Armor really isn’t for kids...

--The internet has been out at the house and the coffeehouse I am at right now won't let me upload pictures... so

sorry there are no pictures today! --

Hey again, I hope you have been doing well since my last update. I have been very very busy over the past week or so (along with the internet not working) and now I finally have some time to let you know what’s been going on! I guess I’ll start with what we did in Holiday Club (VBS) over the past week. This previous week we have been going over the Armor of God found in Ephesians 6. We have been teaching the kids Ephesians 6:13 as their memory verse for the week and I am so happy to say that many actually do know the verse, including many of the kids from my group! “Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground.” - Eph. 6:13

For the past two weeks or so, I have been going to the liquor store every morning. I am a regular there. I even needed a grocery cart to hold all the stuff I was getting at the liquor store. And all of this was part of my ministry here :)

The beer trays are the perfect size for the Shield of Faith craft we are doing for the kids! So every morning I would visit two local liquor stores with a shopping cart and take their extra beer trays. What we do is we cut a small hole in one side for the handle and then tie string around the other end so it makes a perfect shield. We planned on having the kids paint over the beer labels as part of the craft. The paint never dried though, so we ended up having the beer trays, floors, walls, clothes, the kids, and myself covered in pink paint! It was a blast!

When I first started working here I was not very good with kids, but (people tell me) I am getting much much better. Something encouraging happened the other day. There is this awesome kid named Philip in my group. He is really good at soccer. Better than me. My first day in Ocean View this kid literally made me fall while we were playing! Anyways, Philip and the rest of the group were making the boots for the armor of God, these boots represent the “Gospel of Peace.” The kids were supposed to make them for themselves, but Philip made me some Nike shoes with the swoosh and all and then put my name on it. Julie, one of the leaders at Ocean View, said in her hardly understandable murmur that “The kids are looking up to you Josh, you’re getting much better.” - Awesome.

It is sometimes hard to look at these kids and know that they are going to have a good life and try to encourage them when I know what will probably happen to these kids or what many of them will have to go through. The purpose of teaching the kids the armor of God is not to say that life will be easy as a Christian. We taught them the story of Job as a reminder of this! Going over the memory verse further emphasizes this point. When saying the verse earlier today I said all of the above and then quoted the verse by saying: “Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, and it will come, you will be able to stand your ground... Using your faith and reliance on God our Father.”

The basic message we were trying to portray to the kids over the past week was that every Christian has an “Armor of God.” Even though you may be an adult and the “Armor of God” may seem like an idea more directed at children. And admittedly the idea of putting God’s armor on may seem a little elementary at first (and I even considered not writing what I did below because it seems so cheesy). But I don’t think you, or I, get off the hook that easy because Paul wasn’t writing to children. He may have had children in the back of his mind while writing the letter but Ephesians was written to the entire church at Ephesus and not merely to the kids there. So as adults we are to put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes we will be able to stand our ground. What I was saying to the kids this morning is that although we have made these crafts which represent the armor of God, this armor is not physical. It is a spiritual armor that, as Christians, we are to carry with us daily. Meaning we are to carry our sword of the Spirit as our tool to pierce others with the Gospel. We are to use our belt of truth to hold us up against the lies and the deceitfulness of the world. We are to carry our righteousness everywhere we go, humbly. We can be confident in our safety because of our helmet of salvation. We are to use our boots/shoes to spread the Gospel of Peace. And, what I relate to best, our shield of faith in God can protect us from the doubt and pain that we will encounter in the world.

But who is armor for? Well obviously, armor is for soldiers, it is not for civilians. I am tempted to say that there should be no “civilians” in the Christian Community. Whether or not you or I want to hear it, is fairly irrelevant. As Christians we are called to be active in our faith, yet we are so often tempted to be doormat members of the body of Christ. People often wonder why the Christian church isn’t growing as fast as Islam. Well, I think it is greatly a result of lazy and doormat “Christians.” Those who have become satisfied (and I can often include myself in this group) and comfortable in the four walls of their church often grow doormat. But how can the body function if part of it quits? If my hands were to stop working, I think I could still manage fairly well but my life’s activities would be significantly hindered. If my legs and feet decided to stop working, even more so. The body of Christ, I believe, is similar. Whenever we go doormat we are hindering the entire work of the body.

