another life, another blog.

throughout our years at Laurier, myself and a good buddy named Jeremy Enns have started a blog about life, and how were living it. its a good time, and its called Live it.

Concluded.

well, this post has one obvious purpose. our DTS is now over, were both now home and readjusted. and both leaving for school in less than one week.

i can remember exactly the time when we spontaneously decided to start a blog. I wasn't sure how it would work out, but as it went, i really started to enjoy it. i loved sharing what we were getting up to, and what we were learning. the serious stuff, and the jokes.

its cool to have this as a great memory of our experiences. thanks to you how have been following it. that was our trip.

THE END.

REadjusting

its been a while now since we've been home, about three weeks actually. and it was nice to come home to all the great things we remember. friends, family, favourite meals... But i must admit it was a little bit weird to fall back into the same ol same ol, after 6 months of new and challenging experiences. straight away i got my old job back, and was able to work almost everyday. raf went off to mexico and is back now, and we have been hanging with our friends a lot. sorta just picked up where we left off, in a good way of course. however, i would be lying if i neglected to say we are better off from our trip. some of the things we have seen, and experiences we've had were once in a lifetime. and experiences are something special. no matter what happens, no one can take your experiences away from you. we learned to rely on God a lot in australia, and even more in africa. and that's been something thats important to continue to work at. dedication to reading our bibles and devotionals. all in all. were back, from one amazing experience, and getting adjusted back into our lives at home, and were both better for it.

Home Sweet Home ...almost.

yesterday was literally the longest day of our lives. at 7 am, August 5^th – Australia time, we woke up, stuffed the last of our bags and loaded up the van for the last time and were off to the airport. We got there a few hours early; because that’s the only time we could get a ride, but no worries. Hard to be frustrated with a few hours of waiting when you are offered a free ride to the airport. Checked the bags easily, and made it through customs and security just the same. First destination Sydney. Ok, no problem, its only an hour. Second flight, Sydney to LA. 16 hours, but hey, compared to some of our African journeys, that’s nothing. PLUS. On a 16 hour flight, we travelled back in time 17 hours. And i still find it hard to dislike time travel. Great, done, now. LA to Washington. 6 hours. Piece of cake compared to the last one. Now for the easiest of all: One measly hour to buffalo our final destination. CANCELLED!?!

This can’t be serious. After 30 something hours of travel, we get stuffed on the last hour. Hard to believe, but it was for real, just as real as the 2 hour line to find another flight; ANY other flight. and the other 1 and half or so, hours in our baggage claim line, because as you can imagine, the baggage was just as stuffed as our flights. With time to kill, and a system of alternating between waiting in line and using the internet, we kept the morals high, and enjoyed, best we can, the prospect of spending a night in DC.

Our mission of taking a picture with the Washington Monument was basically, instantly squashed by the 130 us dollar cab fare to get there and back, so we did our best to use what we had. One thing weve learned from our experience living in airports is rule number 1. Explore. At 2 am, once our bags, were sorted. (they’re going to buffalo, and us Toronto, but at least they are sorted.) we took off exploring. A massive airport, very few people. this is where rule two comes into play: cross boundaries. Some times this means hoping a fence to get a spectacular look at the Victoria falls, and sometime it means ventureing off path to find a hidden oasis in the Australian rain forest. This time however, it meant walking past a do not enter sign, and using the maintenance elevator to find us a loft all to ourselves.

These times of shenanigans do help to time go less painfully but still, we found ourselves, so close to home, but still so far. The next day, brought with it a bunch more hassle, but a whole lotta good.

Today was the day, were going home! ...hopefully. so at noon we boarded a flight to Ottawa, slight detour, but hey, we made it to Canada. We spent less than 15 minutes in the Ottawa airport, as we ran through customs, and onto our final Air Canada flight. man, let me tell you, it was so great to hear some true Canadian accents again. People always, say you can’t hear your own accent, which is true, but after 6 months away. The enunciated O’s and overwhelming politeness made me feel truely home. Well. That and the 2 massive Timmies as were leaving the terminal. And the long list of “first thing’s” I wanted to do was kicked off with the immediate stop at Tim Horton’s. We met our parents here, took some time over coffee, and began with the stories. The stories that pretty much continued all the way home.

And home is where we made it. Finally, after days. Home was sweet.

Sydney: Take Two.

Today was the last day of our travels and we’ve been staying at our friend Andrew Howell’s house since Saturday. He’s doing the Hillsong College so he took us to the service on Sunday night, and today, he has a day off so we took a day trip into the city. It was Anna, Raf, Andrew, his friend Seth and Myself. First things first, we got into the city, and the hunt began for parking. We finally scored a ‘reasonable’ parking complex...35 bones later we were good for the day. At least this spot was in Darling Harbour, which

meant we could eat a buffet lunch in china town at 1pm, and be at the opera house by 2pm. We did the classics: Walked the bridge, hit the shops, the market, and the mall. Walking the city, Raf and I also got a chance to play two of our favourite people watching games: ‘Girlfriend, or Daughter?’ is rather self explanatory one, and a sure favourite. Sydney is always a top venue. The next game was a good round of ‘Real or Fake?’ This is pretty self explained as well, and day featured highlight real or fake split decisions on moustaches, toupees and personalities. Now, all these fun and games had to be done before dinner, because you see, this dinner has been planned since the day we got to Australia. Everyone pretty much told us the one thing you have to do in this city is: see the opera house AND... Eat Pancakes at ‘Pancakes on the Rocks’. So at around 7, we put Pancakes on the rocks into Andrew’s Iphone and found the nearest of the two locations. The trek began, and as we weighed our options to either bring the car, and pay again for parking, or walk to this place and take the long, more economical option. Obviously, we opted to walk, and what a walk it was. Figures it starts to rain, but that only made reaching the destination more appealing. Anticipation building with every water logged step, and after 30 minutes finally seeing the large pancake house sign approaching brought such a feeling of satisfaction. Only to be snatched away as fast as we could read the sign on the locked door that explained they were closed for emergency repairs. The kindly however directed us to their other Sydney location. Another 45 minutes in the opposite direction. At this point, it was starting to feel like Harold and Kumor’s Whitecastle adventure. We thought about settling for the foodcourt next door, but like Roldy and Kumor we had to make it to those Pancakes that we set out for, nothing else would do. And with that, it was decided. We raced back to his car, paid the 30 bucks, and, again with the guidance of the I Phone, drove to the alternate location. Traffic was a nightmare, the rain stopped, but started again, Andrew’s turn signals stopped working, but we made it there, alive and starving. We ordered some of the most appealing pancakes you’ve ever seen. AND THEY WERE DELICIOUS. It was the best most satisfying dinner i’ve had in ages. I ate 2 massive chocolate pancakes covered in ice cream and chocolate syrup, and I called it my dinner. Finally, With our checklist complete, Andrew drove us to the airport, where we plan to spend the night. And this is where im writing you from. Our camp in the corner of the departures terminal, surrounded by our bags and carts, were going to sleep here until our morning flight.

A mattress would be nice,

Oh well.

Cheers.

Hillsong.

Today, Raf and I went to Hillsong's Main Church, Hills Campus. Seated 4 thousand people. the rest was too sick for words.

Meet the Roberts.

Yesterday we flew into sydney, and Anna, Raf and I and came home with Matty. and at about 8 in the morning, Steve, Matty's Dad, drove from Wollongong and picked us up. yesterday was Steve's 50th Birthday. He's the minister of his church and a real rad dude. Trish, matt's mom had a beautiful supper prepared for matty's return and steve's birthday. And best part, there was more than enough food for us to reap the benefits. after that extraordinary home cooked meal with the family, we watched 3 Man vs. Wild episodes that they have on Dvd. and just when i thought it couldn't get any better, Trish served us some peach cobbler. it even got to a point that i feel this must be said: Matty's moms is, dare i say, As hospitable as even Raf's, or my mom. though we once thought coming across a person like this would be impossible, Trish continued to have us set as they provided beds for us, offers us pillows and blankets, and wakes us up the next morning to a bacon and egg breakfast. beautiful start to a beautiful day, we met Dan, Matty's brother that morning and we drove him to his job at the mall. he makes milkshakes at an ice cream stand. we had 4 hours to kill before we had to drive Dan home from work, so we chilled at the mall, Dan hooked us up with the milkshakes and ice cream samples. then we took a drive to both of the beaches matty's surfs at. And finally we visited the YWAM base in Wollongong, and met the people there. by the time our adventures were done, and we had picked up some thank you gifts for steve and Trish, Dan's shift was over and we went home. Got back with enough time to watch a few more Man vs. Wild episodes before - India Night. India Night was a fundraiser at their families church, they served an authentic Indian dinner, we ate on the floor and a good number were dressed in the traditional clothing. it was quite legit. and the purpose was legit as well. they were funding a missions trip to plant churches in India. Having just spent 6 months in mission, it was cool to support, and, obviously, the food was top notch too. The time spent at the Roberts was great. and having said our goodbyes to Matty at the train station, were ready for some more good times, but doubtful to find anywhere as nice as that one.

The Cheapest Flights in Australia.

Current time: 4: 27 am. Current location: sitting on the curb, outside of the warehouse they’re calling a legitimate air port terminal. Matty, Raf, Anna and myself opted to fly Tiger Airways, and if you lived in aussie you would know tiger airlines by their ads boasting dirt cheap rates. Soon as we rocked up to the place, we knew why. Its literally is one warehouse, one terminal, and one check in counter. And everybody else walking in the door, looks the same as us. Young, poor, and equally sketched out.

Current time: 4: 55 am. Current location: sitting in the departure cave, on plastic seats waiting for our 6:50 flight. We just got through the security check in and weight in, and raf and i successfully pulled off the 'hide our laptops in pillow case' manoeuvre, and made it under the 7 kilo weight limit. For our trip were not checking any bags, just carry on. It’s a nice way to travel, and especially since I barely trust this airline with my own safety, I really don’t think they could handle the responsibility of a bag that can’t look after itself.

Current time: 6:55 am. Current Location: In seat 17E beside Raf and Anna. Our plane has been delayed due to fog in Sydney, so were waiting in the plane. thoroughly enjoying the 3.5 inches of room between my seat and the seat in from of me. As of yet, the wings and aircraft are still in one piece.

Current time: 8:12 am. Current Location: outside of the luggage claim, waiting for Anna to get out of the bathroom... typical. As well were waiting for Steve, Matty’s dad to come pick us up. It’s steve’s 50^th birthday today and he’s driving us back to Wollongong to stay at matty’s place for a few days before we come back to Sydney. So we made it, exhausted because we haven’t slept yet, but appreciating the experience of cheapest flight in Australia. And, I guess now I know what to expect when i play 52 dollars for a round trip ticket to Sydney and back.

Papa Romeo Alpha November Kilo

Julius Caesar once probably didn't say

"retaliation is the key to fame and victory"

and after being struck down again and again, by the genius of the rice attack, we had no other choice but to pick ourselves up, and strike back. and what exactly does retaliation look like? ...alot like 1200 cups, jello powder, an industrial sized roll of glad-wrap, a tent, and 3 cans of spray paint. use these correctly, you also can enjoy the sweet taste of victory. So since approximately 19 hundred hours yesterday, Operation - Papa Romeo Alpha November Kilo has been underway. and at last, it is complete. I want to let the pictures and video's do most of the talking but ill highlight the basic's of p.r.a.n.k op. first we pranked the guys room. click the link at the bottom for the virtual tour. we made a bed sandwich filled with all the guys clothes and sheets left in the room, and sealed it by glad-wrap to help maintain freshness.

we made a fake dude, put a sheet over him, and tied him to the bed with glad wrap. he's holding a sign that says "HELP? i also made the mistake of messing with the sports dts..."

in the girls room livingroom we set up a camp out. this was sam's rediculously random idea. but how could we possibly discourage him from doing it. then we put a sign on the tent: "sleep here tonight, bedroom temporarily out of order."

set out and filled up one thousand cups with water covering the entire bedroom floor. (theres more behind the bunkbed.)...

made some delightful welcome home banners and signs. (matty's favourite slogan, got a banner. 'mess with the best, die like the rest.')....

Then we printed out full sized pages of our creepiest, sternest faces and hung them up on their wall. ...so we could still be there for their reaction....

these are the ugly mugs that the girls get the pleasure of looking at untill they find a ladder to get them down.

Gave them a place to sit while their waiting for the showers...

[incriminating photo removed]

this is a video of Matty Roberts and his completely fictitious t.v. program called "Our House". at this point we were about halfway done the prank day, with many brilliant idea's yet to be thought of.

best part of all, when they return, well be long gone. still, we fully intend on seeing their reactions as Johnny and Sam are so willingly going to capture them on film for us.

cheers guys. thanks for the challenge. we thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Links worth watching:

boys dorm tour

girls dorm tour

World Cup Chronicles: The Final

A dream match for me. Spain, who I was backing in our team bet, and Netherlands, a team that we saw live in Durban. But who was going to win? Raf and I both picked Spain during the opening ceremonies, and it would be just utterly unacceptable to change our minds now. The next question was, where we were going to watch the match? Especially now, Our entire school was together again at Cedric’s house. We had to find the best possible venue. We decided on going back to the Joseph Project and watch the game with our Argentinean friends from the previous week. This was a great call. They set the projector up in the rec room and we easily fit the 50 people that were there to watch the game. Stacked with snacks and drinks, the game was an enjoyable one. Not much scoring but a lot of chances. Blowing my vuvuzela at every justifiable chance it was a good game to watch with friends. And, Spain won! All the Argentineans were now supporting Spain, and Collins was supporting Holland, so all in all, amazing result. The end of the night brought the end of the world cup. And looking back it wasn’t watching the – i’d estimate, 30 games of soccer in 2 weeks. It was the atmosphere of South Africa, and an experience that I would recommend to anyone.

So basically what im trying to say is. See you in Brazil in 4 years.

World Cup Chronicles: All the Reds

This day, being one of the best days of my life, is very easy to recall upon. I remember the morning when we got paint from Krista, i remember the fan park when we asked a cop to film our pre game enthusiasm. I remember the walk to the stadium along the beach, and I remember lovin it! Ill back up to explain why and how this all happened. While we were still in Zambia, Collins talked with Debbie-Ann our Durban contact. We ask if, it wasn’t too much trouble if she could get us tickets to a game. Hoping for the best, We feared the worst. You see Debbie-Ann was the most wonderful lady. But it didn’t appear as though she knew or cared much for soccer. So when she came through for us, and handed us the 7 tickets the day we arrived in Durban, it was a big deal. And when we read the tickets, i remember my jaw dropping as we read – Premier Box Tickets. Debbie-Ann didn’t even understand what she had done, and more just laughed at our reactions as we excitedly tried to explain to her what she had gotten us. You see as a local she was able to purchase tickets that we, as non-residents, could not. We really felt to give God the credit on this one, cause he’s the one that provided. Big Time.

So this brings us to game day. The past week was the week that we lived at the kingdom kids camp, and Krista was able to hook us up with some fabric paint, aka body paint. We got to the fan park about 2 hours before game time. And there, we painted. I was ambitious, but determined to cover as many square inches of my body in paint as possible. So, the first key to that, wear as little clothing as possible. We painted alot of Korean flags, made some more headbands, and we painted my favourite player – Park Ji Sung’s jersey on me. We made this video at the height of our excitement right before we started walking to the game.

Entering the stadium was another amazing thing. Josh and I had been the week before but for the rest of our entire team, it was their first time, and we were all there together.

Finding our seats. Another highpoint. We followed the signs until we were stopped by security asking to see our tickets. Wierd, that’s never happened before. Turns out beyond that point was only for premier ticket holders, so once they had handed us our yellow wrist bands, we walked straight in. Found a black door. With our ticket section, opened it and explored our box. This is what we saw. Free drinks. Free snacks. An indoor lounge to watch the game, and our first class, spacious seats, just outside. we took a picture with our bartender.

The stage for a great game was now set, all was no riding on the football. Nigeria scored first. Heartbreak. Josh cheering for them didn’t help the matters, but quickly after Korea evened it up. And then in the second half a goal by the man himself Park Ji Sung scored the go ahead goal. It was a nail biter. So many chances, great football and in the 80 somthing minute, Nigeria scored again. No it was intense. If Nigeria won, they advance, If Korea Drew or Won, they move on. Late 80 something^th minute Nigeria had another chance but missed the net. The game ended like that. 2 – 2. A great game with lots of good goals. The game was over, but the fun wasn’t. All the Korean fans were celebrating in the section where they unrolled the big flag. So of course, we went down there to celebrate. I took a few picture with them, still cheering and singing, and then, this Korean dude stopped me, looked me up and down, and then said, ‘woooooooowww.’ He took the shirt off his back, and handed it to me. I waved it in the air, not understanding what he wanted me to do, so he took it back, and put it around my neck. This guy literally gave me the shirt off his back. Then we joined in helping them carry out the massive flag. About 100 koreans, raf, Collins, josh and I carried this rolled up flag around and out of the stadium. Then we left, straight to bed cause it was late by the time we got back, and that day we got a bunch of new memories, and a new favourite shirt.

World Cup Chronicles: A Very Asian Day

With the day off, sleeping in would be nice, but i had no problem waking up at 7 to catch a van into town with josh today. And im about fully sure that it is because today, in Durban, was a World Cup finals Match. Netherlands versus Japan, and that’s where we were headed. So quick checklist and makesure we had everything we need for our first ever world cup game. Vuvuzela: check. Game preview magazine: check. too much money for stadium food: Check. White headband with a red dot like a kamikaze: Check. Match Tickets: ...nope. this is where our day gets fun. We rocked up to the stadium about 2 hours before game time and having already experienced trying, and failing getting tickets to a game. this time, we had a plan. We made a simple yet effective sign. “we need tickets” and also made sure that we were already shirtless with our kamikaze bands in hopes our gaining the favour of any Japanese supporter selling his tickets. Not even 15 minutes of looking we found a guy with two extra tickets. Great! Except, He was asking a fortune, close to 200 dollars... each! So with a knot in our stomachs at the potential of missing out we turned down the offer and walked away. 5 minutes later, a second go. A couple from America were given their friends tickets who couldn’t make it. These guys weren’t out here looking to make a profit, just needed to get rid so they could enjoy the game. We lucked out big time, paying them less then the ticket value and that was that. We were through the gate faster than they could change their mind and what’s cooler than walking towards the roaring Moses Mabhida stadium? Being stopped by a Japanese reporter from Kyodo news in Tokyo writing a article on Japan getting international support in this 2010 World Cup. He was curious basically why, two white boys were supporting Japan. And other than the fact that they were the underdogs, and we just wanted to wear the cool headbands we had to stretch to give him one. None the less, being recognized on international news is something that personally I am always

down with. Inside the stadium we were practically Japanese magnets to every group of Japanese fans who insisted on taking pictures with us, and as we watched the game, two Japanese fans in an entire section of Holland Orange, we cheered as loud and obnoxiously loud every time the advantage was in the Japanese favour. In the end, Netherlands won, and josh and I got to watch one of the strongest teams in the whole finals live. We found a taxi home, and met up with our friends. Told them all about the game and day, at a Chinese resturant, and then watched two Jackie chan movies to finish off our very asian day.

jagbyeol insa (Korean)

World Cup Chronicles: Let the Games Begin!

so as you may have heard we watched the opening games still in Zambia at our good friend Zig Zag's house. we had dinner with his family and we started a pool amongst our team. we each picked a team to back, and if your team wins the world cup, you win the 150 rand prize. Josh had England, Alli had Germany, Kristen Brazil, Collins Netherlands and raf and i picked Spain. The excitement was building. and as you can imagine flying into south africa the next day tipped the scale. Vuvuzela's blowing every few minutes and scores being updated over the loud speakers. The airport was flooded with soccer fans. we we even played a bit with some Italian fans.

But that came to a quick end when the ball was deflected, knocking down the smoke detector and bringing the airport roof tile crashing to the floor.

After a never before heard announcement on the plane about blowing vuvuzela's on an aircraft being a federal offense, i spent the remainder of the two hour flight reading about all that the 2010 south africa world cup has to offer. after a quick two hours on the plane, and a long 2 hours waiting for our pick up we spent our first day in Durban, and visited the two places we would eventually watch most of the games.

the first was Escombe Soccer Club, which is only a 5 minute walk from the base, it was basically a pub that had two big screens to watch the games, and on the weekend, they set up an outdoor screen which is even better. they club has a field with a beauty pitch. and halftimes and after the games we usually always find ourselves out there.

the second place was the fan fest. this was in the city on the beach front, they had massive screens, food tents and free stuff. it was a cool place that we visited a lot for different reasons during our time in Durban. Both places had opposite atmospheres, but fun great in the senses.

So- lets watch some soccer.

prank. wars.

we just heading off now to get spray paint, food colouring, jelly and cups. lots. of. cups.

why? because last week we returned from outreach to our old rooms at the base. unpacked everything. and had a great graduation night. we come home, into our rooms... disaster. toilet paper everywhere, hanging from the lights and bunks. caution tape is in the most strategically annoying locations and worst of all - rice. rice everywhere, rice on the floor, in our bunks, in our clothes, in our shoes, in our bags, on our pillows, everywhere you can imagine rice fitting, there was rice. best part of all, when you vacuum all the rice off the floor, more just falls out of your sheets, shoes or clothes and once again, your walking on rice. its like we had a wedding in our room. so after a few days of investigating. we've found out the culprits. the new DTS. so nice work on a good prank, but cam'on guys. you must not know who your messing with.

AND... yesterday they left for a week to go to outreach in Tasmania. ...Amateurs.

so this is all in good fun. and really, nothing makes living in community run smoothly like a few good pranks. and i would say this is an area that our DTS has excelled in. i can think of about 4 or 5 since the beginning of February. let me tell you my two favourites. the first one was a prank on raf in march, by the girls. but it's actually a few day prank, so let me start at the beginning. raf mentioned to me one day that he felt like his boxers keep going missing, and it seems like he loses some everyday. and im pretty sure he even mentioned that he was down to his last pair and if he couldn't remember where he put them, he would start having to wear spandex.

Two Days Later: I saw raf wearing spandex.

Four Days Earlier:Raf is notorious for leaving his laundry in the machine after the time is done so i guess one day one of the girls

Five Days Later: after an announcement to the class after lectures if anyone could keep their eye out for his boxers cause hes missing a 'few' pairs, he would appreciate it. Raf stumbled across a sign that directed him to the freezer. where he found this.

A great prank by the girls, and honestly, i think raf was just happy to have his underwear back.

and of course retaliation was in order. and with the beginning of april just around the corner, what better time. we planned this one for a few days untill the conditions were perfect. the matthews (a family on base)had gone for vacation and it was the night before april fools. so we all dressed in black (for style mostly) and we snuck down to the girls dorm. so now, you need to know how their dorm works. they have a main room, that is essentially their living room, with couches, tables, cabinets, and a t.v set. and beside that is their bedrooms. just outside of that is a courtyard that the matthew's maintain and keep dozens of potted plants. so at about 2 am. dressed in our best possible prank-ops gear. we broke into their room and started removing their livingroom piece by piece. first the couches then the tables... you get the picture. We took all the furniture and brought it all to the court yard where we set it up, exactly the way it was set up when it was in their dorm.

THEN... we took the courtyard. the potted plants and foliage. and brought the courtyard into their room. must have been two dozen full sized plants and trees in their room, that now had a sort of 'jungle vibe'. we had separate missions to 'borrow' the matthew's live chicken, and one of the rabbits on base and chucked those in their as well. for best effect we set up some creepy as, cackling music and set it off at 3 am. in hopes that the girls would run out of their room to turn off the music. then get hit by the jungle of foliage. the only thing that we could never have anticipated or dreamed of, is that when they opened the door to shut off the music, the chicken ran into their bedroom, and woke the rest of the girls up.

this prank was talked about for quite a while on base. many who were woken up by the commotion didn't love it, but they couldn't deny it was a good. when the Matthew's returned it was a different story, but in the end they were cool with it. so apparently, it was the story of this prank that, inspired the july dts to 'rice' us. that's cool. were about to give them another story,

...for inspiration.

Babies.

while at cedric's with the entire team, he set up a visit to their churches baby home. the house takes in abandoned and rejected babies -mostly from the township community down the street.

jordan and i were the first to arrive at this place, and after scrubbing, sterilizing, sanitizing our hands, chucking on the protective face/breath masks. and now we were fully geared to... hold some babies.

im actually not trying to make a joke of it, it was a really neat experience. i held a girl named neo, who was 2 months old, born pre-maturely, and abandoned in a field by the township. grace of god, the baby home was there to take her in, still at two months, she weighed only 4 kilo's.

so i held her, fed her, and even burped her when she was crying. jordan and i both. had a staring competition against her. and we both lost. Neo a beautiful baby.

At the home they have 9 babies, all under one year old. also they had one toddler.

Moosa. was a two year old boy who we played with outside. he was taken in a few months ago, and he has just learned how to walk, and is still learning to talk. this kid was cool.

this is Moosa with Raf ->

Destination: Cedric's House, South Africa

Still in Johannesburg. just moved about 15 minutes down the road. There was one main difference about this routine outreach re-location. we moved into this guys place july 9th. and the next morning the other two outreach teams that we were apart from for the last 2 months. this was... extremely exciting. seeing our friends, swapping stories and living crammed 3o in a house never felt better. cedric is an ex-cop who is in connection with ywam Melbourne through his daughter. his is opened up his killer house to us for a week and set up some great stuff too. enough mattresses for all of us, a usually hot showers (best you can ask for on outreach), and the raddest rooftop hangout spot. his place was great. And in the week is primarily intended to be for debrief, we got some ministry chucked in there as well.

*pause story*

my stomach just grumbled and it reminded me of one of the best things in south africa. and specifically Cedric's house. The place: SPUR steakhouse. boasting the nicest steak you could imaging for under 10 bucks. or a 2 for 1 wings deal on Wednesdays that results in a plate of fries and 30 wings for like 60 rand. (about 8.50). so Spur because a favorite, quickly, amongst the guys. we would be at our neighbourhood Spur within minutes whenever we were provided with dining money. As well, Vidar and Matty, with cash to burn, would never leave a man behind on a spur trek if funds were the issue. vidar led the campaign. spur always on his mind. i advocated strongly every Wednesday. and matty, raf, jon, and jordan were always, always game. more than that we loved spur evangelism. we would share the gospel to every waiter and hostess, cook and bus boy. we handed out dvd's with Kaka's testimonies and a few people accepted Jesus.

all in all. we loved SPUR. and were super thankful for it.

oh ya. they did breakfast's too.

*Resume story*

now that i just grabbed a plate of leftovers from dinner, i can continue. during our time, Cedric set up some ministry for us at a local township. essentially townships are illegal squatter camps where people take up residence, in shacks, by the thousands.

we helped with their churches soup kitchen ministry. everyday from about 11 to 3 we would set up outside the church tent, and provide lunch for whoever wanted it. the soup -delicious. the bread -baked fresh. and I'm not going to lie. it was one of the nicest lunches we had in south Africa. and the people enjoyed it the same. it attracted a good number of people, and we usually kicked a ball with the guys waiting for the food. sharp.

and the main priority as well for this time was debrief week. we had it with this hilarious guy named Dave something, at his local church. cant remember his name, but I'm not gonna say the same about his teaching. i got a ton out of this week. learned about going home. processing everything that happened on outreach. and best of all, we re caped the months of lecture phase, and basically everything that i thought i missed out on, for whatever reason, i got in these few days of final lectures.

this destination was also home to the Cedric's cup of champions - gentlemen's league. and one of the funnest soccer games at the Portuguese soccer ground, which was, of course, followed by spur. this was the last stop on our African adventure, and now that I'm back in Australia, its great to be back. but its hard not the miss places like Cedric's house.

International House of Footballers. reunite.

so the beginning of outreach ment the end of a era. a rather short, but fun 3 month era of our IHOF soccer team.

...OR so i thought.

twice in africa did we play together reppin YWAM

melbourne. in Durban, the south africa team and our zambia team joined forces to win a 5 - 4 victory again the Durban base. hysterical incident aside where one of their staff went legitimately psycho on the volunteer ref (long story.ask raf). that day was great. the next was a few weeks later and another international match.

YWAM Australia v. YWAM Argentina. we played this game when our whole team was together during our Debrief week at Cedric's House. this was the Argentina team that our Zambia team became such good friends with during the previous two weeks. and on this day. we won 7 - 4. a great played game against the *cough* Argentine soccer DTS *cough* but turns out our team is real. decent. after. all.

Destination: Johannesburg, South Africa

Arrived on the 22nd of June and got picked up at the bus station in a VW combie van by a guy named Dillon. once we push started the van we were off. driving at night the streets of joburg. always interesting. we drove passed a man being dragged along the road by two other guys. Thinking the least of it, that he was either drunk or the guys were his friends, this wasnt exactly the thought process of everybody else in the van. im also in no way trying to glamourize these kind of incidences. im simply explaining what we were getting ourselves into. so straight to bed and up early the next for orientation. this meeting however had a very similar vibe. Dillon (who was an exceptional guy, dont get me wrong) explained three stories that happened to the base in the past few weeks. an attempted stabbing against frank (he got away. and man, if you get a chance. ask raf about frank.), second the last ywam team that got robbed walking down the street. and a home invasion that happened to Dillon himself. he explained all this happened in broad daylight, and that its just the state of the place were working and living. he then asked us the question if we were all ready to die for our beliefs and that he couldn't promise us anything. so again not trying to glamourize. but i am going to be honest to say as great a guy dillon was, i dont think it was smartest for him to elaborate on these stories on our first day there. ill be really generous to say that some of our team was only 'spooked' by this. but this was our honest introduction to YWAM joburg at the joseph project. so. i did start with that for a reason, but before i explain that. im gonna take the time to ask myself and answer a few questions.

"what is the Joseph project?" apart from being the base for YWAM Joburg, and the building we lived in for the two weeks, joseph project is a full time children's ministry. the base itself does not run dts's but is fully devoted, just like Dillon to full on kid's ministry. this is a pic of our rec room. (yee pingpong.)

"Who stays at the Joseph project?" apart from a few long term staff, becca, frank, and kevin, the joseph project was housing not only our outreach team, but two others as well. a swazi team with 3 people stayed with us. as well as an outreach team of 15 from Argentina. so it was quite the mix. and by the way the Argentina team was rad. i loved staying with them. we got to know them quite well. and became pretty good friends over the two weeks. raf was obviously in his element speaking spanish. and meh ablo un porquito espanol. i learned a little as well. clearly still a long way to go.

"what sort of stuff did you do?" this is an easy one to answer. because it was quite routine. routine, but great. so with the 7 of us. plus the 3 from swazi-land and the 15 from Argentina we came together to form one ultimate team. which was rad because we really did become one team. then we spit into two intermingled groups. one group designated to a kids program at the school. which i dont know too much about because i wasnt in that group but ill get raf to talk about it later.

and the second group was 10 of us, that went to a park in the morning. and the fan park at nights. we immediately got involved at the park. the first day was tough having to basically temp the kids into stopping what they were doing (which was almost always soccer) and come participate in the activities that we had for them. by the third day however this was no longer a problem. we just had to walk through the gate, and the soccerball would have been left and within ten seconds 2 of em would already be on my neck. so we ran a program for them (which largely involved sports, an we did drama's that came with messages, and we basically just got to know them and see how we could help in the lives of these kids. mostly boys, a few girls and all under the age of 13. this was my hands down favorite kid from the park. his names Nati. he's 6. and he loves sitting on my neck as we sneak on people from behind.

"what was it like being in Joburg for the world cup?"

mental. we watched every game either at the fan park doing ministry or at the base all 30 or so of us in a small room with a big projector. you can imagine for the two Argentina games the emotions reached their peaks. the most contagious joy and enthusiasm the first game when they won. and an unbearable despair when they got thrashed by germany. i honestly had to leave the room. so these are two pictures of the fan park in newtown joburg.

which mostly because of a quality i like to call "itsnotabeach" it didnt compare to sunny durban's beachfront fanpark. but we did spend some good quality time there and severl great things came out of it.

something else tho, did come out of my time in Joburg. and ya to the suprise of no one on my team, it has to do with basketball. every morning that i had an eye on the kids we were hanging out with teaching them games, my other eye was on the basketball court about 30 feet away. everyday, when we were finished with the kids and they were getting their government provided lunches i would casually was up to the guys playing and say something funny about how it surprising that people still play basketball during the soccer world cup. ( and ya i always used the same line, so what, dont judge me.) i always worked two and their game of 2 on 2 turned to 3 on 3, or 3 on 3 became 4 on 4 ect. i did this several times, until one day i played 2 on 2 with the three other guys. daniel, moses (mo), and cheese. ya, i said cheese - ive seen his drivers licence. this day wasnt too much different, the guys were similar age as me. - early twentys. they liked basketball. and they lived close. during the game i accidentially broke a guys cheap bracelet, so after the game i gave him the 'change the world' one i was wearing, and if you remember that story from livingston. i had one last chance to use that message. but other than that this day was no different.

Untill.... a random the meeting where i was walking to get groceries and i ran into mo. and i cant explain why, but because of this accidential meeting, after one game of basketball, we became instant good friends. he gave me his number, and i gave it a ring the next day. after that, i played basketball with those guys everyday the next week and got to know them quite well, especially mo. and on the day that we were allocated to visit the houses and parents (or most often, parnet) of the kids who we worked with at the park. i elected to go to mo's house and hangout with him one last day before i left his turf, and probably, for good.

so i went to his place. met his 'moms' and then visited his friends places as well. he showed me around his whole neighborhood. this neighborhood that was supposed to be so treacherous and sketchy, welcomed me like a friend. so i chilled with mo. we played some videogames, and i gave him my basketball shoes, cause he needed a pair. so the truth is, i did pass a drughouse. and my fair share of shady people but have gained an understanding. an understanding that most places you go, if you treat someone like a friend, you are a friend.

So all in all. 2 weeks in downtown Joburg. the statistically 'most dangerous city in the world' and what did we get? mugged? no. carjacked? nope. shot?! haha. Given a medal from the provincial government thanking us for our time with the kids? yep. that sounds about right.

so joburg my hats off to ya on an amazing world cup, and if any of you ever find yourself in central east, south africa. you should stop by, rock up to the court and say hi to the guys for me. the'll welcome ya like a friend.

Destination: Durban, South Africa

The Past two weeks in Durban contained some of the biggest ups, and worst lows of all outreach. love the city, no doubt, but this is what was up with YWAM durban. we moved three times in the two weeks, for about 10 different reasons. and we did some strange and some awesome things. the next 'need to mention' point before i continue was an aspect of our stay, known as our base liaison. On outreach, because a team is obviously not from the area, the base pairs them with a local staff member to help them out with the ways of the city/country and to help set up ministry with their already established connections. Our Guy was an African named Kimo. and just as soon as we met him we got awkward introduction to his -in his words, 'special friend' named kathrine from England. Katharine is a white English women that has been living in Nigeria for the past 3 years. and Kimo is a Nigerian that has been living in South Africa for 3 years. how their 'special friendship' started is still a mystery to us all, but what we do know is that they sure are happy to be together again. Kimo was supposed to be planning our ministry for our stay, but unfortunately for us he had other ...special...things on his mind. needless to say they werent around too much, we realized we were going to have to plan our own stuff. which is fine. no problem for us, it just took a slow start but eventually we were great. and they few times we did see the happy couple we were always amused by kimo's awkward blunders of an introduction as people meet his new friend that has just arrived. so we did a bunch in durbs, here are a few of the main or favourite ones: A kids camp (VBS) at a church, which became our second living location. we ran kingdom kids with a husband and wife from canada,who moved to South africa to plant this church. their kids were a part of the camp and a very interesting part thats for sure. so this camp ran from about 9 to 5 everyday, which was full on, but worked out great because we almost always got to watch the evening games of the worldcup. this is a picture with ethan (age 5) one of the craziest yet coolest kids i have met. were playing one of his favorite games, hand fighters, where each of his hands team fight against my left hand. honestly, imagination like this should be studied. its remarkable.

and this second one is a picture from quite possibly the single greatest thing that came out of the kingdom kids.

they called it 'Missionary Minute' and basically raf and josh, aka Ken Jenkins and Brett Dawson, did this fake t.v program everyday. the kids loved it, and i think we enjoyed it even more. it was ridiculously hilarious what comes off the top of these boys heads.

Another ministry was with a church that provided lunches for kids in an HIV devastated community. the especially great thing about these days was that we got to work with an around the world DTS that was also staying at the ywam base. these people were super cool and got to know them great as we would hangout every night to watch the soccer. and for the last two days of this ministry we went with the food van and helped distribute the lunches ourselves.

and the third ministry I chose to call by one name: Petra's Ministry. it was essentially homeless and prostitute ministry but as i explain i hope i do a good enough job explaining why I chose to call it that. ok, so Petra is a fifty-something latino women, with the biggest heart for young women who need help to turn their life around. but an equally accurate description is petra is a saint. so the first night jumped to a rather quick start in the terms of we had to decide if we were going to be up to the task,because another thing, Perta doesn't mess around. after about 5 minutes with her watching her step out in boldness, raf and I had a go. now this was a relatively new form of this, so the ideal first interaction probably wouldn't be with a drunk stumbling homeless man, with a shank made of a broken bottle in his hand mumbling and yelling about a person he thinks hes trying to hurt. but it was what we got. so first things first, lets get that broken bottle out of his hands so we took that away. and second calm him down and ask him what all the commotion was about. he got slightly better and began to tell us his name and his deal untill he suddenly walked away, across the street, had a pee against the building and then came back across. this seemed to sober him up actually. so now we got a chance to pray for him. we prayed for him and he received it. was significantly calmer, we slipped a bible into his bag of possessions that he had us hold while he peed and that was that.

