God's got me thinking about rest lately. Rest and relaxation. Doesn't that sound nice? Think about that for a second...think about the times when you have taken a full day to relax or the vacation that was just all rest. A lot, of times when I read I love to look up words in the thesaurus to get a better grasp of what it fully means. Even simple words like rest. I looked up rest and the first word that came up is RELAX. It is even in bold too! I have been so frustrated and skeptical with my life lately. All is good except for the fact that busyness has consumed me. My weeks are full of work, extra work, and then on the weekends there always seems to be things that need to be done. I become occupied with my to-do list. I don't know about you, but this is no way I want to live my life. I don't want to look back and say wow was my whole life a to-do list?!
My Aunt even said to me the other day,"God only made 24 hours in the day. So I know that 24 hours is enough time to get things done..but some how I need more hours of the day!" I couldn't agree more.
I keep thinking to myself, "Do I seriously need to pencil in time for God in my planner!?" I mean, God is Holy, Magnificent, King of Kings, Worthy, Creator...yet to give him a day of rest I have to schedule it! Something doesn't seem right about that.
My pastor, Chad, gave a sermon a really long time ago about rest. It was a great sermon...and if you read this Chad by chance, I hope you don't mind me quoting you:)
He was talking about Rehab. He said "Rehab forces you to rest. It forces you to push pause on your life so you escape from chaos of the world."-I thought this was awesome. He also said, "Rest is essential to living for God. When fatigue walks in your life, faith walks out."
I started to evaluate my own life and really take a look at my life now that I have been busy and very fatigued. I get anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, frustrated, and I am so exhausted that I don't put my all into things. I even get to the point where I want rest so bad that I am in a hurry to get stuff done. This seems to lead me to trying to take on way to much at one time, which leads me to not trusting in the God I know God to be. Trust in Him goes right out the window. Fatigue walks in and bamm I forget about God. Think about it for yourself? How do you act when you are in need of good rest, fatigued and exhausted?
"BUSYNESS IS THE ENEMY OF GODLENESS."-chad bruegman
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for I am gentle and humble in heart ,and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30
It is obvious to me that God really encourages rest. He talks about it a lot actually. He knows what we go through, what our lives look like down here. Jesus felt it when He walked the streets and knows exactly what it's like to be extremely busy with lots to get done. He knows it is essential to our being and so he created the sabbath. To be honest, this is the first time I have looked at sabbath and really tried to see it for what it is.
"Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God." Exodus 20:80
For me, this sounds amazing. To have one day. Maybe it's a whole day, maybe it's two half days. Maybe you just sit on the couch or prefer to climb a mountain. No matter what it looks like, just having a set time every single week to rest...sounds fabulous. Think of it like this...a day to rest and remember.
This doesn't sound easy for me...I've tried it and man it truly is hard to say no to the to-dos just for one day. Fight for it because it's worth it.
God in scripture reminds us that without sabbath we will forget the purpose for all our activity. Our purpose for why we do everything we do.
This is an encouragement to just Rest & Remember in whatever way that looks like to you. Remember why you are where you are and the things God brought you out of, remember our amazing God we serve, remember the price Jesus paid for our sins on the cross & praise the Lord cause He is awesome...and in all of that rest.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Whats next?
Alright, I lied. This will be the last post before I head home. I just wanted to first express how thankful I am for all your prayers and all your support. I am in this very moment feeling beyond blessed. Your support financially and your prayers and to the people who are helping me in different ways...I thank you. This trip has been a very intense one and without any of that, I assure you it wouldn't of been the same. It's always hard to leave here. It's like I leave this place where everyone is living in severe poverty and I go home to my nice home. It's hard. My good friend that I met last year came over last night. She was the first person who showed me what sensere love is like. She is an amazing girl and I was blessed to meet her. Over the year we kept in touch, so we worked it out so she could come have dinner with us last night. It was WONDERFUL to see her. We cooked burgers, baked potatoes, and salad for dinner. She had 2 full plates of it. She looked over at me and said, "you eat like this every night?" She told me that her family eats pap every night. Pap (not sure if I am even spelling it right) every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pap is basically like a form of grits...kind of like mashed potatoes, but harder. It has no flavor to it either. In that moment I was extreamly ashamed to reply yes to her question. She was amazed that we eat like that on a consistant basis. It's things like that, that humble me. It blows my mind to think that if I was to bring Maureen to America to see how I live, I would have to explain to her my "rich" lifestyle. I would have to explain to her how we have locks on our secure doors so we don't even have to worry if we are safe at night. I would have to explain to her that we as Americans have multiple cars that we can get in and go buy whatever we want it. It's humbling to say the least.
As I leave South Africa, I just pray that all the children we played with would have felt Christ's love for them. I pray that the indivuduals we prayed over and the people we worked with would of just felt Christ's love and felt his presence and come to see Him for who he is. I just pray that we were great examples of Christ here and that he would continue to provide and work in these peoples lives. I pray that God continues to work in my life as well and to keep the experiences here on this trip on the surface of my heart. To remember all the people and experiences we went through here and that he would keep me humble when I am being most selfish. God is good...all the time:)
I also wanted to let you all know what my plans are for when I get home. Most of you live far away and I thought I would give you a quick update of what is next when I get back home. I am really excited because I am starting into a new seson of life. I feel like it's going to be a great one! I have a new apartment that I will be moved into when I get home. I am living with one of my best friends and can't wait to be back up in the Denver area. I am starting a new job as a nanny for a wonderful family as well as doing hair on the side. I will be working on the leadership team for my churches college/20's ministry. I am pretty sure I will be leading woman small group leaders as well as leading the community events. I know God has big plans and I cannot see where he is going to lead me from here!!
I also encourage all of you to ask me questions if you have any when I see you. It was hard to be as detailed as I wanted to be on this blog but I love to talk about this and to fill you all in on more details and questions you may have about my trip! I forget what I bloged about often, so please ask questions!! I have a heart for South Africa and the work we have been doing, so please don't feel free for bringing it up. We have a long long day of traveling. We are flying from Johannesburg to Dakar. Then Dakar to JFK then we have to change airports and go to Laguardia airport. From there we head to Denver. It will probably be around 30 hours of traveling. Phew....I have a new season to come home to so that makes it exciting.
I can't wait to catch up with all of you. I love you all and I am thankful who you all are. I feel blessed to know you and thanks for reading along!!
As I leave South Africa, I just pray that all the children we played with would have felt Christ's love for them. I pray that the indivuduals we prayed over and the people we worked with would of just felt Christ's love and felt his presence and come to see Him for who he is. I just pray that we were great examples of Christ here and that he would continue to provide and work in these peoples lives. I pray that God continues to work in my life as well and to keep the experiences here on this trip on the surface of my heart. To remember all the people and experiences we went through here and that he would keep me humble when I am being most selfish. God is good...all the time:)
I also wanted to let you all know what my plans are for when I get home. Most of you live far away and I thought I would give you a quick update of what is next when I get back home. I am really excited because I am starting into a new seson of life. I feel like it's going to be a great one! I have a new apartment that I will be moved into when I get home. I am living with one of my best friends and can't wait to be back up in the Denver area. I am starting a new job as a nanny for a wonderful family as well as doing hair on the side. I will be working on the leadership team for my churches college/20's ministry. I am pretty sure I will be leading woman small group leaders as well as leading the community events. I know God has big plans and I cannot see where he is going to lead me from here!!
