Week 11: In which we become too busy to blog.

Week 10: In which we become culturally aware.

Hello.

Another week has passed, and what a time we've had.

Most of this week has been focused on outreach - our speaker for the week was only able to get here on Wednesday, so we had some activities in place of our normal classes that aimed to get us more prepared for the things we might face. We had a session on HIV, one on human trafficking and we played a cross-cultural simulation game called 'BaFa BaFa' on Wednesday morning. That was particularly good fun, and highlighted some of the issues that we are very likely to face in the Middle East. It basically involved splitting the class into two groups, with each group taking half an hour to learn the particular language and etiquette of their 'culture'. The groups would then exchange teams of three or four people who had to try and integrate as best they could with the other culture. It was very interesting, and turned a tiny bit 'Lord of the Flies'. Thankfully we only did it for about an hour, and it stopped before the violence got nasty.

We've also been having a lot of meetings with our outreach team, making plans for the next three months and getting to know each other better. Part of our preparations have been to set our hands to fundraising activities - Heather has been heading up a team of eager card-makers who have been selling Christmas cards on the base and at our community meeting on Thursday. I mostly contributed by sitting near all the creativity playing Christmas music out of the computer (I know, too soon), but Heather made some fine specimens that all sold quite quickly. Talented woman. It's been fun to spend time with other students to raise money, I feel like everybody has bonded much more since we've started supporting each other and all contributing to fundraising. It's good.

Also, I played the drums on Thursday night for the first time in about eleven weeks. It was hilarious fun. It made me miss England a bit, a feeling that was compounded by a trip to see Skyfall yesterday. It only just came out, so we've been waiting about a month and we were not disappointed. Probably the highlight of the week.

This was our stall for fundraising! Not sure what my face was doing... (photo courtesy of Lauren Long, thanks!)

Today we went shopping with our outreach team to get some extra bits for Jordan. It's going to be quite cold, so we've been looking for winter clothes in the middle of South African summer. Not an easy job, by any means. We're deeply regretting the smug delight with which we vacuum-sealed all our jumpers and jackets when we packed to come out here, but that's ok. We managed to get a few decent bits on a relatively frugal budget, and we're borrowing some bits from people who are going on outreach to warmer places, like Mozambique.

All in all, an excellent week. Thank you for your emails - if you have sent one it has almost certainly been received, and I will reply as soon as I can. It will probably be the next thing I do, but I don't want to make promises I can't keep (I'm starting to need the toilet, so it might get pushed a little down the 'to do' list).

Anyway, thanks for reading and thank you for all your support - we are hugely grateful to everyone who has sent money, prayed for us or sent us a message to say hello. It's amazing to know that we have such supportive friends and family, we don't take you for granted!

Lots of love,

Sam and Heather

(MJ News: He's been ill this week, so there's no new photo. He continues to be excellent, though.)

Week 9: In which we are undisciplined about blogging.

Well, it's Wednesday. You had a cheeky blog fix on Saturday, but I really should have done a full update before now. I'd blame the internet - it's intermittent, at best - but it's really just indiscipline. I'm sorry.

Last week was a long one. We went to church on Sunday in a township some distance away - it was an early start and a chaotic journey that ended in a church service that started at 10:30 and finished at 2. It was a full day out and by the end we were exhausted, but we had fun and learnt some important lessons about African timekeeping.

Our topic in classes last week was 'Relationships', and our speakers were a lovely married couple who spoke with incredible honesty about all areas of relationship, both romantic and non-romantic, and how to make sure that we have integrity, purity and love and the centre of all our interactions. It was a really interesting and engaging week with lots to think about, and it ended in the whole class going to their house to spend a relaxed evening on Friday asking questions, eating crisps and splitting into single-sex groups to carry on chatting until reasonably late.

On Wednesday we went back into Masi, this time with a particular goal in mind. Our local outreach leader, Siya, knew of a man in Masi who was quite seriously ill, so we went to go and pray for his healing. We had an amazing afternoon of prayer, with some of us staying at another house to pray, and others going to the man to worship and pray with him. He was not a Christian and had rejected the opportunity to go to church, but he said that he felt something significant happen that he couldn't describe when the team prayed for him. He has had to go back to hospital for a check up - the nature of his illness meant he couldn't tell immediately if he'd been healed - but there is no doubt that he experienced God in some way, and he made a commitment to go to church. We're looking forward to the results of his next hospital visit! As ever, there are more details that we'll happily share if you have questions, but that's as brief a summary as I can manage in a blog.

