Term Four and a Little Before

Hello!

The forth term is moving along quickly; we have four more weeks until graduation! This year has gone by so fast, but so much has happened! This term has been less busy than most, although that will change soon when graduation takes up all of our focus. Highlights so far have been the Rise Fest in East London, worship lectures, chilling at the beach, boogie boarding, and Solitude week.

The highlight of my holiday was the surf trip:

From left to right: Dee (South African, Leadership Academy), me, Grant (Canadian, Leadership Academy), Hannah (American, Surf Masters), Rachel (Canadian, Surf Masters), Frank (Dutchie, Surf Masters). We went with Carl, a surfer from Surf Life who did VGY a few years ago. We spent our first day driving to Vic Bay in George and surfed there for a bit. It's a nice spot! Then we camped for the night. I went surfing as soon as I woke up--for two hours! It was really fun. I'm still a beginner, but I enjoyed it.

We stayed in a guest house on the beach near Mossel Bay. Some days we surfed right outside our house, and other days we drove to surf spots. The first few days I stuck to foamies--waves just after they break. After I had figured out how to stand, Carl showed us beginners how to ride face-waves--waves as they're breaking! I don't totally have the hang of it yet, but it was fun trying. One day we went body boarding, which is like surfing but on a smaller board, and you don't stand. If you ever have the chance to body board, I totally recommend it (if you are a confident swimmer)!

Surfing a foamy.

 

 (left to right) Dee, me, and Grant

 

It was a blast!

 

In other news:

• Last week was Solitude week--basically the next best thing to Matthew 4. We lived in the woods for a week without technology, built our own shelter, and spent most of day in solitude. For food, we were given an apple, banana, carrot, and potato--each day. It was the closest thing I've ever experienced to true hunger. I learned a lot about being content (Philippians 4) and relying on God's strength. I literally spend the whole day with God! It was amazing!
• Yesterday, I took my Rock School Exam. I did electric guitar, grade 8. I had to play a few scales, take a few ear-training tests, play a technical exercise, learn and perform a quick-study piece, and play three songs (one samba, one rock, and one metal). It went well! I could have done better, but I'm confident that I passed. It takes a lot of pressure off having it done!
• Two weeks ago, as a fund-raiser, Leadership Academy had a Country Fresh Market in the mall. They sold baked goods, lemonade, pancakes, hotdogs, and had live music. A few of us from Worship Academy and my friend Alex (my twin) played jazz music for an hour. It was really fun!

Until next time,

Nad

The Kingdom Came!

Our CD is available on iTunes!!!! http://itunes.apple.com/album/id920272411

Hello!!!

The last week was the CD launch/production! It was definitely one of the highlights of my whole year! So much work was put into it, and the result was insanely awesome!

 

Celebrating Generation: (left to right) Josh on electric guitar, Frikkie on electric guitar, Sebastian on snare drum, me on acoustic (I'm kinda hidden, but I'm there...), Marike on background vocals, Rachel on background vocals, Armand on drum kit, Callyn Leigh on lead vocals, WP on the bass, Dooitze on keys, Herman on keys, Obi on keys. This was a really fun song to do live! Callyn Leigh rocked it!! Everyone was clapping along and smiling all was well with the world.

Before the big night, we put in a lot of work behind the scenes to make everything run smoothly and create an "Unshakable Kingdom" vibe.

 

 

 The giant letters were made out of cardboard boxes, paper-mached, and painted white. I paper-mached the U and the H! We were going to make a "Kingdom" too, but ran out of materials. It all worked out in the end, though, because "Unshakable" was huge and it fit the whole stage.

 

 

Our posters were all sponsored! We hung them up all over town wherever we could, and still had some left over. We also had a bunch of papers to decorate the room with; you can probably guess which side of the billboard I decorated. (the left side. the right is a bit too... uniform)

 

The street sign polls were made with pvc pipe, spray painted with silver spray paint! The signs themselves are cardboard with paper glued on top. We're fancy. The "urban eats" sign refers to the coffee shop that catered for us. They had amazing brownies.

 

The backdrop was made with 16 giant panels of sheet cardboard. Each panel was cut, painted, and hung up individually! Needless to say, it was much faster to take down than to put up.

