Hello Belfast U.S.A.!
I’ve arrived in Pennsylvania and I’m taking the next few weeks easy… The experience of staffing the Discipleship Training School in Northern Ireland and South Africa was incredible, and now I need some rest.
I’m taking the next few weeks “off” and plan to spend time quietly at home with my family, reconnecting with them and adjusting back to life in America.
Hello Belfast!
I just arrived in Belfast safe and sound! I’ll be here in Northern Ireland for a few weeks of DTS Debrief and Graduation (plus some staff paperwork and the like.)
But not ‘till we’ve had a couple days of rest…
“This doesn’t have to be your last taste of Africa”
Took this picture as I was going down the boarding ramp for my flight back to the U.K. I’m currently sitting in the plane looking forward to the next 15+ hours of travel…
Northern Ireland, here I come!
Two boys from Burlington. Photo: Zach Stock.
Saying goodbye to Durban…
This is our last week in the Durban area, on Friday we leave for Johannesburg. We’ve been out working on the streets of the city and in the community of Burlington talking with people and helping in any way we can…
Last Tuesday two of the students and I met a 16 year old guy, Adrian, who has lived on the street for years. He was working as an unlicensed “car guard”… basically sitting around watching a parking lot hoping for an occasional tip from a thankful motorist. On a good day Adrian said he’d make about 20 Rand, about $2 USD. He wants to become a licensed car guard so he can actually get hired by a local business to protect the parking lot… However he doesn’t have a birth certificate, so he can’t get a National I.D. which is required to get a legitimate (higher-paying) job. So we spent the next couple hours with Adrian helping him navigate South African bureaucracy and find out how to get his birth certificate. In the end we weren’t able to find a record of his birth but we were able to leave him with clear steps for how to get one.
Today most of the team went back to the city center to spend the day working with an organization that helps street kids like Adrian. Others took groceries to a woman with HIV/AIDS in Burlington who has been living off bread…
The need in South Africa is huge… There are some great people doing great things here but there’s lots of room for more! It’s my prayer that the experiences our DTS students have had here will get under their skin and inspire them engage with the world and it’s ills.
