Musings of a Pastor's Kid

If you've been following along so far, you know that I was originally planning on being in South Africa by the beginning of October. As it is now November, and I am still enjoying the rolling mountains of Appalachia instead of the rocky peaks of Cape Town you can see that God has a different timeline in mind for me. While this change in schedule was frustrating, I have made up my mind to embrace patience in this short season. (A resolution that turns out to be 100% easier said than done). When I am reminded that my ideas for this fall haven't been exactly the same as God's ideas for Abby's Fall of 2017, my mind turns to a line from a song that came out during my pre-teen years called Everlasting God.

One line from this song has been bubbling to the surface of my thoughts repeatedly over the last few weeks. The line says, strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord. This sums up everything I am trying to do these months that I am home. I am waiting upon the Lord. And I am constantly reminding myself that His strength is rising in the waiting.

I recently stumbled upon a quote from a scholar named Kenneth Bailey. He says that sometimes our task is to, "rescue truth from familiarity." Bailey's quote stuck out to me for two reasons. Firstly, that I have felt the words of a familiar song ring true for me in a way they never have before. Secondly that, though sometimes I have referred to it as being "stuck," I have been able to learn so much from spending an extended amount of time in the place that is the most familiar to me - home. From that familiarity, I am learning truths about being blessed, being encouraged, and being challenged in the waiting.
Isaiah 40:31

Teaching English with Ubuntu Football

In the fall of 2017, I will be embarking on a journey to the township of Ocean View in  Cape Town, South Africa in order to serve as an English teacher for the non-profit organization, Ubuntu Football Academy. I served with Ubuntu for three months in the summer 2015 and now that I have completed my certification to teach English as a foreign language, I believe that God is calling me to return to Cape Town in order to use this training to serve Him abroad once again.

My potential students will be 5th-6th grade boys who come from homes in which English is not the first language. One of the goals of the Ubuntu Academy is to provide a creative, effective, and individual-focused education for every boy enrolled in the program, and I am hoping to help them reach this objective. Schools in Cape Town teach in English, so in order for the boys to succeed they must first have a firm foundation in English speaking and comprehension.

Learning a new language is a difficult and lengthy process, and the school sometimes has difficulty finding volunteers to help with ESL classes. The volunteers are not necessarily certified in teaching English as a second language, as it is difficult to find someone with the experience who is willing to work for a non-profit. This situation has resulted in instability and uncertainty for the students. My intention is to be able to provide my students with a firm English foundation in order to succeed in the upper grades. The academy has requested that I be able to commit a year of service in order to complete a full school term with the students.

The Organization

Ubuntu Football was born in response to a crisis of Fatherlessness in South African society, where 60% of children are growing up without a father in the home. With the belief in mind that broken families breed broken communities and broken communities breed broken nations, their mission is to mentor and educate a generation of young men to become great African leaders and society-changers and to put positive, Godly role models and father figures in every child's life. They work toward this mission by providing a quality education and investing in discipleship, mental skills, and leadership development of students age 11-18. The means of outreach the organization uses is through their community Football Forward program and the Ubuntu Football Academy. Check out and learn more about Ubuntu Football by clicking here: Ubuntu Football

My Request

There are some moments in my life where I don’t see the ways that God is working until after the moment has passed, and there are some moments when I may never know the exact ways that God was working. When I received my TEFL Certificate, Ubuntu had just opened their new school, and I was unaware that they needed English teachers. I was not sure where I would be heading with my new certification. The connections that I made two years ago heard about my certification and reached out to let me know of their need. I believe that the opportunity for me to get my TEFL Certificate, aligning with Ubuntu’s desperate need for English Language teachers, is a situation in which God is making His intentions known. That is why I hope to be able to obtain the funds to commit at least one full year to the betterment of the education available to the boys in the academy. My goal is to be in South Africa by the beginning of October, and so in order to complete a full school year, I will be raising support for a total of 14 months.

My first and foremost request is that you will partner with me in prayer and encouragement as embark on a call to serve. Pray for the students and other teachers in the academy, the community in Cape Town I will be a part of, and that the Holy Spirit will lead me in all that I do.

Secondly, I will be raising support as part of this mission. Ubuntu volunteers provide funding and other resources that allow the organization to sustainably employ local full time professional staff, which helps in the goal of making a long-term investment in the education and mentorship of South African youth. If you would like to support me financially on this journey you can click this link to donate: GoFundMe, or contact me directly at abbycwelch@gmail.com.

Thank you for partnering with me!

Abby

One Month Later

As I start to write this post, it has been one month to the day since my return from South Africa. About seven months ago, when I was still preparing and sorting out the details of my trip, my parents and I had a skype call with Sarah Prince, my contact and coordinator in Ocean View. This was before I knew much about what I would being doing in Ocean View and Sarah was giving me a few ideas of some of the projects that were going on and what I could potentially get involved with. I was getting excited, and my mom was tearing up in her own excitement for me. Oh, Lindy. She didn't even know! But there was one thing that Sarah said toward the end of the call that I will never forget. She was talking about how, of course Ocean View could be dangerous, but as long as you are smart, you will be fine. And my parents were all, "oh, we're not even worried about any of that." Sweet, unconcerned parents. But then Sarah said, "I will warn you about one thing, though..." And in a second I'm thinking oh no. There must be an especially horrible, violent thing going on there right now that I'm definitely not prepared for. Until she finishes her sentence with... "You are going to fall in love with this place."