I also encourage all of you to ask me questions if you have any when I see you. It was hard to be as detailed as I wanted to be on this blog but I love to talk about this and to fill you all in on more details and questions you may have about my trip! I forget what I bloged about often, so please ask questions!! I have a heart for South Africa and the work we have been doing, so please don't feel free for bringing it up. We have a long long day of traveling. We are flying from Johannesburg to Dakar. Then Dakar to JFK then we have to change airports and go to Laguardia airport. From there we head to Denver. It will probably be around 30 hours of traveling. Phew....I have a new season to come home to so that makes it exciting.
I can't wait to catch up with all of you. I love you all and I am thankful who you all are. I feel blessed to know you and thanks for reading along!!
Last post before headed home:)
The last post wasn’t so uplifting and I know it was intense. I think it just puts into reality the things we are seeing out here. This post though is a lot more uplifting and shows how much hope this place has!
Ahh man what a great day. Started out great and ended great. The 2 shacks we built for the families were pretty much finished and the shack we built for the man to live in to watch over the garden we are working on was finished too. This morning we went out to Freedom Park to hand over the keys to the families. It was really amazing. About 12 of the care workers joined us in going to the family’s new shacks to hand over the keys. When we got to the first shacks our whole team was there and all the care workers plus a few others. We all gathered around the shack and the ladies started worshiping. Wait till I put the videos up of all of this! They are so great. So we were standing in front of the shack worshiping and then we gathered the family members in our circle, joined hands with everyone and prayed over the new shack and over the families. Mr. Kumalo was there who is a local pastor. He was there to pray for us in English and in Tswana so that the families could understand. We gave each family a huge bag of food, and a few giant jugs of water. It was truly special. As we walked from shack to shack the care workers continued worshiping…so imagine a group of about 30 walking down these dirt streets through all this mess and poverty, dancing, clapping, and singing. I was sure that in that moment anyone who heard would see the love of Jesus walking down the road. Again, I wish words could describe this moment. I guess I will just forever have to keep it in my heart.
This afternoon we headed back to Pokeng. We have been going to Pokeng in the afternoons the past 3 days to work with the orphans that come to eat afterschool. If you don’t know yet about Martha’s house let me inform you. She is a lady in the community who basically opened up her house a few years ago and welcomed orphans in the area to come and eat after school. I am amazed at how far these children have come in just a year since we last saw them. It was so excited to see all the kids from last year! Last year we were working on finishing the little shelter for the children to eat in…this year when we arrived I was so excited to see how far the place has come. They now have a play ground, fully functioning bathrooms, and a fully working kitchen. The YWAM team works a lot with these children and it looks like Lincoln and Jenny will have a lot more involvement over there as well. You see, to go to school here in Rustenburg, you have to wear a uniform. The uniforms cost money of course and these children are orphans and live in poverty. The people who support Martha’s supply money for food and all of the other necessities to get these kids into school. They have uniforms, books, a place to eat, and all kinds of stuff. It truly is amazing to see that there is hope. I think our whole team loved going to Pokeng to meet the kids after school. They are so fun to just play with and talk to. I love talking to the girls. I met a wonderful group of girls and we had some great conversations. They were ages 13-16. It’s amazing to hear their stories, and they are really open about them. We then eventually ended up singing and dancing. They remembered that I liked to dance from last year when I was dancing everyday with one of their friends. I have some wonderful videos of these hilarious kids!
Yesterday, we went to a huge market type shopping center where you can barter for little souvenirs. This place can get a little overwhelming because the people are extremely pushy. I was pretty proud of myself and my bartering skills! After some fun shopping we headed to the lion park. At the lion park we got to pet and play with baby lions, feed giraffes, and drive around different parks to look at a ton of lions. Then we went to carnivore restaurant. I love this place!! The menu is always different and they always have different meats, but this year they had giraffe and zebra! Yup, you heard it. I ate giraffe and zebra amongst a lot of other meats including crocodile, kudu, pork, lamb, venison, and much more. Believe it or not, I thought the giraffe was one of my favorites. It was a great day but a very long day. We were all extremely tired though.
It has been such a good trip and I am so thankful for being able to come here to Rustenburg! I can’t wait to tell all of you more stories when I get home. It’s been hard for me to write details because I am usually in a hurry to write this since we don’t have much time. I am excited to come home though because I am feeling really tired. Anyways, I hope all is well!!!
Check out Lincoln and Jenny's blog as they are the only ones who have capability to upload photos and videos. There is some great videos that they put up!! http://www.smithsa.blogspot.com/
Ahh man what a great day. Started out great and ended great. The 2 shacks we built for the families were pretty much finished and the shack we built for the man to live in to watch over the garden we are working on was finished too. This morning we went out to Freedom Park to hand over the keys to the families. It was really amazing. About 12 of the care workers joined us in going to the family’s new shacks to hand over the keys. When we got to the first shacks our whole team was there and all the care workers plus a few others. We all gathered around the shack and the ladies started worshiping. Wait till I put the videos up of all of this! They are so great. So we were standing in front of the shack worshiping and then we gathered the family members in our circle, joined hands with everyone and prayed over the new shack and over the families. Mr. Kumalo was there who is a local pastor. He was there to pray for us in English and in Tswana so that the families could understand. We gave each family a huge bag of food, and a few giant jugs of water. It was truly special. As we walked from shack to shack the care workers continued worshiping…so imagine a group of about 30 walking down these dirt streets through all this mess and poverty, dancing, clapping, and singing. I was sure that in that moment anyone who heard would see the love of Jesus walking down the road. Again, I wish words could describe this moment. I guess I will just forever have to keep it in my heart.
This afternoon we headed back to Pokeng. We have been going to Pokeng in the afternoons the past 3 days to work with the orphans that come to eat afterschool. If you don’t know yet about Martha’s house let me inform you. She is a lady in the community who basically opened up her house a few years ago and welcomed orphans in the area to come and eat after school. I am amazed at how far these children have come in just a year since we last saw them. It was so excited to see all the kids from last year! Last year we were working on finishing the little shelter for the children to eat in…this year when we arrived I was so excited to see how far the place has come. They now have a play ground, fully functioning bathrooms, and a fully working kitchen. The YWAM team works a lot with these children and it looks like Lincoln and Jenny will have a lot more involvement over there as well. You see, to go to school here in Rustenburg, you have to wear a uniform. The uniforms cost money of course and these children are orphans and live in poverty. The people who support Martha’s supply money for food and all of the other necessities to get these kids into school. They have uniforms, books, a place to eat, and all kinds of stuff. It truly is amazing to see that there is hope. I think our whole team loved going to Pokeng to meet the kids after school. They are so fun to just play with and talk to. I love talking to the girls. I met a wonderful group of girls and we had some great conversations. They were ages 13-16. It’s amazing to hear their stories, and they are really open about them. We then eventually ended up singing and dancing. They remembered that I liked to dance from last year when I was dancing everyday with one of their friends. I have some wonderful videos of these hilarious kids!
Yesterday, we went to a huge market type shopping center where you can barter for little souvenirs. This place can get a little overwhelming because the people are extremely pushy. I was pretty proud of myself and my bartering skills! After some fun shopping we headed to the lion park. At the lion park we got to pet and play with baby lions, feed giraffes, and drive around different parks to look at a ton of lions. Then we went to carnivore restaurant. I love this place!! The menu is always different and they always have different meats, but this year they had giraffe and zebra! Yup, you heard it. I ate giraffe and zebra amongst a lot of other meats including crocodile, kudu, pork, lamb, venison, and much more. Believe it or not, I thought the giraffe was one of my favorites. It was a great day but a very long day. We were all extremely tired though.