 

Sarah did my makeup and hair for the night. This is me right before the show...

 

...And after! So much work went into it, but it went by so fast!

 

 

For more pictures of the launch: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.954096681273630.1073741922.158045144212125&type=1

The documentary of the project is on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTfmPJo-GTM&feature=share

And, as always, you can stay updated on what we're doing at VGY on the VGY Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/victorygapyear


In other news:

• This week, I went on a surf trip down the garden route! It was a blast! I do a post on that soon. Hopefully.
• Next week, we go to East London and do our Unshakable Kingdom production there! Yay!

Until next time,
Nad



 

Enjoying Life!

Hello!

I'm really enjoying life! The Unshakeable Kingdom Project is closer to completion, I'm studying for Rock School exams (electric guitar, grade 8), the weather is becoming warmer (and windier), my music lessons (drums, guitar, vocals) keep me busy and challenged, and God is good!

Here's more things I'm enjoying:

 

1. God's beautiful creation!

I feel very lucky and blessed to live in Jbay. The sunrises are breathtaking, the stars are really bright, and the ocean is right there.

2. Photo shoots

We had a photoshoot for our album! It took a few hours to take three pictures. Despite a lot of waiting and posing, it was a really neat experience. I also quite enjoyed being a hipster!

3. The weather

Winter is coming to an end and summer is almost here! It's become increasingly warm, and very windy! Nice weather for walking, biking, chilling on the beach, etc.

 

 

4. Lekker Braai!

(left to right) Marike, Sarah, Armand, me, WP, Josh, Frikkie, and Cari

Today, we had a braai (South African barbecue) near the beach for lunch, complete with steak, potato salad, garlic bread, and guacamole! Yum!

 

5. The beach

Before we ate, we went down to the beach and watched the surfers. The waves were huge! I don't surf, but it's really fun to watch.

 

6. Being ginger!

 (left to right, back to front) Sarah, Alex, me, Matthjis, and Lauren

 We had a Ginger Tea Party! We ate ginger pudding, apple crisp, strawberries, honey crullers, and cheddar Pringles, washing it all down with ginger beer and ginger tea! We discussed the benefits and struggles of being redheaded, our hair-itage, and the truth behind the stereotypes. It was a blast!

We made the blondes and brunettes jealous. =P

 

 

In other news:

• We got 9 out of 10 songs on our album back from mixing, and they sound fantastic!!!
• I've officially lived in South Africa for seven months! We only have three months left!!! I'm trying to make the most of every moment.

 

Hope you enjoy the rest of your summer (if you live in the Northern Hemisphere) or the rest of your winter (if you live in the Southern Hemisphere)!

 

Until next post,

Nad



Unshakable Kingdom!

Hello!

The Unshakable Kingdom project is running at full force! Here's a promo video that we released today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpJYMA17pUc&feature=share

If you could share the video with your friends, that would be great! We're trying to spread the word as much as possible about the Unshakable Kingdom. :) Thanks!

Here's a teaser we released last month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9GL-x__qNM

We also have an instagram: http://instagram.com/unshakablekingdom2014

And you can follow VGY on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victorygapyear

Also, they've updated the VGY student page! http://victorygapyear.co.za/students/meet-the-students.html
Keep in mind that these pictures were taken at the very beginning of the year, and everyone has changed a lot. Especially me. My haircut in the picture is horrible.

It's been a busy journey so far, but I've enjoyed it immensely! Here's a bit of my experience so far in picture form:

I feel like a rock star! We have a jam room at our VGY campus that we've converted into a recording studio. There's a sound-proof-ish booth there that was originally designed for drums, but we use it to record voice-overs for the documentary, film, and promo-clips. One day, Dooitze and I were bored, so we recorded our own radio show!

The recording of the CD happened at a recording studio in Humans Dorp. A guy with have connections with has his own private studio in his house that he lets us use every year! We are really blessed! I had the privilege of recording both guitar tracks and background vocals. It was a really cool experience!

Lourens (on the left) is my house dad. He's in charge of making sure the CD sounds good--arranging, editing, and producing the album. It's a lot of work, but he's very good at it! He was a part of WA their first year (2005) while this studio was being built! Obi (on the right) is an insane pianist! He's really into jazz and gospel--and he's really good at it! I'm really excited to hear his tracks. There are three other pianists on the album, and each has a different flair.

