We're HERE!

We made it safe and sound to south africa on May 13th with all our luggage....beautiful. God's so good. We were met by our secondary contact fondly dubbed "marky" (as our main contact is also named mark). Austin and I (mia) are adjusting to driving on the left side of the road well. We are staying at a guest house on the grounds of a HUGE catholic parish.....it is run by very strict German nuns who feed us well. We have learned there are MANY ways to eat potatoes. :)

Wednesday, May 14th

The team rested from our long journey and Austin and Mia went to downtown Durban to pick up our second car and run a few other errands. We learned a lot about the diversity in Durban from Marky.

We are learning that South Africa....especially the Durban area is a country of extremes.

Durban has the second largest Indian community in the world. Go figure. The Zulu tribe covers the vast majority of Durban.....While there is an equally large white population. Also there is another group of mixed people....who they call "colored."
Also, in a small section of town there is a group of West African refugees.

Down town Durban consists mainly of black people....the some of white people in Durban are afraid to be in the down town area.....we saw very few while we were there. Right outside of Durban is Westville (our church contact is located there). Westville looks much like south Tulsa....a drastic change from some of the other areas we have seen. On the edge of Westville (technically still in the boundaries of Westville) is a refugee shack town called "Jamaica".....these people are from all over west Africa. Many do not have jobs, do not speak English, and many are infected with HIV/AIDS.

Later in the afternoon on Wednesday we met with our main contact, Mark. That night we went to 2 Westville Presby bible studies. Our team split into two and got to know some of the Westville Presby's college age students and young married couples. It was encouraging on both sides to share what God has done in our lives and then hear what God was doing in theirs and their country. It was also great to build relationship, because we will return at the end of our trip to do ministry within their church.

Thursday May 14
Went to the area known as Jamaica. The team played games, sang, performed skits about God's love, and then fed a group of about 100 children. This is an outreach that Westville has been running for about 5 years. It was pretty intense because just above us on a hill overlooking Jamaica was one of Durban's largest mall. Afterwards we went to the mall (which proved to put many USA malls to shame). This is
just a small example of intense contrasts in racial and social division here.

Friday May 15
Today we travel 3.5 hours north to the village of Ubombo. We will be working with a white south African couple who run an orphanage among the Zulu people that live there.


I've run out of time to write....but please know we are completely safe and learning so much about the love of God and the people of South Africa. Our contact has taken every measure to ensure our safety, but also tries to challenge us as a team. All of the people we have met have become instant friends and we find that we have much in common with the congregation of Westivlle.

Please continue to pray. We are still concentrating on our 3 team values. Pray for:
-wisdom
-boldness
-ability to adjust well between cultural extremes
-that the team would continue only to see children of God and not race or social standing!
-Pray for our contact and his family.....they only just lost his father in law a few days before we came.

Here is a brief layout of what we'll be up to.

16-30 Ubomo
31-6 June Durban inner city
June 6-11

We love you all....thank you for praying!
-Mia and Team SOUTH AFRICA