in schools in Madagascar and other Africa nations
  • Research and writing of Policy & Procedure, Program and Job Descriptions for Kuyasa
  • Research and recording a transferable model for the Kuyasa Programs and set-up
  • Continue to help the young woman here who I met thought ALICT working to begin her own business and community classes in sewing
  • Participating in the creation of 16 weeks of Trauma Support Group curriculum for ages 8-12
  • Conducting a Trial of the curriculum here in Kayamandi in partnership with the Child Rape Services through Prochorus
  • Enhancing Workshops for parents and Orphan Caregivers
  • Creating curriculum for Parenting Workshops
  • Teaching and creating an annual curriculum for the Crafts and Fine Arts Program
  • Participating in the research and writing of a Musical that will tell the story and history of the community of Kayamandi
  • Helping to direct and coach Kayamandi Youth in the preparation and performance of the Musical

I have also been helping with the Learning Center and Feeding Programs here. Each day approximately 250 children come to Kuyasa to receive a hot meal, approximately 40 stay regularly for tutoring in academics. This is not what I want to be doing regularly, but they really need help and we all fill in where there is a need. I will also be helping with the Kuyasa Kids Performing Arts Group, offering some technical support for local shows. They have two this weekend.

Please pray that God will help me say no when I need to and set limits with my time. Thank you all for you prayers and care. I love you all and will try to post again next week.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

An End and a Begining

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your comments and emails. I am just coming up for air and I need to catch up with my communication. We have been busy with 2 projects in the community and many many assignments, in addition to 8-10 hours of lecture/teaching daily. I did not make it to bed last night--Over the last 8 days I have been able to grab 0-4 hours of sleep a day. But it has been worth it and now everything will be down hill from here. I just turned in a 16 page project charter this morning that was very time intensive. I feel good about it though, and I feel really good about all the very practical knowledge I have received in ALICT.

I helped to coordinate a Compassion Day where approximately 300 children came together to serve in their community. We painted play structures, planted gardens, painted classroom buildings, cleaned up the streets, parks and a pre-school. We really had fun with them, taught them about the Savior who loves them, played SO many games, sang SO many songs and loved them, working next to them to bless the community. I really can't tell you haw amazing this day was. God was there and filled me with strength and love like I will never forget.

Also I have been working with a young woman in Kayamandi who has a dream to start her own business and NGO. Together we have had many meetings at the government offices getting her ready to register with them and partner with many different people in the community to take the next steps toward her dream. She is such an amazing young woman, 27 years old, the mother of 2 small children, a Christian and truly driven to use her skills and energy to change her community.

It has been so easy for me to have these people at ALICT grow into family for me because I have had the mindset to create a new home here and they have been my community. So I am already facing some sadness knowing that we will all leave each other on the 20th. But at the same time I am excited to move forward with Kuyasa here in SA. I am convinced that God has a plan and that his plan he placed in me from the beginning of my life. I have been busying myself with excavating it for many years and I believe that this entire process has been a part of God's plan. I have to hold everything lightly and not rush--that is so easy for me to do. God will do what he will do despite my striving. I think if there is anything I must watch for now it is pushing in my own strength and getting ahead of God.

I have begun speaking with people at Kuyasa and have arranged accommodation for the next 4-6 months. I will be living in an apartment that is being rented by other American missionaries working for Kuyasa, they will be going on sabbatical for a while and asked that I help them with rent while they are gone. I feel good about this because it will give me time to build relationships in Kayamandi and ready myself to move into the township.

We are going away to stay in a church on the most Southern tip of Africa this Saturday night. They say that you can stand in one area, spread out your arms and you are holding the entire continent in your hands. This will really be a necessary time of prayer and absorbing all the spiritual elements of the lessons that have sat as notes in my notebook for the last week because of the busy schedule.

I am praying for all of you. I think of family and friends often especially with this transition coming up and the "Cabin" next month. I will admit I try not to think of the cabin because it is so sad to think I will not be a part of things. But I have peace too and I know I am where I am supposed to be. I feel confident that God will show me what to do and where to focus my time, energy and resources. I will be giving some money to a few of the students here who are closest to me--it is my tithe. They are incredible people doing amazing things and I know them, I have ate, slept, studied and lived life with them for three months. Out of 26 students I feel compelled to give to only 4 a men from Benin--working in sustainable agriculture, training and empowering the poor--particularly pastors who are unable to feed their families, Ivory Coast--working to give spiritual, medical and social aid/healing to a unreached and Muslim populations in the North that are AIDS infested and dealing with civil war presently, Bangladesh--working to increase awareness and irradiate the trafficking of women and children from the poor villages--these are lured and then trapped in prostitution and camel jocking in the cities, Tanzania--this man is a prayer warrior, fasts for days on end to see the youth of his nation empowered to become the next generation of leaders who serve God. These have really inspired and amazed me with Christ ALIVE in them, their passion to serve the poorest of the poor and their drive to work hard in everything God gives them to do. I want to invite you and any others who you think might like to pray about helping them to consider working with me to send them back to their communities with some seed money to begin with the Projects that they have planned while here at ALICT, which I listed after their countries. If you want more information please email me. they have all written 10-15 page project charters that detail their plan once they return to their nations and I can send these out over email.

