3/25/08 – Kansas City
Update by Megan Eastland

I wanted to write a wrap up blog to talk about our last few days in South Africa. What a beautiful and incredible trip! It was a deeply powerful and moving and sacred trip. Thanks so much for all of you who prayed and gave for our team. Our time in Africa was definitely fruitful!

We visited Jehovah Jireh, one of the orphanages that Oceans and Westside partner with, on Thursday and Friday of our trip. How wonderful to have met the kids and gotten to know them at camp earlier that week, and then to get to go visit their home! We loved it! We walked in to loving arms, got to see their bedrooms and ooh and ahh, and see their play areas, their siblings, and their parents. What incredible people– Molly and Neils! (please forgive my spelling if I spelled their names wrong!) These incredible people run this orphanage and safe home for 50-70 children! (I think all of them are on our child sponsorship program.) On the weekends their numbers surge because parents are home and get drunk and abuse their children, so the children know that they can come to Jehovah Jireh for a safe haven. Many of the full time children there have parents that have died for various reasons, many of them dying from AIDS.

While we were there, some of the team did work projects such as refinishing a tin roof, putting down new flooring, and refinishing and painting their swing sets. The rest of the team played and loved and played and loved and played and loved! We had the BEST time! For the team members that were playing with kids, I don’t think there was ever a time where there wasn’t a baby in our arms, or a kid at our side. (lots and lots of kids at our sides!) The kids are so beautiful and wonderful and lovely and we all felt deep love for them. What a sweet time.

On Saturday, we picked up a bunch of the Oceans of Mercy kids and we brought them along to visit Addo Elephant Park. We drove around and saw hundreds of elephants (my van had a herd walk RIGHT by) and warthogs, and zebras, and so many other animals. It was so fun! I heard that one van of the Oceans kids kept singing “When I was a young Warthog” and other songs from the Lion King every time they saw a warthog. How fun!

We finished out the trip staying at a charming place near Kenton on Sea. It was a perfect, homey place where we got to wrap up our trip. I know there were many sad hearts on Sunday when we left, and still many sad hearts now that we are home. I know that I speak for the team when we say that we love Africa, and we LOVE our new family there! Thanks again, all of you who prayed for our team and our mission, and gave to enable this mission to happen. I pray that God was truly glorified by all who were involved in this journey.

Pictures (Click to Enlarge). View even more pictures at our Flickr Page. More and more pictures will be added to that site so check back!

Grace

Kids in the Ocean with Schaun

3-20-08
8am – South African Time
Update by Megan Eastland

Good morning! It’s 8am Thursday morning African time and I’m writing from a little coffee shop near the beach where we are all grabbing breakfast before a work day at Jehovah Jireh. It’s a rainy day, but the scenery is still breathtaking!

I don’t have much time to write this morning, but I wanted to make sure to let you know about the incredibly awesome end to camp! On Tuesday night, we did the gospel presentation night. It was far greater than our plans and expectations! We began with worship with guitar and voices, and the kids jumped, danced and sang so loudly, and then immediately the team came up and performed the “Everything” by Lifehouse skit found on Godtube. It was amazing! The kids cheered through the skit and were riveted!

After that Schaun came up and spoke about how we are all “Jessi” in that skit (she played the lead girl,) how we all struggle with the sins portrayed in the skit, and how Jesus saves! He shared a very clear gospel presentation about sin, redemption, and salvation. Over music he had the kids write down their sins on paper and then tape them to a cross at the front of the room. He had those that wanted to make Jesus their Lord to pray with him, and so, so many prayed with him! He shared that some of the kids had a natural birthday that day, but many had a spiritual birthday that day. He had everyone who prayed the prayer for the first time come to the stage and the stage was filled. We sang happy birthday and then had a giant birthday party outside with blaring music, chips, cookies, and soda! It was a blast!

