We have met the Cape Doctor!

We are on day three of our refresh time in Cape Town. The last two days has been sunny and warm but with the brutal south east wind ripping over Table Mountain known as the Cape Doctor. So called because it cleans all the smog out to sea. There were gusts of 50+ km that come suddenly and knock you off your feet. We still did the double decker bus tour both days. Shopping yesterday and the Kirstenbosch Gardens today. Feeling a little wind and sun weathered now.

We had dinner with our friends Ian and Joan Proudfoot last night. It was good to catch up with them. We met them on our first junket to Mpumalanga in 2010 when Ian was a family physician at ACTS clinic. He now works for Medicins sans Frontières in Kyelitscha township outside of Cape Town. Joan has a private practice in therapy and spiritual direction in Cape Town.

Sandra is feeling another step better today. Thanks for your prayers. It is hard soul work listening to some of the trauma and stress of many of the folks we encountered. She is just beginning to feel like herself again. One of the challenges is how to focus our time here in ministry. We probably need to say no to more of the opportunities and rest more. There are so many needs and so many differing opinions about what and how things could and should be done.

Tomorrow we will just spend time at the ocean. Then winging home Sunday and Monday.

Stewart

Weekend report

Yesterday Sandra and I were able to return to visit E and some of the youth at The Potter's House. I sat with him and helped him tell a story of his grandma while I illustrated it. He seemed to find that quite meaningful. We are helping him build a memory box of his grandma.

In the afternoon, we facilitated our team debriefing and a brief Myers Briggs workshop. It was fun getting to know everyone better.

An update at last...

Update on South Africa

Well we are resting in Cape Town. Sandra has a nasty sore throat. The blog has been a bit of a bomb due to sketchy Internet connections. We had a packed time in Mpumalanga. Thanks for your prayers. It's good to chill (warm?) by the ocean. We are pooped but with full hearts.

We had an amazing team. We feel a bit like veterans on our third excursion. We had a number of folks from Scott and Becky's church The Heart; it was a blessing to see them serve and grow in the challenges.

Some of the opportunities we participated in were:

I joined with Brothers for Life in Christ, a group for young men coming out of gang involvement and other rough stories. What a great group of guys! To see young men caring for each other and hungry for God was inspiring. I will especially remember Sakhile, a gentle guy in dreads wanting to make some changes in his life, Pumblane, an elf with a way of making people laugh, Esau who was wholeheartedly involved even while having some disabilities and Vincent, very bright and determined to find the means to finish studies in actuarial sciences.

Sandra helped out the women of Masoyi, Daantje. She gave support to a number of women ministering here under stressful circumstances.

We both taught four workshops. Vicarious Traumatization to church and social network folks in Nelspruit, Children and Trauma to a mix of Siswati and English caregivers at Litsemba Centre (thanks to Pastor Stembiso for stellar translation), VT again and Resilience to a small group of Portuguese and English helpers in Matola, Mozambique.

We ministered to a family in Nelspruit who had a brutal home invasion including their 18 year old daughter being raped. Their faith made ours seem quite puny. It was a good time and I think it was encouraging to them.

We both got attached to the Potter's House, a child-led orphanage, especially Eric and Precious.

We attended both African and English churches and prayer ministries and helped out with prayer and prophecies with some lovely results.

Sandra and I spent time with our team members encouraging and challenging them. We hope we can keep our new friendships going on the other side of the ocean.

We did a whirlwind tour of Kruger and saw giraffes, hippos flinging poo, Goliath Storks, Grey Herons, Malachite Kingfishers, five lionesses up in a tree beside the road, wildebeests, kudu, duykers, impala all over the place, got chased by an elephant and saw two crocodiles resting on the sand (with binoculars). I may have forgotten about a few. oh yes and chased baboons away from our lunch.

I will post some pics on Facebook and put captions later.

Stewart

Days of connecting and adjusting

We have had a good couple of days here to settle in before the team arrives and the action starts. Wonderful visits with our friends Kobus and Jeanette de Wit. I travelled out with Kobus to pick up a truck full of donated veggies from a huge farm for distribution to various missions feeding orphans. He called this "gentleman gleaning" I. E. The farm hands did the loading! Though I toted a few crates of beets and carrots. Sandra went with Jeanette to pick up some wool for the ladies' group.

We have had a visit with E, a 15 year old boy who lives at the Potter's House (a small renovated shack that houses 8 orphaned kids). The de Wits thought we might help them understand what's going on for this very shut down boy. I admit I felt a bit anxious with what I heard and being fifteen with no English. The Lord showed up and led us through a conversation about his strengths (football- enjoyed watching him light up about that) and then to some of the tough stuff. The number of losses this boy has had was staggering. We had Bongani, an older boy as an excellent translator. At the end, the when I asked him what he would most remember from our time together, he replied that he had the chance to talk about losing his grandmother. I hope we will visit with him another time or two. We also found out that he has had difficulty with school because he doesn't have a birth certificate because his alcoholic father burnt the house down after the mother abandoned the family. Jeannette is going to work this out.

We haven't had Internet at our guest house. So these reports are going to be delayed. We have had some sleep issues as well. (I'm writing this at 445 am!)

We have been well taken care of, have had lots of laughter and are grateful.

Stewart

We be crammin'

This is a picture of our dining room table, central command for our preps for South Africa. It also shows how messy we can be!

We are assembling three presentations. A Myers Brigg team bonding exercise, a two day workshop on vicarious traumatization. And the most work intensive for us, skill building for helping children recover from trauma. Learning lots. We don't know what it will look like once we're there ; we've learned to be flexible ie TIA "this is Africa".

Eleven more sleeps.

Returning to the province of the Rising Sun

We have an opportunity to return and serve with Meniscus Inc in South Africa and Mozambique. We'll be a team of about a dozen people led by our friends Scott and Becky Lycan (pic below) from Banner Elk, North Carolina.

Also returning is our friend Anna Letton, a physician's assistant from New York City, New York.

There will be a half dozen new members from Scott and Becky's church The Heart. We will be helping with the team orientation and then with various teaching projects around Nelspruit and in Mozambique. As many as you know, this is our third trip to South Africa. The land is really growing on us!

We are scrambling to assemble new material on working with young children and trauma. Sandra has some experience working with children and their families but most of our work is with adult clients.

We appreciate your prayers and communication as you come along side of us for the adventure!