God is so faithful! There were times during those 6 months at home where I really didn’t think I would be here in South Africa right now. I had hard time trusting that it would come at the right time. I had decided, in my pride, when and how I would get here. Obviously God knew and knows best, and in perspective he was actually faithful to allow me more time with family and friends. Through his grace I got to see one particular friendship be healed through the months I was home. I got to know people more like the amazing Beth and Jake and their children, and loads more from our family of churches. Not only this, but God deposited in me a foundation of faith to trust in his character. Coming from DTS is difficult, not because God isn’t in the things at home (which is what the enemy likes to convince people of by the way) but because it looks different and we are different afterwards, so the things that we thought we had grapsed during DTs actually need to be RElerned in this new context of home: adjusting to our new found freedom in Christ and learning who we are again. It’s confusing sometimes and painful but it is actually a deepening of the revelation we receive on DTS, because it pushes us to full dependence on God. My faith is greater now than it was on DTS.

When I first arrived into Cape Town it was off the plane and straight in to Masiphumelele.
The Aho’s, the family I’m now living with, were staying in the house our Community are renting in Masi. The house is owned by a man called Small, the biggest former drug Lord in Masi. I remember being told about this house on outreach and hearing stories about Small. While I was at home the opportunity came up for the team to start renting this house and after praying they felt released to take it, and now we can see why as the Lord has completely redeemed this house. It goes to show that Jesus can take the worst and completely restore it for good, and it is especially amazing to recognise that this house, that is symbolic of one of the biggest strongholds in Masi, is now a place where people come just to hear about Jesus, for healing and prayer, for food or just to be safe. Often as a Christian we feel like we must not even be a part of anything “in the world” out of fear that we will be encouraging the bad, but we forget that Jesus is in the business of restoration and as long as we remain in him, and abide by his spirit, we have nothing to fear.

Everyone in the township knows about Smalls place and when we tell people we live there, they almost can’t believe it. There has never been a white family to live in Masi and as a friend from the Muizenberg base reminded us the other day we are in fact making history, not only for living there but for being welcomed and accepted.

Coming 6 months into ministry that has already formed has been difficult, as the main focus is on a lifestyle of discipleship. Everyone has one or two people that they are personally spending time with and have a schedule of other things they have already committed to. I’ve wanted to get stuck in, but developing friendships and building trust takes time.

God is teaching me a lot about not separating ministry from my “personal life”. Outreach produced this stigma about how when I’m in Masi I should be “working” and “doing” ministry. Then when I’m at home I can detach myself and leave responsiblity at the door. What would happen is that I would base loving these people on how much I was doing and exhaust myself with doing and worrying if I’m doing enough and so that’s why when I would go home every night it was almost like turning off the Holy Spirit because it just felt like work. Living in Masi has broken the stigma, there was no escaping, as people would come into the house all day, every day. It gave me revelation about just how normal they are, just that they are a person just like me, that I want to be friends with them just as Katherine is my friend, I never want to see them as an aquaintance or a project! Without living there it was hard to fully recognise this for two reasons. The first being that the township and all the other towns outside of it are two separate worlds in almost every respect, physically, financially, spiritually, racially, culturally. It’s hard adjusting to each place as we go in and out. It also restricts time, meeting up with people can become too formulaic or forced.
The Lord is really pushing those boundaries and challenging me to “do” less for the sake of doing and love more in intentional action. So what this looks like is coming before the Lord each day in prayer and asking very specifically what he wants me to do, to ask the Holy Spirit whether I should even do things that I would naturally label as “achievement”, because what is achievement or perfection when we have the grace of God and the calling just for simple obedience!

Happy Christmas Everyone, we’re having our quiet family Christmas day today instead, as this years Community Transformation DTs team are arriving tomorrow and we are having a Braai (BBQ) with them! Miss you all.

PS: Hot and American Christmas’ are fun but definitely different to good old Cornish ones!

…with South Africa.
It’s exciting when you realise that the things you’ve wanted to do since you can’t remember when, are actually desires that God has placed in you for a greater plan, and all you have to do is follow him and he will be faithful to fulfill those desires!

So now I’m in love with South Africa but more specifically Cape Town and even more specifically Masiphumelele! There is no place like it. Walking the sandy streets of Masi you find on every corner a little convenience store which is a shack with a Coca cola logo above, and nine times out of ten the shop owner is Somalian or Ethiopian. Everyone is sitting outside, sheltered from the hot sun under the shade of their houses which are mostly shacks and government built houses (if they are fortunate). It’s guranteed to hear someone shout both Molweni, which in Xhosa means “Hello” to a group of people, and Umlungu (Maloongoo) which means white person: every few minutes. There are home made signs everywhere, restaurants in ramshackle caravans, raw meat selling every part of an animal on street stalls. No where else would you find “Scam and print” on a shop sign along with offering passport photos, photocopying and C.V printing… No where else would a van selling bread and airtime (phone credit) cruize the streets playing house music and announcing things over giant inbuilt speakers!
Everything is so unique and I love it.

