Michael and I have been exceedingly blessed in receiving another year's worth of funding to continue our work here in Gauteng, South Africa. If the past two months are anything to go by, it is going to be a very exciting year indeed!
During December, most of our projects slowly come to a stop as the kids leave the province to visit relatives in other provinces/countries. Although we do set dates for when these projects will resume in the new year we can never be completely sure how many will return and/or remember to attend on that day.
With this in mind we made sure to warn a visiting volunteer, Eloise Caudery, not to expect very many kids at the first Saturday Bible Club this year. "Perhaps about 10" we estimated. However as we turned onto the street on which the Tswelopele Good News Center is situated we saw a crowd of extremely excited children running toward the gate – and they just kept coming! On that Saturday we had 48 kids attend and the numbers haven't dropped below 35 since. Our biggest challenge however is not the large amount of kids but rather the large age difference within that group.
We have some as young as 2 years old and then others who are turning 16 this year – and more often than not Michael & myself are the only adults there. One of the simplest but most effective changes we have made is to have the group together for the introductory songs and the lesson itself, and then to split them into two groups with an activity/craft suited to their different ages – rather than have one activity which is either impossibly hard for the younger ones or mind-numbingly boring for the older ones.
Deandre with the craft he made to reinforce the lesson we learn from the Apostle Philip – invite others to Christ!
Group photo after the first Bible Club of the year – we made an optical illusion craft that places "Jesus"in our hearts.
On this Saturday they all arrived in their swimming costumes (communication breakdown) so we turned on the hose and they had a blast!
We have had a similar increase within our Sunday School group! The first Sunday we had 2 new kids join us, the next Sunday 8 new faces arrived, and the Sunday after that another 4 new kids attended. This left the poor teachers scrambling to find extra stationery but in somewhat of a "God-Moment" everyone had prepared enough lessons!
The majority of these new kids are under 7 years old which means our youngest class now consists of an average of 12 little ones. The 8 that came on the second Sunday are a family that used to attend homework club 2 years ago, disappeared, and have now decided to join us again – praise God! Fortunately we have all the members in our meeting taking turns to present Sunday School lessons so this growth will not place too heavy a load on any individuals. The reason we initially started this was for especially the youth to get to know all of the members – in an effort to make attending the memorial (when they want to) less intimidating.
The youngest class – Leona Scheepers keeping it exciting as usual!
The middle class admiring Michael's artistic talent (or lack thereof) – 4 of these kids are new attendees.
The youth class being led by Itayi Mutseka, choosing the African sun over a classroom that is no longer big enough!
A knock-on effect of the increase at Sunday School was that most of those kids also attend another of our projects – our Tuesday "Homework Club". Here too we have the challenge of there being a large age difference within the group with only Michael and myself coordinating the activities. During the holidays we came to the rather sudden realization that our older group is all preteen boys and as such we have needed to adapt the activities and games to suit their interests! We have also started giving them the responsibility of doing their own online research for projects rather than us finding it for them – following the "teach a man to fish…"principle.
One of the more manly activities we have attempted – building a catapult.
Sipho, Chigozile and Cameron with their catapults.
After building the catapults they shot tokens toward targets – after which they could modify their catapults and try and make them shoot further – the further the target the higher the points – and lots of cooperative learning happening in between! Little Lexi found the flying tokens very entertaining!
Despite the challenges these increases sometimes create, we genuinely thank our Father for entrusting us with the responsibility of showing His love and goodness toward the many children He has brought to us, and pray, and ask for your prayers too, that we may play our part in bringing them to a fuller understanding of the glorious hope that they may have in Him.
With love in ChristLilandi Furstenburg
The youth camp, centered around the theme of the Kingdom, was a great success with 38 youth, 8 mentors and one baby (David Onwordi) attending. We all left eagerly anticipating the Kingdom of God on earth - and with very concrete kingdom visions to encourage us when life starts eroding our hope. We had youth and mentors from Kensington, Soweto, Yeoville, Aphiwe, Kempton Park, Boksburg, America, Australia, England and Isolation and their spirit was such that not one person felt excluded at any time.
Besides the studies we also enjoyed a variety of indoor and outdoor games, swimming, hiking, treasure hunts, Hebrew dancing, praise sessions and a concert. The food was delicious and plentiful, the accommodation rustic, and the cold showers refreshing! I feel that this comment, overheard during the homeward journey, sums up how everyone felt at the end of the three days: "If camp was a boarding school, I would be so happy!"
Here are some photographs of the camp:
One of the older youths main study sessions underway in the hall. Their studies were led by Michael Furstenburg, Josh Bullock (UK), and Solomon Onwordi.The younger youth attended their main studies in the living room of the leaders' home. Their studies were led by Lilandi Furstenburg, Phoebe Nyria (Aus) & Michael Furstenburg.
