Ok so lots to say from the last time I posted, but here is a quick rundown:
Friday - Worked hard in the morning and watched park in the afternoon. Friday night youth was guys and girls evening, so we split the genders up and the guys basically played a bunch of games that involved hurting each other. It was lots of fun, but during the last game some of the guys snuck outside and were throwing rocks at a pole over the church wall. Unfortunately there happened to be cars parked there and a rock damaged one of the guys cars. So ya, Dave and I have been dealing with that incident most of the weekend and since the mother can't pay the cost of the damage, the church will be paying and we will be making the kids do some kind of community service. Not a whole lot of fun, but it is all good experience that I am learning from.
Saturday - Woke up nice and late and went into a prayer time at church. Most of the church got together and it was great to spend an hour in prayer for what God is doing at the chapel. I then went down to the skatepark and was there for the afternoon. I had the great opportunity of falling off my skateboard with keys in my pocket, so i have a nice cut on my finger and a tear in my pants. Saturday night was Jamie's birthday party so we all hung out and watched some T20 cricket and Super 14 Rugby (go Sharks)
Sunday - Dave and I advertised for the BMX competition at the chapel next weekend with an impromto skit, it was below average, but I got to wear a pink helmet! Dave spoke in the youth and we are starting a new series on the life and teachings of Jesus, which i am really looking forward to! We had another soccer game and after being down 4-1 at the half, we came back to win it 5-4, and I got another 2 goals in a great team effort! Sunday night was the AGM at church, so we presented the youth side and people seemed really happy and supportive.
Monday - Day off, so Dave and I hung out at his place and wanted to do some filming for a youth video. After Dave left the camera at home though we decided to get lunch at Steers instead. In the afternoon I went with Allan and Nicky to UJ (University of Johannesburg) to watch a rugby match between UJ and some school from the Free State. The atmosphere was great and the stadium was pretty full, with UJ winning by 40 points!! Allan and I then hung out at his place for a bit, before I returned home to spend some time with the Forsyth boys.

It has been an exciting beginning of the week, all the ministries now have someone doing what we are calling managing and admin. Managing will be the running of the ministry and then admin will be the organization and admin side of it. The names are genius I know, you can thank Dave for that. Dave and I spent almost all of Tuesday preparing for youth on friday which we thought would be The Weakest Link. So we were making Powerpoints and coming up with questions when Dave checked the schedule and we realized that this week is guys and girls evening and Weekest Link was only next week so we are now prepared for that. Today was run errands day, so we went to Macro (the South African Sams Club) and got some supplies for the office, keys for me and our brand spanking new whiteboard for our office. I am proud to say that the first thing written on the whiteboard was "Dave is a negative nancy". I got back on a skateboard today and didn't die, so i thought that was quite an achievement. I'm down at the skatepark now and then its bible study later tonight.

Valentines Ball on Friday went pretty good, it was fun to see everyone all dressed up and the girls really love it. Allan and I had a lot of fun playing love songs and break up songs. But after us it was time to dance and get our groove on, we had some dance battles and gave out some prizes. It was a late night, but lots of fun.

Allan and I are now going to meet weekly which I’m pretty excited about. We are also putting plans in place to replace some grass on the soccer field so that we can get that ministry started by the end of March. We are starting Saturday night church on February 28, so there is some work that needs to go into that as well.

I am now back at the Forsyth’s for good now, Doug and Anne are away in Durban for the weekend for a wedding. So it is no more living alone and jumping from house to house for me. Anyway its off to folding bulletins for me!

Dave and I had a good meeting yesterday just hammering out what our goals are for the year and what we want to see happen in each ministry as well as the youth in general. I am really very excited about where things are and where they are going, it is all looking very healthy and growing quite naturally. This is a very important time though as a new crop of youth are coming through now and it is essential for us to built relationships and disciple them.

We've had another hard rain, and even a good bit of hail. The ground is covered with marble sized people of ice and I had to run to grab buckets and jugs to catch all the drips from our leaking roof. The lights are in fact flickering on and off as I type this. There really is nothing quite like a Highvelt thunder storm, they come fast and furious. I was told today that Johannesburg gets more lightning than any other city in the world and I believe it. I've missed this weather, the constant cycle of hot days, thunderstorm and then cool night, its clockwork.

Allan and I practiced our little hearts out and valentines ball is going to be good. We ended the night appropriately by watching the dashboard confessional unplugged for some inspiration.

Dave and I have hammered out our goals today, as well as looking at all the leaders and where they need to be. Please pray for the goals that they would be what God wants and that we would trust him to fulfill them. Once we have decided for sure I'll post them and let you all know. We also have decided that we will be going through the life of Christ in our Sunday morning teaching times.

Friday nights youth went quite well, it is strange doing a spiritual based evening with about 80% of the youth unchurched. Concepts like singing songs as worship are so foreign to them (and I think there is much to be learned from that). I spoke about Gods love and it seemed to be received well, hopefully it will get people thinking. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will work in these kids lives.