At the time, I honestly thought to myself, jeez. I hope that's true, and then, ah! what if it's not? What if I am the one person that goes to this place and comes away thinking "meh, it was alright." Or what if it's worse than that? What if I don't have a good experience at all?

And now here I am, a month away from a place that grabbed my heart so completely that I miss the tone of voice that coloured people use to ask questions. I miss seeing the kids at the Care Centre being excited that they recognize the face of the volunteer coming to help out in their classroom that day. I miss greeting and learning about the incredible lives of the strong women of Ocean View who came to a bible study to learn how to lead each other. I miss the coffee that gives the phrase "made with love" a whole new meaning. I miss witnessing and understanding the impact that the Ubuntu soccer ministry has on the lives of teenage boys and their communities. I miss seeing the Holy Spirit come alive in ways that I did not understand before. I miss the sweet, happy woman who took care of us and always made sure we had enough juice and biscuits. I miss the high school girls who are trying to figure out what the Gospel truly means. I miss climbing new mountains, and witnessing new Creation. I even miss the men coming to my car window trying to sell me magazines and beaded animals at stoplights. I miss the place that I was warned I would fall in love with.

I know that I did not utilize this blog as well as I should have over the course of my summer. I'm pretty new to this and putting my thoughts and experiences into words kept proving to be a very daunting task that my days refused to hold time for. I want to apologize to those who I should have kept more up-to-date. But I want all of my supporters and encourage-rs to know how much this adventure meant to me, and to the people that I came into contact with. The budget that I headed to South Africa with, was the exact budget that I ended up needing, to the dollar. I know that was truly an act of God, and I want to say thank you again to all of my supporters. 

One of my favorite verses that came up this summer is Habakkuk 1:5 :

  "Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” 

Could it be more fitting? God did something in me and in a community this summer, that I did not believe would happen, even though I was told. I fell in love with an entire community and got to participate in, and be utterly amazed by, the work God was doing in his faraway nations. And now that I am home, I will be continually grateful to the giver of all utterly amazing things, and I will wait expectantly for my next chance to move Further Up, and Further In.

Views From The View

Our fearless leader and coordinator, Sarah Prince featured some posts from myself and three other interns that are in Ocean View this summer on her blog last week. She asked us to share some of our impressions and ideas about what it's like living in Ocean View. You can find my post, and the three others here - looklistenlove.org.

This Is Africa

I flew out of the U.S. at 10:00 PM on Saturday May 30th. I landed in Cape Town, South Africa at 10:30 Am on June 1^st. That was 4:30 AM eastern time. So early. I am writing this post having now been living in South Africa for a little over two weeks. I have been learning, adjusting, absorbing, experiencing, teaching, and serving in so many ways already, and I have so much I want to sort through and relate to everyone back home. First however, I want to try and get across some of the more informational and technical aspects of my trip that I was unsure about before I actually got here.

I am living in a township called Ocean View, which is about forty minutes outside of downtown Cape Town. Ocean View is one of many townships in Cape Town that coloured people were displaced to when they were forced out of their original homes by the government during the Apartheid. I am still learning about this and probably need a history lesson pronto. To me, a township feels a bit like a neighborhood, but one that has the population of an entire small city crammed into it. In South Africa the world “coloured” is an accepted term that refers to anyone who is not black or white. This includes people of Asian, Indian, and mixed decent. I am still learning and absorbing the affect that the uprooting and displacement had on this community of people and the many communities that are like it.

My friend, Stennett (stennettsmith.blogspot.com), and I share a small room in a house that belongs to our host-mom, named Shireen. Shireen is a single, Muslim woman that lives alone, but who loves to have company and can chat your ear off, even if some of what we say is occasionally lost in translation. Or else in our accents. She is always encouraging us to explore the city, and loves to share her own story with us whenever she gets the chance. She is very open about her own experience with the Apartheid, and tells us that she was six years old when the government forced her family out of their home in Simon's Town, which is now a white area. She is also a great cook, and though we buy our own groceries for breakfast and lunch, she continues to make delicious dinners for us every night. These often consist of things like curry and roti (a kind of flat, fried bread), fruity pizza, and fish with hot chips (french fries). So much yum.