It has been such a good trip and I am so thankful for being able to come here to Rustenburg! I can’t wait to tell all of you more stories when I get home. It’s been hard for me to write details because I am usually in a hurry to write this since we don’t have much time. I am excited to come home though because I am feeling really tired. Anyways, I hope all is well!!!
Check out Lincoln and Jenny's blog as they are the only ones who have capability to upload photos and videos. There is some great videos that they put up!! http://www.smithsa.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
faith...
Today was a very intense and long day. I know I had talked about a lady who was extremely sick that we visited earlier in the week. Since it was Monday today, the clinic was open to bring her to get care. I think it turned out to be more than I thought it would be. So we went to the care workers this morning and told her that we were ready to help get the lady to the clinic. A few of us walked to her shack to bathe the lady and get her all clean and then a few of the others on our team were going to drive over to her shack with the van so we could transport her since she could hardly walk. To be honest, I didn’t know how I felt about bathing this woman. I am not sure really how that works health wise here, and she has been having diarrhea ect. All over her self for who knows how long now. I also didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable with strangers bathing her. I just kept praying that God would work out those details and if that was something that needed to be done, then I am just here to glorify Him, so I will do it. We got to her shack and luckily a neighbor had bathed her! Then everything started to go in slow motion it seemed like. I still haven’t fully processed all that happened afterword but it was a really rough situation to be a part of. It didn’t really seem like reality, yet it was. It put the whole orphan thing in perspective.
So when the lady was ready to go, we had brought the van around and had prepared her to get into the van. She has a child. He is 4 years old and his mom is all the family he has. So what do we do with the child? What happens with him? Who is going to take him? These were the questions going round and round. One of the care workers said she would take him home that night if there was no one to watch him. A few people walked the lady and helped her get into the van, as she was extremely weak and could hardly walk. We put her in the van and she just started bawling because this could be the last time she sees her son. The lady didn’t speak any English at all but was telling all the workers that she was worried about her son. It was rough. I think in that moment my initial reaction was to just handle the situation and push the emotions away. I am still waiting for them to surface. As I sit here and write though, I start to think of how many times every single day that happens. A mother is so sick that she has to leave her child. Unknown of if they will ever reconnect again. No wonder why the people never want to tell anyone they are sick…they know that there is no one left to care for their children. It came to the point to where we were like just bring the child along. So we put the child in the van and just decided to do with him what we could.
As we got back to the clinic with the sick mother and her son, we had a little more hope for the situation. The care workers took over and took the lady in the room to council her and tell her what they thought was wrong with her. The lady had to give the workers permission to test her for HIV before they could go through the treatment and go forward. In the mean time they went and bought shoes for the child, and found clothes for him somewhere. They weren’t brand new or anything but they looked shinny and new compared to how we found this boy. He is 4 years old and was wearing a one peice jump suit that was probably for a 2 year old. Poor guy was just crammed into that thing. Well the ladies took him into a room and completely bathed him and put new clothes on him and man did he look amazing. Even his stature was different. It was so cool to see! As we brought him out of the room, there were about 30 patients waiting for treatment outside. The patients had seen the whole situation play out and when they saw the boy cleaned up and wearing new clothes they all clapped and shouted in joy. Man it was a beautiful moment. I wish I could describe for you the feelings better or actually wish you all could be here to see these things. Words can’t describe.
We ended up taking the lady to the hospice. We have hope that she will get well after she starts her treatment and be able to leave the hospice and be with her son again. She isn’t in the worst of worst health wise, and Dr. Neil said that most patients get well within a month or so and get to leave. In the mean time the OVC program is trained to take care of children that this happens to. We are not sure who exactly of the OVC program is watching the boy, but we know he is in Gods hands. After all his name in English means “trust in the Lord”
As we were all sitting around the fire the other night, we started talking about what has effected us the most so far and what is going to be different when we go back to the states for each of us. One of my big things was how grateful I am towards soap and sinks! I have never worked in this dirty of conditions ever. Everything you can imagine, I have seen surrounded me. One of the guys on our trip mentioned the fact that being here takes a lot of faith almost in every single situation. Whether it be riding in the car, walking down the street, or helping a lady who is deathly sick into a car. I completely agreed with him. I find myself in every single situation calling on the Lord and for his protection and guidance and ultimately coming to the point of fully just having faith that what happens is in His plan. I mean when you go to lift a lady into a van the first thing that pops into my mind is that she has feces all over her, that she has HIV, that she has Tuberculosis, and could possibly get you sick or you could get stuff all over your self that you don’t really want. In that moment I find myself instantly turning to God. Praying for what ever I feel…and at the end of that prayer ultimately trusting in Him and knowing that this is just what needs to be done. That us lifting her into the van is glorifying Him. Just having faith that He will keep us healthy, and protect us from danger and if we get sick…that’s in His plan. It really is neat. I mean even just walking 20 feet down the road here the same thing happens. Not just in the crazy hard stuff. We all are finding that every second here we are fully in need of Jesus. Unlike, in the states where I rely so much on my independence. I found myself thinking that life would be so different and probably awesome if we had to rely on God like that in every moment of our lives..like He desires. Hmmm cool thought.
On a side note…sorry for my bad grammar and spelling…I just find myself writing away as if I am writing in my journal! Yikes. I am learning so much about myself on this trip. I love it. So many imperfections and so many strengths. It’s cool. I have a lot to work on and a lot to move forward with!
I hope all is well!!
Taylor
So when the lady was ready to go, we had brought the van around and had prepared her to get into the van. She has a child. He is 4 years old and his mom is all the family he has. So what do we do with the child? What happens with him? Who is going to take him? These were the questions going round and round. One of the care workers said she would take him home that night if there was no one to watch him. A few people walked the lady and helped her get into the van, as she was extremely weak and could hardly walk. We put her in the van and she just started bawling because this could be the last time she sees her son. The lady didn’t speak any English at all but was telling all the workers that she was worried about her son. It was rough. I think in that moment my initial reaction was to just handle the situation and push the emotions away. I am still waiting for them to surface. As I sit here and write though, I start to think of how many times every single day that happens. A mother is so sick that she has to leave her child. Unknown of if they will ever reconnect again. No wonder why the people never want to tell anyone they are sick…they know that there is no one left to care for their children. It came to the point to where we were like just bring the child along. So we put the child in the van and just decided to do with him what we could.
As we got back to the clinic with the sick mother and her son, we had a little more hope for the situation. The care workers took over and took the lady in the room to council her and tell her what they thought was wrong with her. The lady had to give the workers permission to test her for HIV before they could go through the treatment and go forward. In the mean time they went and bought shoes for the child, and found clothes for him somewhere. They weren’t brand new or anything but they looked shinny and new compared to how we found this boy. He is 4 years old and was wearing a one peice jump suit that was probably for a 2 year old. Poor guy was just crammed into that thing. Well the ladies took him into a room and completely bathed him and put new clothes on him and man did he look amazing. Even his stature was different. It was so cool to see! As we brought him out of the room, there were about 30 patients waiting for treatment outside. The patients had seen the whole situation play out and when they saw the boy cleaned up and wearing new clothes they all clapped and shouted in joy. Man it was a beautiful moment. I wish I could describe for you the feelings better or actually wish you all could be here to see these things. Words can’t describe.