Plans for outreach are going really well. There's not a huge about I can say - we're going to a closed country and, although we'll be quite safe, we need to protect the people we'll be working with - but we have our specific locations pretty much set. As it stands, we're not going to Israel. The political situation there has made things a little tricky, and I suspect we were all too excited about Christmas in Bethlehem and not focused enough on what we're actually going to do, so it's probably a good thing. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be collecting email addresses from people who would like a more formal, newsy, prayer-requesty update once we're on outreach. There's no guarantee it'll be regular, but it's good to be prepared just in case. If that interests you, please email sam_lee@hotmail.co.uk and we'll sort it out.

Stef, MJ, Sam and Rik with Korean food.

We continue to have all kinds of fun in our spare time. On Saturday we went into Cape Town with MJ and a few others and enjoyed genuine Korean food at a South African/Korean restaurant. It was quite remarkable. There's a general feeling around that things are starting to wind down, so we're just enjoying everybody's company and trying to make sure we've properly invested in friendships before we all get on planes to different parts of the world.

That's pretty much it. As the weeks go on I take fewer and fewer photos, pretty much because we're not really doing anything new at the moment. That's fine for us, but it makes the blog a bit dull. Apologies.

Lots of love!

Sam and Heather

xx

MJ News: Myoung Jae means 'Brilliant Minister' in Korean. He's eating a grilled chicken sandwich.

A side note.

Hi readers, it's Heather here. 

I know Sam has mentioned further down this blog that we are fundraising for the whole team to be sent to four different locations around the world. Here's your chance to support the team if you feel like you can. Please click on this link which will take you to the fundraising website that one of our group have set up and follow the instructions that will appear. 

If any of our friends who would usually give us a Christmas card/ gift would be able to donate it to this cause instead, we would greatly appreciate it! It could literally just be £1 or £2 but if lots of people think like that then, well, lots of money will be raised.

Please send me an email or facebook message if you would like to know more about what Sam and I will be doing, or any of the other teams for that matter. 

Thank you so much for reading, we miss you all and look forward to many coffee dates and catch ups upon our return in March next year!

Week 8: In which we are encouraged.

'Sup.

This week's blog is brought to you a few days late, courtesy of a sudden and alarming disappearance of The Internet on Sunday afternoon. The blackout ended this morning. Hallelujah!

 

Last week was great though, and there was much to be encouraged about.

In our classes, we were looking at 'Spiritual Warfare'. It sounds very much like it could have been a most unusual week, but it was actually mostly about having confidence in our identity and authority in Christ and being obedient to him. It was a really good week, and we learnt some really interesting and very important things. Success.

We've started talking about raising funds for the outreach part of the DTS (we leave in just under a month). It had been suggested that, as a class, we have an evening of giving, and on Tuesday we did just that. We were encouraged to give not just money, but to spend the afternoon in prayer and then give anything we thought was appropriate. What followed was an incredible evening of outrageous generosity and incredible sacrifice, and it brought a lot of unity to the group. Money, fruit, jewellery, clothes, a guitar and all manner of other things were given away. God spoke to a lot of people in really powerful ways, and a lot of needs were met both financially and spiritually. If you want specific testimonies from that evening then drop us an email and we'll be happy to encourage you with what went on (with permission from the people involved), but I don't want to go into too much detail on here, in the interests of protecting people's privacy. It was really good though.

We didn't go to Masi last week, but on Thursday morning we did a 'Treasure Hunt' in Muizenberg. Basically, that's where you ask God to show you somebody to talk to, and then you go out and find them. I'm terrified of that sort of thing, but it was a really good morning. We went out looking for a man in his 30s wearing white, and, when I eventually saw him (on a few different occasions over about fifteen minutes), I was too nervous to say anything. When I finally spoke up and we went back to where I'd last seen him, he was gone. We prayed, as a group, that if he was somebody we were supposed to talk to then he would come back. After a couple of minutes, he came strolling down the hill towards us. Siya, who is staffing the DTS and was leading our group, took me over to talk to him. We got chatting, and as we were talking God told Siya that the man had a daughter, that He loved her, and that He wanted to bring unity to the family. As it turned out, the man did have a young daughter, but she was in Malawi with her mother, and the man had been having a stressful time over the last six months with his extended family, who were scattered all over southern Africa. We asked if we could pray for him, and he agreed. As we stood in the supermarket car park praying, two ladies came over and stood behind us. I thought we were stood in the way of their car, or they had come over to inflict some sort of religious persecution, so we stopped praying and looked at them.

