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'.