day five: u-turn

On Monday in Capetown we served with a homeless organization called uTurn. They had a beautiful vision in that they believed true change effectively happens by changing the way of thinking within a poor and marginalized person's life. Instead of giving out free food and clothes, they provided vouchers that may be redeemed after services are done in exchange (cleaning, helping to repair things, etc.) for those vouchers. This is similar to the age old adage: give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. This process is first done through building relationships within the homeless community which then progresses to rehabilitation and finally reintegration into "normal living" (permanent accommodation, regular employment, etc). I thought this was such a wonderful challenge for helping those in need. Sometimes giving them what they need at that moment isn't actually what is most helpful. This method requires an investment in relationship, community, and person. And after all, isn't that what we're called to anyway?

The way we helped uTurn was not exactly how we expected! We actually didn't interact with any of the homeless community, but instead helped with more administrative and housekeeping tasks. uTurn had an entire room full of donated clothes that we spent the whole day sorting! Sean (who worked at uTurn) told us that it would normally take 9 months-1 year to make the progress on sorting the donations that we made in one day! What joy it brought us being able to serve and help in such a practical way.

uTurn's second-hand clothing store

They had shelf after shelf after shelf after shelf.....of donated items.

Las Vegas, Nevada!

for a creative, colourful life.

Jeff had the pleasure of sorting out the clothes that were soiled or stained and couldn't be used.

South African Airways donated bags of their uniforms!

This room was completely full when we started.

Liz and Lindy organizing the clothing store.

after a long day of sorting clothes...

our team!

Check out more about uTurn on their website or their facebook page. 

day four: point community church

We owe our thanks for even having the opportunity to go to Capetown to Point Community Church. They were our home base once we got there, and the reason we went. The pastor, Jacques, worked with Redeemer City to City in building and realizing the vision for his church, which was started in January 2010. He then requested Redeemer to send a group. I, personally, cannot say how thankful I am that he made that request. It changed my life forever! They took us in like family and treated us beyond wonderfully the entire week. What a blessing it is to have a family like that across the world.

Point Community family wall

believe and live!

We wrapped shoeboxes full of gifts for kids in need.

We spent a Saturday afternoon painting a baby room for 2 upcoming babies in the congregation.

More painting.

Ways they pray for their community.

worshipping together on Sunday  morning.

feasting together for Sunday lunch.

the whole group!

day three: our kombis

The best I can tell, "kombi" is just the way they say "van" in Africa. We rented two of them in order to accomodate all 16 members of our team. And we went everywhere in them. They were perfect: spacious, reliable, and sooo darn cute. Plus they had license plates with elephants on it!

We only had one unfortunate event during the duration of our stay. The very first night we were there (!) someone shattered the window and stole our GPS while we were at dinner. You can imagine that our team was a little shaken, being that it was the first night we arrived. But it was a good reminder for us to be extra cautious about being safe!

day two: the waterfront

While in Cape Town, we spent many meals at the Waterfront. It was a mix of a shopping mall, outdoor mall/pavilion and food court with a few nice restaurants thrown in the mix, too. And beautiful views of the water and the mountains. The first night we arrived in Cape Town, we had a team dinner at a nice restaurant here. It was a beautiful welcoming to Capetown for sure!

the Leisers!

Bethany, Joanna, and me (Joanna and I could barely hold our eyes open because we were so jetlagged!)

 

wildebeest....it's what's for dinner!

The picture on the left is of our entire team, minus one who hadn't arrived yet. I loved the picture on the right of the Christmas tree at the Waterfront. It definitely took some getting used to seeing Christmas trees and decorations since it was summer there!

day one: colorful streets of cape town

Isn't this street so beautiful and vibrant with color? Ironically, this neighborhood is rather dangerous! We didn't get out and walk around, but I loved seeing all the bright and happy paint colors on the homes. There was row after row of buildings painted like these.

[photo by Bethany]

cape town, finally!

OK folks. Yes, it's true, I've been back from Africa for (slightly) over two months now. And I have barely posted any pictures from my trip on here. I don't know what happened, but time got away from me and life moved on and then two months later, I still hadn't done anything. But that is about to change. February is going to be the "29 Days of Cape Town" month right here! I'll have a post each day - with mostly pictures and a little info about my trip - so that I can feel like I've properly documented it while also sharing the beauty of such a wonderful place with others. Some posts may be very minor and seemingly insignificant, but they'll have some significance to me from my trip. I'll try to briefly explain why I chose those things and then let you feast your eyes on the unbelievable beauty of landscape, people, children and city life. And, I'm starting now...day 1, coming up!

Also, for a recap of the things I have posted already, check out these posts: here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

You can also check out some wonderful recaps from my fellow team member Bethany (you'll have to look in the archives from December).

a reunion

First, I want to apologize for one thing: my lack of posts about my trip to South Africa. I promise, updates are in the works. But sifting through 5,000 pictures (yes, 5,000) and almost as many stories and memories is difficult work during the holidays, or any time really. I have a lot of thoughts, but getting them into short, semi-interesting posts is another story. They're coming though. If you're interested in my trip, please don't give up on me, they'll be up shortly (hopefully).