We know that probably not every child on the stage truly understood what they were doing, but we do know that some definitely did! Each of the rooms met later with their leaders and they talked through again what the message was, their decisions, and made sure that the kids understood the best they could. We definitely gained some new brothers and sisters in Christ Tuesday night!

The next morning, we did a few crafts with the kids, including braiding salvation bracelets, with each color representing part of the gospel, and then finished with the last sessions by Joshua and Travis. Joshua spoke on sex, abstinence, and AIDS info. The kids were the most engaged than they had been yet. We knew that this was a topic that all of them had dealt with. It was so sad to hear about how many little girls (7-8) that had already been approached by men who tried to pull them into the bushes or other places to rape them. All of them but one said they got away, but we guess that some of them weren’t being totally honest. It broke many of our leaders’ hearts to look at their little kids and know that they have to deal with the reality of saying “No!” to men that would be punished so severely in the United States, but that they don’t know any other culture. Schaun spoke to the boys that it is NOT ok to rape. And then Schaun and Pam did a role play of Pam pulling away from Schaun and screaming “NO!” Little Pam even pushed Schaun over and flew into a bunch of kids! It was powerful!

Travis spoke on “what to do next” and how to prepare for spiritual warfare in the days ahead. The kids were engaged, but also were very sad that the camp was coming to a close. After this session we all sang “Awesome God” together, and then the Americans formed a long receiving line and we hugged every single child as they filed to their buses to go home. There were many tears, but also many smiles and so many relationships that we will all cherish!

After that we had some precious free time before a nice dinner on the beach (a great break after camp food with small portions!) We had a team debrief where we were finally able to process through some of the things we had experienced. Our hearts were so broken for the kids with HIV, the 7am and 7pm ARV meds, the raped and molested girls, the orphaned children, and the plight of many of the black South Africans. However, our hearts were filled with joy that we got to touch, love, hug, care and hope for these children for these short days– probably in a way that few had ever experienced. We know that while American kids have the options to go to many camps every summer, this may be the only one some of them will ever get to experience! Jesus entered the hearts of many of them for the first time, and we were the ones that got to be the ones that “set the table.” We prepared, we loved, we asked, we taught– but we knew that God alone did the work, changing them from the inside out.

Please pray that the roots of these new faiths grow deep. For protection for the new believers. For other teachers to enter their lives to teach and disciple them. For the work that Dan and Kristi are doing, that God multiplies the work and expands their ministries. That God brings more people to fund and to work and to be the voices of these little South Africans. That we all can be a part of doing God’s work, and God’s compassion, and God’s mercy and God’s grace. Also, please pray for continued team stamina and attitudes. Now that camp is over, we are all very tired, but excited for another day to spend with the Jehovah Jireh kids. Two more work days at JJ, and one day at the Elephant Park, and then we hop a plane to start the 2-day journey home!

A few personal shout outs from a couple team members:

Brandon, Melanie loves you very much.

Joshua wanted to make sure I shared (he asked me twice!) that Rachel felt their baby kick for the first time when all the African women started singing when we were at the Seaview church. Apparently their little one really likes their music!

3-18-08
10:02am – South African Time
Update by Megan Eastland

The surprises never stop in South Africa! Yesterday evening, about 6:00 pm as we were preparing for our 7 pm meeting time, we found out that there was going to be a power outage from 6-9 pm. In surprise, I asked one of the camp workers about it, and he said that there is not enough power in South Africa for everyone, so there are regular power outages so that everyone can share. My jaw dropped in shock, and then I noticed that he didn’t seem too disturbed by it. Schaun told me that when he was talking to another South African friend and the friend said, “it’s not too bad,” and Schaun asked, “What’s not too bad?” And the friend said “once or twice a week.” I can’t even imagine if in America, certain cities would go without power for a few hours twice a week!