"Hello." (That's us).

"Hello. I don't know if you were praying just now, but if you were, I'd like you to pray for me please."

So we got chatting to her, and prayed for her. There we were, stood in the middle of a supermarket car park having a prayer meeting with three complete strangers, each one of them hearing from God and going on their way feeling loved and protected by Mr God. Hallelujah.

This pretty little alley was in Kalk Bay, where we spent Saturday afternoon having a bit of an amble.

In other news, Heather went to a lovely big market full of crafts and coffee on Saturday, and I went surfing and had breakfast with MJ. Summer has arrived and it's really hot, Heather and some others have started making and selling cards to raise some money for outreach, and we've been watching Downton Abbey, as promised.

That's basically it. Quite word-heavy this week, many apologies.

Much love!

Sam and Heather

MJ News: We've taught him about "knock knock" jokes. It's quite brilliant.

Week 7: In which we have mixed success.

Hello all.

This week has been one of mixed success, as the title of this blog suggests.

In our lectures we've been learning about the Holy Spirit, which has been good fun and occasionally a little unusual. I don't want to frighten anybody, so I'll just say that we've seen God at work and leave it at that. It's been good.

Local outreach continued in Masiphumelele, and this week we started with a trip to a place that cooks and sells 'Masi Meat'. I don't want to call it a restaurant, for that is most certainly not what it was, but we did sit down and eat marinated pork off plastic trays. It was an experience we approached with no little prayer and anxiety, but it turned out to be delicious and tasty, with no unpleasant consequences. Success.

The group also had some excellent opportunities to talk to some of the people we met in and around Masi, with a couple of people receiving prayer for healing and a few more told a bit about Jesus. The time we've spent in Masi has been really encouraging, and it's becoming a high point of each week.

Steffen, MJ and I climbed Muizenberg Mountain. They are both much fitter than I am.

There have, however, been parts of the week that have not gone so well. I made a misguided attempt to grow a beard - it garnered mixed reviews around the base - but I realised on Friday that it seems my facial hair growth is inversely proportionate to my levels of self esteem. It is no more.

We had an excellent day yesterday, though. In the morning we went to the beach and had a proper crack at surfing, with, again, mixed success. I came close to managing to almost stand up, but mostly perfected a move I think is best described as 'dog on a skateboard'. We both came out feeling a little bit bruised and battered, but I think we stopped at the right time: when we got out I identified a bleeding graze on my torso. It was fine, but I keep remembering frightening statistics about how many gallons of water a shark can smell a drop of blood in. Nice Norwegian Steffen waited until we were out of the water to tell us that the Muizenberg bay apparently has the highest population density of great white sharks anywhere in the world. What larks.

This was on Chapman's Peak Drive. Beautiful stuff.

After surfing, Steffen and Kristina (his wife) took us to Chapman's Peak. I'm still not completely sure what part of which hill Chapman's Peak is, but we drove along Chapman's Peak Drive and had a refreshing drink at the end. Then, on the way back, we indulged in a spot of wine tasting in a nearby winery. Perfect.

Wine tasting. We hid the spitoon for this photo.

That's it for this week! Apart from that we've been given a few episodes of the current series of Downton Abbey to enjoy, so the blog next week might be a little light on content.

Lots of love to you all,

Sam and Heather

xx

MJ News: He will be going to India on his outreach. We will not. We're struggling to come to terms with our impending loss.

Week 6: In which we are a little bit poorly.

Hello all. 

I have some bad news: I'm a little bit poorly.

Not really poorly, but just a bit. I'll soldier on, but I did think it was worth mentioning.