We ended up taking the lady to the hospice. We have hope that she will get well after she starts her treatment and be able to leave the hospice and be with her son again. She isn’t in the worst of worst health wise, and Dr. Neil said that most patients get well within a month or so and get to leave. In the mean time the OVC program is trained to take care of children that this happens to. We are not sure who exactly of the OVC program is watching the boy, but we know he is in Gods hands. After all his name in English means “trust in the Lord”
As we were all sitting around the fire the other night, we started talking about what has effected us the most so far and what is going to be different when we go back to the states for each of us. One of my big things was how grateful I am towards soap and sinks! I have never worked in this dirty of conditions ever. Everything you can imagine, I have seen surrounded me. One of the guys on our trip mentioned the fact that being here takes a lot of faith almost in every single situation. Whether it be riding in the car, walking down the street, or helping a lady who is deathly sick into a car. I completely agreed with him. I find myself in every single situation calling on the Lord and for his protection and guidance and ultimately coming to the point of fully just having faith that what happens is in His plan. I mean when you go to lift a lady into a van the first thing that pops into my mind is that she has feces all over her, that she has HIV, that she has Tuberculosis, and could possibly get you sick or you could get stuff all over your self that you don’t really want. In that moment I find myself instantly turning to God. Praying for what ever I feel…and at the end of that prayer ultimately trusting in Him and knowing that this is just what needs to be done. That us lifting her into the van is glorifying Him. Just having faith that He will keep us healthy, and protect us from danger and if we get sick…that’s in His plan. It really is neat. I mean even just walking 20 feet down the road here the same thing happens. Not just in the crazy hard stuff. We all are finding that every second here we are fully in need of Jesus. Unlike, in the states where I rely so much on my independence. I found myself thinking that life would be so different and probably awesome if we had to rely on God like that in every moment of our lives..like He desires. Hmmm cool thought.
On a side note…sorry for my bad grammar and spelling…I just find myself writing away as if I am writing in my journal! Yikes. I am learning so much about myself on this trip. I love it. So many imperfections and so many strengths. It’s cool. I have a lot to work on and a lot to move forward with!
I hope all is well!!
Taylor
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Yet another Conga Line for Jesus...
Today was a very relaxed day again. We went to an African church this morning and man I love it. I love it ..I love it! Worship lasted about an hour or an hour and a half. When I say worship, I don't mean just stand and sing. I mean dance, get out of your seat and dance, dance in the isle, have a conga line, clap your hands, and worship the Lord. Hallelujah! Amen! Seriously it brings so much joy to my heart. I love seeing people just feeling so free and open to rejoice in the Lord however they feel. It brought tears to my eyes because the love of the Lord in these peoples hearts. The sound was beautiful of everyone singing. Most of the words were in a different language but they had big screens with the words so that really helped. It was a great morning.
We then went to the YWAM leaders house for lunch and a relaxing afternoon. It was great seeing Derek and Rebecca again. They are such amazing people and I am excited to see how God works in their lives down the road. Tonight was a much needed night. The team gathered around the fire and spent some time together and worked some stuff out. I am so thankful to Jenny and Lincoln for their leadership here as we are on this trip. They are such amazing people and I love their hearts. My eyes were yet again opened more to the spiritual world. It's been a little intense, but I am confident in the victory we have in Christ.
I have been extremely tired today and have had a bad head ache. I miss eating healthy food. It's really hard to find any health food here in South Africa. My body is ready for something nutrisious! Anyways, I hope all is well!
Taylor
We then went to the YWAM leaders house for lunch and a relaxing afternoon. It was great seeing Derek and Rebecca again. They are such amazing people and I am excited to see how God works in their lives down the road. Tonight was a much needed night. The team gathered around the fire and spent some time together and worked some stuff out. I am so thankful to Jenny and Lincoln for their leadership here as we are on this trip. They are such amazing people and I love their hearts. My eyes were yet again opened more to the spiritual world. It's been a little intense, but I am confident in the victory we have in Christ.
I have been extremely tired today and have had a bad head ache. I miss eating healthy food. It's really hard to find any health food here in South Africa. My body is ready for something nutrisious! Anyways, I hope all is well!
Taylor
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Photo Shoot & Safari
Yesterday here was a very eventful day! We had an outreach Photo Shoot for the people here in Freedom Park. I some how volunteered myself to be the person who heads up and leads this event. I have never led anything this big so far in my life. It was a little stressful and of course I forgot 2 major things back at the shelter…I should of brought my planner to South Africa. My team members were amazing. There were so encouraging and willing to help out however I needed and I couldn’t of done it without them. We invited people in the community to come and get pictures taken of themselves or themselves and their family members for free. A lot of them were amazed that it was free and were so amazed. The people here love to see pictures of themselves. Unlike us who grow up in the states saying “Cheese!” all the time, most of the people we have come in contact with have never seen a picture of themselves ever. It was awesome being able to provide them pictures of themselves and their family members. I wish you could all personally be here to see their faces when we hand them the picture. I took a few pictures of their reactions and I will put them up when I get to the states. While the people waited to receive their pictures we had a local pastor speaking to the people about how they were created in the image of Christ. It was amazing to see these people so excited about something that we are so used to. It was a really neat way to show Christ’s love to all these amazing people.
Today was a resting day. We were all feeling a little worn out so it was good to rest a little. Most of us went on a safari! It was great…and exciting! We had a few fun encounters as it is mostly luck when driving around the vast area to find the animals. At one point we were seriously surrounded in about 20 elephants and a few of their babies. It was crazy, I got a little nervous there for a second because Lincoln had warned us that they do sometimes get angry and he has heard of them flipping cars over. I got some great videos of them crossing the streets right in front of our cars and basically just surrounded us. We did also get in a very minor accident. Not with elephants, or any other animals but we are all ok no one was hurt. Every day is an adventure here! We also got to see a rhino up close which is pretty rare because usually they aren’t near the road. We saw giraffes, alligators, hippos, wart hogs, water buffalo, lots of zebras, and a lot more. It was a fun day and we are all so exhausted, which is weird because we sat in a car all day long.
Our nights here have been really great. We have a neat little hut here where we are staying that we have been building fires at and grilling food. The other night was amazing. We all gathered around to talk about the trip so far and all that we had each experienced. I love doing this because even though we are a group we all do different things throughout the day and have different experiences. We have a few awesome guitar players here so there is always acoustic guitar in the background. It was truly a special night. We were reflecting, and crying, and singing, and praying, and talking about all that we were feeling and all that had affected us so far on the trip. This team we have here this year is so great. I love how real everyone is. Everyone is so down to earth and we all have struggles and flaws and yet we come together with the love of Jesus. I found myself really amazed about how far the Lord has brought me since the last time I was here last year. Tomorrow we will be going to an African church (which I hear is usually a 3 or 4 hour service). I sure hope there is dancing and a conga line like last year when we were here for church. We will be spending an afternoon at the YWAM teams house enjoying the sun and having another relaxing afternoon. Then when Monday comes, back to work!
I am feeling great though, other than having coffee with drawls! I have been very tired, but our whole team is usually pretty tired as well. I am starting to miss home. Next week we have so many exciting things to do and I cannot even wait!!
Talk to you soon!