The power outage then allowed us to improvise our evening. It was a great wake up call for me. I had spent hours setting up power points and fixing some sound system issues, and reworked our CD set lists for worship, and was frustrated that their ipod connection didn’t work… and suddenly, God gave us the opportunity to do what He wanted us to do, not just do what we had worked so diligently to plan. It was probably the most incredible night of our trip! We found lanterns and placed them on the stage. The team was very haggard by this point from a crazy trip to the beach with 96 kids whom most had never seen the ocean before (one even asked, “how big is the ocean?) and so Tom took the team outside while Schaun stayed in our meeting space with the kids. Tom encouraged the team and prayed for them while Schaun was working mysteriously with them.

Soon the team went in to the meeting space and Schaun surprised everyone by having the African children sing two of their worship songs to us. It was the most beautiful and incredible sound! It brought us all to tears. Instead of blaring music with headset microphones and wild motions, we had beautiful African children’s voices worshipping for us. It was far more beautiful than anything we had planned! Tom then spoke on sin and salvation. During this time, Schaun whispered in my ear and asked if I could play a song on the guitar at the end. I thought of the first song that popped in my head, and agreed. As Schaun prayed, I prepared, and then performed the song for them. Partway through the song, I realized that the song was all about sin and salvation! I couldn’t even believe how beautifully God had orchestrated the evening! The power outage freed us to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead and the results were of course, astounding.

The power outage also served to help calm the whole atmosphere of the camp down. We are so used to the American way—we believe that everything needs to be high sensory, high energy, and fast paced. In doing so, we believe now that the African kids were so overloaded with new experiences that the energy level was frantic. Kids had been crazy, running everywhere, and not knowing how to be or what to expect. This quiet, lamp-lit evening allowed us to relax a bit, allowed the kids to feel safer to open up, and to calm everyone and draw the focus more acutely to Jesus and what He was doing in our hearts and lives.

That evening we had small group times, put the little ones to bed and let the teens have a late-night acoustic worship time. Everyone on the group loves having sweet one-on-one time with the kids. They are getting to dig deeper with their groups. They get to put the little ones to bed in bunk beds 3-high, some sharing beds, with their little camp shirts, and their sleepy eyes. It has been a blessed time for all of us to get to know the kids and to let them know that we truly get to love them and want know them and care for them!

This morning, apparently God still thought we needed to calm down a bit because the power went out by surprise again right before our morning session and of course came back on shortly after we adjourned! We quickly adjusted. Schaun got up and spoke to them with a heavy heart.

During breakfast that morning, some of the kids went through the breakfast line 2-3 times, which then made those at the end of the line not have enough food. He spoke to them passionately about greed and how it’s the problem with the world. How there is enough food to feed everyone in the world, but those that have access to the food can be greedy, and say “me first,” and take two or three meals and leave someone without food. He said that it is wrong and he doesn’t understand it. He said that there was enough food to feed everyone, yet some “stole” the food from others because they were being greedy and saying “me first!” He then told them about Nelson Mandela… who saw the problem of all of this. Saw the problem of the white South Africans taking and taking and keeping the black South Africans down. And how Nelson Mandela, a man like them, who came from nothing, who had people tell him that he could never go to school, that he could never make a difference. A black, poor, South African like them, who said, “I don’t care what you think! I don’t care who tried to put me down! I don’t care who takes the years of my life by putting me in prison. I don’t care! I care that there is a problem in South Africa, and I, one person, will do something to change it. He said that he laid down his own life for the lives of his people in South Africa. And how that one man changed South Africa. That one man worked for the end of Apartheid. How that one man has changed the world.

Schaun then encouraged them that they, the poorest of the poor South Africans, the orphans, the AIDS victims, the rape victims (we just found out that one little girl was raped 3 days ago by her uncle) – these South Africans can make a difference. They can put away greed. They can put aside their own lives for the lives of others who don’t have. That they won’t take—that they will give. That they can change the world too. He prayed over them and we sang “Here I am to worship” and their beautiful voices carried so powerfully.