We have so many friends in Masi now that it just feels like home. Something that has been very apparent to us is the culture of family and community. Children as young as 3 or 4 wander the streets safely being watched over by everyone: not just their mothers. Even though white people are a rare sight in the township: only normally seen on a tour bus taking pictures from behind the double glazed windows, there is almost always a warm welcome for us, despite the reminder of the pain of Apartheid, which is an amazing testimony of forgiveness amongst the people of Masi.

We met a 20 year old lady here who besides living in a shack no bigger than some people’s bathroom with 4 month old twins and a 3 year old and barely affording to live herself, takes a huge part of her week collecting the food that has past its sell-by-date from the local supermarket cooks up meals on her little camping stove and feeds the families she knows who have gone without much food that week!

On one Friday afternoon a few people on my team were collecting pieces of glass for an art project they were doing with some ladies in the wetlands, when a man stopped and asked them what they were doing and on telling him he replied that he knew of where he could get lots and that he would bring it to them. They also got to pray with him about finding a job. Over the weekend Isaac was reading the local paper and came across an article about a 7yr old girl who had died when a wall collapsed on her family’s shack. Isaac felt led to find where this had happened in the hope of being able to pray with the grieving family. When he found them they realised the girls father was the same man who had stopped and asked them if they needed help. He instantly recognised Isaac and apologized that he didn’t get chance to find the glass for them!

We quickly realised that the Lord had things to teach us through these people too and not just the other way around. These true examples of living out the gospel were so impacting that it really challenged us in the way we think of ministry and in the ways that we think that a community can be transformed. We began asking ourselves what living as part of the kingdom of god means and should look like in the day-to-day. One of the biggest things we struggled with was thinking that we could change things in our strength and straight away. Pride was quickly replaced by humility when we ran out of energy or when we didn’t get a response we hoped for. So we know now that it is key to be part of the community and live and work alongside as brothers and sisters.
So in light of this, most of our ministry has been through natural friendships. In our asking what the kingdom of God is and what it looks like in the every day movements, we have had lots of opportunities for praying together with them, sharing stories, reading the bible, listening to them, playing with their children and washing their clothes with them. I think that this is the beginning of what it is to live as Kingdom people. We just want to know them, be in community with them, share life with them, celebrate with them, cry with them, mourn with them, love their children together, seek to know God more! We don’t know how but we trust in the Lord that he will bring back hope to these people, he will restore brokenness, bring reconciliation to where there has been hatred between cultures and race, justice to where there is inequality, healing to those in pain! I know this may sound too good to be true in the difficult world we live in today but these are his promises to us through Christ! We just need to have faith in a loving father and be obedient in the small things he asks of us.

In the next few weeks I will be going back out to Cape Town and joining others who are committed to Masiphumelele for a year minimum, please pray with us that we will be humbled and have open minds to learn and earnest hearts to love and generous hands to give.

I’ve been finding it really difficult to describe what’s been happening here in Kona, just because of the shear quantity and intense nature of each and every week! Now I know why people on DTS say that they don’t have time… because they really don’t!

Last week was the 50th Celebration of YWAM! Roughly 1000 YWAMers from across the globe are joining the community here to recognise 50 years of God’s faithfulness, and to send people out for the next 50 years to come!

Reflection, Forethought & Preparation!

The previous week got me excited for not only the nearing of my Cape Town adventure, but for my life adventure and what being home next April will look like. I’ve begun making plans already for the things I want to get involved in, in our little community. Community, I’ve come to realise is so vital to the church! Why else did Jesus have 12 disciples instead of just one?! Why did God create Eve to be a companion of Adam? Because he wants us to share with each other, and support each other: completing the fellowship between Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit and us, his sons and daughters. I have a heart for seeing denominations in the church grow more in unity. I strongly believe that it is not God’s plan for his family to be divided! In fact he commanded us to live in unity, not only within the church but with the physical community in our local towns!

I grew up in a Roman Catholic church and when I was 16 I started attending an Evangelical church. Of course I noticed differences, but fundamentally my beliefs have not changed, if anything, being part of both denominations has cleared any doubt in my mind that any one whole group of people has everything perfect. When will people wake up and realise that there is a desperate world out there, that we have a responsibility for, there is no time for bickering amongst ourselves! When you think about forgiveness, true forgiveness, it was never meant as a temporary fix for when we fall out with each other, it means to not count the offenses others have done you, and to love them in return 70x70times (every single time). So why don’t we forgive each other for the next 70 times our brother will offend us and move forward together to further God’s Kingdom!

PS: I’m missing all you English people! x

Aloha! Well I’m finally here, after months of talking about it and 31 hours of travelling I am in Hawaii. Thankyou all who supported and encouraged me, especially in the last week when I was beginning to get cold feet. (Just so you know - I didn’t get cold feet, I am genuinely in Kona, I’m not secretly still in Egham pretending to be.)

