Can You Feel the Mountains Tremble, Can You Hear the Ocean's Roar?

Have faith, have courage, for my eyes have been made to see many wonders. Take a Breath. Creation is longing for the day it is healed. My eyes need to see for my heart to begin to comprehend. I have been made this way—to appreciate and to wonder at what is hidden behind the mountains. Praise God.

Cape Town, South Africa is the most beautiful place in my world. This is saying quite a lot, because I have seen the sunrise on Australian beaches, the stars shine over secluded lakes in the bush, and I live in the green heart of Eden itself. Still, I have to say that South Africa really is the most beautiful place my eyes have seen—yet. I step out the front door of the YWAM base and all I can see is enormous mountains and acres of vineyards. The sky is twice as big as it is in Montana and the clouds- oh man, the clouds! We drove by the beach yesterday, the sand rolling white like snow. Ah man—it was amazing.

I apologize for the informality and vagueness of this post, but I am beginning to accept that there is no possible way to describe these experiences in words of any language. Nonetheless, I will try- bear with.

The only thing that has proven itself to be more beautiful than the countryside is the children. During my time here I have been spending nearly every day working in the streets, cooking and feeding meals to the kids on the streets or teaching lessons and doing programs in schools. Let me tell you I have never experienced a love and acceptance like these kids show us. I don’t know if it’s because we are white, have a smile on our face, or if they can discern something different about us, but the second we walk into the communities we are swarmed by children wanting to hug us, hold our hands and touch us.

They speak a mix of languages, and English is often thrown in, nonetheless I’ve learned to sing several songs and say some phrases in their tongue—which the love and laugh at when we sing with them. This is a singing and dancing culture! Oh man, we will put on some music and it will be one giant dance party on the African plains (and quite frankly the little one’s put us white folks to shame with their dance moves!) Much to my…delight…*cough*… we discovered early on that the school children here LOVE High School Musical, and when they find out we’re from America, they always want to know if we’ve met the cast. Well, my team and I figured “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” So we learned the High School Musical dance and we perform and teach it at the beginnings of our program. Who knew I would be using High School Musical to minister in Africa?!

We stay on a YWAM base with 36 nationalities represented. Other than our team, there are only 2 North Americans amongst the 200 people living on base. Talk about beautiful diversity. When we have base gatherings there are so many different languages being spoken at once, it’s overwhelming! All 8 of the girls on my team room together along with the girls from a Switzerland outreach team, who is serving with us. We have been getting along great with the Swiss team, they are a lovely group of people, and I enjoy getting to know and performing with them. I can also say I’ve never eaten so much chocolate in my life. (P.S. The USA has by far the worst selection of candy and chocolate I have come across. South Africa has delicious chocolate!)

Yesterday we drove 2 hours into the peaks of the mountains to run a 3 hour program at a vineyard school. The building was too small to fit us, so we all moved outdoors to the light sprinkle of rain and danced in the mud. (I was wearing my brand new shoes, so I left them in the car and worked in the mud barefoot—have I mentioned that my feet are ALWAYS dirty?!?!) We brought shoes, socks and snacks for the kids and they were so greatful to receive cheese and crackers while stylin in their brand new converse kicks! There was a language barrier, for the kids were too young to have learned any English yet, but my fellow Young Life leaders back home will smile to hear that the skit ‘People With Shirts Over Their Heads’ breaks ANY language barrier! We were singing a song that says “One day, we’ll all be in heaven together. Praise God, Praise God, for He makes me happy forever” in Affrikans, and I just had to stop and breathe. I was standing in the middle of the mountains in Africa, surrounded my smiling, shivering African children, singing silly songs in a different language and watching a mother Baboon carry her baby on her back a few meters down the road. I am living in a season of blessing—and I want to soak in every minute of it.

As we were leaving, a 6 year old boy ran up to me, took my hand and kissed my cheek. He felt my hands were cold so he covered my fingers with his tiny palms and rubbed back ‘n forth to try and warm them. Meanwhile a little girl noticed I had a cut on my foot, so she ran and got a wet cloth and cleaned it for me—despite my insistence of her not to. As we drove away under the double rainbow in the sky, the children chasing us down the road in their new shiny shoes, I had to wonder: Who felt more loved today, the kids, or me?

