Here are lots of photos of the trip to look through if you're interested! They're broken up into categories for your convenience :)
Traveling via London, arriving at The Farm, and having a culture night with the Academy (high school) kids
ASP Camp 1
ASP Camp 2
Bridges of Hope Academy
Aquila Safari
Robben Island & Cape Town with the facilitators
Birthday Party, Bonfire & Goodbyes
Love,
Erica
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Busy Busy Busy!
Hi everyone! Erica here again. Sorry we haven't been updating much lately, it's been really busy over here!
The 77 children arrived on Wednesday morning around 10:30, and we greeted them with hugs and cheers as they got off the bus. There were also 14 "facilitators" - young adults around ages 18-25 who came with them; these are their leaders during the After School Program they are in, and also their counselors here at camp (along with our team). We were all paired with a facilitator or two and the kids were put in cabins. Each of the girls is paired with another American girl and a facilitator or two, and each boy is on his own. Even us 4 leaders have cabins, which is really fun for us! We each have around 5-6 kids, and one girls' cabin has 12 (but there are 3 Americans together in that one!). It is so fun trying to communicate with these kids - most of them at least understand some English, but a lot of them are also quite good at speaking it as well! Their native language is Xhosa, which is a language that has English lettering, so it's easy for us to sound out, but it also has 3 different types of "clicks" in it, which makes it really funny when we try to learn some of the words and phrases! Apparently it's considered one of the hardest languages to learn in all of Africa! But we're trying, and having fun with it :). For some of the little kids who don't know any English, there are always other ways of communicating, especially with children. And the facilitators help us a lot with translating!
We have spend the last few days playing games in the sun, jumping on the trampoline, swimming with way too many kids in the pool (who mostly don't know how to swim haha), making crafts, singing songs in Xhosa and English, and sharing lots of interesting meals together. It has been wild; there are so many kids here!! But it's just like any other church camp - we have morning and night talks and testimonies, and cabin times afterward. Some of our students have had really cool stories about their kids sharing prayer requests and asking good questions and having discussions. We're really excited about what God is doing in the lives of these children and the facilitatiors we've gotten to know.
No one has gotten sick or hurt (besides the normal scrapes and bumps of camp), and we really didn't have any jetlag or trouble adjusting. God has taken such great care of us! The weather has even been great :)
I can't think of too much else to update on... I think my brain is a little scrambled from the low sleep and mixed languages around me! Haha. Sorry if this has been rambling or if I haven't given you all the information you were hoping to get! Feel free to ask any questions, specific or general, and please continue praying for us! Pray that this last day and a half of camp can be really effective in getting the kids to understand what kind of relationship they can have with Jesus. And pray especially for the facilitators; a good half of them are not committed Christians, and we've gotten to be good friends with them and care about them a lot. Pray for sleep for our team, but other than that we really are doing so great! We just want to be effective leaders for our kids!
Missing you all!,
Love - The Team
The 77 children arrived on Wednesday morning around 10:30, and we greeted them with hugs and cheers as they got off the bus. There were also 14 "facilitators" - young adults around ages 18-25 who came with them; these are their leaders during the After School Program they are in, and also their counselors here at camp (along with our team). We were all paired with a facilitator or two and the kids were put in cabins. Each of the girls is paired with another American girl and a facilitator or two, and each boy is on his own. Even us 4 leaders have cabins, which is really fun for us! We each have around 5-6 kids, and one girls' cabin has 12 (but there are 3 Americans together in that one!). It is so fun trying to communicate with these kids - most of them at least understand some English, but a lot of them are also quite good at speaking it as well! Their native language is Xhosa, which is a language that has English lettering, so it's easy for us to sound out, but it also has 3 different types of "clicks" in it, which makes it really funny when we try to learn some of the words and phrases! Apparently it's considered one of the hardest languages to learn in all of Africa! But we're trying, and having fun with it :). For some of the little kids who don't know any English, there are always other ways of communicating, especially with children. And the facilitators help us a lot with translating!
We have spend the last few days playing games in the sun, jumping on the trampoline, swimming with way too many kids in the pool (who mostly don't know how to swim haha), making crafts, singing songs in Xhosa and English, and sharing lots of interesting meals together. It has been wild; there are so many kids here!! But it's just like any other church camp - we have morning and night talks and testimonies, and cabin times afterward. Some of our students have had really cool stories about their kids sharing prayer requests and asking good questions and having discussions. We're really excited about what God is doing in the lives of these children and the facilitatiors we've gotten to know.