This week's been a bit more of the same, really. We've been looking at 'The Freedom Manual', which involved a lot of learning about exactly who God created us to be and then being it. I've heavily abridged the week's teaching but that was certainly the gist. It's been another encouraging week, probably more spiritual than intellectual. Once we'd established God's 'original design' for us, we looked at the things that stop us from being the people God created. Things like anger, rejection, apathy and unforgiveness, that can develop into mindsets that stop us from stepping out in faith and embracing everything God has planned.

On Wednesday we went to Masi again, and we played with some children in a nursery-type environment. It was a little bit manic, but we turned up, sang some songs about Jesus, played some games and then just played with the kids. They were mostly probably about 4 or 5, and they were very sweet. We had some wild times.

Rik (Dutch) and a girl child.

As I mentioned last week, we've started planning for our outreach, and we're going to need to do a bit of fundraising over the next few weeks. We don't want to make a massive deal of it, but if you'd like more information or feel like you would like to support us please get in touch.

The other thing that happened this week is that we went to the beach today and missed out on a shark sighting by about half an hour. We were very sad about that, but we sat by the sea and had a coffee and a sandwich and, Lo! In the distance we saw a murky, sharky shape scything through the water, a bit beyond where people were surfing. Nobody else really noticed it and we didn't want to disturb anyone, so we watched it for a bit and then went away. I think that was the right thing to do.

Proof of shark action.

That's it for this week. Please do get in touch with us - we miss you all (if you're reading this from England and not just having a cheeky peep from another part of Muizenberg. If that's you, we don't miss you so much. We probably only saw you today), and we'd like to hear about your lives.

Lots of love!

Sam and Heather

MJ News: We taught him about air quotes. He spent most of this week shopping online for a new pen. Whenever he buys cake, he buys enough to share, even if he doesn't know who he's going to share it with. I have benefited from this policy.

Week 5: In which we have a birthday celebration, visit a township and be a carpenter.

Well, hello.

Sorry this is a bit late. We've had a busy weekend. On Friday we celebrated Heather's birthday, mostly by opening presents, watching The King's Speech, playing pass the parcel and eating tasty food at Knead. It was a great day.

Then, on Saturday, we had the pleasure of going to visit our friend Jon, who lives in Table View, right on the other side of Cape Town. We took a train and a bus to get there, but it was well worth the trip. We spent Saturday afternoon walking along beaches and enjoying the view with ice cream, then spent the evening watching the sunset, eating food and hanging out with a lovely Venezuelan man (that's Jon). We stayed the night, so on Sunday morning I went to church with him (Heather wasn't feeling well, so she opted out) and ended up playing djembe in their service, then we had some lunch and came home. It was really nice to have a bit of a break, to get off the base and see something new. We had a great weekend and are feeling rejuvenated and ready for the week.

Table Mountain, Heather, Me, Jon and ice cream. What more do you want?

On Friday we also concluded the week's teaching on 'Biblical Worldview', which was stretching and inspiring in equal measure. The focus of the week was to draw our attention to the fact that we all view the world through our own particular set of opinions that we may never realise we have - basic things like 'can people be trusted?', 'how is wealth measured?', 'are children a blessing?' - formed through our experiences in family, education, relationships, significant life events and the like. Once we've realised what we basically believe - and sometimes it takes a bit of digging to get to the root of a belief - we can have a look in the Bible and ask 'what does God think?'. It's led to some interesting discussions on all manner of things, including free will, overpopulation and birth control. There's been some pretty heavy duty learning involved (our Dictionary of Big Words is ever-increasing), but it's been eye-opening and humbling. I can barely describe the depth of what we've been looking at here, but we've taken lots of notes so do get in touch if you want specifics.

We've also started our local outreach, so every Wednesday afternoon Heather and I will be going, with a team of about 12, to Masiphumelele, which is a township about half an hour away. On Wednesday last week we just went and had a walk around, playing with kids and talking to people as we went. It's brilliant to see a side of Cape Town so different to everything we've seen so far, and it's clearly a place where we can do a lot of good. We're looking forward to how the next few weeks shape up.

In other news, the teams and locations for our 10-week outreach have been confirmed, and it pleases me to tell you that we'll be going to Israel and Jordan. Details beyond that are still to be decided, but that's where we'll be. We're very excited, especially as it may well mean being in Bethlehem over Christmas.