Petra has these type of encounters one after another after another as she walked these streets every night. but it wasnt untill the next morning that i had another significant one.

we again were with Petra the next morning, as a matter a fact we were running her church service that she holds every Tuesday and Thursday. raf and kris did the worship and josh preeched, and before the service i walked around with Petra inviting people to the service that came with a free lunch after. with petra we just walked into shelters and down streets and invited people by the dozens. she sometimes forced them to come. it was just a way she had, but the highlight comes later. a man was there that particular day that looked no different from any of the other homeless men.but it wasn't untill he asked to come to the front to share a quick testimonie that i knew any different. you see, this man had been attending these services since he met petra, except the only thing was it was always in a wheelchair. his feet were crippled to the size of tennisballs and the previous service he received prayer and on this day he was wearing normal shoes and walking with hardly much difficulty. in the time we were with petra we saw healing, prayed against addictions and even saw a few girls come out of prostitution into her safe house. but the most significant thing i can take from it, is boldness. boldness to talk to anyone in anyplace at anytime. and thats a pretty serious challenge.

so these weeks had some pretty heavy and deep things. and along with that came many other great things aswell. worldcup games, anna's birthday, soccer on real grass and the beach, and the most exciting finish to gentlemen's league we have ever seen.

ever.

Destination: Lusaka, Zambia

here we stayed at a place we called the farm. a beautiful villa, easily and comfortably hosting the 7 of us, and the residents that live their, this was, and will most likely be the nicest place we stay. having its own orchard, a lake, and my personal favourite, a volleyball court. this place was amazing. we did various random ministry activities in the city the first week in lusaka, but it was the second week there that will remain as the favourite to us all. for the second week we spent every single day in a compound about a kilometer from our farm. no running water, no electricity, dirt houses, this has been my fav part of outreach. we also visited the volunteer school they have going there. (theres no government schools, so they struggle to keep these running) we met and got to know the teachers, and played with the kids. we had a goal of our own as well. they had an overgrown, brush area near the well, that was on the edge of the community and we, along with much help from the community, slashed the brush, cleared the ground, and fashioned wooden goalposts to form in my opinion an amazing pitch

you can sorta see it in the back ground, but a better pic coming soon.

we took the time to get to know the teachers as well, and something that began as polite courtesy turned into another great highlights. we invited the teachers over for dinner one night, that night was something special. starting out semi-awkward. we were eventually all singing classic songs, and laughing non-stop. this was a time when raf and i proudly sang the zambian national anthem which we both learned from Abigail the weeks before. i think the greatest part of the night, is that it led to connection with the teachers. over the years they have been helping there, they said they have had teams like us come in and help, which have been great, but, they ONLY focused on the kids. ya the kids are great, but those teacher who volunteer their were outstanding. always welcoming us into their class to teach a lesson on english, sports, or God. (our adopted three areas of expertise) it was nice to show appreciation to them as well. and their appreciation for our appreciation, is undoubtably a highlight.

so ya, this communtnity called 'Grippes' was amazing. another best part about it was a lady called Brenda. hold on actually, let me back up. as we walked and prayed through the community hoping for things to happen. we discovered something about Africans. they are way to hospitable and way to generous. even one we would just say hi to, (or muliebuangie in Nianja) would insist we come into their house and give us something to eat. there house no bigger than a bedroom, and the food was often their own dinner. yet, they always, always, graciously insisted.
So this brings us to Brenda. Brenda's house is on the outskirts of the compound and exactly on our pathway home. we met her the same way we did the others, except we all felt something different for Brenda. we all basically, the word is, adored her. ill give you the background info. she lives in a house made of mud. about the size of a kitchen, including her bedroom. she has two children, Faith and Christopher. she's Divorced. and she never, doesnt smile. both her kids go to the school we work at, so we see them there alot. and try our best not to favor them. at school chris' friends call him Cesar because of the Cesarean section operation brenda had when he was born, and both of them like the nickname. which was odd, but i liked it as well, so Brenda's spends most of her day in the house. cleaning, laundry and making her living. she has one source of income. her entire income comes from samosas. she makes them every morning, starting at around 6h00. and by noon she should have enough to sell for lunch. if she makes about 40. she can hopefully sell them all at lunch. so now, heres the shocking part. not that their delicious, which they are. their literally incredible. but she charges 500 kwatcha per samosa. which is like 10 cents. these delicacies would go for 1 or 2 bucks each back home, and here basically free. these are brenda's entire means of living. weve been to her house when shes making them, and she taught us how. it really is a perfected skill on her part tho. actually some times id just be walking by, to or home from the school, and id find raf outside, eaither playing the guitar or eating a samosa, just chatting to Brenda. so we saw brenda often, and by the end, loved her family incredibly. so before we left, we bought 5 kgs of rice and the same of flour. a bunch a cooking oil. and delivered it to her. this is all that shell need for the samosa's for quite a while. she was blessed. and so were we. she made us some last samosa's and we took some photos with them.

chris.(ceazer)

faithall of usso along with the time i went to the market with zig zag, and the time we went to his house, we did some soccer clinics with a guy named cossmos, and the church service i preached at. these we all the main highlights and events in our time in Lusaka. two a the greatest weeks. Oh! and the scene of the Lusaka Open. but thats a differnt story entirely.

Ayoba.