From:  Community Outreach Ministries Inc. Miranda & Cronulla, NSW.

From Rev George Capsis   15 -10 – 2009

A letter of gratitude, as we work toward our common goal.

On behalf of C.O.M, I am pleased to write to you regarding the great sense of encouragement being experienced in a number of areas. Number one is the blessing of new faith and joy for individuals. I have received a variety of wonderful reports concerning a genuine welcoming and assistance for our newcomers, many of whom arrive under great stress, until introduced to the kind people at PACC. This is an example of the wonderful, supportive, partnership in the spirit that has developed between Community Outreach Ministries and President Avenue Community Church. It has clearly blossomed over the last few years, and proved such a comfort. God has provided a safe, comfortable and warm environment for spiritual healing and development, right here in the quiet streets of Kirrawee, built in such an unassuming way.

As I have also declared in the past, that the President Avenue Community Church Family is definitely doing something right, as evidenced by the many other positive outcomes throughout all layers of local society. Many schoolteachers, other Church members, parents, children, and even local business folk have all felt the positive effects of this church in some way. A great reflection of God’s glory.

May God continue to guide and keep you in his ways of peace and life, as you  remain  focussed on the command of Jesus, that we should love one another and act out of compassion and grace for each other.

Events we have held for the project include:

• Guy’s Squash night
• Girls Movie Night
• Macdonalds Charity fun nights (Kirrawee and Sylvania)
• Crazy Whist night
• Ceroc Dance lessons
• Chocolate selling

Upcoming Events include

• E-bay sale
• Cronulla Cinema Movie Night
• Fundraising Dinner
• Macdonalds Charity fun nights (Sylvania 2 Dec, Kirrawee 7 Dec)
• Chocolate Selling

To Donate contact Jarna at: Jarna.Mclaughlin@pacchurch.org.au

In July PACC sent a team of 18 people to do volunteer work in South Africa with the staff of Hands. The details are here

Hands at Work aims to aid communities in the poorest areas of South Africa, Congo, Zambia, Swaziland and Mozambique, through providing food, shelter, education and security for thousands of orphans.

On the last day of our trip we learnt that George and Carolyn Synman the founders of Hands at Work in Africa and other staff have to leave their current accommodation in December 2009, as the result of new owners of the current accommodation complex. Hands at Work have a section of land which is being developed (this is where we were staying). There is enough housing to accommodate for all staff members and volunteers. Unfortunately because of the economic crisis and George understandably refusing to touch any money that has been donated to support the orphans has meant that they don’t have sufficient funds to build their home.

After returning from the trip the team and church have decided to attempt to raise the required funds in the 6 month period from July until the new year.

To Donate contact Jarna at: Jarna.Mclaughlin@pacchurch.org.au

Chantal getting picked up by a guy at the airport.
Met an awesome Canadian in Denial – Rachelle
We got a bird’s eye view of this beautiful country we were beginning to embrace – it felt like we were on top of the world (blyde river canyon)
Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes -yummy in my tummy
go Harry go harry go go go
Harry (Harry’s pancake world for lunch)
We were privileged to experience the powerful and beautiful worship of the African people through song and dance (Tim has almost mastered the art of . . . . clap)
We set out on our first mission to KILL the worms aka the deworming program.
We were swamped by hundreds of smiles and hugs that would knock your socks off and melt your heart all at once : African Orphans

We learnt two things if you are planning to go to Africa:
1. You will need backup because you will be hugged, pulled, twisted, squished, clung to, sung to, poked, slapped, hi-fived, teased, loved, laughed at, jumped on, dragged and chased by awestruck and amazed young children.
2. Perfect your hokey-pokey & heads, shoulders knees and toes game skills.

Jesus fed the 5000 with bread and fish. well we fed the 500 with peanut butter sandwiches. Us typical Aussies make a competition out of nothing. EG – the ultimate peanut butter buttering race. Emily kicked butt.

The yanks then invaded and we all started talking funny “Hey y-all” (PS we already miss you guys).

We met the incredible volunteers in the Cork Community and they introduced us into their world Home Based Care). The stories were heart-breaking but inspiring; we could not completely express our emotions nor fully understand them. Its hard to think we have it tough at home when what we saw will be in the back of our minds and in our hearts forever.
It would be easier for us to buy you all a plane ticket to Africa than for us to explain what we felt and the things that we witnessed. Why not consider coming for yourselves?