Right from the start we have been pretty busy with our service sites. The first day that we arrived in Ocean View, we dropped off our bags at the Prince's house, and blear-eyed and jetlagged, headed to the high school that the Ubuntu boys (http://ubuntufootball.com/) attend to help run games and tutor. The past two weeks have been exam weeks for the boys, so when they got out of school, we helped them relax and release some energy by playing some field games (or watching Harry Potter on rainy days), and then spent an hour or so going over and helping them study for their upcoming exams. Many of the boys come from rough areas of Cape Town, some with high levels of drug and gang activity, or areas of poverty. Ubuntu provides amazing opportunities for them in soccer, education, mentorship, leadership, and faith, and it has been great so far to be a part of this ministry.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings we work at the Ocean View Care Center in Pre-K and kindergarten classrooms. The structure is made out of donated shipping containers, but the insides provide a good space for lil classrooms. The kids at this school need a lot of love and many come from families who can't afford to feed them, had their children while using drugs, are abusive, or are in other such situations. Needless to say, there is a plethora of behavioral issues at hand, and my job in the classroom often feels more like controlling the chaos than anything else. The Care Center charges no school fees, is run completely by volunteers, and feeds the children two meals a day.
The strength of the teachers at this school is astounding, as it is very easy to get overwhelmed or burnt even on a daily bases and not a single one of them is being paid. And yet they show up everyday to love, comfort, and often scold, but always to teach.

The Care Center also provides other resources for the community like parenting classes, abuse and addiction recovery programs, soup kitchens, and a women's empowerment group. The women's group, called Shine, meets every Friday afternoon, and the other three female interns and I have recently begun to help lead it. We teach a group of 8-12 women about things like how we all have the strength to make our own decisions and that we are all beautifully and wonderfully made. These are ideas that are foreign to many women in this area, as they are more inclined to be passive to those around them, than to realize that they are allowed to question and even to change their situations or the things that are happening to them.

On Friday evenings we help lead girl's small group and youth group for the Ocean View Methodist Church. In the girls' small group we are going through and learning about the women in the Bible. Last week, I helped teach about the strength of Deborah and how she was not afraid to take control of her own destiny through following God and leading her nation into battle.  Sometimes I feel like teaching these girls is a way to help prevent them from falling into the passivity and helplessness that some of the women in the Shine group have found themselves caught in. Maybe if they can understand their worth at a younger age, they will not be afraid to break out of the cycle that many other women are trapped in.

After small group, we run youth group for all of the students. It's pretty typical of what youth group was like for me when I was in high school, and I have been in charge of leading some of the games for the past couple of weeks. Turns out "Protect the President" is a hit in youth groups on both sides of the Atlantic.

I am hoping to find some time to go into more detail on some of these projects that I am currently involved with and to share some stories of the things happening around me, but until then, please find your way to my pictures page if you haven't already. It is easier for me to find the time (and mostly the wifi) to keep this page up to date. And you know what they say about pictures and their worth in words. You can find the link next to the "Home" button at the top of the page. 

Further Up and Further In

When beginning my preparation for this trip, I knew that I wanted to find a way to communicate with my family and friends in order to keep everyone up to date and aware of what I was doing; however, I was not entirely sure of which method I would use in order to do so. Seeing as my range of followers varies from my 18 year old brother to my 86 year old grandfather, figuring out the best form of technology that would be easiest for everyone to use was something I was unsure of. That is until the week before I left for my trip, when my dear grandmother who signs her text messages “XOXO Grandma” and hits her phone against the palm of her hand in order to get it to go into portrait mode, said the words to me, “I really hope you get a blog going so that I can follow what you are doing this summer.” That settled it. If Grandma Peggy thinks blogging is the best communication technology for me to use, there would be no second-guessing.

My next thought was, but what will I name it? It seemed like such a commitment, and my older and much wiser sister quickly squished a few of my more stellar ideas, which she claimed to be “too typical.” Thanks, Kat. She informed me that the name of her blog came from one of her favorite writers. I thought about what some of my favorite books and songs were, and remembered that "Further Up and Further In" was a chapter title in one of my favorite books of all time, The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. (By the way I recommend every single person ever to read this book, and if you've already read it, read it again. The end.)

So in this chapter of the book, the characters that appear throughout the Chronicles of Narnia series have arrived in the New Narnia, which is essentially Lewis’s representation of heaven, and are exploring the new land, when the Unicorn says this:

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!” 

This seemed like the perfect name for my blog, not only because reading this chapter of the book makes me weepy in the best sort if way because it is a beautiful depiction of what it might feel like to finally step into the place that we are all truly meant for; but this phrase also fits perfectly with what, as Christians, we are called to do. And what I am hoping to live out this summer especially.

During the last Sunday service before I left home, as a group of us who are participating in international missions this summer were being presented to and prayed over by the congregation, our pastor reminded us that “We are not called to stand firm and stand fast, we are called to go forth and go out.” Jesus tells us to go forth and preach the gospel to all creation, and to all nations (Mark 6:15, Matthew 28:19) We are called to go further up and further into this world carrying the Word of God in our hearts, in our words, and in our actions. Though there may be many mishaps, obstacles, adventures, and explorations along the way, ultimately this endeavor to the southern tip of Africa that I have only just begun to embark on, is a way that God is pushing me to go further up and further into his creation and into the hearts of his people. I can't wait to see were He takes me.