Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa Blog

Hey everyone! I’m sorry for not posting a blog last week! These past 2 weeks have been much different from my time in Eswatini. This first week was spent acclimating to a culture more like the one in America. There were more restaurants. More people. More grocery stores, etc. After settling in to our new home for the month and getting to know our new host Wendy, we were told about our ministry plans for the week. Timion – a carpentry company that makes special needs equipment for children with cerebral palsy is where we would spend our first week. We all thought we might be helping in the wood shop or sanding or possibly even helping craft the equipment but they had other plans. We were all sent to there company garden that they use to grow vegetables (pronounced veggy tables here, HA!) for the parents that often don’t have a source of income due to spending most all of there time helping with the needs of the child. Every morning we would have worship/singing/bible study at the wood shop then they would load us up in a van and send us to the garden about 5 min down the road. It was very different. Going from kids ministry, house-visits, sports ministry, etc. in Eswatini, to the ministry of gardening, i.e. pulling weeds, planting seeds, putting down “God’s blanket” (hay that covers the dirt to keep in moisture), turning compost, watering, hammering in support stakes for plants to grow up around, and many many other miscellaneous tasks that go into keeping a garden running and functional – was a difficult task. It was difficult in the aspect that it was challenging at times to see the “fruit”. Not the fruit of the plants, but the fruit God asks us to bear. Questions like, “Why are we spending our time here when there are countless other ways to serve in and around town”, “How is pulling weeds all day bringing people into the Kingdom of God”, etc. started to arise. God then showed me something my 2nd/3rd day at the garden. These 2 days were spent hammering in support stakes around pea plants that had been growing for about 2 months. To give you a visual, imagine a woman’s average hair length. That’s the approximate length these pea plants had started to grow out of the soil and spread out across the ground. With the support stakes the pea plant has the chance to use its energy to grow upwards instead of outward, which gives the plants more of a chance to gain more sunlight and thus gain more energy and then it starts this cycle of gaining energy instead of using it. Similarly to those without Jesus, we tend to expend our energy outwards to gain material things, peoples approval, material desires, etc. Expelling all this energy to please others, please our own perceptions of ourselves and thus wasting time, money, and (energy). The point that God made to me and that I’m trying to relate to y’all is that without Jesus as our support stake in our lives we waste countless years and emotional energy on stuff that Jesus himself does not want us care about. The stuff the enemy uses against the Kingdom of God. With Jesus we can grow upwards towards him. We give him our lives and he teaches us how to gain more of his love (energy). We give him our lives and he makes sure we are headed in the right direction. We give him our lives and he gives us everything we need (not what we think we need). We learn to seek his approval. Without the support stake that Jesus gives us, we are headed in the wrong direction. With Jesus as our support we can be sure we are headed the right “way”. 

So what I learned in my first week at the garden was that there are many ways to see God and be his hands and feet. There are many ways he uses us and our frustrations to teach us more about how he loves us, supports us, and guides us. He gives us many different types of illustrations. All we need to do is look. 

This week I spent my time at Beats and Books, an after school program that students come to after their school day to receive more help in their studies. Next Tuesday is when there the kids go back to school so this week was spent cleaning the entire house. Yes, beats and books is just a house. A cozy, warm, feel good house with 2 bathrooms, 3 rooms, a kitchen and living area that was repurposed for the library. After cleaning the house we were put into specific areas to complete specific tasks. Some worked on a project in the library, putting books in there correct places. Some (me) took an inventory of the entire house. Anything you could see that was bigger than a soccer ball was inventoried. Some put in grades from the last time they were in school. South Africa has different school times than us. They have 4 terms. They go to school for 3 months then have a break etc. So the grades that were just inputted were fairly recent. In the closets, there are bags filled with props that they use to create bible stories. Some of us rearranged and renamed the bags etc. Most the time we are no more than 5-10ft from another squad mate that has been more fun because we’re usually more spread out. The pastor of the church we’ve been going to recently works here as well so we’ve had the opportunity to talk and build a relationship with him as well. Carla is the “mom” of the house. She is also the teacher, the administrator, the counselor and everything in between. She has shown me compassion and sweetness that only comes from Jesus, which I highly admire. Next week will be more interesting because I will most likely be leading the spiritual growth class that is about 45 min. We will be discussing 1 Corinthians 10:13. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” I ask for prayers for this. It will be a big step for me and I will be spending all day tomorrow trying to build a 45 min spiritual lesson for this Tuesday. 

All in all I have had an amazing time here. I’ve been surfing twice! I’ve bungee jumped off the worlds highest commercial bungee jump! I’ve seen, heard, felt, and been loved by Jesus, and watched the finals of the world surf tour! I’m definitely having the experience of a life time and can’t wait to share more with some of y’all back home:)!!

Love y’all!

-Ben