Tootaloo Campers!

Hello wonderful family, friends, and prayer warriors!

This morning we woke up to torrential rain and blustering wind. The rain was almost poetic as we stood outside and said goodbye to the kids at our OVC (orphans & vulnerable children) camp and the facilitators (leaders and camp counselors that are from the local townships & leading the camps). With laughter, singing, and tears our "normal" routine here in South Africa came to a close. We did our best to preserve memories with photos and videos (we will have much to share with you when we get back). We held the little ones in our arms for the last time, and embraced our dear brothers and sisters in Christ who are serving God's kingdom so beautifully. Looking back, these two weeks have gone by so fast. But it has seemed like a lifetime of worship, joy, dancing and laughter in this place. Saying goodbye to the staff and volunteers was both beautiful and painful. We were able to pray over them and bless them with words of encouragement (gotta love prayer circles/mush pots). We know that they all are going back home to lives very different than our own; but we find such beauty in the connection we have because of our mutual commitment to the Kingdom. The unity of the staff, volunteers and Rock Harbor team has been one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced in my life.

Once they all left, our team went to work. After having all of these kids here (including some snotty-nosed little ones), the Bridges campus needed a real scrub down. Thankfully, with many hands, it didn't take too long. We were able to rest the remainder of the afternoon and spend some quality time with the Bridges Academy students who came back from winter break early to see us. This week, rest and quiet moments were few and far between, so it was a nice break (specifically for us introverts!). God faithfully provided the strength for us to "leave it all on the field" for these kids. And today, he allowed us to recover and rest from our exhaustion. We went into Franschhoek and treated the Academy girls to dinner. It was so wonderful to spend time together and begin to process through this life-changing trip.

Returning from dinner, we moved into a more intentional time of debriefing. We took turns sharing how we believe our lives will be different following this trip. It is so beautiful to see how each of us have taken something different from this shared experience. I truly believe this is only the beginning of a wonderful journey for many of us. God is going to use this trip to inspire us, to transform our lives and to draw us closer and closer to Him. It will not be easy transitioning back home. There will likely be frustration, confusion and pain that bubble up. But as we press in to our wonderful Heavenly Father, He will show us what it looks like to live in this gap between the Kingdom now & not yet. He has wonderfully and beautifully shown us more of His heart and more of His love through our brothers and sisters here in South Africa.

Our night is ending with brownies, popcorn and games with the team and the Academy girls. It almost seems unreal that tomorrow evening we will be departing this place we have made home for the last two weeks. Please pray for safe travels, strong hearts, and healing from sickness. Even though it is very sad to be leaving this place, we are happy to go home to family, friends, and the wonderful Rock Harbor. Can't wait to see you all so soon and share the wonderful things God is doing in all of our lives!

Much love,

Kristin & the rest of the team

Beautiful Things

Dear friends and family,

First, I apologize for the late post. There is a crazy rain storm here and our internet was down! So we will post twice :)

Let me start off by telling you about the amazing day God has blessed us with yet again. We started off the day with our daily devotional with the facilitators. Everyone had wonderful stories to share about how God is not only working in their lives, but the kids' lives as well. Our beautiful Thursday morning was just teeming with energy and fire for the Lord and these kids. We were on a mission to pour out so much love onto these kids that they wouldn't know what to do. Our wonderful trip leader Chris shared his testimony with the camp, and it was amazing to see the Spirit move through him. After devotional, we had breakfast with the kiddos and then had a time of worship. The kids broke off into groups to practice their skit, dance, or song for the talent show. Overall, we had a wonderful day and God just continues to pour out his love on us.  