Besides the main study sessions we also split the group into 4 smaller groups for "mentor sessions" where they discussed more practical topics such as how to apologize correctly and how to properly and safely use social media. These sessions were also helpful for the leaders to pay more individual attention to each of the youth in their group and provide a safe space for more personal questions.
Another of the "mentor sessions" underway.
The afternoons were filled with lots of outdoor games - here they are playing a variation of dodgeball.
Nothing was going to stop the kids from swimming!
Tumi drying off after a dip in the pool.
Another activity they all enjoyed was creating a handprint keepsake that we plan to send to a couple that were very influential in raising funds for the camp in Australia. Most of the kids commented on how they hadn't done anything like it since preschool!
Following on a mentor session about how your words can both hurt or heal we had each attendee write their name on a page. During the rest of the camp everyone then wrote something positive about each other on their respective pages. The kids had fun writing on each others' pages and would often come and read what others had written for them. It was a very encouraging exercise that we will definitely repeat - next time we will have more durable cards and colorful pens!
The girl in pink is Refilwe - it was her first time attending a youth camp. She is the granddaughter of the lady who runs the preschool at the Tswelopele Good News Center in Boksburg and has been attending Saturday Bible Club since it began in 2009.
It was Chigozile's first youth camp too and he brought a delightfully playful spirit to all the activities. We look forward to seeing him more in the future!
Beautiful sisters Nolwazi & Nobenguni (our youngest attendee at 10 years old, excluding baby David).
The whole happy group!
We are very thankful to our heavenly Father for so many prayers answered throughout the year - culminating in these beautifully encouraging three days where we were able to experience a little taste of the magic that will be eternity in the kingdom to come!With love in Christ
Michael & Lilandi Furstenburg & Hendri & Liezl ViljoenFor ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Isa 55:12)
7 hours, 24 pies, 4 cakes, 3 quiches, 2 milktarts and several liters of juice later - 150 chapters (whole book of Psalms) DONE!! Ch 117 took 21 seconds and Ch 119 took 24 minutes - but together we did it!
When the Aphiwe & Kempton Park Youth took up the challenge of reading the entire book of Psalms in one sitting we had no idea quite what to expect - and were delighted to find it one of the most rewarding and enjoyable activities we had undertaken thus far!
God's provision - a huge donation of cakes, garlic rolls, quiches, tarts and pot pies to sustain us!
These were our readers:Keletso started us off with Psalm 1.Sabelo has great difficulty with his eyesight but that didn't deter him from participating.Michael stepped up to the plate for any chapters with more than 50 verses!RonaldOsywenSiphoTaffi - between him & Sipho the others had to fight for a chance at the microphone. Their energy really drove the event.Mokete. His reading ability is extremely poor so the others would scout ahead and assign any chapters with less than 5 verses to him!Kgopotso.Junior (the oldest of the Kempton park youth and a really lovely young gentleman eager for knowledge)Siyabonga (which means "thank you" in Zulu)Lilandi also taking on the longer chapters.Happy who joined us after spending the whole morning at extra classes at school. The love for and excitement about God's Word that these children have is fantastic to be around!
Cherish - not yet able to read but she was an excellent little helper and "spirit-lifter"!
As we read we tabled the chapters and how long it took to read each one.
At this point - already a couple of hours in, it felt as though we had perhaps bitten off more than we could chew. Energy levels were dipping, readers weren't jumping up quite so quickly, eyes were glazing. However when we suggested that we only do 100 chapters it was unanimously decided that we would push on to the end. A life lesson in itself!To keep ourselves occupied when not reading we had a side challenge going - to create a loomband that would stretch all the way around the Aphiwe Good News Center. Loombands are still very much a craze in South Africa and the kids were very excited to have access to a seemingly unlimited supply!
Lots of colors to choose from!They kept their bibles close at hand so as to be ready for their next reading turn.Relationships built and strengthened.There are such beautiful friendships among these kids - we pray for these to last and provide a "God-based" support system as they face life as adults.They made individual bracelets which we then joined together at the end of the event to create one long loomband.
This challenge too was met - at the end of the event we had created a loomband of 38 meters - more than sufficient to wrap around the Aphiwe Good News Center! Another life lesson - together we can achieve much more than when we try to do everything by ourselves!It was a somewhat surreal, and incredibly uplifting experience - listening to the Bible being read for hours on end. We picked up on many "themes" and repetitions in especially the Psalms of David which you do not so readily see when reading them piecemeal. We concluded the read-a-thon by all reading Psalm 150 together - you can view the video of that Psalm on the Ignite2020 Facebook page. It really felt as though we had just completed a marathon - completely exhilarating!150 chapters done!
The kids were already trying to decide which part of the bible we should do next! Spoiler alert - it will, God Willing, be the letters of Paul to the various ecclesias. Until then the Aphiwe/Kempton Park Youth would like to challenge all other youth groups (and even ecclesias!) to pick up their bibles and start reading!
With love in ChristMichael & Lilandi Furstenburg
Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jer 15:16)
