African Paradis

The last week or so of June I was able to go to the South Coast of South Africa (basically Antarctica :) ) and help put on a Holiday Bible Club (Vacation Bible School) with a church in a township in KwaZulu-Natal. We were about 5 minutes away from the Indian Ocean and we throughly enjoyed our time there. Our first few days we had some training classes on Personal Evangelism and on sharing your testimony. We had some people with us who had not been on mission trips before and even more who had not been on a trip to the DEEP Zulu region of South Africa. It was important to make sure that we were educated on the culture and customs of the region. This is the Backyard of the Church On Monday we held our first day of HBC. We were expecting about 70 kids and before we could even pull into the church there was over 100 kids waiting for us! While we were setting up more and more kids showed up and by the time our meeting started we had 233 kids! Praise God! I helped lead singing (YIKES)...

This past week I had the privilege of going to ZImbabwe for a missions trip. There is a particular church in Zimbabwe that did not have a building to meet in. So a group of people from Sandton Bible Church and Word of Life went up on Tuesday in order to put up a large tent where the people could meet. There was also a second group that left Thursday in order to put on a drama. Warp Speed I was part of the group that left on Thursday in order to preform the drama "Born Again to a Living Hope"    It is about 16 hours to the capital city of Harare where we were headed. On the first day we traveled for 10 hours total in the car. And we also waited an additional 5 hours waiting to cross the border. The reason it too so long to cross the border was because our man Charles was going to help us get across the border with ease. However he seemed to think that it was his job to make it more difficult for us.  About an hour after we crossed the border we stopped for the...

Here is the latest top of the line information about Kyle and South Africa! Click on the picture to make it bigger.

As the title implies this past weekend I was at CAMP! This camp was different from most camps that I have worked with because this time there was not just kids at camp, it was the whole family. Also because the parents were there instead of counseling the kids I was their Bible teacher/co-game runner with Desire. It was also a more relaxed atmosphere than what I was used to but it was a very good time. Right before the adults preacher was about to start all of the kids were dismissed. We then had about 45 minutes to tell them a Bible story and play some games with them. The kids were from ages 2-12 so it was challenging to find games that they all could play and give lessons that they all could understand. We eventually broke them up into tow groups and with the help of CJ and Chae we were able to all have a fun time.  View from near the top Warning sign at the trail head View right before we went down Since coming to Africa one thing that I have missed dearly is ...

Things have been getting into a bit of a routine here in South Africa. School is going on, so the kids are in school and therefore there is no camp right now. But we do not sit around and cry in South Africa when there is no camp. Instead we get other things done! During these past few weeks I have been working in the office of Brad Hawkins -a missionary here for the past 9 years- filling various roles. Currently another missionary Mike VanBruggen and his family are back in the US for furlough so John Cottier and I have been doing some of the things he usually does. I would go into great detail about all the things that I do on a day to day basis but that would be a very long post and no one would actually read it except for my Mom. So here is a nice list to skim through. 1. Call Churches to check up on clubs and things like that 2. Design newsletters/posters/flyers/any thing else made of paper for any upcoming event 3. Be a Olympian club leader on Fridays 4. Be a Teen club leader...

Here lies my newest new newsletter, this one is especially special because it is the VERY FIRST one that I have created in Africa. It has a lot of info in it and if you would like more details or pics check out my Facebook page or contact me. Also there are more detailed descriptions in previous blog posts. Click on the image to make it bigger!

This week for one reason or another there was no internet at our home in South Africa. I was able to get all of my school work done by Tuesday so praise God I did not fall behind on my studies. However when there is no internet you start doing useful things instead of wasting your time on the internet. I was able to focus on learning Portuguese and I learned quite a bit done this week. I was also able to help my friend and roommate Thobile with his Bible classes and with his English. We also spent more time getting to know each other instead of mindlessly staring at screens. However these days communication is centered around the internet. It is difficult to talk to people internationally with out it. Needless to say the internet is back on, I am back to work at my school and I can once again interact with people half the planet away.