convention

so this past weekend, I went to New Zion Ministry's (the group of churches that Breakthru is a part of) annual convention, I'd write a blog about it, but the other's on my team did such a great job, I'll just link to their posts

Connie's: http://conniesradicaljourney.blogspot.com/2009/09/convention.html

Kyle's: http://kyleberg1.blogspot.com/2009/09/sleep-is-my-worst-friend.html

Gabby's: http://gabby-southafrica.blogspot.com/2009/09/convention-at-bloumfontein.html

(yes I know I didn't link one of Anna's posts, but that's because she doesn't have one about convention)

Destination- South Africa

I woke up to say goodbye to the Paraguay team Sunday morning at 5:30. When we arrived here in August, I don't think anyone really realized how hard it would be to say goodbye at the end of the month. After a tearful goodbye, everyone went back to bed. Next we said goodbye to england around 10 O'clock. At noon, it was South Africa's turn to leave. we drove to the airport, checked our bags, and were about to go through security, when a couple from Anna's church stopped us. They took us to the foodcourt, and bought us deep dish pizza (we were in chicago, we had to have some...).

then we flew to amsterdam, where we had a three hour layover, kind of boring.

then we flew to Johannesburg (during which time I watched the new star trek movie, as well as several comedic tvshows), where we discovered that we didn't have the money we were supposed to have transferred to our account, so we couldn't afford to go to the guest house where we were supposed to spend our 8 hour layover. so we had to spend the night in the Johannesburg Airport, which was exhausting (I think I had the most sleep at an hour and 45 minutes).

then we flew from there to Pietermaritzburg where we were picked up by Christine, and driven to her house where we met her husband Phil, they are the Mennonite Mission Network Workers here in south africa. They then took us to the Manse, the house where we will be staying for our 10 months. That night they hosted a braai (it means roasted meat in afrikaans, it's like a barbecue, but with just meat). and we met the staff of breakthru church international, where we will be posted.

We were exhausted from our 3 days of traveling, and when we got back to the manse, we slept untill 2 in the afternoon the next day.

Volunteer work

On Tuesday, the Radical Journey group was split into three teams, and sent to various organizations in the city to volunteer for the day. My group was sent to Cornerstone Community Outreach, a shelter ran by Jesus People for single women and children.

Since it was so close, I got to sleep in, which was really nice. When we got there nobody knew that we were coming and after calling around to figure out where we were supposed to be, they eventually just sent us to the kitchen. Where they set us to work opening cans of vegetables. After the vegetables, we did everything from cleaning out freezers to cutting bread, to cutting meat, to unloading a truck to doing dishes, whatever it was that they needed us to do.

I helped to clean the freezer, and then helped to fill it up with new food, it reminded me of working at bestbuy and loading truck.

overall it was great to be helping out, and doing some of the work that Jesus People USA (my host for this past month) does within the community.

Routine

Ok, so I realised that I've been sharing the special things that have been happening, but that unless you are from the program, you don't really know what I do on a day to day basis, hopefully this post will change that

6:30- 7:15-

somewhere in this time, I'll wake up, the alarm in our room is set for 7:30, but i've literally only waken to it once. I like to spend this time before everyone else is up to either read my novel (which i've finished now, so I'll need to find something else), read scripture, or do devotions.

8:00-

Around eight o'clock, everyone is pretty much awake. And we start heading over for breakfast. We have to cross the alley to Jesus People USA's (Shortened to JPUSA, pronounced Jepusa) main building. where we eat, usually the options are oatmeal, some type of meat, some type of grain (like pancakes or french toast, or bagels), and fruit. There is also a small selection of regular cereal as well.

9:00-

usually at nine, we go to morning prayers with some of the people from JPUSA. This starts with a few songs, led by Ruth and Rebecca, usually a combination of hymns and worship songs. Then one of the JPUSAns will talk about a piece of scripture, or a theme, such as Integrety, or matthew 25. this has been a really good time to reflect about God's word, and I really appreciate it.

9:45- 10:00ish-

we head back to the Flat, and meet in the common room, where we either have a bunch of "youth room" couches and chairs. Where either Krista, Darrell, or a guest speaker will talk to us about something or we get our stuff ready to head out to whatever location, or object lesson we are going to get for the day. This is where most of the teaching time happens

11:30-

We break for lunch at 11:30, and have some sort of sandwich, or pasta meal

1:00-

we reconvene for the rest of our lesson or speaker's presentation, or possibly a new subject alltogether. We've talked about everything from Journaling, to poverty, to Evangelism (possibly have a break part way through)

5:00-

we wrap up whatever we are doing and go for supper, usually a meat, salad, and side

6:00-7:30-

we meet again if there is anything left to talk about, or if there is something special that's going to happen that evening, else we spend the evening either hanging out, reading, watching a movie or going out either to downtown, or dallop depending on the person.

