Timmy

Some of you have asked.

First its a bit of a difficult situation for me. I knew in the beginning there was really no "win" for Timmy. In my heart I know a boy like Timmy really needs his mom. Problem is at this stage he can't stay where she is and she's not moving.

Its also difficult for me because the social worker basically told me this is all my fault. Timmy had no idea that what was happening to him was wrong until I came along and told him so.

Regardless, I still try and see Timmy at least once a week. He has been placed permanently into states custody. Because he is still in the same village, he will often try and run away and see his mom. He grew up on the streets going where he wanted when he wanted, so now he's a bit like a caged lion.

He looked really good last time I saw him. Smiling, laughing, etc. We made a short video to send to coco.

I know we haven't found the win, but deep down it still feels like a better scenario.  Maybe not the best, but better by far. Regardless of what the social worker says I don't think there is anything I would have done different.  What happened was wrong and needed attention.  I don't see how doing nothing would have helped anyone.  Problem is the system here's is so broken that you remove the victim, but nothing happens to the perpetrators so they just find new ones.  In a perfect world they would also be receiving counseling.

That's it for now. Would love for you to just continue to pray that there is somewhere that Timmy and his mom can go together and both get help.

A hodge podge of good stuff

Just a warning this is a bit lengthy! It will update you on the Home Affairs saga, where we are in our Visa process, and who we will be working with for the next 3 years. Hold on, it's good stuff!

In order to apply for your visas, you need a sponsor here in South Africa.  They basically write a letter saying that they have invited you to be here in South Africa and that you are volunteering, etc, etc.  In addition to needing this, there is also something called a repatriation fee.  This fee is money that you are supposed to pay to the South African government for them to hold in case they need to send you home for any reason.  Death or deportation being the top two.  Upon leaving the country you get the money back (2-3 months later).  When we got our visas in the states before coming all we had to do was prove we had enough money in the bank to buy a plane ticket.  So, in addition to our sponsor letter, we also had the group we are working with write a letter saying that they would take care of any cost associated with getting us home for any reason.

Because of some issues with Finley's paperwork and knowing how difficult Home Affairs can be, here in South Africa, we choose to go thru a visa agent.  It's comes with a small fee, but there is an agent with you every step of the way.  Our agent warned us that she was not sure our letter for the repatriation fee would work, but she had gotten one processed before.

All Nations had agreed to write both letters for us.  We serve with them now in Ocean View and they had invited us to work with them for the next 3 years. There was one small string attached.  We would have to attend their five months CPX (very similar to YWAM DTS).  At CPX core, it is a church planting and disciple making training course with 3 months of classroom and 2 months of outreach.  It was difficult for me to imagine after 3 years, now stopping to go thru a training course.  I fought it.  I met with one of the guys who helps run the course and he told me that I would have to clear my calendar for 5 months.  Including stepping out of leadership at the church that I was currently serving in.  All Nations teaches a "simple" or "house" church model and they want you to both learn that model and participate in one while you are going through the course.  Now I was fighting even more.

I met with my pastor to discuss what was happening.  He was disappointed at the fact that we might be leaving.  In the end, the church also offered to sponsor our visas.  Only so that there was a choice and we were not forced to make a decision based on lack of options.

So that's the backdrop leading up to our first meeting with home affairs.  Because of some issues we had with Finley's paperwork (all straightened out now) and some closings at home affairs, we were schedule to go there the day that our visas expired.

That morning we head downtown.  Meet our agent and go over everything one last time.  We deal with a few final things for Finley and leave our applications with our agent to deliver to Home Affairs for us.  Andrea and I stop for a quick lunch while we were downtown.  Celebrating, after all, our visas were done, right?  WRONG.  We get a phone call from our agent.  She tells us that they will not accept our visas with the repatriation letter that we included.  Uh-Oh.  Big problem.  We tell her we will go there and meet her and discuss with the Home Affairs person.