Secondly, on that same note, last Monday night our Cape Town team had a debrief and follow-up meeting. It had only been two weeks since we had seen each other, but after spending 10 solid days together, it felt like two weeks too long. It was refreshing and exciting to hear everyone's thoughts after taking some time to process them. We sang some songs we learned in Africa and drank orange Fanta (although, it tastes different in America). Most of all, we just cherished and enjoyed the time we spent together. And planned our next time to get together. And tried to pretend like we were still in Cape Town, rather than New York (everyone checking their cell phones was a dead giveaway, though). It was a glorious reunion, and made me so thankful to have embarked on such a journey with these 15 people.

In the meantime, if you want to read about the trip from the perspective of some of my team members, you can read here on Bethany's blog or here on Amy's blog.

honorary team member

While we were in South Africa, we adopted Lea as our honorary team member. She is from Point Community Church and she served with us at Arise, she ate with us, she laughed hard with us, and she shared her life with us. She is fluent in 9 languages and teaches (I asked her to tell me happy birthday in all of them, but I'm still waiting...) and brought so much joy - and spunk - to our team. A couple of days ago I had a quick g-chat conversation with Lea and my heart swelled with happiness. Even with thousands of miles between, a hemisphere difference, and across several time zones our friendship can continue. And even better, Lea loves New York, as you can tell!

arrival in Cape Town

After departing from JFK at 10:40 am on Friday morning November 18, we finally arrived in Cape Town at 1:30 pm local time (which was 6:30 am New York time, exactly 24 hours since we had hopped in our Super Shuttle and left my apartment the day before) on Saturday November 19. This was my first experience traveling such a long distance + across time zones. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Shortly after we took off in New York, it was lights out and windows closed on the plane. They fed us lunch (which was more like dinner) and then immediately tried to get us on South African time...which meant I was trying to sleep for the night at 1 pm in the afternoon. I watched a few movies (The Help, Tree of Life - which I don't recommend, especially for a flight) and then slept on and off most of the way. 14 hours later we arrived in Johannesburg to catch our flight to Cape Town.

It can always be challenging to get 16 people headed in the same direction at the same time, but when you add an airport in there the difficulty seems to grow exponentially! We made it...but it was a close call and our flight was cancelled so that gave us a little extra time.

Around 11 am local time, we hopped aboard a short 2 hour flight to Cape Town. When I stepped off the plane, I knew it was worth it!

We were greeted by these wonderful faces & wonderful signs!

(barely holding my eyes open here...can you tell!?)

[Believe me, so much more to come...I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. Stick around.]

what jacques thought

Jacques was the pastor at the church (Point Community Church) that we were paired with and went to help serve. I hope he's getting some good rest this week, because I think our group of 16 Americans wore him out!

Nonetheless, he posted on Point's website some wonderful thoughts regarding our time there. If you would like to see some of his photos and his perspective from the week, check out his write up

HERE !

the flight

If there was one thing that I was most nervous about before the trip, it was the flight. And, I was nervous about a lot of things as the trip approached, but the 18 hour flight took the cake. Thankfully, I was completely wrong about the flight and spent a lot of time worrying for no reason (no surprise there). In some ways it was one of the most enjoyable parts, especially on the way back to America. I had time to think and process and rest after being on the go the whole week. I can't promise that I looked fresh at the end of it, but I made it and won't be scared to embark on a long flight again. Dinner, breakfast, endless refreshments, and more movies than I knew what to do with...

South African Airways!

South African Coke. Calories measured in joules of energy.

More good movies than I had time to watch! And, Harry Potter 7 Part II. Ahh.

We stocked up on People and US Weekly.

Our team all sat together which  made the flight more bearable, too.

More to come!

point community church

To give some context of my trip and the people we were working with, I should start with Point Community Church since they are the reason we went in the first place. We were paired with them to serve Cape Town (their pastor, Jacques, requested Redeemer to send a group), and if this had been the only group we worked with it would have been enough. They were the most gracious hosts, wonderfully fun people and truly a family. Since the church was only started in January 2010, it is still in the growing stages but has a terrific foundation of about 20 to 30 people.

I found this picture on Point Community's facebook page. You can easily tell from this picture what a fun group we had to work with. They made our time in Cape Town feel like home.

thoughts on cape town

I'm back in New York and exhausted and completely jet lagged, but my heart is full and encouraged. My time there was better than time well spent. It was refreshing, invigorating, eye-opening, sobering and life changing. And now, I'm back in the daily grind and missing my team of 16 that I spent every waking moment with over the past 10 days, the people of South Africa, summer (!), and the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.

One thing I hadn't completely anticipated was how difficult it would be to tell people about my trip. In so many ways, words won't do it justice. I've decided that since I took over 1,000 pictures, and since apparently a picture is worth a thousand words, that I'm going to post short, small posts over the next several weeks, so bear with me as I slowly get all of my thoughts up. Consider yourself warned, there is more beauty to behold than you can possibly imagine!

back in the us of a

Our team arrived safely back in New York this morning around 7 am, but I'm currently still operating on Cape Town time which means it's about 3:15 in the morning for me. I'm getting ready to call it a night, but I couldn't stand not posting at least one picture before I went to bed. Many more to come!

[I took this picture from Robben Island looking over to Cape Town and Table Mountain. Paradise!]

i'm coming!

I've been away in South Africa for 10 days....but I'm coming back! I'm hopping on a plane tonight to bring me back to my homeland. Don't worry, I'm coming!

[photo credit & thanks to Brendan]