Saturday was "DAVES BACK" day! I am no longer a lone ranger, but Dave Livie our fearless leader is now back to work from honeymoon. We had our big leaders meeting, with 14 of the youth there. Ministries are starting to come together and most of the admin is looking good (something we both struggle with) so with that sorted we can get down to the ministry. I also got to video chat with my brother and sister in law through skype (get it and we'll chat) which was a great blessing!

Sunday I went to Palm Ridge, a church in a township south of Johannesburg. The people there are very poor, but we were able to take a team from chapel to minister to them. This was very exciting as a team I was a part of in July from LBC did a VBS ministry there at the church. It was great to see the fruits of our ministry and God has blessed the church greatly. They now have a generator and are using the keyboard we gave them for worship. Also they have started a Sunday School on Saturdays due to all the young children who were coming to the church after the VBS. It was really good to be there again and to see Gods faithful working in the church and the Palm Ridge Area.

I am back at housesitting for the Cox's, they have a very nice house with a pool, so I've been getting lots of swimming in. Ahh the struggles of the ministry lifestyle! Allan is coming over tonight to practice for the Valentines ball we are having at youth on Friday. We are playing a collection of dashboard confessional songs and a bunch of classic love songs (see Enrique Eglasias, Celine Dion, Goo Goo Dolls etc.). Should be loads of fun.

Please pray for:

Soccer ministry we are wanting to start up, we have a field but the grass is not growing properly and we are wanting to do coaching and host a 5 a side league.

The new year, its only really now kicking off now that Daves back, but that all the ministries would run smoothly and effectively.

That we would see guys and girls transition from the Skatepark and Friday night youth into home cells, sunday morning church and discipleship.

Bible study on Wednesday was fantastic, thanks for all your prayers, we had 6 guys and Dave E led it well. We also had a good young adults bible study and we have a good group of about 14. Apparently there was so much rain and run off on Wednesday that it knocked over a wall at the bottom of the property and flooded one of our neighbors house. It was insane!! I jammed with some of the boys hardcore style. We did a mean cover of boy brushed red living in black and white.

I went to Al and Rach Shuster for dinner and it was a great time of catching up and the supper was amazing! Their kids have gotten so big! I then went to the Forsyth's where I will be staying permanently and it was a good feeling to finally unpack all of my bags and settle in. I have Kevin's room, so I get a room to my self and follow in the great footsteps of Forsyth's who have previously occupied that hallowed space.

Tonight is a spiritual evening at youth and I will be speaking about Gods love and sharing the gospel, so please pray for that.

Also please pray that I transition well to staying with the Forsyth's.

Thank You and much love from a sunny South Africa

I neglected to inform last time that Allan and I had a Superbowl party, African Style! By that I mean nothing special, but the game started at 1 am here and I made it until the end of the 3rd quarter until I saw the time was 4am and I was fading. My Steelers (gotta hold it down for PA) were up so I went to bed happy. So yes I did miss the 4th quarter!!! but I caught it again on the replay the next day, so it is okay.

Its raining really hard today and we have gotten loads of rain already. This is possibly the hardest I've seen it rain, the streets are flooded and the bmx track at the skatepark is in bad shape. My car also was not starting earlier which is a bit of a concern. Also as I type this there are drips coming from leaks in our office ceiling in 4 or 5 places, so basically lots of rain is bad.

This has been a big sporting weekend! South Africa is now the number one ODI cricket team in world, beating those filthy Ausies, oh so satisfying. On Saturday we had youth band practice for next Fridays spiritual evening. I played guitar and helped teach the guys some new songs. It went really well and they are great, it should be really good on Friday. I helped Sean fix some of the ramps at the skate park, but the drill kind of broke so we still have some work to do. I spoke on Sunday about the problem of pain, why bad things happen to good people type of idea. We looked at the story of Paul, his shackles, his shipwreck and his snake bite. I had a braai at Daves place as a last hoorah and ended up with lots of cleaning and dishes (bad idea). We watched the Australian Open Final and then headed to soccer for a comfortable 6-1 win. Afterwards it was Liverpool vs Chelsea time and the boys came over to watch. Who knew ministry and sport watching went so hand in hand! I am now house sitting at the large house belonging to the Cox’s, I have so many rooms to choose from, its great! After work today I went with Allan and his friends to the South African Open and got to see David Ferer and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga! We had another leaders meeting tonight which was quite heavy because of all that’s been going on. The suicide really has shaken things, but I believe the church is really dealing with it well and in a healthy way. 

Dave is back today and comes back to work on Friday, pray for him and Michelle as they adjust to married life and living together (anyone needing to deal with Dave needs pray). Also pray for Pastor Doug and the leadership team as they try recover and deal with the aftermath of all that’s happened.