Christ says in Luke 11:23 that “Anyone who is not with Me is against Me.” So I’m thinking that we should choose to be “with” Christ, because it probably isn’t the best choice to go against our Creator. So I hope you have chosen to be “with” Christ, but there are some issues in being “with” Christ.

It isn’t easy, and we can’t be doormat.

Jesus says in Luke 9:23-24 that “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it.”

Taking up and carrying a cross in order to follow someone is anything but doormat. We are told that a tree’s goodness is determined by its fruit. A good tree does not bear bad fruit and a bad tree bears either poor fruit or no fruit at all. As a Christian we are called by our Savior to produce good fruit, but the question is: what kind of fruit are we actually producing? Are we even producing fruit? Are we just sitting in church or at work doormat and fruitless?

May we recognize this truth: that we are not and cannot be civilians in Christ, we can only be soldiers. And as soldiers we have this armor of God to aid us in producing the type of fruit that Christ calls us to. So let us use our shield of faith to deter doubt from the world. Let’s use the word of the Lord to help us wear our breastplate of righteousness and increase our knowledge of our safety found in salvation. Let’s pick up our cross daily and follow the call of Christ (Matt. 28) to use our shoes to spread the gospel of peace to all the ends of the earth and the sword of the spirit to piece deep into their hearts.

Well there’s a quick update about what I have been up to on the ministry side of the past week. I’ll write another one shortly about my unforgettable weekend at the World Cup! Until next time! Thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Josh

Fathers Day

Fathers Day.

Hello to you, one of my 7 faithful readers! Thanks once again for checking out the blog! As you may know, today is Fathers day, so to my dad: Happy Fathers Day Dad! I have been so fortunate to have such a great Christian leader and influence in my life. I am very thankful to have you as a friend and look forward to spending even more time with you when I get home!

--Just watched a player from Paraguay score a goal and scream “Papa! Papa!” as a celebration. Awesome.

In the spirit of Fathers Day I figured I would write a little bit about fathers and their influence, or lack of influence, in their children’s lives. Let me just say real quickly that when I walked into church this morning, one of the greeters asked me if I was a father! Am I really getting old enough to look like a potential father?! I certainly hope not!

Anyways, back to the subject of fathers and fathering... Today at church, the King of Kings pastor, John Thomas, gave a sermon on the importance of fatherhood and used examples from the Bible to illustrate this. I must say it doesn’t really apply to me right now but it is always good to think about the type of character I should strive for in the future.

Having a solid foundation at home in the form of a father is incredibly vital to the development of good character. Here are some statistics on fatherless homes:

In South Africa...

90% of homeless people come from a fatherless home

80% of rapists come from a fatherless home

71% of High School drop-outs come from a fatherless home

68% of suicides come from a fatherless home

85% of those in prison come from a fatherless home

Pastor John imagines how different this place (and the world in general) would look like if there was a firm foundation at home in the form of a father. And even more so, the solid influence of a Christian father at home. The statistics above do not even include households with poor fathering.

One thing of interest that I have noticed in my 24 days of living here is that people mostly address God in prayer as “Father God.” Almost every local, whether at Living Hope or in Ocean View, refers to our Lord as “Father God.” -- Almost to the point of annoyance, but not quite! A short prayer may sound something like this:

“Dear Lord Father God, thank you so much for the opportunity we have to work with these kids Father God. Father God, please work through us Father God and be reflections of your image Lord Father God. Allow us to share your gospel Jesus Christ and give us the type of patience and understanding that can come from you, Lord Father God... Amen”

Maybe this excessive use of “Father God” doesn’t mean much, but maybe it does. Obviously, many of the people living here have grown up with either no father or a poor example of a father. Why then do these people use the term “father” when addressing their God? It would seem that people would shy away from the use of this term if they have a bad history with their father but this doesn’t seem to be the case. It could be that they feel adopted into the family of God and are just so excited about their role as children of the greatest Father imaginable. And they are family. We are all family and we are all children of a perfect father who will never forsake us.

