Africa Part 3: Light in the Dark

sunset from the last night of the camp

Camp is Heaven on earth. There are no if, ands, or buts about it.

Camp Swamp is a place where everyone, kid and adult, can be completely themselves.  There's no judging, making fun of, excluding. Camp is a place for life long friendships to be made.  It's a safe place. Safe from this dark world.

The African camp hosted over 200 kids from all over the southern region of Africa. I had 17-18 year old girls and Andrew had 16-17 year old boys. Andrew and I are pretty used to having these age groups because we tend to counsel the same age at the American camp. But oh how we weren't ready for the differences.

I think most have heard of the apartheid in South Africa. Nelson Mendela. Steven Biko. Segregation. Division between the whites and blacks just like we had here. Well, I didn't realize that the apartheid was just beginning to fade in the early to mid 1990's! That was only 20ish years ago.

Years and years of hurt, hatred, violence, and segregation can't all just disappear when the apartheid does.  As an outsider looking in, it is clear South Africa is still mending from those times. It's still a dark and scary place between the whites and the blacks. There's so much poverty, crime, and hatred everywhere you turn in Joburg.

Luckily, the kids that Andrew and I counseled are raised in God fearing, Christian households.  In this dark place, their parents teach and train them to love and respect everyone.  And they teach their children those things because of their love for Jesus. (Which gives me so much encouragement and faith.) But these innocent kids, get so much influence and peer pressure around them, whether they realize it or not, telling them to hate others, look out only for yourself, and violence is the way to handle anger. Some of the African kids I talked to described how they are picked on and bullied at their schools.  They told stories about how fights are everywhere at their schools. It's a terrible environment for these kids who are being taught such amazing things from their church and parents.

But as I was saying before, camp is a safe place. A place where you can let all the walls you put up to get around this world down, and let the love of God into your heart. The week starts off with a lot of fun and games, free time, and hanging out with new and old friends. After two days, all the kids are having fun and feeling free. Freer than they've probably felt in a long time. There's no worldly distractions around tugging on them.

It's so powerful to see how once someone lets all their walls and guards down, how quickly and eagerly they desire to want to know and love God. I wanted to post the blog I wrote on the Swamp Corps page during the camp:

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2012

Walls torn down

I have had the privilege to counsel the oldest girls (17-18 years old) on this trip, and to be honest, two days ago I might not have started off my sentence so positively. More than half of my girls didn't want to be here and it showed in their attitude. I've never had to persevere so hard with patience and being excited for the girls I was given. Last night I went to bed wondering if any impact would be left on the girls' hearts before they left. This morning, however, I can truly say I feel blessed. God revealed the work he's been doing on all of my girls' hearts since they've arrived 2 days ago. We had our thankful devotional this morning when everyone stands in front of the entire camp to express their gratitude verbally and publicly. As I expected, none of my girls got up to get in line. However, half way through the devotional, 3 of my campers got into line, stood in front of the entire camp, and wept about how they never wanted to come but they've had the best week of their life. Around me, the rest of my girls sat and cried out of the gratitude that was flowing from their hearts even though they didn't verbally express it. My heart is so excited right now by God's power and I was so moved to share it with you. I can't wait to share with you what will come of the next day and a half left now that God has torn down the walls of the older campers' hearts.  

Miss you all!

Love from Africa,

Kelsey Chase

One of my girls, Talent, pulled me aside and shared her life with me and how badly she wants to become a disciple of Jesus. Mpho is eagerly studying the bible and trying to make God her number one (according to her Facebook status earlier this week).  Andrew finally felt that by the end of the week he could have fun with his campers. There's already been one baptism since we've left. An older guy camper, Kamohelo. And the day we were leaving, mine and Andrew's campers were crying and hugging each other. God moved in our campers hearts and is continuing to do amazing things in their lives today.

Our goal was met. We were able to let the African kids know what it feels like to be safe and loved. What we should feel as children of God. Something they may not get to experience again until next year. God is too good.

We are so grateful for what the Johannesburg Church is doing for their children. They work so hard at creating a safe and loving place for their kids and as an outsider who just spent a week, 24/7, with your kids....you are doing a fantastic job. Your congregation and your families are the light on the hill that God calls us to be. You are the light in a very dark place. Thank you.

Africa Part 2: The Camp!

Camp! Camp! Camp! What we've all been waiting for. Sadly, I didn't find time to take a bunch of pictures so I'll just have to tell you all about it.

We arrived Monday around lunch time to the facility where we were hosting it. We were so blessed to have all day Monday to spend with the African counselors who were volunteering their week to help us. My African coco's (co-counselor) name was Corretta. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. Like Andrew and I, her and her husband, Lucky, just got married over the summer. So we had a lot of fun bonding over our new marriages! I also was blessed to have another American coco whose name was Tia.

We spent that whole Monday bonding, getting to know each other, and teaching one another about each others cultural differences and similarities. We all had so much to learn!

One of the biggest cultural differences that I kind of touched on before was the language.  Certain words of ours that aren't bad in anyway to us mean very offensive things to the Africans.  And similarly, certain words of theirs our cuss words in America. HA that was interesting when I kept hearing my girls say them throughout the week. We especially made sure what we said was offensive in no way.

That Monday night, the African counselors introduced us to potjies! And did we feast! Andrew and I are totally going to do this here in the states for a college football game day!

you fill cast iron cauldrans with all sorts of veggies
and meats and let it cook for two hours over hot coals

Kevin and Mlu keeping the fire going

Tuesday the kids arrived. So in America, I already have a heard time getting people's names right. I'm terrible with names. Here are the names of mine and Andrew's campers. Enjoy!