It’s another beautiful day in J. Bay and we are so excited for the day with the children. Please pray for God’s continuing work in our improvisation, that we get out of the way and let Jesus lead, that the South African kids’ hearts are opened, that they feel safe to share, and that hearts are changed permanently for Christ, that they can hear God’s call loudly, they respond, and are changed deeply from the inside out.

Pictures: Click to enlarge

3-17-08
2:30pm African time
Update by Megan Eastland

Today is a gorgeous day and marked the start of J. Bay Indaba! As I write this, the sound of a group of South African camp workers worshiping is filtering out of the camp offices while the Westside team is meeting with their groups for the first time at our camp. It is a beautiful sight! The drivers left very early this morning to pick up the kids while the rest of the team prepped for their arrival. We set up bedding and towels in each room, assembled gift bags to give the kids, got crafts ready, and prayerfully awaited their arrival. About 11 am they arrived, and naturally, 20 kids who were supposed to show up didn’t, but we had 20 new ones instead! The American teenagers stepped up incredibly as they played “Kaylyn says” and “Father Abraham” with the line of waiting kids. Traci, Becky and Schaun magnificently shifted and fit everyone in rooms. (I think I did hear though that some of the kids might be sharing beds, but I don’t know if that’s a joke or not. Ha!) One must love South Africa– no matter how well you plan, it will never go that way, and it always ends up better than we could have imagined!

The team is doing wonderfully. After each kid signed in, some of the registration team members then took the kids to their assigned cabin leader. Then they were greeted with a cheer, a smile, a hug, a new shirt and a gift bag and were told, “You are with me! I’m so excited to meet you!” The Africa children seemed so excited! They immediately were fed a huge lunch of spaghetti and salad. We then went into our meeting space, did a welcome, went over rules and a schedule, did some crazy worship with motions and Schuan gave a short talk on how valuable these children are in God’s eyes. When Schaun went over the schedule and told them we would eat again this evening, many of them laughed with amazement. We are so excited for these few days with the kids!

After this they will have free time on the beach playing games, dinner, another evening devotional, and some beach ball and perhaps a dance off tonight before bed!

I know that all of the Westside team members have been reallly affected by our experiences so far and I wanted to speak a bit about that as well. The idea of the soup kitchens has really touched some of our members. I spoke with Schaun this afternoon, and he said that it takes a mere $17.50 a month to feed 50 children every day! Every day. That’s about 35 cents a day per kid. I think that I heard that the average soup kitchen costs about $100 per month. I heard Darrell and Jennifer Agee talking about how if each of the five couples in their LifeGroup kicked in $20 a month, their LifeGroup could start an entire soup kitchen! What an incredible testimony for them to be able to see the faces that the soup kitchen feeds, and the communities that are changed by such a small amount of money!

We can’t wait to see what the next few days bring!

Pictures – Click to enlarge:

Motherwell Cemetery. See Update #2 for the story about the team’s experience visiting this overwhelming and unforgettable place.

Teams with their leaders on the first day of J. Bay Indaba. They are seen working in their very own devotional and breakout booklets provided by Westside.

3-16-08
3:00pm – African time
Update written by Megan Eastland

Hey there!

I don’t have much time to update today. We are at Kristi and Daniel Fair’s house for a brief stopover before we head to the flea market and get everyone souvenirs!

Yesterday a bunch of the team bungee jumped (all of the teenagers except Brianna, the Agees, Angie and Megan and maybe a few others that I’m forgetting) and a bunch did a zipline canopy tour in the forest (everyone but three) and Becky and the Vaughns hung out. We had an incredible time! It was a cold, rainy day, but unbelievable. Both teams had an incredible time and everyone survived undamaged. I (Megan) bungee jumped and it was absolutely unbelievable. It was so long that there was no jerking, but a swinging sensation with the bungee. I don’t have time to upload pics today, but we’ll try to get them to you! The view was incredible too!!! Straight out of a movie. A truly unforgettable experience.

