Spiritual Chess

Good morning!  I woke up a little early this morning and I thought I would try to get caught up just a little bit more.  Typing on the Team House laptop is much faster and I'm a little more accurate.

Wednesday of this week was another wonderful day.  We had the opportunity to work at the Living Grace homeless and rehabilitation center.  Here they assist the homeless as well as recovering addicts.  We joined a group of about 25 people at their morning devotion.  The morning kicked off with singing which was very moving.  This group was primarily men and most of them were singing straight from their hearts.  My teammate Crisann described it as feeling more like a church service that a recovery meeting.  She hit it spot on.  Then  Pastor Ray gave a high-energy devotion from 1 Samuel 30.   Scripture we have recently studied at Tuesday morning Bible Study.  It talks about David's men turning on him and wanting to stone him.  However, David strengthened himself in the Lord and inquired of the Lord as to whether he and his army should retaliate against the Amalekites and recover their wives and children.  The Lord said yes.  In this same chapter David grants mercy to an Egyptian slave showing that even when we ourselves are in tough circumstances we can show kindness and mercy to others.  David goes on to win the battle against his enemy and shares the wealth won in war amongst all his men, even those who were too exhausted to fight.  All great faith lessons.

After morning devotion we served the clients tea rolls then they were off to small group discussions.  Crisann and I assisted in the clothing bank sorting clothes.  Some of the clothes were stained and tattered but deemed okay to give out.  It was hard not to want to throw a large number of the clothes away...we did throw a few items  away that were just awful and certainly would not give any diginity to the person who wore them.  This is from my perspective, but maybe if I had absolutely nothing I would be grateful for anything.  Many of the children we have seen daily at Kid's Club have worn the same ill-fitting clothes each day.  People here cannot be choosey.  After working in the clothing bank I came downstairs to find clients playing chess.  I immeditely thought, ah, here is an avenue for me to strike up conversation.  A board came open so I invited a young woman to play.  She didn't know how to play, but I told her I would teach her.  When another gentleman showed interest in playing she said she would learn better from watching.  So new game began.  This young man knew the basics, but he was a novice.  From the first move he was on the defensive.  As we played Pastor Ray came over and with his charismic way he made lessons out of different moves.  Trying to get the young man to look ahead and be strategic.  Figure out why I made the move I did; take chances.  This opened up an opportunity for me to throw some lessons out there about protecting your move and not rushing into a decision.  I am only an okay chess player, but I think the Lord helped me in relating to the other player and helping him understand different strategies.  I have to admit as a somewhat competitive person it was hard when Pastor Ray exposed some of my moves or vulnerabilities.  However, I realized I needed to humble myself and let God teach the lesson that needed to be taught at that moment - very hard to do sometimes.  This 'spiritual' chess game was amazing.  I learned from it as well.  Thank you, Lord!  I know you are wondering...who won the game?  Well, it ended before a winner was declared because the clients had to go to another class. However, I think in this moment God intended for both of us to be winners and we were!  Beautiful.

While I was sorting clothes and playing chess, other team members were sorting through donated food and helping put it away.  Some of this food, much like the clothes, was somewhat questionable.  Anything that was too far gone was collected to be given to pigs.  As I write that, it makes me sad to think that whoever donated this food didn't take the time to remove items that weren't fit for human consumption.  Once the food was stored, our team was put to work prepping veggies for a large stew on the lunch menu.  The Living Grace staff was at work in the kitchen cooking the meat and getting some vegetables underway.  Oh my gosh it smelled good!  This was a meal truly being made out of love.

Unfortunately, we had to leave before lunch was served.  We took our sack lunches and ate at Muizenburg beach.  We came to find that the beach was closed to swimming due to a shark siting.  Our awesome guide, Jeremy, thought it would be a great time to head up the hill to the point where the shark spotters watch over the beach.  Once there we could see the entire beach...it was remarkable.  I spotted a seal swimming down below and shortly after the spotter saw a shark...a great white shark!  With Jeremy's polarized glasses I could see the dark figure swimming through the water.  So cool.  South Africa is the shark capital of the world and this beach is the beach most active with sharks.  The next morning when Jeremy picked us up he said the news reported 14 sharks spotted near Muizenburg beach later that afternoon.  Oh wouldn't that have been cool to see!!!!!

I didn't want to leave the shark watching post, but we needed to get to Kid's Club.  On the way we stopped by a Masi barbeque to buy a treat for Desmond, Theo, Noxie, Cydie and Ntdazzo (sp?) the life skill educators who run Kid's Club.  The staple food in Masi is pop - a grit like food.  Meat is indeed a treat. On our way back to the Masi Baptist Church I saw a man who looked like Pastor Nevson walking along the street.  It was him.  We had worked with Pastor Nevson in 2011.  He is still in Masi and his wife Akona is expecting her third child.  He seems to be doing well and is reinvigorated in the church.  It was great to see him again. Our time with the kiddos went quickly, but it is just so fun much to love on them and sing with them.  At Teen Club it was my turn to share my testimony.  I don't want to write all that here, but I basically shared with them that my faith in Jesus and God guided me away from behaviors and actions that could have drastically impacted my life.  I encouraged them to cling to their faith and be strong in their convictions.  It really is harder to try to live righteously.  However, in the long run it may be harder to deal with the consequences of various actions.  Crisann aslo gave her testimony which is a testimony filled with an awful loss and much heartache.  It was very powerful and focused on forgiveness and walking (or crawling) through difficult situations trusting that God has us in His hands and will use our pain for our growth and good.  Crisann has amazing faith.

P.S.  Jacki and Donna got to see their first smiley today...a barbecued sheep head!