The Adventures of Cambria: January 2010

This is the last post before my new blog.

This is important. Read AT LEAST the bold italicized paragraphs of this blog before entering my new blog.

I MEAN IT.
for good measure i wont put the link til the end. HA.
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Greetings from Colorado.

Hello everyone!

How are you?

I hope very well!

And happy new year!

This blog is going to sum up my life in the last few months since my last update, and it will bring you up to date with what God has been doing in my life.

I left South Africa December 17^th after an amazing stretch of trials, growth, and learning. I am currently in Colorado for the holidays, but I leave January 4^th to fly back into the world of missions, starting in Cairo, Egypt.

South Africa was a place that I came to love very quickly. The culture is fascinating, and I came to love the town of Muizenberg where I lived. It was a cute little community with so much beauty and so much culture. Parts of this town were very wealthy by South African standards, and felt very westernized which helped me feel at home. But then other parts of the community were very poor and dangerous. About 10 minutes walk from my house was a township called Capricorn. Capricorn is the remnants of displaced living from the Apartheid, and so it is essentially shacks set up very close to eachother where people who cant afford normal housing live. It is a dangerous place, with much crime and gang violence.

My team did most of our ministry there. The set up of our days were generally the same every week. Monday thru Friday we had class from 9am- noon, and then the rest of the day was set aside for photo assignments and ministry.

We involved ourselves in ministries with a local high school tutoring, doing Bible studies, holding prayer vigils, and teaching photography to young kids all in the township of Capricorn. God really gave us all a heart for this township being that it was very close to home (literally) and there was much sadness, crime, and poverty there. What is awesome is the Bible studies which seemed to be the biggest ministry of ours, are still going on after we left! There are friends of ours who are as committed as we were to seeing a change come to Capricorn through a common love of Jesus Christ. While we were there, I really did feel a shift in the overall feeling of the area as God was doing His work.

It was a blessing to be in South Africa, and I learned so much about social injustices in the form of prejudice, violence, and judgement. It was very strange seeing the separation of the whites from the others in the area, as many whites feel fear around the colored and black people (yes there is a difference between colored people and black people and yes it is politically correct to call them that in SA, look it up) of the community, and so they generally avoid them as much as possible. It is so strange to see neighbors treating eachother in that way.

I learned quickly that I wanted to see if I could bring these people together, and so I befriended people of every race in the community of Muizenberg. I like to think that when people see a white person interacting with people not of their color, it makes them think twice. That is the sort of influence that needs to be raised in South Africa.

I also made a point to just do ministry by getting to know the people in the town of Muizenberg. From the black waiter at the local pizza place, to the colored owner of a small coffee shop, to a white manager at a restaraunt, I found the most joy getting to know the people in the community and minster to them by being a walking example of love.

Now for the sake of keeping this blog shorter than I have been known to keep them in the past, I will tell you about what the coming months of my life will look like.

First and foremost, I have to make it absolutely clear that I will not be able to communicate normally in the coming months. In Egypt we have to take special care not to draw attention to our ministry, and so the YWAM leaders there have asked us not to use facebook at all, use limited e-mail, and only communicate via blog that is made out to be for tourism. Since Egypt is such a muslim country, they do not want any foreign missionaries there at all. So I will be making a new blog to use during my time in Egypt, Israel, and Palestine specifically. I will post the link on this blog, as well as key words I will use in my new blog so you know what I mean.

As far as ministry, I am not entirely sure what we will be involved in yet, as we haven’t been able to communicate with the people in Egypt about it a lot. I do know that we are going to have some learning time in Biblical studies, and we will study the Bible on location! What an incredible opportunity!!

I look forward to seeing how God uses me in Egypt and what ministry he will allow me to be involved in.

So from now on please keep up to date with me on my other blog

Know that I wont be able to post any more photos while im in Egypt and probably Israel too. I wont be e-mailing unless I am sure it is a secure connection and people are being cautious. That means you!

Cambriamichelle.wordpress.com- DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOU HAVE READ WHAT IS IN BOLD!! please!

And here is the key for the way I will speak:

God- My father

YWAM- the Y

Ministry (opportunities)- touristy things, touring with, touring opportunity

Missionary- traveler

WHAT IM DOING- my journey/ my travels

Ie: I wanna be a full time traveler and so I am setting out on a great touring opportunity with my father and a great traveling family I met at the Y in Egypt.

Meaning: I want to be a missionary and so I am involved in ministry alongside the Lord and a missionary family I met at YWAM in Egypt.

Haha. Get it?

Now for good measure!

Photos from South Africa!

Ncobile, sweet woman I stayed with and did a photo story on