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