I am so grateful to have all of you. I sit here at this computer--(hoping that I won't loose my Internet connection) and I am seriously humbled by what God has given me in all of you. So many people who love me, not because of anything I do, just because God has given me to you and you to me and so we love each other. This really baffles me sometimes, especially seeing how isolated others are in the impoverished situations I have encountered. Poverty has so little to do with money and so much to do with community.

Please pray for me--I am a bicycle, and all of you have helped me gather and assemble parts of how and who I am and even helped me to see how to use the things God gave me. Your prayers have oiled my chains and spokes and tightened my screws. I am who I am because God gave me people who love me and have helped to assemble my insides. I need God to hop on, I need the Spirit to do the pedaling, and the steering and keep me moving at the right speed--keep me balanced and not wobbly. Your prayers do this. And I pray for all of you too that God would enjoy, and empower the ride of your life. I love you guys.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Birthday Parties and Community Projects

Hello everyone, I recieved your greetings from Cassie if you visited with him at NCCC and also met Simon this week, I know he was with you also. Simon and his team trained us here in a series of 8 workshops this week, what an incredible man he is. My time at ALICT is two thirds complete. The learning we have done here has really been unique. They expect so much and facilitate learning in very unsual and experiacial ways. This has been really effective for me even though it is challenging. The navigating and working in this kind of extream diversity has given me more than a year of intercultural course work could. It continues to be one of the greatest experiances of my life and without question a privledge. Let me share one thing that has been very special to me.



I am heading up our "Social Events" committee which consists of two other student one from Latin America and one from Ethopia. Basically we plan Birthday Parties which consist of putting up streamers, giving some small item as a gift, having our Auntie Zena (who cooks for us) bake a cake, blowing out candles, prayer for the person celebrated and singing "Happy Birthday". We sing two ties in English, two times in French and two times in Spanish. We celebrated our third and final birthday on the 17th and I have to tell you these parties have been one of the most significant experiances I have had here. Africans, generally, do not celebrate their birthdays. In fact some have never attended a celebration like this for themselves or anyone else. One of the men we celebrated was turning 35, he is from Ivory Coast. He thanked us in tears and could not believe that we would honor him in this way or celebrate his life as such a special thing. He explained that there had been some foriegners in his counrty many years ago who had given him a birthday party, but that this one was the second he had ever experiance. We celebrated his life and his friendship together and the group lifted him to thier shoulders and surrounded him with hugs. And he cried. It was one of the most significant moments of his life, one he will never forget.



For a moment I wanted to devote my life to ensuring every child in the world had the opprotunity to experiance at least one birthday party. It had never occured to me that the majority of children in the world will never have their life celebrated in this way. We spend unreal amounts of money on children birthdays how can it be that so many never have this simple gift----I want to write more, but I have to go---I will add/edit later. I love you all.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Mountians and Valleys

Hello everyone, I am sorry that my time is so limited when I have Internet access. Last week I was hopeful to write and visited an Internet cafe, but the connection was so poor that it took me 45 minutes to bring up only three pages and I did not have time to write. But here I am and I am thankful to have a few minutes to connect.

The reality of 26 different cultures and backgrounds living together is beginning to set in. The group still enjoys each other, but I think we are having a harder time setting ourselves aside for the other person. We become irritated with each other more easily, but the challenge is good and shaping.

I have not written about our mountain adventures yet. During the course of our training we are exposed to 5-6 wilderness training activities that incorporate spiritual and physical disciplining with teamwork and community building.

7/27/07---Our first day together before the sun rose, we climbed into "combies" (mini vans), wearing the warmest clothing we had and drove in the rain almost 3 hours to a place we did not know. There we were dropped off in a field in front of what look to be an old church building and were told to get into teams. We did not know each other, we were all from different nations and many people on my team did not speak English well. We were given two poles of bamboo, one rope and trash bags for raincoats. Our instructions were to create a structure with the poles and the rope so that, as a team, we could carry one man. We were given a small map and told that we must carry one man over the mountain and he could not touch the ground. It was one of the most difficult experiences of my life, but I learned so much about myself and the others on my team. I felt like the true self in each one of us was pushed to the surface as we struggled, bled and hurt together. These people who had been strangers to me became a part of my heart in 6 hours time.

