South Africa - A Roller Coaster Ride

I don’t have a clue how to write this next blog. We have been on such an emotional rollercoaster the last two days and I’m hoping that recalling those events will not lead me to another puddle of uncontrollable tears.

Let me first inform you that it has been such an incredible experience this far, but it’s nothing like I expected. Some of you may believe we have come down to a country where there are elephants and zebra roaming wild grasses and we’re walking around hot and dusty villages singing to a people who have no clue as to what we’re saying. Now, some of us thought those exact things when we first signed up for this trip. In fact, I myself was a little disappointed when I found out that South Africa is much different than the Africa that comes to mind when we speak of it. The cities we have represented in the earlier pictures have almost all of the luxuries that we have in America. This was disappointing to me for the sheer fact that I believed it would be so much more meaningful and life changing if I encountered desolation for my entire 11 days here. “Oh, ye of little faith”…how much I have to learn.


Although there are many similar luxuries in the cities here, the population of people who have no running water, no proper home, and no job is a lot higher. In the particular region we were in today, Zulu Kingdom, one in three people have the HIV virus. Today and yesterday we visited two different orphanages that play host to a variety of children who have parents that have died from AIDS and who many of them have HIV themselves. The particular orphan villages that we visited also had AIDS hospices and schools on the premises. In fact, they teach the adult women and men in their respective areas many different skills to help them get jobs and earn a living.


I’m ashamed to say that I was somewhat excited to go to these places because of what I thought I would be able to take away from it. It’s not a bad thing that I wanted these experiences to change me, but I really had no idea how that would be accomplished. Along with a tug at my heart strings, I wanted to make sure I got that “perfect” picture of me with a child suffering from this horrible disease to change to black and white and hang on my wall. I wanted to go in and touch and hug these people who would be changed by those simple acts and feel good about myself. I mentioned earlier that this is how I hoped the entire trip would be. That first afternoon I learned quickly that I would not have been able to deal with several days of what I saw in that first hour. In fact, I believe those moments – however brief – will stay with all of us for the rest of our lives.



I don’t feel I need to elaborate on everything because I’m not sure the picture would be accurate if I tried to paint it for you. Just know that whenever you are able to experience something like this for yourselves, be prepared for a variety of feelings you would have never expected to feel. Of course there will be gratitude to God when you recognize how amazing your life is… sadness when you see the ways these people are living… struggling when you are trying to balance your feelings of “trying to let go of the overwhelming sadness and pity” and “trying to hold on to the experience so that you will never forget to go away changed”. But then there are feelings you will not expect… those glimpses of joy and love and happiness when you realize these people, these children know nothing different. They are living the life they know and they a grateful for it. You see the children laughing and singing, people dying of AIDS raising their hands and clapping along when you come in and sing or them. You feel an overwhelming love for people, real human beings, not just statistics or numbers or documentaries or donations.


I can’t go on much more without these thoughts taking over this entire blog. We want you to know about other amazing things that have been happening in the last two days. The last two evenings have been absolutely incredible at the two public concerts that we have held. Both concerts, one in Durban for 1000– one in Empangani for 1500, have packed the house…we even added extra chairs at one. We sang our hearts out and so did the people we were singing for. All of us lifting those praises to the God who brought us together. We are so excited to find out what good has come out from these concerts. We know that lives were touched and seeds were planted, the rest will be taken care of by God and we can’t wait to see what He does!!!


Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We can’t wait to tell you more! Please watch for upcoming videos when we have more time online…

-Vicki Lindsey

A great day of sightseeing!

Today, we got to sightsee around Capetown! This is truly an amazing country. We spent most of our time in Table Mountain National Park. Here are some of what we’ve seen:

We rode a cable car up to the top of Table Mountain. It overlooks the entire city on all sides!

We drove around the coast viewing both the Atlantic Ocean side as well as the Indian Ocean side.

