New Country - New Friends

Well it has been quite a while since my last post, and for very good reason. I have been BUSY!

I am officially in South Africa and today marks the 2 week anniversary of my arrival. The rest of the post will leave you scratching your head wondering "Can all that really happen in 2 weeks?" That's how I feel anyways. It has been non-stop and this is the first time I have had a chance to sit down and update everyone on how things are going.

Leaving Norfolk was incredibly difficult. After saying goodbye to my mom and sister in Roanoke a few days before, I had to say goodbye to my dad and step-mom, and my girlfriend Annie in the airport. My first flight to Detroit was basically an emotional blur, followed by a slightly less emotional ride across the Atlantic to Amsterdam. By the time I boarded my final flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg, I began seeing less of the pain of leaving and more of the excitement of landing. There was a great adventure heading my way, and if I didn't prepare myself to embrace that adventure, I might very well miss it. So I spent much of the final 11 hour flight preparing myself for the year. I began to see the first of many signs that God was blessing this trip. Every one of my flights was on time, all of my luggage arrived on time and undamaged, and lastly, we did not hit one patch of turbulence in nearly 20 hours of flight time!!! Amazing.

After landing, I was finally able to meet Bruce Collins, the program director who was picking me up from the airport. Finding someone in a crowd that you have never met proved to be easier than expected because Bruce and another friend Dave had my picture from Facebook up on Bruce's cell phone and they flagged me down.

I spent the next few days getting settled into my new city and my new home with Simon van Dyk and his mother Karen. This involved a number of things including opening up a South African bank account, meeting up with a friend of mine in the peace corp (Katie Pepiot!), learning to drive on the left side of the road from the right side of the car (something i have termed "anti-driving"), but the most exciting part was getting to meet SOO many wonderful new people.

Simon threw a "Meet Greg" braai. (A braai is the SA version of a BBQ) I don't think I have ever been welcomed as warmly as I was by these folks. There were probably a dozen people there and I had wonderful conversations with each one of them; another sign that this was going to be a great year.

After another wonderful welcoming at church that sunday, the Ignite program orientation officially began! We spent the first day in the office learning all the ins and and outs and running through logistics before heading out to Kimiad on Tuesday for our orientation retreat. Tuesday night was just the interns (Simon, Jacques, Gabrielle, Jenna, and myself). We spent a few hours praying for the year, for each other, for ourselves, and also sang some worship songs. In addition to that, we really were able to begin building our relationships with one another and began uniting as a team.

The next day Bruce and his family arrived, and throughout the course of the next 2 and a half days we covered all kinds of topics ranging from leadership skills, evangelism, spiritual warfare, time and energy management, etc. We had two guest speakers come in for special sessions and all during this time we continued to forge our relationships with each other and prepare or relationships with God for what the year was going to involve. Its hard to express how much this retreat meant for me personally as well as the rest of the team. I now feel like one of the family and am THOROUGHLY excited about the opportunities we will have to help the people here.

The only hinderance we experienced during this retreat was the battling that occurred between us and Satan. Satan spent his week trying to break each of us down and prevent our ministries from getting off the ground. Though each of us had our times of discouragement or frustration or distraction, the week was an overwhelming success and we ended up being more encouraged by Satan's attempts than discouraged. The resistance we met is a sure sign that we are getting to work on God's business. Otherwise, Satan wouldn't be so grumpy :)

As if all this wasn't enough, I celebrated my 23rd birthday on Saturday. This should have been a very difficult day since I was so far away from home, but, again, my new friends came to the rescue. We spent the day heading out to a flea market, followed by a wonderful birthday dinner, arcade visit, and yogurt shop run. I also got to see my friend Katie again that day and my friend Cher who was in from Blacksburg visiting Katie. I was again overwhelmed by the generosity and love I have experienced from my new friends. It's a wonderful example of what the body of Christ should be about.

Ok, I believe that catches us up to speed. Despite how outrageously long this was, I still feel like I haven't done justice to my time spent here so far. It has been wonderful and God is right in the middle of it. Email me if you guys want to know more! There are a bunch more pictures on Facebook as well as more to come throughout the year. I miss you all dearly. God Bless!