Yesterday we went to a church in Sophia Town, which is just up the street from where we're staying. It's a church plant of the main church Campus Outreach Johannesburg is partnered with. It reminded me of our church, Atlanta Westside. We really enjoyed it and I loved hearing the Africans sing.
After church, we went with a couple of guys to McDonald's. McDonald's is so much better overseas! We used to like it in Moscow, too. We went back to the house where the CCP is living. It's called Kofifi and it's awesome. It feels like a youth hostel.
We got to go to a cookout at CO Johannesburg's main meeting building. It's hard to describe this place. When you're on the street, all the houses have big walls and gates so you can't see in, but it's amazing when you walk in. I felt like we were in Beverly Hills. They had green grass and a pool with pretty furniture. This place houses about 4 roommates/family units, so about 10 people. There are a couple of buildings and a meeting room there.
This morning Michael gave the training talk to the group. It was about God making all things new. It was really good, I thought. When you are a Christian, you put your hope in Christ and your new life is in Christ, so you don't have to find life in this world....But, Jesus cares about this world deeply, so we should too. It's a fine line to care deeply, but not put all your hope in this life. I'm sure he'll share more later about all this. This is just my summary off the top of my head.
We're about to go to campus for a few hours. I'm excited to see the "res" (dorm) there. Each res is like a fraternity or sorority, so it's easy to get to know a lot of people quickly while you're there. There are students that are already involved in the ministry that are letting us in, so it's not like we're walking in cold turkey. They are so interested in American life, so it's not hard to carry on a conversation. I'm so curious about African life, too!
I get to meet up with my friend, Jeanette Thursday morning. I'm so excited to see her! I met her on the playground in Atlanta when she was nannying 2 kids that are almost exactly Sam and Owen's age. We hit it off and she actually started going to Westside some before she moved back to JoBurg.
***Update since I wrote this Monday at lunch.
So, I did go Univ. of Johannesburg Bunting campus yesterday with 2 girls from North Georgia, Lauren and Taylor. I forgot to bring my ID so I wasn't allowed in the res. We sat outside, which was good because the girls weren't in their rooms anyways. I met a few of the girls outside. One girl, MK, became a Christian just last week while talking with Lauren and Taylor. God is really working on that campus and it was great to see some of it in person!
Monday night, we ate dinner with the Ketterman's. They have been so great and hospitable.
The highlight of today, Tuesday morning, is that I got to go with Sheri and the boys and one student that babysits for them, Nanto, to the preschool. It was "Domestic Worker Day" there. All the nannies came with the children and they showed us their classrooms and they did some singing and dancing. I'll post the video of the dance they made up to the South African World Cup song. It was so fun! The video is the teachers and kids teaching us and then after the video we all did it together. There were nannies with babies on their backs doing the dance and loving it. It was fun to be a part of South African life here as a Mom.
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