(this may be my favorite picture of all time!)

As much as I love my dad and wish I was as smart and wise as him, he is not perfect. Especially when it comes to basketball, just kidding, but seriously... He has started to loose some hair and I dread the day I will do the same! He is a wonderful dad in all honesty, but not perfect. In Luke 11 the disciples ask Jesus what they should say when they go to the Lord in prayer. He answers them by saying: “Our Father who is in heaven...” The greek word abba is an intimate term for a father that shows a close relationship between the one saying it and the one to whom it is being said. A commonly preferable translation of the term abba is “dad” or “daddy.” It is in this moment, as the disciples circle around Jesus hanging on the his every word, that He invites them into the family of God. This is a prayer for all of us to say and to place great importance in. People often overlook the role of God as father and maybe it is time that we acknowledge the implications of this. We become God’s sons and daughters. We are literally adopted into a family. It often costs at least 20,000 to 30,000 dollars to adopt a child in the U.S. (not to mention the cost of food, clothes, and schooling!). But this is nothing compared to the cost that Christ paid in order to adopt us! Thank the Lord (our father) for that!

In one of Jesus’ most desperate moments, He cries out to the Lord (in Mark 14:36) “Abba (Dad), Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will but you will.” --> “Dad, please take this responsibility from me. But if it is not your will, I will do as you will.”

Powerful stuff. In this desperate moment he cries out to God as “Father.”

(I’m almost done, hang on with me for another minute)

In the most desperate moment of His entire ministry on earth, Jesus is trying to pull himself up on the cross using the nails hammered through his wrists to merely take a breath. In this moment he cries out: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Now some may initially think that this is a very negative thing for the Christ to say in his moment of death. However, it is quite the opposite. In those times, people often memorized large portions of the Word since they were not an abundance of copies lying around with dust on their covers, like today. In this culture one would often quote the first phrase in a passage and others would then know that this person is actually referring to an entire passage rather than simply one verse. So when Jesus says “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani” -- “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” -- He is actually referring, in Hebrew, to the entire 22nd Psalm. Not simply one line.

Go read it. The whole thing. Read Psalm 22 knowing that Jesus was using this passage of scripture to describe his emotions and experience on the cross and his utter reliance on his abba.

Pretty powerful stuff my friends. Imagine if you could rely on your father like Christ did. Imagine if you could strive to be the type of father where your children could rely on you like this. Thank goodness for our Father who fulfills this role for all of us no matter how disappointing or wonderful our earthly father was. We all have this Dad to rely on and depend on. I only hope that I can try to communicate this idea to some of this kids, fatherless or not, over the next two months.

Cheers,

Josh

T.I.A.

Hello again, thanks for checking out my blog, hope you are enjoying it! Well I thought I would tell you about my my last Friday of the Upwards Soccer week at Ocean View. There is a interesting and very true phrase often said here: T.I.A. = “This is Africa”

(Here is a good example - on the right- many children do not have tissues, as they are a rare thing, and just about every kids has a consistently running nose)->

- Thanks to Carley for letting me steal these two pics!

While its true that Cape Town is very modern there are still elements of the culture that are much different from the States. One of the mostprominent cultural differences is the value placed on time and planning. For those of you that know me, I am pretty chill about schedules and love to go with the flow and be spontaneous throughout life. But even for someone like me, it is quite an adjustment to this new concept of time or planning (or lack thereof)! Things here are often never planned out and often feel very randomized. God is certainly using this experience to teach me patience and humility. I do like to know what is going to happen in Kids Club the next day so I can adequately prepare for it but I am learning to adjust and do what is necessary when a need arises without any preparation. I’ll give you a couple examples:

Last week, Carley and I volunteered to do morning devotions for the volunteers in Ocean View. On Monday we were ready for it but due to other things those who had asked for the devotion never gave us the opportunity to share. On Tuesday however, they wanted a devotion to happen and thankfully I had the one for the previous day. The devotion was for about 10-15 staff members. Kevin, the guy in charge, asked me to make a devotion for Thursday for the whole of the volunteers. This number would be (and I’m guessing here) about 35 people. I spent about 2-3 hours working on it Wednesday to make sure I wouldn’t embarrass myself and to hopefully share something worthwhile to our mission. Despite all this Thursday came and no devotional time took place, Friday came and the case was the same as well. Oh well, I guess I have one I can pull out of my sleeve later on. This just goes to show that things don’t always go as planned and it is a test of my patience. I’m getting better though!

(Me on top of Table Mountain) --->

On Tuesday I was asked about 5 minutes before the kids devotional time to tell them the story of creation, I didn’t even have a Bible on me! Didn’t go very well honestly. Even still it is great practice and experience. On Thursday a similar thing happened and I was kind of put on the spot again to try to hold dozens of kids attention for 20 minutes in trying to communicate the fact that God is one. So I figured I would prepare really well for the kids devotion on Friday afternoon, and I thought I did. The purpose of the devotion was to essentially communicate the idea that Jesus is God’s Son to the kids. To show them that it is a free gift and that Jesus desires that relationship with every single one of them. The kids are supposed to get apples during devotional time so I planned on using the apples as the core of my devotion. I was going to use the apple as an analogy for Christ. I was going to point out that one may think about eating the apple, one can study it, one can talk about how big it looks or whether it is red or green, but he or she can not experience the apple and its taste until they accept it as a free gift. So therefore God is doing the same thing. His apple is Jesus Christ and all we have to do is accept it from Him. I would have been handing out the apples to them one at a time while explaining this. Sounded great in my head.

Well, the fruit didn’t arrive by the time devotions started and once again I was left standing there with no analogy, no story, and not much to say for 20 minutes. On top of all that the wind here is very loud and strong. I’m pretty sure that no kid heard anything I had to say today. It was certainly a struggle. All this goes to say that things here certainly don’t always go as planned and it is a good thing I am learning how to adjust and be flexible in these kinds of situations. To be honest I have no idea what we are doing on Monday as far as the kids program goes, but once again, I am learning to simply go with the flow. I am very much looking forward to seeing what God will do in Ocean View next week and I love the fact that I get to be a small part of it! When I was getting ready to do the devotion for the kids today a couple of the kids ran up to me and told me the Bible verse from the previous day! They had been listening! They had understood! And they may even be able to apply it in the future!

(Tried to take some artsy pictures with a very average camera) --

Another day, another week gone by. Looking forward to get to sleep in tonight and tomorrow morning! Until next time...

Josh Sheppard

Hiking a Table

Hello again everyone,

I hope you are doing well. Thanks so much for your continued prayer and support, I really am so blessed to have you in my life! While writing this, I am watching the Mexico v. France game. I have to admit, much of the World Cup has been disappointing so far. Most games have had a very slow pace and have ended in draws. Watching Bafana Bafana lose to Uruguay last night was unbelievably frustrating! The only way S.A. can pass through the group play stage is for Mexico and France to tie. So I am actually hoping for a tie!

Well since I have this free time, I figured I would write about a couple of the fun opportunities I have had while in Cape Town since arriving here exactly three weeks ago. You may or may not know, but as a volunteer here, we are off on the weekends and are free to explore this beautiful city. Some have gone shark-cage diving and others are planning on going sky-diving this Saturday (I am limited to the cheaper options but it has still been an unbelievable experience).

My first Saturday I was “recovering” from jet-lag by stupidly taking naps all day. However, on the

second weekend here a group of us decided to head into Simon’s Town and the surrounding area to look around. At a very nice restaurant I paid about 11$ for this bowl of chicken and pasta, along with a glass of wine; all while looking out onto the water. Food is, for the most part, much cheaper here... And for those of you who know me, this is a wonderful thing for me! After some looking around at a few shops we decided to go for a drive around the coast. I can honestly say (I think) that this day I was more amazed at the beauty of creation over any other day in my life (I think). There was one beach near a town called “Camel Rock,” that we decided to stop by. It was just gorgeous. The clear water crashing against the rocks with the sunlight gleaming off the shallows was... Well it was very calming. There was this awesome blonde haired, blue-eyed kid jumping around the rocks. He would pick up muscles and eat them raw. When he ran all the way to the furthest rock in the sea he flexed and screamed “I am the king of the sea!”

(see picture to the right -->)

-- pretty cool

We continued to drive around the coastline aimlessly, enjoying every moment and sight we encountered. Even saw a couple baboons! I already told you a little bit about our trip into the center of Cape Town for the opening game of the World Cup. I must admit I was very guilty of using a vuvuzela and defining all of those around me. Watching S.A. score the first goal of the WC along with dancing and singing “Waka Wake” and “Wavin’ Flag” with thousands of South Africans is truly something I will never forget! (You can see the video of this below!) The next morning after the opener, Hannah, Justine, Stewart, and I decided to hike up Table Mountain. Table Mountain of Cape Town is essentially the Eiffel Tower of Paris or the Statue of Liberty of NY. It is a pretty amazing display of nature. The very top of this mountain is almost completely flat. Obviously, the tops of most mountains are peaks, but on Table Mountain it is flat for hundreds of yards! It was an absolutely beautiful hike into the clouds. Unfortunately it was very overcast, but thankfully we did get to overlook some of the city. And since I couldn’t see much, it just means that I’ll have to climb it again!

This really is an amazing place and I am so grateful to have this opportunity to be here. It is still amazing to me how within all this beauty and wealth there can still be such horrible living situations. I wondered how many children I am working with in Ocean View have never seen the amazing beauty I got to experience the other day, despite the fact that they have been living here their entire life. Just doesn’t seem right. Just doesn’t seem fair. How blessed so many of us are to live in America. I simply hope that I will remember how blessed I have been over the course of my life and to do my best to use this blessing to help others! Ok, well thats it for today. I hope you all have enjoyed reading all these posts and that you know I am doing my best to take advantage of all your support!

God Bless,

Josh

This is a video of some of the Fan Fest on the WC opening night:

The Beautiful Game

Well my friends,

The biggest sporting event in the world has arrived in South Africa. What an amazing opportunity I have been given to share the gospel through the greatest sport in the world -- whether you agree with this statement or not is irrelevant, because it is ;)

I am just kidding, but seriously...

Anyways, the opening WC game was last Friday, and South Africa played Mexico in Jo-burg to get things started. A group of us decided to go to down town Cape Town to watch the game at the Coke “Fan-Fest.” The Fan Fest is a free event where there is an enormous screen showing all of the 64 WC matches. It was extremely crowded so we could not get into the event. People were climbing trees and buildings all around the Fan Fest fence to try and get a glimpse of the match. We ended up in a local pub near long street to watch the game. Walking through the city streets with thousands of S.A. Fans screaming for Bafana Bafana, and blowing their vuvuzelas (of which I admittedly was blowing as well) was certainly one of the best sporting experiences I have been apart of. Watching S.A. score a glorious opening goal for the WC with tons of S.A. fans was truly a blessing. Ever since that first game took place I have missed about two games thus far. I may have to make a rule for myself to only watch two games a day.

Since I have watched all

three everyday over the past several days... Today was a good first step since I decided to go to the coffee shop and took a seat facing away from the T.V. so I wouldn’t get too distracted (although I must admit I am guilty of watching portions of it...) Tonight S.A. plays Uruguay at 8:30 and plan on going to the Fan Fest downtown to watch it with thousands. Should be a blast!

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let me tell you a little bit about the ministry I have had the opportunity to be apart of this week. Like I said in the last blog, last week we spent all of our time preparing for this week and the upcoming three weeks of the WC. On Monday we started Upwards Soccer. This is a program where the Ocean View volunteers along with volunteers from Samaritan's feet, WYAM, and a Women’s soccer team from Taylor University have

come in to run soccer and netball (a sport much like basketball, but for girls) clinics with a supporting message of the gospel. On Monday it rained so we had very few children come out. We ended up going inside and setting up netball hoops and small soccer goals to play with. Since we couldn’t really run the program due to the weather we just tried to build relationships and have fun with the children there by playing with them for a few hours. It was some of the most fun I have had since arriving here. There really is nothing like playing soccer with locals while listening to the WC theme song! It really was such a great blessing. On Tuesday the weather was slightly nicer, only a little bit of rain, so we decided to have the clinics outside. It was a little disorganized, but the kids didn’t notice and I believe most of them had a great time.