For those of who have expressed concern at my death-ladder escapades, your prayers have been answered! I'm now flirting with some basic carpentry: last week I refurbished an old cabinet, and this week I'll be making some drawers and sprucing up some old furniture with an electric sander and some varnish. I've really enjoyed it, I feel much more like a man (and a bit more like Jesus) now I'm getting to grips with how to make wood do useful things.

Heather continues to excel at her 'Hospitality' work duty, and it's paid off: She's been making the cakes for people's birthdays, so when hers came around a few different people took it upon themselves to produce all manner of delicious goods, from pancakes through to the biggest chocolate cake I've ever seen. Hallelujah.

That's all I have for now. This week we'll be looking at 'The Freedom Manual', but even after today's introduction I'm a little vague about what it actually is, so there's plenty of intrigue until next time...

Lots of love!

Sam and Heather

MJ News: He is a keen student of ethics and morality. On Saturday he climbed Table Mountain. He's lovely.

Week 4: In which we learn about grace.

Hello all.

This week has been relatively unspectacular, especially in light of last week's whale-spotting antics, but we've been learning some really good stuff and that's sort of what we came here to do. A success, by all accounts.

We've been having teaching on grace by a lovely chap called Chris Lautsbaugh, who, using Romans 3 as a starting point, has taken us through God's grace from top to bottom, looking at redemption, justification, propitiation and sanctification. All the big words. It's been amazing to look again at the fundamentals of what we believe, and to see more clearly how the Old and New Testaments both point to salvation through faith in Jesus.

Work duties took on a new, slightly treacherous element this week (for me at least) when it was announced that I was to de-mould a bathroom using a broom and a bucket of ammonia. To make things slightly easier I procured a ladder that I suspect is made out of parts of several other ladders nailed together, so at least I could reach the ceiling without having to balance on the toilet seat with bleach dripping onto my face. Don't get me wrong, I had a hilarious time and am learning to enjoy serving in that sort of a practical way, but I did have to stop a bit early on Tuesday when I accidentally put a wet finger into a live light fitting.

Anyway, all is well and me and Frankenladder have had many great adventures all around the base, having a thoroughly wobbly and unreliable time. Please pray.

This is the beast.

Our wedding anniversary has stretched, rather pleasingly, through the whole week. Apparently we were too discreet about it on Monday, so on Tuesday (once everybody found out) we got a lovely big clap and then today we were presented with a card signed by everyone and some lovely chocolate and biscuits. It's really special to be in a place that so enthusiastically values and supports marriage - I think it would be easy to feel out of place as a married couple in this sort of environment, but we feel completely accepted by everybody.

We've taken to going to a vintage crafts and world foods market on a Friday evening (this is Heather speaking now); it has several stalls with different types of food including Mexican, Indian, Greek and just plain Delicious. There are also stalls with pretty jewelry, interesting old books and quirky notebooks, exotic-looking African flowers and fresh fruit and just anything good that you can think of (ENORMOUS slices of chocolate cake!). I'll stop now before I get carried away. But here is a photo so you can get sort of an idea of what it looks like:

                      

 

MJ news: He happily informed us yesterday morning that he has watched Pride and Prejudice six times! And read the book (in Korean) three times. And he has his own one man cafetiere, as pictured. He's brilliant.

Week 3: In which we go for coffee and see a whale.

Hello all.

We've been in Cape Town again this week for all our classes, and now we're sleepy. Thankfully we have all our remaining classes in Muizenberg, so we get to approach our mornings in a slightly more leisurely fashion, which is important.

We've been learning about 'The Nature and Character of God' this week, which has been awe-inspiring, interesting and challenging in varying degrees. We started by looking at God's holiness - a lot of old testament fun where we see that everything that comes into contact with Him and isn't holy combusts - and exploring the parts of His character that aren't all that popular or fashionable, but are, nonetheless, true. It left most people feeling a little glum, I think, but it was great to spend time remembering that He is actually quite big and scary, but (thank goodness) He is good.

We moved quickly on to Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity, which was excellent too. I really enjoy picking apart the things I believe and working out why I believe them, and we've had a fun week of furtling around in the Bible doing just that. It's been ace.

We've been having a lot of fun in our free time, enjoying the juicy delights that South Africa has to offer. Just yesterday we were sat at a coffee shop overlooking the beach when a kindly gentleman next to me pointed out a migrating whale that had made its way into the bay and was splashing around like a toddler in a puddle. It was an amazing thing to see, but it also means I will never again enjoy sitting in the Preston Starbucks watching pallid Prestonian shoppers going about their business over a caramel latte. It's just not the same.