Kelsey's:

Meta

Mpho

Bulelwa

Talent

Gugulethu

Titamenji

Tshegofatso

Bobo

Shirley

Skylar

Mia 

Andrew's:

Ope

Bongo

Lehlogonolo

Siyabonga

Keitumetsi

Mulalo

Patrice

Bryce

Sethenjwa

Blake

Tebalo

Braxton

David

Remo

Siyabonga

David

No, that is not a typo. He had two campers with the name Siyabonga. I thought it was going to challenging to pronounce their names, but it suprisingly came a lot easier than I thought. Whenever I'd asked someone what their name was, they'd ask me in return, "Do you want my African name or the name I go by?" HAHA. 

We spent the week with our cabins playing games, doing crafts, eating meals, and challenging other cabins to activities. I spent hours teaching my girls how to make all sorts of friendship bracelets. They LOVED them! But most importantly, we introduced them to the love of God. We shared our lives with them to show what God can do for their lives. One of my favorite moments was two nights in a row we sang around a huge bonfire worshiping God singing in African. It was so cool to worship Him under the African stars in a different language. So moving.

We made so many friendships that week. I may never see most of those people again but we will forever remember them. My girls even gave me an African name. Mine is Kamohelo. It means "acceptance" in African. We feel so apart of the Joburg church and the African families because of this camp. 

me with my girls

andrew with all the guy counselors

Thank you God for making life worth living. We love and miss all of our African brothers and sisters!

...even more to come tomorrow :) You seriously thought I was going to do this in 2 posts!?

Africa Part 1: We have arrived!

You know, just because a country speaks English doesn't mean you'll understand anything their saying. South Africa....one of those places. I absolutely loved their lingo, though. Please don't hold me on the spellings, but you'll get the idea:

robots = traffic lights

cheers = good bye

costume or cozi (for short) = swim suit

bucky = truck

slip slops = flip flops
braai (pronounced br-i) = cookout

All of these said in accents to die for. We asked them what we sounded like. "Just like the people from the TV!" Haha! AND I was told my accent was one of the "thickest" American accents of the group. I didn't even know that was possible. 

We had so much fun learning the lingo from the most wonderful South African family, the Stockdales.  Ian and Bronwyn hosted us along with their daughters Phoebe and Paige. 

hanging out with Pheobe (right) and Paige (middle)

We sadly forgot to get a group shot of all 6 of us, but I'm confident we'll be seeing them again so don't worry your little hearts. You'll get to meet them, too, through our future photo.  

We didn't start the camp right away. And thank goodness! We were all walking zombies with swollen ankles. We arrived Friday morning, met up with our families, and recuperated from our traveling. The Stockdale's took us to a traditional African restaurant to get the full experience.

they came to the table to wash your hands

and painted your face :)

2 hours of sleep people...2 hours!

Saturday was a day of exploring. We went to a lion park where Andrew and I made some memories for life.

the lion den

it was nap time when we arrived

but Zara got playful when we came in with her "mom"
(the woman who has taken care of her since birth)

she just liked laying on top of Andrew and licking his head

Later that night we rang in the new year with the Joburg Church with an epic dance party and had a midnight communion service. The African's taught us some cool dance moves while we returned the favor. We ended the night praying in African, English, and Zulu.  It was such a powerful experience.

Sunday was a designated day to relax. But we don't know what relaxing means when it's our first time in Africa! The Stockdale's invited my brother's host family over and we had a braai. Lots of meat, swimming, and RUGBY!

it started off a small backyard game

but then we got serious and went to the park down the street

and I couldn't come all the way to Africa and not play for a little bit

So to recap, in 48 hours, Andrew and I discovered Africa, made friends with lions and tigers, ate tons of African meats, learned how to play rugby, prayed in different languages, learned how to dance Africa style, and made life long African friends. Living a dream.

Joyful Day

In case you didn't know, Andrew and I were selected to go on a mission trip to Johannesburg in South Africa.  The trip is through an newly established group called Swamp Corps. The idea of Swamp Corps is to take a kids camp that has been going on here in Georgia for years to places around the world.  This isn't just any camp. It's a week long 24/7 camp where kids leave their families, come learn about Jesus, build friendships, and develop a relationship with God. This particular camp saved mine and Andrew's life.  It's the place that helped us to be where we are today. The Swamp is what helped build the foundation and inspire us to become disciples of Jesus.

We've been so blessed to also work out there as counselors. Andrew for 7 years and me for 3. That is where we grew individually in our walks with God, helped mentor and train other kids, and grow in our relationship as a couple.  And now......we get to help take all the goodness of this camp to Africa!!

First, Swamp Corps started in Jamaica.  That camp has been going for two years and then Barbados started this year. And now this is Africa's first experience.  Other trips in the works are Kenya, Brazil, and India. God has been working hard.

Well, 10 days ago, I was crying because I thought we couldn't go on this trip anymore. With everything that was happening to our cars we had a lot more set backs financially than what we thought.  I kept telling myself that God wouldn't have selected us out of so many to help with this camp and then not provide. And well today I'm crying again because someone donated 1,000 dollars to Andrew and I!

It was donated anonymously so we can't give a proper thanks to whoever it was, but we are sure it's someone we are close to and knows all the set backs we've had recently. So to whoever you are....you are an angel to us. You've relieved us, built our faith, and made us evermore grateful. We thank you so much!

So with all that said.....

57 DAYS TIL AFRICA