Love,
Taylor
Today was a resting day. We were all feeling a little worn out so it was good to rest a little. Most of us went on a safari! It was great…and exciting! We had a few fun encounters as it is mostly luck when driving around the vast area to find the animals. At one point we were seriously surrounded in about 20 elephants and a few of their babies. It was crazy, I got a little nervous there for a second because Lincoln had warned us that they do sometimes get angry and he has heard of them flipping cars over. I got some great videos of them crossing the streets right in front of our cars and basically just surrounded us. We did also get in a very minor accident. Not with elephants, or any other animals but we are all ok no one was hurt. Every day is an adventure here! We also got to see a rhino up close which is pretty rare because usually they aren’t near the road. We saw giraffes, alligators, hippos, wart hogs, water buffalo, lots of zebras, and a lot more. It was a fun day and we are all so exhausted, which is weird because we sat in a car all day long.
Our nights here have been really great. We have a neat little hut here where we are staying that we have been building fires at and grilling food. The other night was amazing. We all gathered around to talk about the trip so far and all that we had each experienced. I love doing this because even though we are a group we all do different things throughout the day and have different experiences. We have a few awesome guitar players here so there is always acoustic guitar in the background. It was truly a special night. We were reflecting, and crying, and singing, and praying, and talking about all that we were feeling and all that had affected us so far on the trip. This team we have here this year is so great. I love how real everyone is. Everyone is so down to earth and we all have struggles and flaws and yet we come together with the love of Jesus. I found myself really amazed about how far the Lord has brought me since the last time I was here last year. Tomorrow we will be going to an African church (which I hear is usually a 3 or 4 hour service). I sure hope there is dancing and a conga line like last year when we were here for church. We will be spending an afternoon at the YWAM teams house enjoying the sun and having another relaxing afternoon. Then when Monday comes, back to work!
I am feeling great though, other than having coffee with drawls! I have been very tired, but our whole team is usually pretty tired as well. I am starting to miss home. Next week we have so many exciting things to do and I cannot even wait!!
Talk to you soon!
Love,
Taylor
Friday, July 30, 2010
Freedom Park
Yesterday was amazing. Our team has been spending every morning in Freedom Park working on the garden and building the shacks. Yesterday morning we got to do home visits. We also did this last year. Basically what we do is get food bags together full of about a weeks worth of food, I would say..and also a giant jug of clean water. We then go with the care workers in Freedom Park to deliver the food. I am not sure how they decide who we take the food to, but they know all their patients pretty well and so whoever needs food or is really sick that week, that’s who we take the food to. This was by far the most informative day I have had yet in Freedom Park. 2 care workers led us around. We were out in Freedom Park for 3 hours just walking around, talking to people ect. It was so great! I can’t even wait to put up pictures! Just so you know, there are roughly around 20,000 people in Freedom Park as an estimate. Well that’s at least what I heard. We took with us 2 extra barrels of water because we fill up the barrels that we have used here as a team. We started walking and of course since we have jugs of water and we are white so we draw in a lot of attention while walking. So we were just walking around and all of a sudden I look over and see a man with a cup in his hand and he is asking us if we can give him and his family, who was also sitting with him, water. So we gave them the first jug. As we kept walking we came upon a lady mixing a giant pot outside of her shack. The pot was steaming and bubbling with a white creamy consistency. So our hilarious care takers were having us take pictures of them mixing the pot. They were cracking us up. So they ended up telling us that this family was making beer. They took us into their shack to show us the finished product. It was so interesting! That’s how that family makes their living they were telling us. They offered for us to try it and there was no way I would ever try it because I would probably have Montezuma’s revenge for the rest of the trip I just know it haha. So we kept walking and just socializing with all the people. It was a lot of fun because we carry candy with us to give to all the children and the people will see our cameras and ask us to take pictures of them and show it to them. I have some videos of their reactions of what they do when they see their picture for the first time. I can’t wait to get home to put those up. So we ended up walking over to a shack and as I look over I see a giant pile of pig and goat legs and chopped up heads on the table! Haha for some reason I was super excited about that, which I never am, and went right over. Sure enough the ladies start telling us about all of this slaughtered animal stuff. There were dead goats stuffed in zip lock bags…hoofs and all, and their intestines were in a separate bag that we got to look at. They then brought us over to a bucket and our care taker pulls out a cow’s lung! She said it is her favorite food. All this meat was just sitting outside not covered and I asked if they ever get sick after they eat this food because of all the flies landing on it. They said yes all the time. Wow. I would never even touch a cow’s lung! I got some great pictures though!
Anyways, so we come to the first house that we are going to drop food off at. As a side note, all the people whose houses we are visiting have HIV. We went into this girls shack and she was holding her baby. We talked to her and asked what she needed us to pray for her. We gave her the food and all got in a circle and prayed.
When we came to the second house a lady lived there all alone. She is a woman who sells towels for the women to wear. The care takers told us all about her story and symptoms and even got out all her HIV medicine and showed us what she takes and when she takes it and all that stuff. It was so interesting. We also prayed for the lady for whatever she requested. It’s such a cool thing to be able to pray for these people in Freedom Park. They usually don’t know what we are saying because they don’t speak English, but they know what’s up and I know they understand on a deeper level.
The third house we came to was a little bit different. We were hanging outside the house for quite a while while the care takers were inside. While we were standing around a man randomly came out of no where. He started talking to us and of course we couldn’t understand what he was saying. Once we had someone to translate they told us what he wanted. Turns out he had found us and really needed prayer. He asked us to pray for him right there because he hasn’t had a job in 10 years. He seemed pretty distressed and hopeless. We prayed for the man and he was super thankful for that. I continue to pray that he finds his hope in Jesus As soon as she invited us into her shack we saw a pretty frail looking girl sitting on the chair. She looked miserable actually. Once the ladies started telling us what was going on, we started to get the whole picture. Turns out this lady wasn’t their HIV patient yet. They had heard about how sick this girl was and they care takers have been trying to find her. Well we found her and it was not good. The poor girl was extremely sick. She couldn’t move from her chair, not even enough to make herself food or go into her bed because every time she got up she would collapse because she is so sick and weak. This was exactly what Dr. Neil was saying. He was saying that these people will be sick for months before they tell anyone how sick they are, then the next thing you know they are in hospice on their death bed. So long story short we prayed over the poor woman and are going to try and transport her to the clinic on Monday. Monday is the next day that the clinic is open so hopefully she will make it that long. Before we left she was having diarrhea all over her self and she was covered in it. It was such a horrible moment. My heart broke. I am continuing to pray for this woman and that she will hold on until Monday. That we can get her to the clinic so that she can get treatment. If you could say a pray for her too that would be so great.
After this we went to another ladies house. She was a patient of HIV but was not yet feeling stress(pain or symptoms) from the HIV. She was telling us how she is a “Natural Healer” pretty much the same thing as a which doctor. There is a lot of this kind of practice here in South Africa. It’s pretty intense. It was a really cool experience though and it was a really awesome thing to pray over this woman and to send any evil things away from her and all that good stuff
It was truly an amazing 3 hours in Freedom Park. God is soo good, and I love seeing him bring peace, comfort, and hope to those in need and pain. It’s so hard for me to write about this stuff because I really have no words to describe the things I saw and the things we did and experienced when we were there. I think in person would be way easier, but at least you get the idea! I can’t wait to blog about today! Enough typing for now though.