The de-worming mission continued . . .
But the highlight of the day was at the youth camp, when we got up and embarrassed ourselves and yes: We did bring out the Chicken Dance. Don’t laugh to hard ’cause we know they didn’t. We don’t think they fully understood what we were trying to do. I guess we weren’t chickeny enough for the chicken dance.
PS It’s not wise to let a young American boy attempt ballet (good try Caleb, good try)
Our team decided to get “physical, physical” by climbing lion rock. It would be a really bad time to find out you’re afraid of heights. We learnt 3 golden rules:
1. Don’t touch electric fences
2. Go down the mountain butt first
3. Don’t trust the grass, never trust the grass, don’t trust the grass, it’s slippery.
We went to the Shangana Cultural Village, where we met the chief, his 3 wives and 36 children . . . . That is soooo totally illegal in Australia. You also can’t say you’ve been to South Africa if you haven’t tried a traditional mushy, fat, crunchy, salty & dirt-tasting worm. NOTE If I was Leyton (aka Nood his new nickname) I would have swallowed it so I wasn’t called a pansy for the rest of the week.
We had a traditional African banquest and laughed as Jarna, Till Emily, Jared & Sharni attempted to dance tribal style.
PS Someone gave Tim a drum: IDIOT

African sunrise at 4:00 am in Kruger National Park ready to start a long day of animal Where’s Wally. 12 hours later we had a once in a life-time experience of close up encounters of African wildlife (Did you know that African monkeys private parts are bright blue?) and also stupid impala breed like rabbits.
Happy birthday Sharni and to celebrate we all got to sleep in! We also experienced the real African Style – NO WATER!!!
Noate remember if it is yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.
How blessed are we that on our final night we got to go on a night safari and see a ‘real live LION!!!! It was scary but totally a poser. He didn’t even eat us, even after he gave us the ‘evil eyes’.
OK so we have to be up in like 3 hours to head back home. So in all seriousness, Africa has taught each of us so many different things that we value and will hopefully apply in our everyday lives. We are all so very thankful to everyone that made our adventure possible. Our team for supporting us and being so welcoming and making it possible for us to make new friends within the group. And a very big thankyou to Hands at Work for the amazing opportunity and work they do giving hope to the future of the African people. We can see the dreams of your organisation becoming a reality and it was our greatest pleasure to play a small part in it. Last of all thanks to God for keeping us safe and being our guide throughout the journey & thanks to him we have learnt so many things from his people here in Africa.

Dear Heavenly Father
We pray for hope and freedom within this place. Be their Light amongs this darkness that has such a strong hold on these people and guide them in the right direction. May you fight for JUSTICE on behalf of the orphans and widows and bring them the essentials they need. Not only that, but we pray that they may receive your salvation and your son, as you bring the greatest value to their lives
AMEN
Signing off
Chantal
Lynley
Jarna
Emily
Tamara

I have been off-line, without access and time has been short, so this is very late. Here are the prayer requests, first, then an update on what we have been doing.
Praise:
• The difficulties that were starting to arise at the start and mid-second week seem to have largely evaporated. Our work load has decreased, so we have had a bit of pressure reduced.
• We have done well as a team, and have remained harmonious
• Carolyn has returned from Cape Town, although largely the day to day overseeing has been falling to Kristal.
• We have had a great day together on Friday as a group, climbing Lion Mountain together after lunch because of a problem with the de-worming program
• We have also had a great day yesterday in Kruger, with a great viewing of hundreds and hundreds of animals, birds, and water creatures. We followed that with a lovely BBQ with the couple who look after the
• We have also had a really good time with the US team over the past week, doing some things together that have really been great.
Requests
• We now need to do our final sessions, discussing the effect that African Christians and volunteers have had on us, and planning for how we can continue to be of assistance. We have sessions with Kristal, George and Carolyn, all separately. A fantastic closing opportunity to make the most of this last time.
• We also need to arrange the teams all leaving. At this time we have teams leaving early tomorrow, and around lunch time on Tuesday. There are lots of potential problems with lost things etc, so pray for good preparation for leaving.
• In particular our hearts have been drawn to perhaps assist as a group to support some orphans in Cork. Pray for that, as well as another project – to get George’s family built and located in Hands territory rather than at ASM as they must be out by the end of the year.

What has been happening since Wednesday?
We left for a community out of White River on Thursday for more de-worming. We left in high spirits ready to attack the day and met a lady named Ma Victoria, who is in charge of the centre at Siyabulela. 5 of us went to help with the youth camp up higher on the hill. Sharon was trying to get to seem someone at the ASM / ACTS clinic (it turned out she couldn’t get to see one till tomorrow). Did I mention that they had seen Zebra and Wildebeest up there? Anyway, they were there for the morning, and the US team were going to do another area as well as home-based care, which they hadn’t experienced as yet.