We then checked into our camp in J. Bay, some of the team got ice cream at a shop on the beach, and then we all turned in early. We were all totally exhausted!

This morning after a beach devotional, we went to church in the shack-village of Seaview. This is an area where a bunch of black South Africans have become “squatters” and have built shanties out of leftover wood, tin, and pallets. The church service was wonderful. The church was built for a mere $1200 from a former Westside mission team. The singing and passion is unlike anything most of the team had experienced before. The service went on for a few hours, a few pastors spoke, including an awesome sermon by Schaun, and we “let the Lord” lead the service! Definitely a change from Westside!

Tonight after the market we will get ready for camp. Please pray for us as we prepare to receive the kids!

3-14-08
4:45pm – African time
Update written by Megan Eastland

We made it! Our flights were all on time, our transfers were great, and everyone arrived in great spirits! Upon arrival at the airport, Schaun announced a surprise– that we wouldn’t be staying at the camp in J. Bay for our first two nights– we’d be staying in a game reserve! However, when he announced it, he received one “oh!” and the rest blank faces– because no one really grasped what that meant! We soon found out though!

As our four vans pulled onto a dirt drive, we arrived at a large Jurassic Park-looking gate and were allowed to enter. As we were dropped off at our assigned cabins, the gamekeepers gave us an orientation. “Welcome! Please don’t roam around at night, but if you want to walk between cabins, use the 8ft-high walkway, and watch out for animals before you enter into the open area.” He also mentioned seeing water buffalo grazing around the cabins the night before. I don’t think any of us really believed him, or still really understood what was going on, until we heard a knock on our door late that night. “Rhino!!” Becky informed us. We all peered out of our doorways, ran to the walkway, and peered down at at giant African rhino grazing in our backyard!!! We couldn’t believe it! That’s when the idea that we were pretty much in a zoo with no fences hit us! (Don’t worry though, the cheetahs are safely caged up!)

The next morning, we awoke to giraffes, zebras, water buffalo, rhinos, cheetahs (caged!), warthogs, ostriches, and breathtaking scenery all out our front doors! It was an African dream come true! It was an incredible start to the trip!

We soon got on our way and visited a township called Motherwell. There we helped serve at a soup kitchen and loved and played with awesome kids. After that we divided up and visited homes of AIDS patients. We talked with them a bit, found out about their lives, and prayed for them. They were good times where we were able to show God’s love to people who are unloved in their communities.

After that we drove to the town cemetery that seemed to stretch endlessly into the horizons. The oldest grave I managed to see was one from 2002. Most that I saw were very recent. Schaun said that about 3,300 people die a day from AIDS– he said it’s like 9-11 happening every day, but no one talks about it much. We had an African girl hanging out with us during this, and I heard that she even exclaimed, “I live here but I didn’t know that all these people were dying.” So many people don’t talk about the disease because there is such a bag stigma attached to it. We took time to walk around and take it all in. Their were countless babies’ graves, mothers’, fathers’, grandmothers’, grandfathers’ graves. It was truly a sight that enabled us to put a picture with the suffering taking place in South Africa. As believers, we are all called to do do justice, love mercy and walk humbly, and I know that all of us felt honored to have been called on this trip in order to do just that.

Lunch overlooking the beach followed with Jameson and Kaylyn “accidentally” swimming in the ocean! Ha! They dried quickly though! We quickly went back to Motherwell to another soup kitchen and spent time playing games, dancing, holding children and showing love to as many people as we could.

This afternoon we are resting and walking along the bridges looking for animals and tonight we’ll be having a brai — an African barbecue!

Everyone is in great spirits and having a great time. The hard sights have cultivated compassion in us and I hope have helped prepared our hearts for the days ahead to have overwhelming love, compassion, fun, humor and hope to give the people that we get to meet. Please pray for continued unity, for stamina, patience, and abounding love!

Pictures – Click to enlarge: