We have been so busy with our church and with many different activities that i have really struggled to make time or find time to keep blogging. to give you a very short feedback as we are almost on our way home leaving tomorrow at 5ish back home on Saturday by 5ish too.
Since our last blog, we have moved between two families, first the Seyemours who were a wonderful family and had a simply beautiful home however we didnt get to see to much of it with our hectic schedule. Thursday last week saw us visiting the Presby childrens home out in Talledaga where the North Alabama Presby supports a school housing children of abusive and neglected home environments. it was amazing and such a priviege to spend time with these kids. Our next adventure took us to the national childrens advocacy in Huntsville - one of the first of its kind which has spread throughout America and even internationally. Again this was a super experience discovering and exploring the heritage that this worthy mission and outreach has developed in its short history. This ministry helps the community by aiding child abuse and caring for or taking away children who have been abused or molested or involved in violent home crimes through domestic violence.
We also managed to go to the space and rocket museum which was AWESOME!! we had so much fun exploring this amazing history and designs of the old space program brought in from the German researchers who came here after World war 2. We alsoo got to go on the space shoot ride flying high in the sky and seeing why space camp is so wildly cool!! Yet another exciting time was spent at the botanical gardens walking and relaxing and taking in some of Alabama's natural aesthetic. Saturday we went to a church called St. Marks where we spent the day in IMS - interfaith ministries service - where they sent us to the Islamic centre to pack food parcels as a day of service with other faiths and sharing our unique beliefs and differences. Saturday evening was my highlight as we went to an Alabama A & M University Football match which they won rather too convincingly. it was such an amazing opportunity to watch this crazy sport live and see why Americans love it so much. Still prefer RUGBY!
Sunday was a blessed day for us as we spent almost the entire day at 2 churches. firstly we went to Covenant Presby which is our twin church or partner and we attended the 3 services they have even getting a chance to speak about Trinity a little and enjoy 2 styles of worship. After this we went to Faith Presby where we were rehearsing for the evening Celebration Service celebrating the 10th year of the partnership between eGoli Presby and North Alabama Presby. This was such a wonderful celebratory service and really managed to branch the gap between the entire team and our Hosts as well as try to bridge the existing gap between communities and congregations over here too.
Monday we had already moved to our final host family and the ministers of our partner congregation Hal and Jean Oakley. it has been a super useful time spent sharing and felowshipping and hiking and doing outdoors activities a exploring the beauty of nature here. i think this has been the initial first step and hope that we can continue to build and grow in our relationship and hopefully transgress to the next level of opportunity and use. Monday evening we had a splendid chat on racial harmony and explored the difficulties, differences and similarities shared across borders between our 2 countries. I found this particularly intriging that even back home we have segregated congregations and seem happy or content about this with no urge to change or make change.
We made another trip whihc was out to Birmingham where we visited the civil rights museum and found a society rich in atrocities such as South Africa. just as dissapointing as back home, too much suffering and segregation has occurred and still seems to result due to COLOUR! Tuesday began our preparation for CAMP Maranatha where we spent the next few days having a reflective and relaxing time debriefing and offloading our thoughts and experiences while aslo spending some time in wilderness doing crazy things. One such crazy thing was to climb and walk around a vertical obstacle course about 10 feet high known as the Sky ropes. it was so fun and so scary and so awesome. IDEAS are overflowing from every outlet and adventure.
And now we prepare to return back to SA with an overload of information desires and ideas to share and try in the coming future.
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