9:30-12:00-

Sometime in this time period, I get my shower, and go to bed. Ready to start the whole thing over again the next day.

Free Hugs

So today, we learned about hospitality as a spiritual discipline. The bible says to do onto others as you would want them to do to you, and the second greatest commandmant, is to love your neighbour.

in the morning we went to Union park, where we had birthday cake (it was my birthday yesterday), and Krista talked for a bit, then gave us our assignment. To be hospitable to others in a new way. So after going back to Jesus People (see other entries) for a quick lunch, Kyle and I headed down town.

When we got there, we pulled out 2 signs that I had made, and walked around the busier areas. There we gave out free Hugs. We hugged a variety of people, from a guy in a wheelchair, to a Crossing Guard, to a Man working on building the set for Oprah's Season opener (that was for you mom).

A lot of people commented on it, talking about how they thought it was a neat idea. We got into a conversation with a trolley driver, who liked it because it reminded him of the compassion he used to see before the city took away free trolley rides. We also got a couple of people that said things like "That's just creepy"

For a little bit, I was just standing there, and on the other side of the sidewalk was a group of teenaged guys, trying to pressure eachother into hugging me (it was a big sidewalk). One guy actually offered another guy (Seen in the above picture) 5 bucks if he'd hug me, but sadly nothing happened).

While we were walking, Amp Representatives were offering free Amp Energy Drinks (energy drinks based on Mountain Dew), which I liked, but Kyle didn't. We offered to give them a hug, but they said no.

In the end, after 2 hours of walking around, we started to head back because our arms were sore from carrying the sign, and our feet hurt, so we decided to head home through Millenium Park. Where we gave some of our last hugs (the only other hug was to a woman in a military uniform). before heading home.

Final Count:

Kyle: 29 (with additional bonus marks for hugging a girl fresh out of the water park)

me:31 (with additional marks for hugging a homeless man, a pat on the back, and a wierd handshake)

Enneagrams

So we've been doing Enneagrams (pronounced Any-a-grams), which is a tool used to help us learn more about who we are, and how we can work togther as a group. There are 9 different personality types, numbered between one and nine. Each type had a name which described what that personality type was focused on such a “Helper” or “Achiever”. Everybody has a little bit of each of the types within their personality, but had one that was more central to who they are.
Our first experience with the Enneagram was a quick online test which we took before we left that told us that we were probably one of three types, but couldn't tell us which one. When I got here I did 2 more tests to figure out which type I was, and I finally decided that I was a six. A six, or Loyalist, is someone who sees everything that can go wrong, and tries to fix things. We feel the need to be dependable for everyone, because to us it's only when we can count on something that we feel secure. We are also Ambiverts, being both introverted and extroverted depending on the situation, this is because we'll try one thing, and if it doesn't work we'll overcompensate.
Being a six helps me to understand why I can be so, i don't know... intense, when I commit to something, I commit to it, 110 percent, but that something has to be stable because I am trying to find something that I can trust to be stable in my life, an example could be that time when I identified as communist, I was doing so, because I thought that communism offered a stability, but when I learned more about how communism had failed in the soviet union, and how it had failed the little man, I realised that it wasn't something that I could trust in, and therefore as a six something that I can't commit to.

One of the things that I've been learning lately is that I can't trust in outside forces because outside forces are always going to fall, this is a world of impermanence, and things change. There are only two things that I can trust in, I can trust in myself to do my best, and be there for others, and that I can trust in God, who will always be there for me, that I need to build my life on him because when the storms come, I know I'll fail, but, God will never, ever fail, and will always be there for me.

Therefore these Enneagrams have been really helpful to me in helping me to understand myself better, and I would highly recommend that people check it out.

Bible Study

Bible Study,

As a group, we've decided that we wanted to do twice weekly bible studies on top of the scheduled list of events/ discussions/ morning prayers, etc. This has been a nice time of refreshing, and community building. This past week, we had some issues getting bible study together. We guys (there are four of us) decided that we wanted to lead it on Wednesday,.
When Wednesday rolled around, we found out that the vicar from the Anglican Church where the England Team will be working, was here and wanted to go out to dinner with them, which resulted in it not happening on it's usual date. Then tonight we didn't get to do it during the regular time because we has something in the evening, but when we got back, we were able to do Bible Studies anyways.
We started it off by reading the scripture that we were basing it on, and then we read something that I had found online about identity and being part of the Body of Christ. Then when we finished reading that, we had some discussion questions, which brought out some interesting ideas about how we view ourselves, and each other.
Since we are all part of Christ's body, we then served Communion, to remind us of how Christ broke his body for us, and poured out his blood. We then sang two songs before ending it.
Overall tonight's Bible Study went off really well, and I can't wait to see what the next group does.

originally written September 3rd, 2009