We arrived, and Ma Victoria – with 7 kids of her own, husband Charlie, and 2 orphans she has taken in, is getting a house extension to house them all more comfortably. The CBO centres on her house and she also has an orphanage that she oversees with the help of a house mum, who has four kids of her own, and that house has 6 more kids. We went down to see the centre, and I have photos of them for you all to look at. She is a lovely lady and as I was helping her up the hill, noticed how out of breath she was getting. I asked how old she was, and she was born in 1960, just 1 year before Tim, Sharon, Jenny and I, so it just made me think of how this sort of care can cost you in Africa, particularly with poor care. What a lady! Anyway, she forgot to gather the kids, and didn’t get a reminder. She was horrified that she had messed up and is going to reschedule for next Monday, which now will not be a restful day , but full on with 2 different de-worming centres.

That left us the afternoon free, we gathered back for lunch and then took of at 1 to conquer the lion-shaped mountain that dominates the area of Masoyi. We left with everyone except the ones who weren’t well – sharon and sharni, and took the bus (with Jackie, who also came with us to Kruger). We went to the carpark of Petra Bible College, and that gave us a head-start, and after a false start because Jackie didn’t get on the bus first time, we set off, lead by Sal Hunziger, who had just got over a dose of pneumonia, but still looked fitter than all of us. Tim was great, urging on the older ladies – Vicki, mum and Pat and Jackie, and encouraging them, carrying their stuff as required and more. The leaders were also very patient, letting them climb at their own pace. We had a couple of steep sections, but there is a last dome that is steepest of all, and we left Pat Ina and Jackie at this place with Steve for a little while, still with a fantastic view eastward over Kruger and westward, even north and south. The remaining 15 took off and Steve joined us after making sur that the other three went as high as they were able (thanks Steve). We had a very high section which Vicki made up after a great effort, and eventually all made it up to the top trig station. After a lot of photos, and looking around at the incredible scenery. There was a little white hut over towards the south, and an initiation camp that was running for a few months. These camps really are a burden on the community and are profit centres for the people who organise them. They can be known to kidnap orphans and then demand almost a ransom to get them back, supposedly for the tuition. They run in the school holidays and that is why we saw them. 11 kids have died so far from infections / fevers from the circumcision rituals that are unhygienic. I had a long talk with Robyn who has had her kids kidnapped this way. It is a real burden on the community and it happens with the girls as well, who are often used sexually as part of the initiation – horrible. Anyway, I might write that up more. Our telephoto picture revealed at least 28 people who could be seen, boys and adults. We are assured that they wouldn’t make problems for us in a big way, as long as we kept together.
We stayed up there for a long time together and then made our way down, getting sunset photos as we left the last shoulder of the mountain. I had an absolute ball wit hthe photos, as did everyone. It was a great time to spend together, absolutely great.

We came back and had dinner together. Pork chops and an incredible caramel mint slice for dessert. Steve had a night out with Robyn and Sal, for his birthday evening. Steve had a lovely talk with his daughter on the day of his birthday as well, so that was nice. Jenny, Tim and I had dinner with George, Carolyn, his mum Anna, Josh and Niki. A great night, where we talked through what we had done, and they reminisced about the wedding of their daughter the previous week in Capetown. She married a South African studying law, who really wants to make a difference.

The next morning was Friday, and deworming had been cancelled for a second day. We went up to another CBO and had a farewell to the other Kristal and Amy, who had been working in the evening. Lovely time in the morning and we went back relatively early from that, had lunch. After that we had brick carrying up the top, and working at the farm doing changeover chores for the new campers coming in on the weekend. I went down to help George with Bible software, trying to help him be more efficient in preparing the hundreds of messages he has to give every year. That all went well, and we met back up, all had showers (depleting the water, but more about that later), and then went out for our planned outing to Shangana Cultural village.

That turned out to be a riot. I will send another message after lunch, as I have some other preparing to do.

Thanks everyone!

God Bless
Clinton

We had a lovely dinner, for the second time with the US team, and it was good to see the mixing of the tables, Tim off with Chris to talk mission theology in the African context (just a guess, but probably accurate ), and everyone just enjoying a casual debrief.
Over and out!

More soon . . . .

Regards and God Bless
Clinton

The other group, at Belfast, had also run out of food. The ladies there bought their own food and they ate, but the kids did not have any food. The issue for our guys there was regarding eating. What should they do? Should they eat inside the office, should they eat in the bus, should they drive the bus away? Should they not eat? As it was they decided to move away on the bus, which in retrospect was a bad decision as they then lost more than half the kids before they came back.