Other interesting things from the week include Heather (and her friend Sarah) being tasked with baking birthday cake for seventy people without a working oven. Twice. Luckily, with a rally around and a good recipe for Grenadilla fridge tart (and no-bake cookies) all was well. And delicious.

Today was Saturday, and, in accordance with the natural pattern of the week, we had the day off. Our first wedding anniversary is on Monday, but we'll have classes so we decided to celebrate it today instead, and we popped into Cape Town for a jaunt up Table Mountain. Having successfully navigated the cable car (my least favourite way to travel, it turns out), we had a look at what we could see from the top and were amazed (but not entirely surprised) to see the rest of Cape Town, considerably smaller than we'd previously experienced it, getting on with its business as if it didn't know we were watching. It really was an amazing view and a wonderful thing to have done, but it was also incredibly cold and windy, so - after nipping into the cafe, of course - we got back in the cable car and went home.

This is us on the top of Table Mountain.

I feel like I should talk a little bit about the other people here, because they're lovely and we're not here on our own. It would be a bit weird to list their names alongside my favourite things about them, so I won't do that, but we have made some brilliant friends and there is a lovely community blossoming. Hallelujah.

Hope you're all well!

Sam and Heather

x

MJ News: We have taught him to say 'What's the craic?' and also to spell 'LOL' using his hands and face. Evidence above.

Week 2: In which we find ourselves in prison.

Hello all.

This week has been a very interesting week indeed. The lecture phase has begun and we've been busy exploring Cape Town, making friends and settling in.

We've spoken to a few of you, who've made the observation that our photos make it look like we're on a big extravagant holiday. To you, I say this: We are not.

To prove it, I'll run you through what our days have looked like this week. We've been having our classes in Cape Town, which has meant that our timetable has looked a little different to how it normally would, but you'll get a decent idea of what's going on.

At 6:30am we get up, and we're dressed and breakfasted by 7:30, ready to leave for the station at 7:45. Cape Town is about a 40 minute train ride away but the trains are irregular, so we're normally there by 8:50, and then we have a 20 minute walk to the church where we've been having our classes. There's time for a quick coffee and then we start at 9:30.

This is the garden we walked through every morning this week. The flat hill is Table Mountain!

Our lectures this week have been about Evangelism, so we've been learning all sorts of things, from how to start a conversation with somebody you don't know right through to hearing what God is saying about particular people or circumstances. It's been always interesting, often challenging and sometimes a bit weird, but always really good. I'll give you some examples of things that have happened this week in a little bit.

From 9:30 till 2:30 we have lectures (and a couple of breaks), and then we spend a couple of hours doing something practical, until we go home at about 5 and our time is our own - that's when we go to the beach and take the photos that make it look like we're on a big fun holiday.

One way in which South Africa differs to England is that here, if you haven't paid the right train fare, or you find yourself accidentally in a first class carriage when you only have a third class ticket (even if the carriages are exactly the same on the inside), they kick you off the train and lock you in a special station prison until you can pay a fine. We found out the hard way. It was scary when we didn't know what was happening, but it turned out to be hilarious.

This is the cage where Heather spent fifteen minutes of her life. Thankfully we were with a large group.

Right, now it's testimony time.

On Wednesday, our practical afternoon activity was to go out into Cape Town in groups and do some 'informal evangelism'. The emphasis was really on starting conversations with people and listening to what they have to say about their lives, rather than to roll in with a 'Repent and Believe' attitude. That was great for me (Sam) because I'm terrified of that sort of thing, and it was quite a gentle way to start. I had a lovely chat with an Israeli couple, and a couple of park security guards, and then called it a day. There was no real need to do any 'proper' evangelism, mostly because everyone I spoke to was already a Christian. It was a nice afternoon out, though.

Heather had quite a different time. Her group prayed first about where they should go, and she found herself picturing a cafe with benches in, and a lady with a white scarf sitting at one of the benches. The five of them went exploring, and, after a while, looked into a cafe that was exactly the one Heather had pictured (we've not been exploring in Cape Town at all yet, so this in itself is quite something). Not only that, but there, at one of the benches, was a lady with a white scarf on. Weird.

