My Weekend Update

I know that Sarah will post a very eloquent update of our weekend later today (as she always does), but I thought I would give you some of my thoughts, in case she leaves me out! :)
I'll start by saying that you can get an update on Ubuntu happenings at the blog there, so I won't repeat it all here.
I really want to start with Thursday. Had a great meeting with my pastor's fraternal (love those guys) and another successful meeting at a school (we are now up to 7 schools signed up to partner with Ubuntu). But then I went to soccer practice in the evening. Things at Fish Hoek soccer club are a bit frustrating right now. I'm being "punished" a bit for the fact that we're coming home this summer, so they are sticking me on the 3rd team, which is mostly made up of white guys (not a good thing here!) who haven't really ever played much soccer. That's obviously not what I had in mind! Then, to jump ahead to Saturday, I thought our game was at 2pm at home, which is what was said. So I turned up there ready to, at least, play in the field. Turns out that only the 1st and 2nd teams were playing at home. The 3rd team was supposed to play in Bellville (an hour away). So I decided not to go because I REALLY wanted to be at Sarah's women's rally. So, all this is to request your prayers there. I'm frustrated and really resisting the temptations to both give up and be super prideful. Pray that my attitude would honor Christ both in its humility and its strength.
Back to the week. Our Friday was pretty typical, but that night we went to the Ocean View High School Carnival. It's like a weak version of Selma Town Fair (just picked a random small town), but a big deal here in The View. Kids kept asking us all week if we were going. We ended up buying some tickets before hand and spent them on Danielle's kids Joshua & Natalie (who we love) and our boys Kyle & Reagan. There were special parts, including me eating two mielies (corn cobs) and a boerwors roll, but one you have to know about. We recently got a piggy bank for Kyle. He had us keep his money one night b/c he was scared somebody at home would take it. We decided to get him his own 'piggy bank' where he can keep his money at our house. We also occasionally give him some money for chores around the house like cleaning up trash, babysitting Kieren, stuff like that. It's giving us a great opportunity to teach him about being smart with his money, saving, and generosity. So, his granny gave him money for the fair, but Reagan didn't have any. So, since we were paying for their ride tickets we got Kyle to pay for Reagan to get into the fair. It was a great chance to talk to him about generosity. Later in the evening Kyle bought Reagan food with some more of this money!! And NOBODY suggested it! It was beautiful!! We had a fun time at the carnival, but that was definitely the highlight.
Saturday was such a busy day. We had our first Ubuntu coaches training which you can read about on the blog there. Please do have a look.
After my soccer game situation, the day got a lot better when I went to Sarah's rally. I know she will tell you about so much more, but I'm just so proud of her. It's amazing to see how much God is using her! They had another great crowd and God really moved. MY WIFE IS A ROCK STAR!!
Sunday was another fantastic day. Sarah preached her BEST sermon in Africa! It really was inspired! Again so proud of her. I hope she will post the notes here. Immediately after we went to our first morning service at Hillsong, which was great. But the best part was that we took Kyle, Reagan, and Kaka. They had already been to Sunday School at our church, but were excited to go along. At the end of the message, during the invitation, they each raised their hands for wanting to have God in their lives! (Our eyes were closed, but I was peeking!) The church usually has people walk forward, but didn't this week, so I didn't get to see their response. A host was supposed to bring a Bible to people who raised their hands, but nobody brought them one. But I just asked them why they raised their hands and what they were thinking. They all said that they wanted God to be in their lives, they love him, and want to live for Him. As we talked, I found that they had each asked him into their hearts before, but this was a big moment for me. We tracked down the folks with the Bibles and got them one. The best part of this is that it opens up the door for me now with them. They have been responding to Sarah and I tremendously, but now I feel like the time is ripe for us to really push them. I'm feeling like I want to start a Bible study with them every week to start teaching them what the Word says. No frills & fun, just us sitting and reading the Bible together. I'm excited about that and actually have a vision for the day when they have brought so many of their friends that we have to meet out on the lawn!
Seriously the day gets better. Met with a pastor in the afternoon from a church in Capricorn that I'm hoping will fill our need at Christian David Primary. Then, we went back to Hillsong for the evening service! I know, 3 services in one day! We are spiritual giants!! :) It was another great service, where God showed up and did some powerful things in people's lives. You should have seen the throngs of people running to the front to receive Christ. It was amazing, because it wasn't even an evangelistic message, but God was there and people couldn't help themselves! I know Sarah will talk much more about this, but wanted to give my thoughts.
Afterwards we discovered a new fun restaurant where I ate too much (with Andy and Jenks) and then had some good prayer time with Jenks back at the house.
SO IT WAS AN AMAZING AND FULL WEEKEND!! I'm in awe of all that God is doing and love being a part of it. I especially love seeing Sarah being unleashed on this community. IT WILL BE DIFFERENT!!
I know this ended up being really long, but it helped me process many of the things I was thinking. So, thanks for listening! Pray for us, please, and make sure you are sending your prayer requests our way!

Casey