Sutherland

Pics 1, 2, 3- The beautiful children of Sutherland!!!!!! I have so many great pics of the kids, I wish I could publish them all...these are a few of my favorites. Pic 3- This is Jamie- she quickly took my heart...we danced in the streets together- I wonder what her life is like...

This past weekend I had the incredible experience of getting to go on a mission trip…sounds kind of funny, since I’m pretty much on a 5-month mission trip!! I guess it’s a mission trip within a mission trip ☺ I left last Friday morning and I went with 7 others- Natalie, Zana, and others who work with LHCC. We traveled about 4 hours north of Cape Town to a tiny and frigid little town called Sutherland. (If you’re interested in a little international trivia…Sutherland is the home of the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere…the South African Large Telescope, or SALT. Don’t be intimidated by the high-tech name ☺)

Because Sutherland is far inland, in the Northern Cape, it has completely different weather than Cape Town. I’m not kidding when I say it was FREEZING!!! I’m pretty sure that the thermometer did reach the freezing mark!! It was kind of like spending the weekend in a refrigerator, or maybe even a freezer!! I kid you not that I slept in 3 shirts, a fleece, 3 pairs of socks, pants, 3 blankets, and a sleeping bag and I was still cold!! Not really the Africa that we are accustomed to thinking about, right? We stayed in a school, ate all our meals there, etc. Zana described the hallway of the school to be like in the movie, “The Shining,” hmmm…that made for some frightening walks down the hall!!

Anyway, the trip was absolutely great…we were there to come alongside a sweet and quiet man named Pastor Lofti, our goal was to do some community outreach. A little bit about Sutherland…it is not an area of too much crime, but there are severe problems of alcohol and unemployment (75% unemployment rate).

On Friday night, we attended a rally at the church, and one of our trip members preached. The church meets in a school…Pastor Lofti is the pastor, worship leader, set up and tear down team! Their keyboard sits on an ironing board- innovative, right? Saturday morning, I helped with a few others to have some kids activities. We started off with about 15 kids, then they just kept coming and coming until we had 90+!! We were there with the next generation of Sutherland, speaking the gospel and singing Father Abraham!! They are precious children, full of smiles, and longing for hugs and attention. Probably the most powerful moment of the weekend for me happened during the Saturday night service when Pastor Lofti prayed a prayer of blessing and protection over the children. It was a beautiful sight to see the pastor and an elder with their hands stretched toward the children asking the Lord to surround them with angels and to protect them from the evil of alcoholism and abuse. All the while the children are looking around, laughing, and so innocently unaware of the intercession that was coming before their Father on their behalf. Pray that God would raise up these children to be God fearing and obedient men and women of the Lord, and that God would bring transformation to Sutherland through their lives.

During each service I was delighted at the freedom of worship that this body of believers has. I am not sure that I have ever experienced such genuinely joyful worship. They dance, run around, sing, and shout all for the glory of God. It was really exciting (and maybe even a little confusing at times ☺- by the way, their first language is Afrikaanz, which is a combination of Dutch and German- spoken by Colored people in SA)

Another highlight of the trip was on Friday night…Des, our leader, took us outside of the town to look at the stars. Oh my word…I cannot even describe the beauty of the African sky that I saw that night. It really seemed like I could reach out and touch the stars, and there were more of them than I have ever seen in my life. It made me feel pretty small…and God seem pretty HUGE!!

I’m so thankful for having been given the opportunity to go on a mission trip within an mission trip!! Pray for Sutherland, Pastor Lofti and his family- I am praying Isaiah 61:11 for this community- that righteousness and praise would sprout up all over the place and that the gospel message will rush through the streets like wildfire.

As I reflect back on this weekend, I think what I’ll remember most is the beautiful African sky, the freezing cold weather, the “large” telescope, and the children who have stolen my heart forever (especially sweet little Jamie- see pic 3 above).