We kicked these ideas around the table, and really found ourselves pulled in different directions about what should and shouldn’t have been done.

Exhausted, most people went to bed, but Pat, Leyton, Jared, Steve and Jenny & I played take two, which was fun, until we went to bed around 9:15

Day 5 Cork and Belfast.
Had a great morning with the Hands Staff and their meeting.
Up at 3:40am and spent half an hour outside from 4:12 – 4:45 until I
Not really as good a day. Went to Belfast (half of us), but there was not a clear path for what we should do. I had an upset stomach so sat it out in the back. We ended up going to Cork. Found out that group 2 missed their early shuttle – no seats, so they had to wait for the 12:45 from J-burg. We mixed up the groups. Steven was with Leyton, Sharni, Sharon, mum, Vicki. Jenny, Clinton, Jared, Geoff, Keith & patricia.
We had our lunch, but after yesterday decided to have it when we got back home.

Patricia’s Diary
2/7
Went to Belfast today – went on HBC with Nancy and Annie. Visited lots of people. A kokwana (grandma) who had diabetes and her daughter was caring for her (went with Jenny and Leyton – which was really good having another woman to pray with) went to see Joseph and his mum who were both laying on their stomachs. – Annie was the lady who was excited to see that our birthdays were so similar – (she was 21/12/53 and mine just days later).
Joseph was on a bed and mum on a mat outside. As they couldn’t lay on their backs or sit – one young person (19) was looking after her sister’s 3 children as the parents had died 1 year before. Quite a few other people as well who were so grateful for our prayers – what a humbling experience! Jenny and I found it hard that we had nothing to provide physically such as food etc) but we could provide what they wanted and satisfied and that was prayer! I have learnt that it is more important and a truly valuable gift to be able to give! Thankyou God – Jehovah Jireh – our Provider – His grace is sufficient for me.
When we went back down there was no food to give to the children who we gave them the Macadamia nuts we were going to do a treasure hut with. The children are quite happy to play with whatever is available or not (eg a stone in a sock for a throwing game or a squashed can for a throwing game. We played skipping and soccer. We then went back to Cork and waited till the others were ready to go. The swings had tyres on them and were being used by the children with such enjoyment. Some of the boys, whilst we were waiting, treated us to some amazing dancing! It was really lovely to see Susan and the others again. Had a good trip home and lovely meal and debrief. Then “The Woods” Steve and I played Take 2. Good fun and lots of laughs.

Keith’s notes
Monday 29/6
Home visits at Belfast. I went out with Leyton with three others including Daniel, the team leader and interpreter.
First home was an elderly grandmother confined to rear bedroom of a reasonably affluent family. 7 bedroom house!
Second home prayed for Joseph and advanced cancer sufferer – very advanced – ‘smell of death’ noticeable in the room (possible discharge while I was prayer). Note that Daniel had buried his mother last week and his stepfather this weekend just passed. Had travelled 250km by public transport that morning – and went without breakfast – to be with us. I shared my lunch with him. Graciously God had provided an extra portion in our ration pack. We shared that also.
Third home greeted in the courtyard, grandmother / mother had surgery on her knees, but she was still suffering. Said she felt improvement in knees as I was praying for her. Daniel felt they may have simply been because she had been prayed for by a white man. However, she and her two sons were visibly encouraged by the visit.
Fourth home an aunt bringing up her (deceased ) sisters children. The aunt was clearly ill but fulfilling her duty.
Fifth home – mother was out visiting so we talked with two sons (14 and 1q2). Encouraged them in their schooling. Special word of encouragement to the younger sibling not to stay behind his brother. God wants two big men, not one big man and one small man. (I was a younger brother, so we clicked – got a big handshake from him)
Sixth home – mother was out but kids were everywhere. Father had two wives and a de-facto. I counted 7 kids under 10 and about the same 12-15.
Houses are of concrete brick (besser brick) type construction often with an outside wood-fired ‘kitchen’. Not uncommon for people to occupy rooms even though not finished. Many houses have a small, round hut with a thatched roof just nearby – this is for them ancestors. Anc. Worship is common, even among professing Christians. Mangy dogs, goats and chickens are very common running around.

Today: we are doing the touristy thing – Blyde River Canyon Lisbon Falls – etc. Wish us luck!
We have more people with us! Tim and the girls have arrived in one piece!
Ciao
Clinton