3-7-15 update.

Greetings from Joburg, all has been going well here and here are some of my thoughts.

In the last two weeks not too many mind boggling events have happened. We have reached nearly 50 hours of language study and are now starting to speak a bit. To be able to respond when someone greets you in their own language is impressive, especially when that language is as tough to get out of the mouth as Somali is!

We have had a few opportunities to Share, and these opportunities are almost exclusively brought on by a completely different subject that is being talked about in class or language. I feel as if the majority of our sharing experiences so far have been to explain clearly what we think, believe, and how we are to behave. We discuss issues in the world at large to a degree. I think that all of the people that we help with their language studies are refugees from their respective countries to the north of me. So, when MSN, AL Jazeera, and NBC are in an uproar because of the latest update from groups tied to the Mideast, we can listen and talk a bit as they tell why they had the need to escape in the first place.

Something that ha humbled me in recent weeks is the idea that we back home are afraid of certain hate groups or that there is even real racism in the US, when I get the chance every day to talk to and share life with people who literately have the marks to show what racism and terror really is. I have gotten to be able to listen to and learn from people who were in areas occupied by these groups and had seen the goings on firsthand. Some individuals, and these are from many different countries, would have to be drug back to their countries of origin in chains before going back willingly. This is usually said as a jest, but you can tell that there is an underlying desperate truth to it.

On the more light hearted side, another guy I talked with had turned down an opportunity to get to go to the US in recent weeks. His reasons for this were that the area was too cold and he thinks that he will freeze solid as soon as he gets there! Apparently when they told him of the opportunity he googled the place – somewhere in the north east – and saw the temperature as well as the current snow accumulation. Where he is from the temperature rarely goes below the 80’s on the coldest of days. In talking to this man we were trying to tell him what life was like where we were from, in order to answer his questions and fears about moving into the unknown. One of the fears that is reoccurring is the fear of discrimination because of race or religion, and that fear is a valid one here where it is shown daily and leaves the marks to see.

In the upcoming week there will be some helpers from universities in the states, we here could really appreciate pr@yer$ that all would go well here and according to His plan. Another are of thought is that the season of burning has begun here in Joburg, this means that a nice green city has all of the plant matter burned off because of old superstitions and beliefs, but it also means that allergies and asthma go rampant here. I would really appreciate if you could keep the whole of the team in mind for that as well.

We as a team may have the opportunity to take a small trip within the country in a month to do research on where more of our people group are within other cities, this may have some out of pocket expenses. I am really believing that we can map these cities with purpose for more people to be able to come and start sharing.

The harvest is great, but the laborers are few. More passionate laborers willing to lay aside all but Him are desperately needed for the world. Thank you for reading this update and please keep us and our people in your pr@yers.

Ethan.

 

 

Update part 2.

Since today is Saturday we as the “youth” working here in Joburg as part of the Company, are all meeting together and going to a botanical gardens. Then we are having a potlatch braai. In preparation for this my roommate and I have been doing a bit of cooking this morning, I taught him how to make a peach pie from scratch (peaches are in season here and cheap!) and only stepped in to offer a few pointers. We’ll soon see if I can teach cooking, ha ha! Today is a cool cloudy day, not cold by any means if what I hear about Missouri is still going on. Seeing, or catching up with, other people outside of the team who are our relative age and from home is going to be interesting.

I hope it gets warm for ya’ll soon!