Saturday Afternoon in Cape Town

Here is an update for the last few days.

Wednesday

We went shopping for Jesus. We never really thought that would be something that we would ever do as part of a mission trip.

Some of us met with a pastor who is interested in supporting Saddleback Johannesburg. We met at a restaurant in a very large, modern mall in Pretoria. He has a great deal of experience in planting churches across Africa and has offered to support Saddleback as we move forward, especially to the unreached people groups.

The remaining team went shopping. The mall itself could have been in the US except some of the stores were new to us. The purpose of this shopping adventure was to learn about the local culture. We interacted with store clerks and patrons alike. Many insights and observations were made throughout the day that gave us a better understanding of the culture.

In the evening we held a SHAPE seminar at Charity and Faith Mission Church with an emphasis on volunteering our time to serve our church based on the way God has made each of us. It was well received and inspiring in a culture where volunteering is not typical.

Thursday

Many different things guided us to one particular part of Johannesburg metro area as a potential location for Saddleback Johannesburg. A woman from Charity and Faith Mission Church lives in this community and offered to tour us around. We drove around the residential areas seeing the different types of housing, churches, schools and shopping centers. We saw the contrasting neighborhoods from meager township housing to very high end homes. We visited a local realtor and got housing costs information.

It was a very educational experience and it gave us a lot of insights to share with the next teams coming to Johannesburg to support the church plant.

We held a Small Group seminar where we talked about how Saddleback organizes our small groups and the curriculum that we use. We learned about their small groups and cell groups. They are similar in structure to ours but with different content. We learned a lot from each other. One thing we all shared was that our favorite part of small group time is when we have a “bring and share”.
We said goodbye to our new friends at Charity and Faith Mission Church as our time together came to a close.

Friday

We had a day of R&R where we got outside the city and enjoyed the beauty of God’s creations in South Africa while we prepared for the team to split up and most of the team to return home while 3 of us travel to Cape Town.

Saturday

Lisa, Ashley and Jana arrived in Cape Town on an afternoon flight where we will be meeting with churches with Celebrate Recovery ministries to support and encourage their ministries. The remaining team has an evening departure from Johannesburg that will take them to London then arriving at LAX on Sunday afternoon.

Pray for Charity and Faith Mission Church who was such a wonderful host to us and helped us learn so much valuable information about the local culture. Please pray for travel mercies for the team returning home. Pray for a smooth transition home, both physically, emotionally and spiritually. Pray for divine appointments in Cape Town for the 3 of us and to be open to what God has in store for us. Pray for the CR seminars scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Johannesburg.