Love you all!! Thanks for your prayers
Taylor
Oh by the way check out Lincoln & Jenny Smith's blog...they are our leaders and the people hosting us here in South Africa! They have put pictures on their blog and a little more about all that we are doing!
http://www.smithsa.blogspot.com/
Anyways, so we come to the first house that we are going to drop food off at. As a side note, all the people whose houses we are visiting have HIV. We went into this girls shack and she was holding her baby. We talked to her and asked what she needed us to pray for her. We gave her the food and all got in a circle and prayed.
When we came to the second house a lady lived there all alone. She is a woman who sells towels for the women to wear. The care takers told us all about her story and symptoms and even got out all her HIV medicine and showed us what she takes and when she takes it and all that stuff. It was so interesting. We also prayed for the lady for whatever she requested. It’s such a cool thing to be able to pray for these people in Freedom Park. They usually don’t know what we are saying because they don’t speak English, but they know what’s up and I know they understand on a deeper level.
The third house we came to was a little bit different. We were hanging outside the house for quite a while while the care takers were inside. While we were standing around a man randomly came out of no where. He started talking to us and of course we couldn’t understand what he was saying. Once we had someone to translate they told us what he wanted. Turns out he had found us and really needed prayer. He asked us to pray for him right there because he hasn’t had a job in 10 years. He seemed pretty distressed and hopeless. We prayed for the man and he was super thankful for that. I continue to pray that he finds his hope in Jesus As soon as she invited us into her shack we saw a pretty frail looking girl sitting on the chair. She looked miserable actually. Once the ladies started telling us what was going on, we started to get the whole picture. Turns out this lady wasn’t their HIV patient yet. They had heard about how sick this girl was and they care takers have been trying to find her. Well we found her and it was not good. The poor girl was extremely sick. She couldn’t move from her chair, not even enough to make herself food or go into her bed because every time she got up she would collapse because she is so sick and weak. This was exactly what Dr. Neil was saying. He was saying that these people will be sick for months before they tell anyone how sick they are, then the next thing you know they are in hospice on their death bed. So long story short we prayed over the poor woman and are going to try and transport her to the clinic on Monday. Monday is the next day that the clinic is open so hopefully she will make it that long. Before we left she was having diarrhea all over her self and she was covered in it. It was such a horrible moment. My heart broke. I am continuing to pray for this woman and that she will hold on until Monday. That we can get her to the clinic so that she can get treatment. If you could say a pray for her too that would be so great.
After this we went to another ladies house. She was a patient of HIV but was not yet feeling stress(pain or symptoms) from the HIV. She was telling us how she is a “Natural Healer” pretty much the same thing as a which doctor. There is a lot of this kind of practice here in South Africa. It’s pretty intense. It was a really cool experience though and it was a really awesome thing to pray over this woman and to send any evil things away from her and all that good stuff
It was truly an amazing 3 hours in Freedom Park. God is soo good, and I love seeing him bring peace, comfort, and hope to those in need and pain. It’s so hard for me to write about this stuff because I really have no words to describe the things I saw and the things we did and experienced when we were there. I think in person would be way easier, but at least you get the idea! I can’t wait to blog about today! Enough typing for now though.
Love you all!! Thanks for your prayers
Taylor
Oh by the way check out Lincoln & Jenny Smith's blog...they are our leaders and the people hosting us here in South Africa! They have put pictures on their blog and a little more about all that we are doing!
http://www.smithsa.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
First 2 days in South Africa:)
Hey all from South Africa!
Wow…I seriously have lost track of time being here! The property we are staying on hasn’t had internet here so it has taken me a while to blog! We arrived here on Monday night late after a full 31 hours straight of traveling. The first day we were here we went grocery shopping for all 14 of us. Man I have never done so much grocery shopping in my life. After that we went straight over to Freedom Park to work with the OVC(orphan and vunerable children) program. We will be working with this program this whole week. Basically, they have started this program so kids have somewhere to go after school so that their moms can actually have jobs instead of using prostitution for money. There are over 1000 kids in this program. They are all so BEAUTIFUL! I am amazed. I would say the oldest one is about 10 maybe. It’s amazing to me how these kids function on their own. Today a little boy probably about 3 or 4 was ready to go home from the program. He came over and gave me a thumb shake (their little thing they do here) and wheeled his little tin can off down the street to home. Alone. I was amazed. I am so curious as to how these kids at the age of 3 know how to get home on their own amongst thousands of shacks that look the same and that he is safe going all that way alone. Wow. Such a different culture. None of these children talk English. Well, maybe like 4 of them. So we have no clue what they are saying. We have been doing crafts with them, and playing with them, loving on them, and just having fun. They taught me a hilarious game yesterday. We stood in a huge circle and sang and danced in their language (which is a mixture of like 13 languages pretty much) It was so fun! It’s been great to talk to these children about how God protects them and loves them and being able to give them physical touch that is good touch. It’s something they totally crave. All of a sudden you have like 4 little ones holding your hands out of no where. One little kid probably kissed my hand like 100 times today haha. He was about 3 years old.
We also have been busy working on the garden we are building for the Aids patients in Freedom Park and building a shack for a family. There are 2 families in Freedom Park we are building new shacks for. This will be great for the family to have privacy, as the children are usually in the same room as the parents and as you can imagine what they see and sleep next to. They learn at a very young age about sex this way and it’s not helping them in any way. The first family we are building one for all the family has AIDS. I will talk more about all this when I have a little more time. I talked to my friend Maureen, whom I became great friends with last year. I talked to her husband on the phone and when I told him “Taylor from America” was calling he started yelling in excitement because he said Maureen has been waiting for my call for a year! I can’t wait to see her. We are staying super busy…and have so much going on.
Today me and 2 of the girls got to go along side of a doctor here named Doctor Neil. It was incredible. This man is truly amazing. He volunteers about 40 percent of his time working and providing medicine for the AIDS patients here in the area. He works about 25 % less then his coworkers and gets paid more yearly. It just is so cool to see the way God blesses him like that. I want to live like that.
He has over 1000 patients he sees outside of the paying doctor position that he has. We went to the hospice for AIDS patients with him. Whoa. So so sad. We walked from bed to bed of dying patients of all ages as he flipped through their charts to see their status and progress. They were all just laying their. Miserable. It was heart breaking. All had different stories. They looked so sick and their little frail bodies lay under the blankets. He would let us look in their mouths to see what was going on and he would lift up their arms to show us how skinny they all were. There were so many times when I wanted to just start bawling right then and there. I couldn’t even imagine. I am still trying to process all of this, but it was truly an amazing experience. Doctor Neil was saying that the problem is ,is that the people have a stigma as to people having AIDS, so they don’t want anyone knowing they have it. So they will lay in their beds for months without any one knowing the severe problems they are having. They will just lay there having diareha 20 times a day ect. Until they are on their death beds and someone finds them. So when they find them they are on their death bed and they have to get them treatment as fast as possible to keep them from dying. I can’t even believe that. Doctor Neil was saying at this point, since the economy is bad, they don’t have as much funds to provide these patients free care. They now have a board that gets together to decide which patients need it the worst. I could not be on that board because I could’t turn anyone down..or I couldn’t imagine that I guess. It was great to see the ones that were recovering though. There is hope. We asked Dr. Neil how he does this every day when the problem gets worse and worse. He simply said “How do you eat an elephant?” “One bite at a time”
Anyways, I miss you all!! I am thinking about you and wishing you could all join us here in South Africa.
Love you!