There was a lot of chilling at the studio. As part of the documentary team, Herman took pictures on an expensive camera; Armand took videos on his phone because he's Armand. He has hundreds of phone-videos on his laptop that Rachel and I watched while waiting. We got in trouble for laughing so hard! My favorite one was of Frikkie trying to flip a pancake--but it lands on his face!

This is a very sound-proof room where they keep the drum kits. It's so sound-proof, I was able to jam on the drums while they were recording piano!

 

 

The drum kit is massive and there are so many things you can do with it! Unfortunately, it belongs to the owner of the studio and if we touch it we get in huge trouble. So we brought and used our own (the one on the left). We have two drummers on the album--Armand and WP. Both have been playing for over 7 years and are insane! In the promo clip, they're the two guys who are interviewed together; WP is the one who says my favorite line at the end. The other guy who's interviewed in the video (with the amazing afro) is Sebastian (or Sebass or Seabass or C-bass or Fluffy); he's our gifted rapper.

Driving to the studio took at least a half an hour each way, but it wasn't too bad, because the drive was always beautiful! But there were a lot of dirt roads, which meant a really dirty van at the end of the week.

This is our jam studio! I popped in today to watch Ludo record her Spoken Word. She's an amazing writer!



So this is my life right now! I'm on the documentary team, and it's really busy filming people working, filming people filming, editing promo clips, filming people brainstorming, interviewing, filming in general, and sifting through the footage for usable material.

In other news:

• Leadership returned safely from Zambia yesterday! We'll hear about their adventures tomorrow morning after worship. For more about how that went and pictures: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zambia-2014-Missions-Trip/1494509470780576
• The Call Conference was amazing! I wasn't able to attend the morning sessions, due to recording, but the night sessions were fantastic! Here's a short video on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4I3IWn5aEk&feature=share
• I have a list that a few people made for me of 200 "must-see" movies. I'm not going to watch all of them (127 Hours, Shutter Island, World War Z), but so far I've seen 31 of them in the past 6 months including the Lion King, Forrest Gump, Hunger Games 1 and 2, Inception, Beauty and the Beast, Surf's Up, and Grease. Some of them were amazing, some of them were just meh. Needless to say, I'm taking a break from watching movies for a while...
• We have three weeks to finish this project! Please pray for unity as we work with Media to release our very best.

I hope you have a great rest of your week and a restful weekend!

Until next post,
Nad

Sunrise, Sunset

Hello!

Of all the places I've been in the world, South Africa boasts of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets I've ever seen! All these pictures were taken with my phone's camera, without any filters. Enjoy!

Sunset over the Valley of Desolation in Graaf Reinet

 

Sunrise over Graaf Reinet

Sunset over Summerset West

 

 Same sunset, half an hour later!

Sunrise from the street outside my house

Sunset over the ocean in Capetown (behind me is Table Mountain)

Sunset from our van's window on the way to East London

Sunset in JBay from Victory Christian Church

Sunset in JBay from VCC

Sunrise in JBay

 

 

In other news:

 

• We started recording our CD--Unshakeable Kingdom! We've laid down the drum, keys, and piano tracks so far. Vocals will be recorded next week. This week, we've been working on the pitch, pronunciation, harmonies, and accents with our vocal trainer so we'll be ready to walk in and record. Please pray for our voices! A few of us are getting over colds. It's winter! Oh the joys!
• The Call youth conference is happening at church this week! http://the-call.co.za/ Pray for hearts to be opened and ears to hear the message.
• Leadership Academy is preparing to drive to Zambia next week for their outreach! It's a 4 day drive!

 

Until next time,

 

Nad

 

 



LIV Village

Hello again! Wow, three posts in one day! That's some kind of record for procrastinators everywhere!

Here's a brief summary of my time at LIV village last week. It was an incredible experience, and I'm really glad I had the chance to go!