It’s really surreal being here, you think that somehow you’ll feel different when you visit places you’ve only seen pictures of. Is that just me? Strange.
Actually landing on the Island you think you’re about to land on another planet all you can see is a black landscape. In other parts of the island and around the YWAM base the volcanic rock contrasted against the palm trees and the brightly coloured plants and fruit trees is strikingly beautiful! Talking of beauty, last week in class we talked about how things we see around us reflect God’s character. Just like a carpenter marks his handiwork, God has marked a sunset, or the view over Bodmin Moor with his beauty! Not just in landscapes but in animals, food, music, art and most of all in each one of us! Something that also stood out to me was that God created both men and women because he is a relational God, I had never really thought about it in that way before!

I’ve only managed to explore the town so far, which is a 5 minute walk away. There are plenty of coffee shops, ice cream places and best of all a frozen yoghurt! Yum yum! There is also a big warehouse full of muffins and cookies and other delights called Cosco. One of my Australian-Korean friends and I were in town last week on Community Outreach. (This is basically where we go and meet people, get to know them, buy them some ice-cream or some coffee for example, listen to their stories and offer to pray for them.) We met this couple on holiday and they ended up inviting us out to Cosco for lunch- how lovely is that! On other nights a person with a broken ankle and another with a damaged back have seen complete healing through prayer!

A typical day here includes being up at 6am for breakfast, anyone who knows me well - that just doesn’t happen for me, but I’ve found it surprisingly enjoyable and easy (I think the jet lag helped). This morning team South Africa had breakfast together. We ate homemade banana pancakes, syrup, peanut butter, papaya, fruit juice and hot chocolate. t’s mainly a small group time so that we can really learn to be a community of people when we get to South Africa, because that’s what God work through most.

So yes, I forgot to mention I am officially going to Cape Town, South Africa! So exciting! Our group has to book our flights on Monday. I currently need 400 pounds more for my flight by Monday. I then need another 1000 by next friday for the first part of my outreach fees, if we don’t have it we have to fly home. Then on top of the 1400 pounds, I need 2,600 pounds for the entire outreach!

I already love the people going to Cape Town. They are just willing to do whatever it takes to love the people of Masiphumele. During our time there, some of us will be working in the Baby Safe, which is a place desperate mothers can take their babies to be looked after by us, instead of on the rubbish tip to die. This was common before the Baby Safe was set up.
Some of us will be working in the aids clinics, some teaching children, some helping local businessmen. Our biggest aim is just to care and support the community: loving them as Jesus did. This is just the beginning of a long term vision to bring complete restoration to Cape Town, in Him we can do all things!

This post is to share with you my plans for this September coming.
As some of you already know I’ve committed to going on what’s called a DTS, which stands for Discipleship Training School. The organisation running these is Youth With A Mission (YWAM) which is an international Christian movement with the purpose of bringing the Love of Christ to people from all walks of life.

YWAM have Schools all over the World, I have chosen the Hawaii base because I have seen friends go there in previous years and receive the most amazing teaching. Not that I’m expecting to have much time to enjoy the sun and the beach as the classes take up 40+ intense hours per week, but it’s certainly a plus. However the main reason for choosing Hawaii is that I believe God is drawing me there, and I’m excited to find out what is in store!

These events have led me up to this point.
This last year has been tough: countless times I had felt completely alone, worthless, as if nobody cared. I was basically depressed and completely withdrew myself from friends. I was struggling to be motivated at work and began to feel paranoid about what people thought of me. I felt like God had abandoned me.

I couldn’t have been more wrong…

…In June something literally just changed in me. I felt the insecurities go and what filled me was the realisation of God’s love, His Desire for me!(Song of Songs) I cried so much that week but I knew it was good crying because it was a letting go and allowing healing to take place in my heart.

People to witness this were Jeff and Bethany Reid who lead the DTS I will be part of in Kona, Hawaii called Community Transformations. The recent transformation in my own personal life has stirred me to want be a part of the Lord transforming the lives of others through His love.

The 6 month course is split into two: the first 3 months as I’ve said will take place in Hawaii but then a further 3 months on outreach. The location I’m considering most (although it could change) is a township in Cape Town, South Africa called Masiphumelele. The community here is poverty stricken, education is limited, women are raped, and it is thought that 30-40% of the population are infected with AIDS and/or TB. Community transformations directly addresses these issues and aims to serve the people to meet their practical needs as well as letting God minister into their lives, bringing hope back into the community there.   

It’s a completely non-profit organisation so this summer I’m raising the funds to pay for flights, board and food. I need in the region of £4000, this will go towards the outreach as I almost have enough for the first 3 months.
I would greatly appreciate prayer from anyone reading this for the money-need to be met.

If anyone wants to donate, it really doesn’t have to be much every little will help, even £5. There will be a Paypal link below soon, which is identity and information protected - when I work out how to!

I’m going to try and keep this updated regularly to let people know what’s happening! 

Thankyou for taking the time to read this, it means a lot, especially if I don’t know you!

Much Love, 
Naomi