World's most beautiful preschool, in South Africa known as the "cresh," is located in Lubonzi.  From the hillside that it sits on, you can see schools of dolphins swimming in the bay.  I spent four days here, working with the beautiful kids and introducing them to some new learning tools that we had brought.  The kids were ecstatic to receive jump ropes, puzzles, colored pencils and best of all, legos!  We also brought supplies to build a new swingset which was put together with some help from community men.  Here we also got to meet and talk with moms from the community and work alongside the regular preschool teacher.   

Good News Kid's Club... after school kids gather in a rondavo in front of the church in Zitelele.  Instead of running around town with not much to do, the kids are taught Bible stories, songs and games.  Ncediswa Sanda has been teaching kids for many years, and has impacted hundreds of them through Good News Clubs.  She also distributes clothing and gives counseling to the kids that need it.  If anyone would like to support her ministry, they can write to her at:

Ncediswa Sanda

PO Box 550

Mthatha 5099 

Eastern Cape

South Africa

Nondzukiso is a tourism student at Lubonzi School.  With her classmates, she gave us a tour of the village one morning soon after we arrived.  Nondzukiso speaks very good english and dreams of travelling to Cape Town to study at the University.  The teacher of the tourism class, Pumla, would love to have her students give any visitors a tour of the town.  That way they can help local industry and also gain experience in their field of study.  

Yoliswa is a nearby neighbor in Lubonzi.  She lives with her extended family and her three children.  Yoliswa speaks amazing english and helps translate for our host family.  She is also around to witness us trying to learn to carry water on our heads, quite entertaining for the skilled villiage women!  We quickly found a friend in her and her family.

Conelia... a shy, quiet girl who plays by herself and doesn't seem to belong to anyone.  After some coaxing she decided to climb into my lap and also accepted an egg salad sandwich which was eaten very quickly.  I never saw any adults with her, but on the first day of school she appeared with clean clothes.  She rarely talked to us and only in a small whisper but she couldn't hide her shy smile.

Back from the eastern cape...

Finally back on the internet after a month traveling east of Cape Town into the Transkei or "Wild Coast" region.  When I left Cape Town on a big yellow truck a month ago, I had no idea what to expect.  Gradually green mountains and vineyards gave way to arrid rolling grassy hills.  Monkeys became more and more common and english no longer the main spoken language.  Life lived out in the eastern cape is simpler, less complicated and more relational.  The main people group there is the Xhosa people, who speak a unique language know for it's clicks and pops.  Our leader, Rodger Galloway of "Cross Country Missions" gave us a crash course in Xhosa when we stopped in Jeffrey's Bay a few days into our trip.  While in J-Bay we were introduced to the Joshua Project, a program that offers education and mentorship to street kids.  They have already sent a graduate of their project on to higher education in youth ministry.  He has now returned to work with the boys and coach a soccer team for them.

The next major town stop was Port St. Johns, a beautiful beach town in the mountains.   There we were involved in street ministry, running a church service (which we were asked to do when we walked into the church) and several other things.  One of my teammates, Sarah, organized a massive soccer game with the kids in town.  Later we met up with Solomon, who runs a ministry to the youth of Port St. Johns.  Someone recently donated a building to them, which they will use for skills training, tutoring, and just a hang out spot.  If anyone would like to be involved with bringing skills training and christian mentoring to the youth of Port St. Johns, they can e-mail Solomon at portstjohnsyouthministry@live.co.za  Solomon is also praying for a woman to come and work with the young girls.  With the youth, we grabbed a taxi and headed out of town to the rural area where the free government housing is.  There is a large community of people living out of town who are 90% unemployed.  We taught them to play ultimate frisbee and tug-of-war, a change from their usual soccer games.  We were also able to give a message to them and have prayer with whoever wanted it.

I just want to say I'm so thankful to God to be here in BEAUTIFUL Muizenburg, South Africa!  For a while I was starting to doubt that I would actually be here, but what I've been wanting to do for years and years has finally happened as I stepped off the plane onto African soil!  Actually African concrete, but it's just as good for me.  Maybe you can see from the photo, here in the greater Cape Town area, there is absolutely everything you could ask for: amazing mountains, beautiful beaches, all the conveniences of any modern city and beautiful friendly people!  We are staying here in a local hostel, our hosts are some of the best, they cook fabulous meals for us and teach us words in Africaans.  It is surprisingly cold here, coming from a Kona, Hawaii summer we were not quite prepared for this.  But we learned how to take the public transportation, how to get to the mall and cheap clothing stores to get some warmer things.  Cathy who is in our group, is actually from South Africa and her family hosted us in their home in Vishoek which happens to be on the side of the mountain overlooking the bay.  It is just a short train ride and many steps up the mountain away.  So now that most of us have slept off our jet-lag, we are getting ready to travel again for a month through some more rural parts of South Africa.  We will be visiting people in the villages there and bringing some play equipment and things for them.  We were asked to bring work gloves along so it seems like we'll be getting our hands dirty out there!  Unfortunately there will be no internet there soo... look forward to a long update after a month!  Please pray for our team unity in love, protection and opportunity to be the hands and feet of God, and to have the heart of God for the people that we meet.  So, that's it for now, I'll write more soon!  (and more photos!)