Sunday--
Our team left JBay at 1pm, and drove to East London. Around 7pm, we arrived at a youth center in East London, where we stayed the night. There were 14 of us-- one media student (Jenna), three leadership students (Calvin, Sarah, and Luke), four second year students (Mike, Matty, Jandre, and Ruth), one third year student (Zane) a guy from the church (James) and his American girlfriend (Michelle), two leaders (Stephan and Sabina), and me. Michelle is from Kansas and speaks Chinese! We had great conversations. She looks Chinese, but has never lived in China; I'm the opposite. All week, kids would ask her if she was Chinese, and I would confuse them by responding in Chinese!

Monday--
We woke up early and left the youth center at 5:30am. Then we drove all day, arriving at LIV just before dinner. We met two volunteers, Kim and Megan, who helped us out during the week. They're from Arkansas! Dee (LA2) and her sister Kay (LA last year) drove down from where they lived two hours away, and joined our team. Then Kim and Megan gave us a quick tour. LIV has a very unique setup--it's a village, not just a house. There are clusters of houses, 5-6 in a cluster. There are 3-6 kids in each house. Each house has a 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living space. Each house also has a mother. There are just over 100 kids now; they're expanding. The village also contains several playgrounds, classrooms, a hall, a tennis court, and a giant field. The volunteers live in the back in the same style houses. Our group stayed in three of them. Food was provided all week; we took turns being on cooking team and scullery.

Tuesday--
After breakfast at 7am, we met with Tich, the founder of LIV. It was neat to hear his heart behind the village and vision for the future. Then we started with holiday club. There were maybe 50 or so kids there. In the morning we did worship, icebreakers, and field games. I lead worship with Matty, but it was awkward because I didn't know what songs the kids knew, and picked ones they didn't know. In the afternoon we broke off into 5 different clubs. I lead a music club. Unfortunately, we forgot to begin the day with prayer, so we were very stressed and confused and self-focused. While the morning went okay, the afternoon did not. Kids didn't listen, fights broke out, and crying ensued. That night we got together with the LIV volunteers for dessert and fellowship.

Wednesday--
We started the day with worship and prayer, which really made a difference. Then we filled water balloons for an hour. The morning activity was water--bouncy waterslide for the little kids, and water balloons+slipinslide for the older kids. The afternoon camps went very smoothly, because this time the kids picked which one they wanted, instead of being assigned.

Thursday--
The morning activity was more like the first day, but much smoother. We knew the kids at this point, and I knew what songs they knew. In the afternoon, a Christian school group came from Jo'burg and did a program for the kids. That night, we broke off into groups of 3. Each group went to a different house for dinner. I was with Mike and Dee. The house we went to had 6 kids--ages 13, 11, 10, 7, 6, and 3; four boys, two girls. The mom had her hands full! We had a delicious meal, good fellowship, and then prayed for the family. Neat experience! Later that night, we got together with some volunteers and had an awesome worship session.

Friday--
In the morning, we gathered in the hall for worship with the volunteers. Then we were privileged to spend time with Tich. The morning holiday club comprised of worship, a skit, and then a water slide. We had the afternoon off, so I took a nap. Then we visited Pastor Andre and his family in their vacation home. They also drove down with us. The family had been on vacation while Pastor Andre was in meetings. Had a lekker braai (delicious barbecue)!

Saturday--
Saturday was our fun Durbin day! We went to uShaka Marine World and water park. They have a really cool aquarium that's designed to look like a shipwreck. The water park was really fun! They have over 10 water slides, including Africa's tallest water slide (which I call "The Weggie Machine")! I definitely recommend uShaka! I also bought a zip-up hoodie (because I forgot to bring any sort of jacket). For lunch, we had really spicy Indian food. Very good!

Sunday again--
In the morning, half of us went to Harvest church (a sister-church of Victory), and half (including me) went to LIV's service. Worship was mostly in Zulu; the sermon was in English and translated. Really neat experience! Mike and Dee gave their testimonies. The message was about "I will make you fishers of men". For the evening service, we went to Harvest. Pastor Andre gave the message on Elisha and Elija. After that, we went to the mall. Then Pastor Andre said that one of the pastors at Harvest had blessed us with money to spend--50R per person! That was a cool blessing. When we got home, we cleaned the houses and hung out with the volunteers.