Nothing was working.  There was no way around this law according to the supervisor lady that we were speaking with.  She said the only way she could accept the applications was with the repatriation fee.  For our family it was over R100,000 ($10,000).  Needless to say we didn't have it and there was nothing she could do or would do to work with us.  We sat down, asking God for our miracle or just to tell us if it was time to pack up and go.  I made a few phone calls.  Praying someone I knew had some pull at Home Affairs and could help us out.  Nothing!  Someone said to call someone else on our Ocean View team.  A YWAM'er.  He tells me that YWAM has a deal with the South African Government that exempts their volunteers from paying the fee.  He goes on to tell me that All Nations and YWAM have a great working relationship and that they will write those letters for people from All Nations.  He gives me the # to call.  I speak with the secretary at YWAM.  Tell her our story and she says that she can write the letter.  It's now 1:30.  I speak to the home affairs letter and she confirms that the YWAM letter will exempt me from the fee.  Problem is I need the original letter and I have to be back by 3:30.  Its close, but we run out the door, heading to get our letter.  Knowing the office was about 45-60 mins away, I knew I had just enough time.  The letter had to be ready because with traffic it would be very close.  I called our agent and asked her to fax all our info to this lady so she could get the letters ready for us when we got there.  We get there at 2:30, plenty of time to make the turn and be back on time.  Andrea runs in and runs out, but the letters aren't ready.  The fax never went through.  I go inside.  The base director tells me that he is also trying to confirm that we are working with All Nations.  The guy who I had spoken to about sponsoring us with All Nations was out of the country.  The guy that heads up my team in Ocean View was also not answering.  The couple of people that he did talk to had no idea who I was.  Because I submitted my visas with the letter from the church I didn't even have the All Nations letter on me.  I quickly phone Brie and told her where to find the letter.  Send me a picture so I can prove to them we will be working with All Nations.  All the while my agent is calling telling me I have to be there by four or it doesn't matter.  3:00 tick tick tick, 3:30 tick tick tick, 4:00 we finally get our signed original letter.  I call back the agent.  I have it, now what?  She was talking to home affairs.  They accepted our applications with the stipulation that I would bring in the original letter Monday Morning.

So what does this mean.  This means we will be working with All Nations and we have agreed to take the next CPX course which starts Feb 2014. Even though the Visa applications were accepted, this doesn't mean that we have our new visas.  We have only submitted them, which just means we had everything on the check list and turned it all in to Home Affairs.  Now I've been told this can take months and sometimes even years, but now that they are accepted and we have our receipt of this, we are all legal to be here.

As the time has passed for all of this to settle in, we are getting more and more excited about the CPX course. What we had fought is something now we really feel we need to do. Sometimes (often), I find that I will fight against something only to find it was God's plan for us all along. God had already put a desire in my heart to learn more about church planting.  Although there were other options to help me scratch this itch so speak, this apparently was all part of God's plan.  God had also given me a pretty specific word, on more than one occasion, regarding the Country Jordan.  The founder of All Nations just returned from a 4 week trip to the Middle East and said that there is a small window of opportunity for the church to be involved in what's happening in Syria and that All Nations will be directing their efforts there to both Lebanon and Jordan to help with the refugee crisis starting in 2014.

We have no plans to leave where we are in South Africa.  This will be our home base and hopefully the plan will be to make a few trips there starting next year.  According to the Director at All Nations there is a thing called a non-resident church planter where you find a local person and begin to pour into that person, making several trips to go and encourage and bring supplies as well as corresponding while you are away.  This is very similar to what you see in the Book of Acts and Paul's missionary journey's.

It could just be a one time thing, although I don't think so.  I feel like for now I need to at least be obedient and make the trip and I believe the rest will unveil itself in time.  So, to that end, I will be going on a small 6-8 man team to Al Mafraq, Jordan come January next year.  Al Mafraq is home to the second largest refugee camp in the world.  We will be working with some All Nations and YWAM people who are already on the ground in Jordan.  We will be strengthening relationships and laying the ground work to send more teams from South Africa as well as Stateside.  I will post another blog about our "Serve Syria" project so that you can know how to get more information and how to pray.

For the meantime, we will continue to keep working with the All Nations Ocean View team, our heart is here.  I love what we are doing in Ocean View. We have been in communication with our Church and will continue to work with them through the end of this year and look forward to possibly returning at the end of CPX. Our call is still the same, to serve the Least, the Last and the Lost! How amazing that God could use us to do that here in South Africa and also in Jordan. We are very aware of the Lord's presence in all of this process. Even though there have been obstacles, He has stood for us and in that we find great peace in the direction we are going.

