Postcards from South Africa 03.12.11

Goodbye, Harry!

This man is inspirational in his generosity and truly lives out his convictions, making a difference in Cape Town and its surrounding townships. Thank you for an amazing week!

Postcards from South Africa 03.11.11

Believe it or not, we have not spent ALL of our time in the affluent parts of South Africa. Our dear friends, Jesse and Britlese Thomas--who were engaged and spent their first 4 months of marriage here!--set us up with an incredible visit to a ministry called The Warehouse in Cape Town. The Warehouse is a dynamic ministry that strategically partners with local churches in a variety of ministries, including, but not limited to, working with youth in gangs, AIDS victims, orphans and distributing resources from rich churches to poor churches. Their work predominately focuses on facilitating ministry in the townships. We had the opportunity to eat lunch with The Warehouse's founder, Craig, who introduced us to a memorable Braai in a neighboring township. This is an astounding ministry. (For those unsure of what townships are, see the Wikipedia article. Essentially, these were very underserved areas specifically designated for blacks and coloreds under the Apartheid government. A photo of Gugulethu, one of Cape Town's many townships, is posted above. Although Apartheid is no longer in place, the sprawling--and mostly very poor--townships remain.)

While in Cape Town we also visited Kanisa Church in Gugulethu with our host, Harry. Kanisa Church is my idea of the Kingdom of God on earth, consisting of a community of blacks, browns and whites (a rare site in SA). We would love to send a delegation from our church in Chicago to visit Kanisa as we, too, are trying to be a people of many nations in Chicago and would have much to learn from them. Kanisa's worship songs and sermons were translated either into English from Xhosa or vice versa and this all went very smoothly. After church we were invited to have lunch and a "cool drink" (=South African English for soda) in a black "mama's" house (yes, they are called mamas!). Mama Pumi treated us to potato salad, beets and ice cream, showing extraordinary kindness that clearly reflected her respect for Harry, who leads her weekly Bible study.

We were both inspired by these ministries and hope to visit again in the future.

Postcards from South Africa 03.10.11

On our final night in Cape Town, Harry treated us to a magical picnic at Landudno beach. We sat here for a few hours, watching the sun set amidst two ongoing photo shoots, dozens of families playing in the waves, and others enjoying similarly well planned picnic dinners.


This was definitely an evening to remember. It provided us with a good, calm atmosphere to process all we'd seen, including:

beautiful beaches
townships
churches
ministries
mountains
injustice
generosity
sunsets
penguins
history
...and so very much more.

On a lighter note, the famous "Sandy's Beach" was just next door. Clothing optional. Just sayin'.

Postcards from South Africa 02.25.11

So, to make a long (and fabulous) story short, Drew and I flew to Cape Town for a week's vacation, where we had the opportunity to stay with Harry -- our dear friend Nicky's brother. It was a true treat to get to know Harry better and we loved every moment of our time with him and exploring his city (one of South Africa's true jewels)! Over the next few "postcards" we'll be sharing images from our time there.

Been wondering where our blog posts have been? Well, let's just say the blog has been on vacation with us, enjoying our first extended break from internet in too many years to count.

Our first day was initiated by a search for where to purchase maps of the city (no GPS?? what do we do?!), remembering how to use said maps and exploring the very tip of the cape. We drove down the eastern side of the cape toward the Table Mountain National Park and the Cape of Good Hope, stopping in numerous sleepy beach towns along the way. Each beach town stop necessitated another con panna (=2 shots of espresso with a healthy dollop of whipped cream)... and one coffee shop surprised us with a GLUTEN FREE, CORN FREE, OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS chocolate cake! Let's just say we had no regrets when it came to eating dessert for breakfast this day.

A view from our breathtaking drive...


At the national park we were amazed by the striking change in scenery and rugged coastlines. BEAUTIFUL! Also beautiful? The wildlife. These baboons will jump in your car, roll up the windows, lock the doors and laugh at you for hours if you let them. They are amazingly intelligent animals and they fool tourists on a daily basis (aah, yes, you enjoy taking photos of me? see how you like it when I sneak up behind you and steal your camera!).

We parked the car at the Cape of Good Hope and hiked to Cape Point and back. By the end of the hike I'm sure Drew was sick of me reminiscing about my high school World History class, babbling on and on about Vasco de Gama (who I called Rosco) and all of the failed attempts to find a route to China via Africa. The shipwrecks in this area abound and it was fascinating to see how many of them were still visible from the coast!


Fun fact: the park actually has three capes! I had only remembered the Cape of Good Hope, but to fully round the cape you must also pass Cape Maclear and Cape Point.

By the end of the day we were already in love.