Monday again--
Woke up at 4:30am, left at 5am, drove all day, arrived at the Youth Center late afternoon. After dinner, we hooked up Stephan's computer to the projector system and put our mattresses out on the floor and had a movie night. We watched Ocean's 11 and 12. I fell asleep during the second one.

Tuesday (yesterday)--
We left at 8 yesterday morning and drove all day, arriving in Jeffreys around 1pm.

For more about LIV, check out their website--http://www.liv-village.com/

Until next post,
Nad

Holiday Highlights

Hello!

The second term went really quickly, but was very busy.

Highlights of second term include: Purpose and Destiny lecture series, Deliverance course, Empowering Relationships lecture series, Garden Route Outreach, One Voice Comference, guitar lessons, drum lessons, vocal lessons, vision casting the album, and song writing.

We've officially started working on the album! Recording is next week. Here's a teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNVGdawC4o&list=UUVHZTGjVJp_c9fVJvNdhBAQ
I know it doesn't make any sense, but that's why it's called a teaser. :)

After the term ended, holiday began! Here are some highlights of my vacation so far:

(From left to right) Josh, Armand, Herman, me, and Dooitze at a KGB church event. Yes, KGB. We dressed up in orange jumpsuits and war-paint. Then we chased 10-13 year-olds around a school and tried to catch them while speaking in Russian accents. If we caught them, we would take them to "jail", where they were "tortured" (fed weird foods, covered in flour, did pushups, etc.). There was even a real police van there! It was really fun! Great exercise! Unfortunately, there were several people in the neighborhood who didn't know what was happening. They called the police, saying, "These people need backup! The criminals in the orange jumpsuits are trying to catch children and the police aren't stopping them fast enough!"

And this is what happens if you try to steam spinich with a plastic strainer. 

One Saturday, I biked over to the Surf Masters' house, and spent the day with my freind Kayleigh (she's Canadian). We randomly decided to make sushi, so we walked to the store and found everything we needed--seaweed, avocado, salmon, rice, carrots, cucumber, and hoisen sauce. It was the equivilant of $9 each to make 10 sushi rolls each--much cheeper than going to a restaurant for the same amount of sushi! It was a lot of sushi. I ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Last week, a team of 14 of us from church drove down to LIV village--an orphanage near Durbin. It's actually less like an orphanage, and more like a village. I'll post a post on it after this one. This is the sunset. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the kids for safty reasons, so I don't have a lot of pictures from my time there. But I do have a lot of memories. :)

On Saturday, we went to uShaka Marine World in Durbin. It was like a mini Sea World! Really fun. I definitely recommend it. They also have a water park, with Africa's tallest water slide!

Nemo in uShaka!

(From left to right) Jandre, Jenna, Kay, Zane, Dee, and I eating Bunny Chow--really spicy Indian food that you eat with your hands--just outside on uShaka water park. It was amazing! Durbin has the highest population of Indians in South Africa, so it was authentic.

Bunny Chow--nothing to do with bunnies.

 

(From left to right) Jandre, Dee, me, Mike, Michelle, and James in the Quantum (a van). We did a lot of driving. It was four hours from JBay to East London, and then eleven hours from East London to Durbin. Needless to say, we got really close--literally.

 

The sunset in East London (we stayed the night at a youth center there on the way driving back from Durbin).

The major highlight of my holiday so far was LIV village. Like I said, my next post will be about that.

It's funny, because althought it's technically winter holiday here, the temperature has mostly been in the 70's and 80's (Ferinheight)! A cold-front is starting to settle in, though, which means late 60's. It's raining now; I think I'm the only one in this house who likes rain. What can I say--I'm a Seattle-ite!

Will post soon!
Nad

Selfie!

I was supposed to post this last month, but for some reason didn't. Oops. I'll post it anyway. :)


Hello!


As busy as life gets, somehow I always find time to take a selfie... (That's ironic...)

Artistic!

My roommate Rachel and I at the beach

Selfie with a peacock! (at the campgrounds we stayed at for the One Voice conference)

I met and took a selfie with Paul Baloche! Well, kinda...

Grace and I at the One Voice conference

 

 

That's all I had. I will post something else soon.

 

Until next post,

Nad