Prayer Points

• The Visa Process, that we get our renewed Visas back shortly
• Serve Syria
• Everything that needs to happen around CPX (funding, paperwork, etc.)
• January trip to Al Mafraq.  This will just be Shelby and few others from All Nation
• Our need for monthly support and a 2nd car that Andrea can drive

Blessings
Shelby

DOUBLE WAMMY

Today I went to Mountain View. Its an area of Ocean View that has really been on my heart lately. I try to walk around and just pray and ask God for who he wants me to meet. Today I went to the preschool that was there and hung out with some of the kids for a bit. They play with broken toys, puzzles missing pieces, and read books missing pages. They don't know what they are missing and play happily, excites to have an "uncle" there to read with them.

I made a few rounds and wasn't really seeing anyone out. I had one person that I ran into in our village yesterday while he was rummaging thru trash cans. I told him I would come see him today. I was walking with a group of YWAM people and as we were praying with a young pregnant teenager a man came up and said we need to pray for a lady that was very sick around the corner. We couldn't find the lady and so I went to visit my guy and they went back to the preschool. As I arrived at the young mans house a lady said she was very sick and asked if I could pray for her. Turns out she was the lady we were looking for (funny how that works) and so I went and grabbed the YWAM team. As they prayed outside I stepped inside to visit with the young man.

The smell is one that is difficult to describe. Its overpowering. It demands attention. There is no running water here and thus no indoor plumbing. Most people keep a bucket outside for the bathroom, these people kept on inside. The house all have dirt floors. Some try to cover with plastic and carpet, others let it be. The boy and his girlfriend just woke up. They live in this small 2 room house with his mom and her boyfriend. They were sleeping on the couch. Brian (fake name) dropped at of school after grade 6, same with his girlfriend.  We talk about school and what his work prospects are. There is a construction project looking for people but he doesn't have his ID, but he's working on it. His mom has TB. I'm worried for him. His girlfriend tells me he is HIV. He says no she's lying. She leaves. I press the issue. Embarrassed to admit it, but eventually he tells me the truth. In addition to his HIV he had the deadly combination of HIV and TB. TB is the new south Africa killer. A weakened immune system from the HIV, ones body just can't fight the TB. He's on no meds. I make some calls. Make an appointment for him at the clinic to see a counselor and help him get on the right meds. I tell him this is no joke and he says he knows its what killed his daddy.  To make matters worse he is addict to buttons. A local sedative-hypnotic drug that is smoked.  He does it daily. Often using food money to buy drugs. He wants to stop. I tell him he needs to stop. His body needs strength. Some sort of food, not narcotics.

He's 18, HIV+, TB, and a drug addict. Already been in prison for breaking into houses. This boy needs Jesus and he needs a miracle.

We prayed together. Asking God to touch and heal his body. I offered a ride to the clinic but he wanted to walk. Told him I would swing by tomorrow to see what happens.

Even with the best medical condition I would worry about this kid. Here in these conditions, its mission impossible, but God.......

Thanks for praying friends.

Mountain View

Mountain View is one of the informal settlements of Ocean View. There are only two informal settlements, the rasta camp and mountain view. To be "informal" means you either don't have indoor plumbing or electricity. The rasta's have neither, they have chosen to go into the hills and build houses and live in community with one another. The people of mountain view live in old strip style buildings that were once part of the navy I believe. They have electricity, but no indoor plumbing. The yellow building,in the photo, is the bathroom facility as well as where they get their water. Most houses are either 2 rooms or four. There are also, what is known, as back yard dwellers who have built Wendy houses (small wooden sheds).

Currently, they are building new government houses next to mountain view. I think around 300  homes in total. This is a one of a kind project in that the builders are using almost all local workers for the labor. There are skilled supervisors, but the workers are mostly untrained locals.  Working in this environment has raised some unique problems on the job site. Prostitution, drug use, etc are some things they are learning to deal with. However, instead of scratching the project and just getting skilled labor, they are asking local NGO's (nonprofits) for help to deal with these issues. Every morning now starts out with a devotion and we have free reign to come onto the job site and chat with the workers. They have also set a place where workers can have counseling as well as a  hired community liaison to assist with social issues.  Another cool aspect of the job is that there were mountains of rock and sand created when they first leveled and cleared the site. Teams are now literally digging through these mountains to recycle these resources. Sand for the mortar, small rocks for fill, and bigger rocks for the front of the buildings (see photo).