This passed Friday was our second "adventure" we were told to wear warm clothing and left for the mountain. We began climbing in two teams of 12 at 6:30 pm. We were told that the trail was very dangerous because of how sheer the drop was, how narrow that path was and how strong the wind would be. Each team was tied on to a rope together. The rope between myself and the person in front of me was too long, so in addition to the loop around my waist, I had the rope wrapped twice around my chest and once around my stomach. This was done so that if one person fell they would not be lost down the mountain, but the others could pull them up again. We didn't know how far we would go, but we knew that we would not be back until the following morning. The sun set as we hiked and meditated . We had small wind up flashlights in addition the moon. We rested for ten minutes every hour and continued to to top of the mountain as a team. When we reached the top at approximately 2 am, it was explained that we would have 20 minutes to rest and then travel down again. It was an amazing view even in the dark. Large water falls, thick vegetation, enormous rock faces, slowly creeping mist and incredible stars. We arrived, utterly exhausted, at the trail head again around 9:30 am. We had been angry, tired, excited, encouraged and many of us injured (I re-injured my right ankle), but we had done all of this before God, together.

I learned enormous lessons here about community, God's connection with me, asking for help, loving others, taking risks, changing my understanding of pain and the power of bonds for good and for evil. I am still sorting through and processing the experience. The trail was so narrow and the drop was absolutely terrifying, there is really no other way to describe it, nearly straight down for what looked like a mile. I was thankful for the dark because it forced me to stay focused on the path, if someone slipped with just a potion of his foot sliding on some wet plants, it would be over if he did not have others to pull him up by the rope. I am thankful for that night, the lessons and for my sore muscles today.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Continuing to Learn and Connecting with Friends

Hello everyone,

It was good to hear from a few of you over email or here in the comments. I am still amazed everyday with the learning and relationships I been given here. We have had lecture on all types of topics relevant to Biblically based Community Development. This week we studied short-term project planning and assessing the needs of different subsets in a community. We were also able to develop project plans in a team and later in the course we will be implementing a project in the community. The team I worked with included 7 people; men from Uganda, Benin, Liberia, Nigeria, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba and one woman from Egypt.

Last night I was able to see Kayamandi for the first time and this morning we are walking threw the township to quietly pray for the needs there. I am really excited to see my new home up close and on foot.

I was also able to meet up with the team here from NCCC and work with them last night as they began a marriage conference/retreat for Pastors and their wives leading churches in Kayamandi. It was such a privilege to meet them and to talk with them about the most difficult issues they feel the community is facing. Has also been great to have some familiar faces here with me and share my excitement about ALICT with them firsthand. Jan, Singrid and PJ took a tour of the facility and cabins we are in yesterday and were able to meet some of my close friends. It has been special for me to be able share so much of my life here with people from home.

I love all of you, please write and let me know how you are. I would love to hear from you : )

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Learning with a Community of Leaders From More Than 20 Nations

Hello everyone! If you did not hear from my parents, I have made it safely to South Africa and have begun my training program. I apologize for not being able to write earlier this is the first opportunity I have had to get to an Internet cafe. They have given us only ten minutes each and so I will have to be brief. I am hoping that we will have Internet access at the school facility soon.

There are 26 individuals here in the program with me from some of the following countries: Cuba, El Salvador, Uruguay, Togo, Jamaica, Bangladesh, Congo, Benin, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Madagascar, Egypt and Burundi.

We are living and learning together. It has been and I believe will continue to be the single most amazing experience of my life. These people have been have been orphaned by genocide, beaten, seen family killed right in from of them, they work with rulers of nations and have perspective and understanding like I have never been exposed to. They are leaders in their nation doing amazing things to serve the people. I am honestly overwhelmed to have been given this opportunity and am treasuring every meal, conversation and assignment we are able to have together.

The teaching is also blowing my mind. I have to go and wish I could say more, but it is challenging me, the whole of my person, more than any other studying I have done before. For the most part, our sessions run 6 days a week from 8:45am-8:45pm, with meal and tea breaks. I will write more as soon as I can. I love you all.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Wonderful Visits and Final Goodbyes

The last six weeks have been an amazing time of connecting and re-connecting to people that have been and continue to be the largest source of strength in my life. It has been a long month of goodbyes, but I have felt God present and helping me prepare in so many small ways.

In just a few hours I will be on a plane above the Atlantic on my way to South Africa. I am so excited and blessed to be at this place in my life and in my heart. I am learning how to let the excitement and grief mingle and be at peace with all the unknowns. I am so grateful to have all of you in my life. I arrive in Cape Town late on 7/25, I will try to post as soon as I can once I've arrived and got some sleep.

Friday, July 13, 2007


Visiting Beautiful Baby Asher and Matthew and Catherine in Chicago till 7/19.

Sunday, July 8, 2007



Visiting Melissa and Jeff till 7/11

Friday, July 6, 2007

Friends and Family

Hello.

Thank you for visiting my page, I am glad you are here. I will be writing about my work and learning as I live with the people of Kayamandi, South Africa for the next two years. I am hopeful that these posts will help everyone stay informed and engaged while I am away.

Currently, I am visiting family as I make my way to Washington D.C. where I will depart for Cape Town on the 24th of July. From there I will be in training through the third week of October and then transition to full-time work in Kayamandi.

Feel free to comment or ask questions here on my blog and I will do my best to respond quickly. You may also visit www.Kuyasa.givengain.org for more information on the work being done in Kayamandi.