Taylor
Wow…I seriously have lost track of time being here! The property we are staying on hasn’t had internet here so it has taken me a while to blog! We arrived here on Monday night late after a full 31 hours straight of traveling. The first day we were here we went grocery shopping for all 14 of us. Man I have never done so much grocery shopping in my life. After that we went straight over to Freedom Park to work with the OVC(orphan and vunerable children) program. We will be working with this program this whole week. Basically, they have started this program so kids have somewhere to go after school so that their moms can actually have jobs instead of using prostitution for money. There are over 1000 kids in this program. They are all so BEAUTIFUL! I am amazed. I would say the oldest one is about 10 maybe. It’s amazing to me how these kids function on their own. Today a little boy probably about 3 or 4 was ready to go home from the program. He came over and gave me a thumb shake (their little thing they do here) and wheeled his little tin can off down the street to home. Alone. I was amazed. I am so curious as to how these kids at the age of 3 know how to get home on their own amongst thousands of shacks that look the same and that he is safe going all that way alone. Wow. Such a different culture. None of these children talk English. Well, maybe like 4 of them. So we have no clue what they are saying. We have been doing crafts with them, and playing with them, loving on them, and just having fun. They taught me a hilarious game yesterday. We stood in a huge circle and sang and danced in their language (which is a mixture of like 13 languages pretty much) It was so fun! It’s been great to talk to these children about how God protects them and loves them and being able to give them physical touch that is good touch. It’s something they totally crave. All of a sudden you have like 4 little ones holding your hands out of no where. One little kid probably kissed my hand like 100 times today haha. He was about 3 years old.
We also have been busy working on the garden we are building for the Aids patients in Freedom Park and building a shack for a family. There are 2 families in Freedom Park we are building new shacks for. This will be great for the family to have privacy, as the children are usually in the same room as the parents and as you can imagine what they see and sleep next to. They learn at a very young age about sex this way and it’s not helping them in any way. The first family we are building one for all the family has AIDS. I will talk more about all this when I have a little more time. I talked to my friend Maureen, whom I became great friends with last year. I talked to her husband on the phone and when I told him “Taylor from America” was calling he started yelling in excitement because he said Maureen has been waiting for my call for a year! I can’t wait to see her. We are staying super busy…and have so much going on.
Today me and 2 of the girls got to go along side of a doctor here named Doctor Neil. It was incredible. This man is truly amazing. He volunteers about 40 percent of his time working and providing medicine for the AIDS patients here in the area. He works about 25 % less then his coworkers and gets paid more yearly. It just is so cool to see the way God blesses him like that. I want to live like that.
He has over 1000 patients he sees outside of the paying doctor position that he has. We went to the hospice for AIDS patients with him. Whoa. So so sad. We walked from bed to bed of dying patients of all ages as he flipped through their charts to see their status and progress. They were all just laying their. Miserable. It was heart breaking. All had different stories. They looked so sick and their little frail bodies lay under the blankets. He would let us look in their mouths to see what was going on and he would lift up their arms to show us how skinny they all were. There were so many times when I wanted to just start bawling right then and there. I couldn’t even imagine. I am still trying to process all of this, but it was truly an amazing experience. Doctor Neil was saying that the problem is ,is that the people have a stigma as to people having AIDS, so they don’t want anyone knowing they have it. So they will lay in their beds for months without any one knowing the severe problems they are having. They will just lay there having diareha 20 times a day ect. Until they are on their death beds and someone finds them. So when they find them they are on their death bed and they have to get them treatment as fast as possible to keep them from dying. I can’t even believe that. Doctor Neil was saying at this point, since the economy is bad, they don’t have as much funds to provide these patients free care. They now have a board that gets together to decide which patients need it the worst. I could not be on that board because I could’t turn anyone down..or I couldn’t imagine that I guess. It was great to see the ones that were recovering though. There is hope. We asked Dr. Neil how he does this every day when the problem gets worse and worse. He simply said “How do you eat an elephant?” “One bite at a time”
Anyways, I miss you all!! I am thinking about you and wishing you could all join us here in South Africa.
Love you!
Taylor
Friday, July 23, 2010
HERE WE COME SOUTH AFRICA!!
Here we go! I thank all of you for your support for my trip to Africa. I raised all my money except for $120! God sure is good at providing. I am so excited to see all the adventures that go on while we are over there. It has been a very stressful 2 weeks of my life. I am thankful to have very patient parents who can deal with my stressful attitude. I have been working on moving in to an apt. in Denver, transitioning jobs, packing for Africa, and all the other little things that life involves. Yikes. I am excited to get on that plane and just get to South Africa and serve the children. I know God has big plans for this trip. I can feel the ways in which he has been preparing me in different ways which is so cool. I cannot wait to give my friend that I made out there a call! I know she is going to answer the phone by saying something in some South African language and she is going to be so surprised to hear an american voice. It's going to be great. It will be so neat also to see the Smith family who is hosting our team and the YWAM team we worked with last year. These people are such inspirations as they live their lives as missionaries. I am not sure how often I will be posting. It depends on what the internet will be like, but keep checking! I will be in South Africa July 26-Aug7th! Again, thank you so much for your support and prayers! Also, if you think about it pray for not bad turbulence on the plane. Thanks:)
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Lerato-South Africa
This is a video I made of all of the pictures and some videos from when we were in SA.One night as our team was sitting around reflecting what we had been through and seen so far on our trip, we ended up writting a song. It just kind of came together which was really awesome. The song talks about people we met, things we saw, and what affected us so far on our trip. The song in the background of this video is the song we wrote. I tried my best to put pictures of the people and things that the song is talking about to play with the lyrics:) enjoy!
WELCOME!
Hello friends & family!
I wanted to start this blog to share with you about what has been going on in my life. You have all been so wonderful in supporting me through all my adventures. Your support and prayers have meant the world to me, so this blog is a dedication to all of you!! i feel like this would be a great way to share stories, pictures, and videos with you of travels and things going on in my life. I haven't had time to share them all with you personally, so hopefully this will be a great tool! I am new at this blog thing so bare with me!! I am a horrible speller so just try and catch my vibe!! I hope you enjoy!! Oh yeah...when you click on the pictures they get bigger:)
I wanted to start this blog to share with you about what has been going on in my life. You have all been so wonderful in supporting me through all my adventures. Your support and prayers have meant the world to me, so this blog is a dedication to all of you!! i feel like this would be a great way to share stories, pictures, and videos with you of travels and things going on in my life. I haven't had time to share them all with you personally, so hopefully this will be a great tool! I am new at this blog thing so bare with me!! I am a horrible speller so just try and catch my vibe!! I hope you enjoy!! Oh yeah...when you click on the pictures they get bigger:)
2010 South Africa Trip!! July 25-August 8
Hey Again!
As most of you may know and have already seen from this blog, last year I attended a trip to South Africa to work with orphans. South Africa has touched my heart and I am working on going out to South Africa again this summer to serve the people and orphans in the town and nearby towns of Rustenburg.
After years of ignoring the AIDS pandemic, South Africa has a crisis of over 2 million AIDS orphans. Many of these children live in tin shacks raising themselves and their siblings. In the
middle of this devastating poverty is an oasis called the Lighthouse Children's Shelter. The
Lighthouse Shelter rescue children from life threatening conditions and gives them a safe place to
heal, grow, and thrive.