Anyway, there was also a lady working at the counter there, so they all got chatting and ended up praying for her. A good day.

Next week we're in Cape Town again; please pray that we have the energy to keep going! The commute in and out every day (plus all the classes and praying) is leaving us completely exhausted, but it's all good fun.

This is MJ. He is from South Korea, and he's the happiest man I've ever met. Yesterday I found out that he's eaten a dog, and today I found out that he likes 'Gangnam Style' (google it). I've taught him how to do an 'English Joke', which is a much nicer way of saying 'sarcasm'.

The first week.

Mr Lee looking rather dashing on the beach...

Stefanie (left, American) Michal (right, German)

Lauren (left, South African) and Anna-Elisa (right, Finnish)

Ester (left, Dutch) Mar (middle, Spanish) Sarah (right, American)

These pictures show what we do in our free time. The top one is on the beach which is about a two minute walk from our front door; it's beautiful. The rest of the pictures are from a trip to the coffee shop on the beach front with some of our new friends, as you can see we are with many different nationalities! The topic of conversation somehow got to Eurovision in which Anna-Elisa reminded us all about Lordi (Hard Rock Hallelujah?). Takes me back.

This week has been mostly about sharing each others' life stories which has taken quite a long time as there are about 50 of us including staff. It's been a really interesting few days, learning about people and what has happened up to the point where they became Christians. God is good!

Here's Sam:

Hi. It's been a great week of meeting new people, being challenged in our faith and having lots of fun. We start our classes properly tomorrow (so far it's been mostly orientation), but already we've seen God speaking to people and making significant changes in our lives. There's a really good atmosphere of learning and trying new things - it's a place where it's fine to say "I think God might be saying this, but it's more likely that I've just made it up." I've done that a couple of times, and more often than not it's turned out to be something actually quite prophetic. What fun.

Next week we have all of our classes in the centre of Cape Town, and I think there's going to be quite a lot of practical stuff to do - going out into the city and telling people about Jesus - which frightens the life out of me. It'll probably be brilliant, though.

If you're the praying kind, here are some things to direct your prayers:

- Please pray for relationships with other people: As we get to know everybody some beautiful friendships are forming. Pray that our being married wouldn't stop us striking out and both making great friends with the other students and staff.

- Please pray for our outreach: In the next few weeks we'll start to decide where to go for our outreach phase. Please pray that God would speak clearly about where we should go.

- Please pray for us: We have a busy schedule and there's always something going on, but it's important that we get time together too to process what God is doing in our marriage (and to enjoy the beach).

Thanks! We love you all.

Sam and Heather

First Impressions

A 16 hour long journey including three separate flights is not to be underestimated. We arrived in Cape Town at just after 2pm yesterday, exhausted. We were met by the school leader, Paul. We had communicated with him a little bit already over facebook so it was a relief to see a familiar face! I'd love to woo you all with tales of how exotic and sunny Cape Town was when we landed, but alas, we were met with grey skies and rain. We got to the base, made cups of tea and introduced Pass the Pigs to our new friends. We soon drew a crowd in the main room and now I think we're known as the crazy British people. It seemed to go down well. There are 34 students here which is the most they've had for years apparently and there's quite a buzz at the base. Lots of Americans and some Germans, some Dutch, Canadians, Russians, one from Israel and Egypt and one or two from other countries; we're still to talk to each individual but they all seem pretty friendly. In more mundane news, we have our own en suite bedroom which is pretty nice.

Today we had formal introductions and a talk on the foundational beliefs of YWAM. It was a really helpful session that made sure we were all on the same page and knew a little more of what we are to expect in the coming months. In free time this afternoon Sam went to play football with some of the boys and I went down to the beach (see photo above) with a few of the girls to watch the intrepid surfers in the shark infested waters (there are shark spotters on the rocks around the beach who raise a red flag in case they see any looming grey triangles). The weather has got better; the sun is out today it's just a bit windy so you need to wear long sleeves when outside. In other British small talk news, we're managing to fill every gap with a cup of tea each which is amazing.

We want to post more pictures but there aren't many photo opportunities because a lot of time is spent hanging out with people and it would be a bit odd to stick a camera in their face; we might wait till next week for that.

That's all for now.
Heather x