No one has gotten sick or hurt (besides the normal scrapes and bumps of camp), and we really didn't have any jetlag or trouble adjusting. God has taken such great care of us! The weather has even been great :)
I can't think of too much else to update on... I think my brain is a little scrambled from the low sleep and mixed languages around me! Haha. Sorry if this has been rambling or if I haven't given you all the information you were hoping to get! Feel free to ask any questions, specific or general, and please continue praying for us! Pray that this last day and a half of camp can be really effective in getting the kids to understand what kind of relationship they can have with Jesus. And pray especially for the facilitators; a good half of them are not committed Christians, and we've gotten to be good friends with them and care about them a lot. Pray for sleep for our team, but other than that we really are doing so great! We just want to be effective leaders for our kids!
Missing you all!,
Love - The Team
We Made It!!
Here is the email I sent out once we had finally arrived at "The Farm" in Franschhoek, where we are staying these 2 weeks!
-------
Hi everyone! We made it!!!! ☺. It is currently 9:25PM here in Franschhoek and we feel like it must be at least 3AM. Haha. It was a looong journey (which we expected), but everything went quite smoothly minus a few small bumps along the way (also to be expected!). We didn’t end up with much time in London, but we did get to walk around and get some fresh air as well as catch a few photos of Big Ben and Parliament. It was a fun couple of hours together!
South Africa is beautiful. It’s very green with big mountains and long rolling wine country. Just beautiful! On the drive between Cape Town and Fraschhoek we got to see where all of our kids have come from or will be coming from, a township called Phillipi (and a few other townships which are very close by). It was just a long stretch (probably a mile or two long) of tiny shacks lined up along the other of side of a wall beside the freeway. Very impoverished, and very sad. But I think it was good to see that, so we get an idea of what these kids are getting to escape for the week they’re at camp (or for 4 years for the ones who go to the Academy).
Tonight we had a fun cultural night with the Academy kids. I’ll let your kids tell you all about details when they get home, but it was really fun ☺. Tomorrow morning the College Team starts teaching at the Academy, and our team will prepare for our 80 ASP kids to come to camp (at 10AM)!
We’re a little bit exhausted, but mostly thankful we get to be here and excited for what’s coming.
Keep us in your prayers, of course! At this point what we need prayer for is just some good rest and to make sure we’re prepared for camp.
We’ll try to update every few days; the internet is a little finicky. But know that we’re very safe here and already having a blast with the Academy kids and the staff. God is so good to us!!
Sending much love from the Southern Hemisphere,
-Erica & The Team
PS: Please feel free to pass this email along to anyone else you know who might want to be updated! I don’t think we ended up getting a full list from every student before we left.
-------
Hi everyone! We made it!!!! ☺. It is currently 9:25PM here in Franschhoek and we feel like it must be at least 3AM. Haha. It was a looong journey (which we expected), but everything went quite smoothly minus a few small bumps along the way (also to be expected!). We didn’t end up with much time in London, but we did get to walk around and get some fresh air as well as catch a few photos of Big Ben and Parliament. It was a fun couple of hours together!
South Africa is beautiful. It’s very green with big mountains and long rolling wine country. Just beautiful! On the drive between Cape Town and Fraschhoek we got to see where all of our kids have come from or will be coming from, a township called Phillipi (and a few other townships which are very close by). It was just a long stretch (probably a mile or two long) of tiny shacks lined up along the other of side of a wall beside the freeway. Very impoverished, and very sad. But I think it was good to see that, so we get an idea of what these kids are getting to escape for the week they’re at camp (or for 4 years for the ones who go to the Academy).
Tonight we had a fun cultural night with the Academy kids. I’ll let your kids tell you all about details when they get home, but it was really fun ☺. Tomorrow morning the College Team starts teaching at the Academy, and our team will prepare for our 80 ASP kids to come to camp (at 10AM)!
We’re a little bit exhausted, but mostly thankful we get to be here and excited for what’s coming.
Keep us in your prayers, of course! At this point what we need prayer for is just some good rest and to make sure we’re prepared for camp.
We’ll try to update every few days; the internet is a little finicky. But know that we’re very safe here and already having a blast with the Academy kids and the staff. God is so good to us!!
Sending much love from the Southern Hemisphere,
-Erica & The Team
PS: Please feel free to pass this email along to anyone else you know who might want to be updated! I don’t think we ended up getting a full list from every student before we left.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Welcome!
Welcome to our team blog! We wanted to create a place where our families, friends, and supporters could come to get info about our trip; before, during, and after! We will do our best to keep it updated and current with stories and photos, so that you all can feel like you're really part of our journey. Keep us in your prayers as we really into the planning and preparation stage of this adventure! We are so excited for what the Lord has in store for us these next 3 months :).
Love,
The Team.
Love,
The Team.
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