My head is still swimming with questions—this exchange of affirmation shouldn’t have made sense today—yet it was the most natural thing in the world. Like breathing air after holding my breath and wondering why I haven’t been doing it all along.

--You can find weekly updates on my South Africa team at ywamnow.com

On to Outreach!

I can't believe it's already been three months. Three months away from home, three months in Australia, three months living in this new family. The time seems so short, but looking back, I see how enriched my time has been and so when I look forward to the next two months in South Africa, it seems like an eternity.

This transition is bitter-sweet. The other two outreach teams have already left, and the house is terribly empty. The April DTS school started today, we are moved out of our rooms and no longer have responsibilities in the kitchen. It's a time for change-- needed, anticipated and slightly reluctant change. Our goodbye's to the Fiji and Iraq team was emotional, even though we'll see each other again in June. I guess we've all grown so accustomed to being just the next bunk or room over whenever we needed each other. We are best friends and family, we fight and love each other, but most of all we've been here to watch and experience this time in each other's lives of significant growth and discovery. I had to fight back tears when I hugged my close friend and fellow kitchenworker, Kim, goodbye. Kim will not return after outreach, for she will be flying home to walk in her high school graduation. She has been one of the most important people in my life during this season, and now I don't know when--if ever-- I will see her again. But I know she, like I, will be great. :) Greatness is upon the shoulders of those who will accept it.

My heart is on the verge of breaking. I think it's been at this tipping point for a long time, and I have a feeling that some experience in South Africa will finally push me over the edge. I'm ready for it. I'm ready for my heart to be softened.

A note for my prayer warriors back home!
1.) I love you heaps! I know I am protected, encouraged and energized because of your prayers. The thought of what could have, or could NOT have happened without your prayers scare me-- so keep going! If there's one thing I've learned here, it's the importance and power of intercession; I am blessed to have you fighting on my behalf daily.

So here are some prayer requests~
- health and safety
- safe, unstressful travels from location to location
- that God's favor and hand rests on us, and we are constantly used by the Holy Spirit to do the unimaginable!
- Every member of my team wears a bracelet with 6 beads on it, each representing something we will pray into for our team and time in S.A. daily. These are:
- Persistance
- The children in the vineyard schools in SA
- UNITY
- Healings/miracles
- Compassion
- Love/ seeing through God's eyes
- Also pray that God will speak to me, and CONFIRM some of my thoughts and feelings about what I should do next fall after I return home from DTS. Outreach is an awesome time to discovery the next step in my journey.

Suprarationality

There are times when you choose to believe something that would normally be considered absolutely irrational. It doesn't mean that it is actually irrational, but it surely is not rational. Perhaps there is suprarationality: reason beyond the normal definitions of fact or data-based logic; something that only makes sense if you can see a bigger picture of reality. Maybe that is where faith fits in. -The Shack


I believe in this. My belief may be irrational to you, but it is my belief not yours, so it's ok, we can still share a cuppa sometime. I believe that my friend Sai can get thousands of dollars in two days from complete strangers and can get the near-impossible approval of a South Africa visa and be on the plane with us in just 11 days. Irrational? No. Faith.

One of my friend's mom is at home dying of cancer. Surgery after treatment has failed, and things were turning very bad very fast. My school leader said that there was nothing else we could do but pray for her-- so for 15 min we stood up and declared strength over her family and healing over her sickness. Speaking mere words out to thin air meant for someone halfway around the world. Irrational? No. Faith. -- And by the way, 9 days later, this friend got a call that every single new test result came back negative, and the doctors had taken her mother into surgery just to see how this was possible, trying to locate the vanishing cancer. They couldn't find, nor explain it, her cancer was gone. Hmm... maybe there's something to this faith?


For the past 5 weeks, we have been drinking something called "long life milk". This is milk that comes in cartons and can last for several years on the shelf--unrefrigerated. It seems that we are under the belief that we can go on drinking this concoction without any unhealthy side effects. This may sound irrational to you----in fact I hope it does, because quite frankly grabbing unrefrigerated, warm milk for your cereal every morning is irrational in every way, shape and form. That said- I'm moving on...

:)