"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.
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