To help you understand a little bit more about what was going on I’ll try to describe the program to you briefly. We start out by separating the kids into different groups based on their age. This takes a long time... Then after this is accomplished we assign each group to a leader. I am one of these leaders and I had “control” of 7 kids. We decided to name our team Barcelona, after the club team. There were six different little ball skill stations, where at one, the kids would practice long passes, shooting, dribbling, or even tricks. Some of these kids are really really good. Not just saying that. I get embarrassed on a regular basis while playing them! Thankfully I am bigger so I’ll just pick them up and steal the ball from them that way! The kids are often hard to discipline but I am getting better and better at fulfilling that role and finding creative ways to get them to do the drills. I come with a certain amount of respect simply because of my skin color. After we do the soccer/netball drills we have a devotional period. Yesterday, Alister asked me to tell the story of creation to the children. I hadn’t prepared anything for this, since I had no idea I would be doing it. I had to tell the story of Gen. 1 to about 35 kids and try to hold their attention for 15 minutes! Lets just say it could have gone better, but it certainly could have gone worse! Thankfully for tomorrows devotion I have a little more notice and things should go much more smoothly! After the devotions we play just a little more soccer and then give the kids their food and send them home. Like I said earlier many of the kids come simply to get the food, but hopefully they will catch the message of the gospel while we are working with them.

Ok, I just got my next cup of bottomless coffee so I guess I’ll tell you a little more about the race issues here. As you may know the apartheid in South Africa ended several years ago, but there are still very serious problems with racism here. Many of the communities are separated by race. For instance, the community I am working in is generally occupied by colored people. It should be noted that here there is a difference between the blacks and the colored people. (By the way, I am trying to be as politically correct as reasonable here, so bear with me.) While I am certainly no expert on the racial issues here, there is a difference between the whites, blacks, and colored. The colored, I believe, tend to be more local to South Africa. The blacks are usually immigrants or descendants of immigrants from other African countries. There is often much animosity between the blacks and coloreds because of the living situations they find themselves in.

In the township of Masipumalele, for instance, a local colored person may own a piece of property and is looking to rent portions of that property out to make a profit. If a local wants to rent that property then the local property owner will rent them a normal rate of living. However, if a foreigner (who is generally black) wants to rent the portion of land they will be charged much more. And obviously, for the local property owner it is more beneficial financially to rent out to the blacks than to the local colored people. This can create dislike or even hatred for the black immigrants who are taking the colored living space. So the township of Masi is generally black and the township of Ocean View is generally colored. This is not to mention the unbelievable abundance of wealth just five to ten minutes away that is often owned by the white community.

I heard the other day that South Africa has the biggest differential in the world between the population of those in poverty and those in wealth. It is often said that there is no where else in the world where you can see the most expensive and beautiful living situations in the world next to some of the worst in the world. An incredibly sad reality the often fuels the fire of racism. Blacks, Colored, and Whites, for the most part all speak English. The Blacks often speak Cosa and the Colored speak Afrikaans. Speaking in the different languages is often how how the two distinguish between the other. In fact, as I was walking over here to the mall, I heard a colored person cuss out a black man he did not even know simply because of his race. I have heard several stories of threats and attacks due to racism here in Cape Town recently. I am safe walking down the street (in the day time) simply because of my skin color but many here are not in the same position. Please pray that South Africa can continue to mature in this area and that the blacks, coloreds, and whites can all live in relative harmony!

Wow that was a lot of writing, I hope I got all of the information above correct as possible. The WC is a great opportunity for this country to come together for one reason. When I cheer for Bafana Bafana to win a game, I am not really cheering so much as for the team to win, as much as I am cheering for the South African people to have something to celebrate together. It has been such a blessing to be here and to gain these types of experiences. I thank God for you and for your support. Please keep praying that God will use me in whatever way He sees fit over my next two months here!

Love you all,

Josh Sheppard

Cheap bottomless coffee!