In July of 2010, Red Rocks Church will be sending our team to work with the orphans of South Africa. This trip will have three main objectives. First, we will work with the Lighhouse Shelter serving them in tangible ways through cleaning, remodeling, and repairs, painting and general maintenance around the property. We'll also spend quite a bit of time playing with the kids and showing them God's love. Many of the orphans come from a shanty town called Freedom Park. Our second objective will be to serve the single mothers living in Freedom Park, many of which are dying from AIDS, in practical ways through food and water distribution. Our third objective will be to work with a woman named Martha who saw that many of the children living in her neighborhood were orphans raising themselves. Martha feeds the orphans everyday and helps them with school work, and provides valuable life lessons that these children miss without parents. We have been working on building a safe house for the children to go and eat and rest. We will be helping finish the house and anything that is needed on the property. Our team will spend time with the orphans Martha serves by helping them with school work and teaching them life skills. We want to be open to love and serve the people of South Africa in any way that God leads us. I would love for you to read more about my trip last year so you get a little more of an idea of what we will be doing while in team as we go to South Africa would be the most important contribution that you could give. Specifically, you can please pray for the safety of the team, and that God would impact the people that we serve.
If you are able to, any amount of money that you can donate would help us be able to go. However, if this is not something you are able to do, please do not feel any pressure!
You can give at http://www.redrockschurch.com/give/- Please select "South Africa Missions Trip 2010" from the options and put "XXX YOUR NAME XXX" and my name Taylor Dermody in the notes area. This ensures that you receive credit for your charitable donation. If you feel more comfortable sending your donation through the mail:
Checks can be made out to Red Rocks Church and sent to the following address:
Red Rocks Church Missions
18301 W. Colfax Avenue, Unit T101A
Golden, CO 80401
Please write my name in the memo field of your check.
I look forward to God working in my life as
well as the lives of people that we will have the chance
to meet and see again! I am also so excited to share
with you the new stories of what God does while we
are there this year! If you have any questions feel free to
ask me!! Enjoy the blog!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Freedom Park
Freedom Park is an area near Rustenberg South Africa. This area began as a squatter camp for women who would sell their bodies to the men working in the platinum mines. It slowly evolved into a camp for people looking for work in the mines. In an effort to remove the people from their land the mines would beat and kill the residents. When a new political regime took power they made it legal for people to stay, hence the name Freedom Park. There are probably a few thousand shacks there and most of the people are dying from HIV or Tuberculosis. Theft, Rape and Murder are extremely common in this area and the park grows larger every year.
We continued walking...we soon walked up onto what looked like a sculpture. It was beautiful! So creative and a masterpiece that someone built. Our caretakers told us that this man who used to work in the mines built it. Sure enough it was a miniature mine! It even had characters in it and apparently it used to even work. We were so captured by this work of art that was obviously built by a genius. As our caretakers continued telling the story, they began to tell us that the man who built it was killed and we were standing in his house. We began to look around to see that where we had been standing was surrounded by tin walls that had been burned down. Apparently, people knew he was a miner, which means he makes money, so one night robbers came and burned his whole house down and killed him and everyone inside. Standing within the walls of the burnt down house I started to think of the family that was sleeping inside and how this man goes to work every day to support the people he loves only to get burned to death. It truly broke my heart. I could feel a pain so deep down there are no words to describe it.
As we got in the car after our trip to Freedom Park, we all began to weap. There were no words to even describe what we saw and what we felt at Freedom Park. Just tears of pain for the people living in Freedom Park who are dying, who have lost love ones, who continuously get raped every night, who have to sell their bodies just to survive, for the people who lose loved ones every day, and for how these people are hanging onto every moment like it is their last. Tears of thankfulness that God opened our eyes to what is really out there in our world, that we got to truly see how great we have it even when we think we don't, tears of joy that we get to go back to our family's back home who love us and keep us safe, tears that we have a big God who loves us and provides us with eternal life. Walking down the paths of Freedom Park changed my life. I can only hope that we shed a little bit of God's love on those we walked with on that day.
"The sweetest things in the world today have come to us through tears & pain." J.R. Miller
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Safari & Lion Park
Yup, you heard it! We went on a real Africa safari! Man it was great...! When we pulled into the gates of the Safari they informed us that some of the park was on fire. This is common to them apparently because they didn't seem to alarmed. We weren't sure how many animals we would see, considering the animals flee from the fires. Sure enough, we saw almost every animal there was! Elephants, zebras, wildabeast, warthogs, baboons, crocadiles, birds, giant lizards, hippos, water buffalo, girafe, rihno, and lions! Some of these animals, like the rihnos and lions are very rare to see, but sure enough we spotted them! It was truly an exciting day. About 7 people were packed in each van and as we spoted an animal we would all flee to one side of the van and try to get some great pictures of the animals! I am surprised the van never tipped...ha!
We also had a great experience going to a Lion Park. This was also so exciting. When we arrived, the first thing we were attracted to were the lions that we got to play with! Their were about 4 or 5 lions in a large cage and 8 people could go in at one time. I couldn't believe this!! The lions were about 8 months old, but they still weigh almost as much as I do...so when they are ready to play I got a little nervous they would just take me down! It was great...they were so cute, but their fur definately not as soft as Lilly's (my kitty). One of the care taker's taught us to blow on their noses and they would just lick your face...that was really exciting until one almost took a chunk out of my hair! That was so neat!
After that, we wondered around the park to find that one of the girafe's had gotten lose. She was wondering around in this park with us. Of course, they wanted to put her back in her designated area. SHe was NOT happy about this..I don't blame her though because there were no fresh leaves to eat in her area. THey tried to hurd her with safari trucks and by banging trashcan lids. She was running around kicking and bucking. I have never seen this ever! It got kind of intense...at one point I almost got ran over by the safari truck, and charged by the girafe. Finally they got her contained...poor girl. She then tried to break throught the fence! After we fed her some snacks she was a little more happy! We then got in our vans and drove through the Lion reserves. This was great! Lions would just surround our cars, they were pretty tame though. We saw a bunch of diffrent packs. The lion park was truly an experience of a life time!
For dinner, we headed to a great restaurant called, "Carnivore Restaurant." It definately lives up to its name. On the menu that night was everything from basic chicken and beef to warthog and crocodile. The appitisers were great then shortly followed by the selection of meat! They would come around with a huge chunk of meat on their sticks, put it right in front of your face and say "crocodile??" It was so exciting! I tried everything (for those of you who know how picky I am, that's a big deal ha) My favorite was actually the crocodile...my lease favorite was water buffalo. It was a great way to end our exciting day!
Working at Martha's House
Martha is a lady in the community who provides and serves food to about 50 orphans in the neighboorhood. These children come straight from school everyday to Marthas house to have a meal. If there are left overs, the children take the food home to feed their families. We spent alot of time at Marthas house on our trip. We helped finish build a house for the children to eat their meals in. We also prepared activities every day, such as, a tea party for the girls, soccer for the boys, dances, worship songs, making jewelry, and even animal balloons. Ohhh and we danced. Oh yeah we danced it was awesome! It was so great to be able to build relationships with these amazing kids. After about three days of working there, the kids really started to warm up to us and it was so great to be a part of their lives. The storys of these childrens life truly amazed me. They have been through more in their 15 years of life, than I have in my 21. Alot of them have parents, siblings, and close friends that have all passed away. They live in shacks, some many miles away, and help raise their siblings, neices, and nephews. They were very open about their situtaions, and I was just in awe of how strong these children are. If I was living in their conditions, I would be miserable, but they were all so happy and so greatful for life. It was a true inspiration of people who live there life like today is their last.
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