Back From Cape Town

I realize that I sort of fell off the map this week, but I assure you that I'm still alive and well! This past week was spent driving over 3000 miles around South Africa with two other J-Life staff members, meeting with pastors about how J-Life might be able to partner with and help their churches establish healthy disciple-making youth ministries. We traveled from Mpumalanga (the province in the northeast where I currently live) all the way across the Karoo down to Cape Town, a beautiful city that lies in the mountains along the coast in the Western Cape of South Africa. We spent most of the week staying with friends in Cape Town in a township called Ocean View. We then traveled the Garden Route along the coast to a town called Plett, in the Eastern Cape. Finally, yesterday we drove for about 16 hours right up the center of the country back to our farm in Mpumalanga. In ten months, I have now been to all 9 South African provinces! It goes without saying that I'm super tired now, but it was a really great trip, as we were able to make several positive contacts with churches along the way.

No time to rest, though, as tomorrow morning I'm running my very first marathon! I'm not exactly in the best shape right now as I haven't been able to train much in recent months, but I'm gonna give it my best shot. More on that soon!