Hey everyone, thank you so much for checking out my blog once again. I really must apologize for the lack of updating here. Life is so busy and so fast here, and whenever I do get free time I am often too tired to write a full entry. I have decided it is nearly impossible for me to let you know every little thing that has happened over the past few weeks. It is really hard for me to believe that I have been here for almost 3 weeks. It feels like it has only been a few days. Today is youth day in South Africa, so we have the day off and I finally got to sleep in. Currently I am sitting at a coffee shop called Mug and Bean where I just paid 12 rand for a bottomless cup of delicious coffee (that is a little less than two dollars). I have been working on other stuff here for about two hours already and I’m sure the waitress wants to spill a hot cup of coffee on me, since I keep getting refills, in order to get me to leave! And I don’t blame her, I guess I’ll tip her well.

Well let me briefly tell you about my first week here in Cape Town. I have been assigned to work with children in a township called Ocean View. The first week I would work at the Living Hope office cutting cardboard for a craft for the children. We are going to have the children paint and decorate the “Armor of God” (This is found in Eph. 6). In the afternoons, we would play soccer or do some other activity for 15 minutes to get them to calm down a little bit and to build some connections. Carly and I are the two international volunteers that are working in Ocean View along with some local volunteers named Meagan, Nathan, Alister, and Julie. There are also several 16 and 17 year old volunteers who are helping out now, but I am still trying to learn all of their names. After the 15 minutes of play we would share with the kids Bible stories, sing silly songs, and do crafts. All very new stuff to me. I am certainly not used to working with children but as the days go by I have gotten more and more familiar with the children and more and more comfortable with them as well!

Last week we spent both Monday and Tuesday preparing for the upcoming month. As I have already told you the children will be out of school for a winter break here and it has been extended to four weeks due to the World Cup’s presence here. After the first two days, we worked with our Ocean View group more specifically on the upcoming weeks. This consisted of cutting more cardboard and cutting more cardboard, and maybe cutti

ng a little more cardboard.

Thankfully Nathan had the brilliant idea to use beer trays as shields for the armor of God. So for the past week and a half I have hit up three different liquor stores almost every morning to collect from them their beer trays. The trays are the perfect shape for a shield, we will then simply have the children paint over the logos and decorate them. It is a rare occasion when you get to drive around this beautiful city, often getting distracted by the ocean and the mountains, searching for liquor stores as part of your ministry. It was very fun. Thankfully we rented a new and more reliable car to get around in. Surprisingly I am having very little difficulty driving on the left side of the road. It is easier than it sounds I promise!

Last Wednesday my roommate Ethan and I went to play basketball with some locals in Ocean View. These guys have some serious love for the sport since they have to build the hoops every time they want to play. It takes a good 15-20 minutes to set up and tear down for a couple hours of basketball. Chris Williams, a local Living Hope volunteer, invited me to come play. I don’t think many of the guys there were Christians but I was surprised at how genuine and caring they were. Don’t get me wrong, they would throw elbows and be physical while playing the game but they would be great sports about it the whole time. I got the worst cramp of my life (since I hadn’t played any sports in quite awhile) at the end of the game, so I couldn’t even move leg at all. They rushed to help out by pouring water on it, massaging, and stretching my leg. I can’t really express to you how blessed I was by the kindness of these strangers. I cannot wait to go play with them again next Wednesday and hopefully God with allow Ethan and I’s Wednesday evenings as an outlet for our ministry and His purpose! Ok this post is done for, thanks for reading my friends! Since I still have more coffee I can drink for free I’m going to stay here and write the next post and update you on the previous week here!

Also, and I feel this is pretty important, I am still short of money for the second half of my trip here. If you would be willing to help me out down here financially I would be very grateful! Here is the info if you would like to give:

Your donation IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE!

Please make the check out to The Church At Severn Run

And make sure to put “Josh Sheppard’s mission trip” in the note at the bottom of the check.

Please do not mail it to my college address, but rather mail it to my home address, it is:

Josh Sheppard

8203 Joshua Ct.

Laurel, MD 20708

Thank you so much for your prayers, I am so thankful for them and how God is working in my life down here. I don’t think I could see myself doing much else this summer that is so worthwhile!

God Bless,

Josh Sheppard