Please join us in praying for the people of mountain view.  Tic (a cheap form of crystal meth) use is rampant. Last week we were told of 4 different cases of children raping children. Pray for chains to be broken and strongholds to be torn down. Also pray for this job project, as it will help empower the local people. Rumor has it, it will take 3 years too complete and workers will get trade certificates that will help them to find work long after the project is finished.

Part 1, The Call

Its been far to long since I have written, and for that I am sorry.  I have quite a bit to say and the longer I go between blogs the more difficult it becomes to sit down and write one.  So, in an attempt to dig myself out of a hole I have to decided to break this up into some smaller pieces.  Firstly, it makes it easier for me to tackle the task of bringing you up to date and secondly it does so in smaller pieces which gives me hope that you will stay with me thru to the end.  So, here goes part 1.

The Call

Our 3 year Visas were up this September.  Hard to believe its been that long, but yes we have now been here over 3 years.  Early this year we lost some of our funding as you may remember.  We were not sure how we were going to stay, but we did not feel called to leave at that time and wanted to at least finish out our 3 year commitment.  God came through and made up the difference of what we had lost, enabling us to stay at least until our visas were up or thru the end of the year. 

As we began thinking thru what the next phase for us was praying that God would reconfirm the call to stay or clearly call us back home.  For me a big piece of the puzzle was knowing exactly what we were supposed to be doing and who we would need to partner with to do that. 

I called a friend of mine that I had met on several other occasions when I was researching Ocean View and the need for a safe house.  His name was Johann.  They have a house in Ocean View called the yellow house.  It's called that mainly because the house is yellow.  It sits in one of the worst parts of Ocean View.  It's a ministry of a group called All Nations.  I will speak more about them in another update, but for now just note the name.  The main focus of the yellow house is abused women and children.  I told Johann I had some time available and a heart for Ocean View and he encouraged me to just come and spend a week with them. 

Every morning starts with prayer at the yellow house for an hour.  Then from there everyone goes many different directions into the neighborhood.  When there are no other meetings, we will often just prayer walk around Ocean View.  The team is involved in all three of the schools.  2 primary schools and 1 High School.  There is one branch of the team that just works with babies and pregnant mothers.  Others work with drug addicts, gang bangers, prostitutes, etc.  At the heart of everything that they do is justice for the oppressed and safety for anyone being abused.  You can probably imagine that with a mission like that there is plenty of work to do.  After a week, I knew I was home.  I love being in the community.  I love walking the streets.  I love looking for and helping abused women and children.  I love praying for this township with other like minded people.  We are all volunteers from all parts of the world.  Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, America, Columbia and others.  The team is about 12 members strong, but grows occasionally with teams and short term volunteers.  There are no job contracts or employment papers to sign, just commitments of the heart.  So we committed our hearts to this group; All Nations and the Yellow House.  Committed to the least, last, and lost of Ocean View. 

So with clarity and confirmation of the call, we made our decision to the pursue the process of renewing our visas to stay and continue the work here in South Africa. 

part 2 coming soon.
blessings,
Shelby

Prayer Points
ministry

     Biggest need at the moment are safe houses.  There are too few in Ocean View and often we have no where to house abused women and children on a temporary or long term basis.

     Huge gang problem right now in Ocean View.  They are not hard core like in the states, but nonetheless for here the shootings and crime have escalated quite a bit.  It's affecting students as young as grade 8 in the high school and maybe even younger.

     Drug problem.  Tic, is the local drug of choice.  Its a dirt cheap form of crystal meth and it is completely destroying lives here in Ocean View.

     Drop Outs.  The high school suffers from a very high drop out / expulsion rate.  The statistics for kids who don't finish high school offer very little hope for them.  We need something to help keep the kids in school and something for the ones who have dropped out and been out too long to go back. 

personal
     Finances, continued monthly people to partner with us
    
     Second Car for us

     continued health and safety