We all paid the fare for a boat which took us to out to a seal colony on a small island. We saw families of jellyfish off the side of the boat on our way out. The captain also mentioned that this area is the only place in the world where Great White sharks actually jump out of the water while feeding. So, the guys got excited about seeing some carnage! Fortunately, the seals were only playing and sunning themselves. No danger or carnage . . . too bad.

We ate at the Mariner’s Wharf right on the ocean. We had the best calamari we’ve ever eaten. In fact, we loved them so much, we ordered a second appetizer of them for dessert.

We ended the day with a visit to a penguin colony near the southern tip of the country. We saw literally thousands of penguins nesting and standing out on the rocks. Penguins in Africa? Sounds crazy . . but they are there!

In the midst of all this, I got this picture in my head. Being a new father, I revel in seeing my daughter play with a new toy we brought home for her. As we were gawking at the penguins or snapping pictures of seals or standing in awe at the mountains, I thought about what God must feel as He sees His children delighting in the things he made for us. I can only imagine that He smiles with a twinkle in his eye as He watches His children opening these gifts given to us.

Though hard with pictures, I hope we can share these gifts with you.

Keep praying for us. We fly to Durban tomorrow to do a concert or two as well as sing at an orphanage and a school.

Love you guys,

-chris

NEWS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

This being our first blog and also our first shot on the internet since we arrived, we’ve got a lot of information to squeeze in. Short and sweet… our trip over was mostly problem-free with the exception of some lost luggage, and our layover in London was fantastic! (More on this later…now on to the mission work!)

Our first few days here have been busy! We started off the trip with a weekend retreat consisting of many of the local churches. We took a charter bus an hour and a half out into the mountains at a camp just outside of Capetown. The ride was absolutely breathtaking- this is such a beautiful country.

Since it is winter in South Africa, they warned us to bring jackets for the evenings. Of course, we’re thinking, “We’re in Africa, how cold can it really get?” We found out the hard way. Every night, it got down near 0 degrees Celcius (around 30 degrees). We froze every night since there was no heating in any of the cabins, but we persevered.

The singing was awesome. Each of the groups (Watershed, Free Indeed, One Spirit, VHF) took turns leading worship for each session. For the main night sessions, all of the groups would come out together and close out each evening with high-energy worship. With so many people who can truly sing, the music was moving and powerful! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting the local churches and South Africans to know many of the songs we do. (You know, we’d have to sing the older “throwback” devotional songs) But my expectations were blown right out of the water as they sang “Lord, Reign In Me” at the top of their lungs and “How Great Is Our God” with hands raised! It was so cool do see how many songs they DID know and how passionate they sing.

Last night, all the groups got together and we sang a medley I had done with at Friday Night Lights a month or so back at Rochester. I had never done it a cappella before, but everyone filled in the parts easily. So, to close out the evening, we sang “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Open the Eyes Of My Heart”. To sing a cover of a U2 song has been somewhat of a dream of mine, but to do it in South Africa . . . . WOW.

One of the verses in the song says, “I believe in the Kingdom come, then all the colors will bleed into one. You know I believe it . . “ Powerful stuff. Especially to sing those words in a country who has had such a history with apartheid and racism. In South Africa, the churches are small and diverse. It is difficult for them to come together. It is our hope that we are able to bring a message of hope and unity to these churches. That Jesus is reason enough to be unified.

Another song the South Africans love is “Jabulani”. I was a little apprehensive about singing a South African song in SOUTH AFRICA, but they absolutely loved it. We’ve had to sing it everyday so far- a trend I expect to continue throughout our stay here.

We’ve got the next day to enjoy some of the sights in South Africa…we’ll definitely update you on that soon, but we are ecstatic about the upcoming week. We’ve been informed that the two concerts they had set up and opened to the public have way exceeded their expectations. In Durban, they have sold over 1000 tickets and in Empangani over 600! In both places, they are expecting around 75% of the audiences to be non-Christian . . . so a great opportunity for outreach!

A BIG thank you to all who’ve been praying for us! Keep them going this week as we share the gospel through music! More to come soon . . . .