Meredith here! The weather was cozy and everyone was bundled up for the day as we dispersed for our group activities. Kinsey, Camille and I lead the bible study talking to all the kids about creation and answered questions the kids had about creation and about God. It was wonderful to work alongside the OVC leaders to hear the very deep and insightful questions the kids had (interpretation was needed). Susie, Kristin and Alexa showed the kids how to make beautiful flowers from coffee filters. It was so great to see the creations the kids made and they proudly wore them around for the rest of the day... yes even the boys rocked their flowers!  Kelsey, Hannah and Nolan led indoor games and activities, the kids, despite the cold, played cards and created 3 different puzzles. Working together and laughing filled the shed here at Bridges. Racine, Jackie and Dustin were our prayer warriors today and covered the Bridges campus with prayer. It is such a precious time that every group has been able to experience and be able to step away from the busy day and spend time with God. After our rotations the kids were divided into their cabin groups and given their 'Bible Quiz'. Their challenge as a team was to work together to  create a presentation about creation to the entire camp. We had four judges; Zilindle, Jackie, Kinsey and myself; it was so great to see the creativity that the groups came up with. We were so happy that the Lion room won... the fabulous prize... candy!

After another intense and fierce game of dodge ball (where Space and Dustin ruthlessly pegged kids with the dodge balls) everyone headed into free time. And it was just in time because it had started to rain (Thank you Jesus!). Our worship time tonight was bitter sweet since this was our last full day of camp, and even now I can't believe how fast the day went. It was wonderful to have our worship filled with songs that the kids knew and introducing them to new songs (gotta love Oceans!). It was wonderful to see Space and Blax speak to the heart of the kids and it was beautiful to see so many of the kids come to Christ and renew their commitment to Christ.

We ended the night with a talent show including the infamous Rock Harbor dance to Footloose... and so many wonderful performances from the kids including spoken word, dances, singing and a dramatic performance. Ok back to you Kinsey!

God had an incredible plan for today. He sure put that into affect tonight during worship. You could feel the Holy Spirit so present and among us. Tears were shed from so many different avenues of life. You could feel the pain of these kids and the vulnerability. You could feel the chains breaking away from their beautiful little hearts. So many kids came forward to ask for God in their life. And so many kids came forward to recommit their lives to Christ. God works in such powerful ways and to be here with all these kids is unbelievable. The Holy Spirit truly moved among us and through us and just poured and poured into these kids tonight. As the night comes to an end we have just been taking moments to pause and think about the wonderful stories and memories God has burned into the very essence of who we are.  

I am so blessed to be a part of this team and to see the many wonders God works in. As we are approaching our last day, there are just a few prayer requests that we would love to ask you to pray for. We would love prayer over our hearts and especially the kids' hearts. Tomorrow is our  final day of camp and we have become so attached to these kids as they have to us. It will be hard saying goodbye to all the staff and kids. We have become so embedded within this beautiful place that saying goodbye seems to be a far off word in our vocabulary. Please keep us in your prayers as we have only a few days left in South Africa.

Love you all,

Kinsey and Meredith (aka bunk buddies) and the team

Hey everyone!

Today was another full day filled with amazing blessings. We are excited to see the plans God has for all these beautiful children. God has been incredible and has blessed us in so many ways. As you guys know from our updates, we have been exhausted from the early mornings and late nights. God has been answering your prayers and our prayers. Today has been incredible and we have seen God move through so many of our team members, facilitators and the beautiful children attending this camp.

We started our day off around 7:30 this morning with a wonderful devotion with our facilitators. We talked about the highs and lows of the previous day. There were so many wonderful stories that everyone shared. God is blessing us and these kids in more ways than we could have imagined. He is such a good God.

Later on in the day, we split the kids off into groups for crafts, games, bible study, and prayer. I was fortunate enough to be stationed on a prayer walk with Meredith and Camille. The three of us wandered the grounds of the retreat center, praying over places that God had placed upon our hearts. All I can say is that God is so gracious and loving and I know I can speak for everyone on the team when I say we are beyond blessed.

As the days are coming to an end, there are so many wonderful memories stirring in our hearts. As our last day of camp approaches tomorrow, we just want God to pour into us so we can pour into these kids. God has amazing plans for not only these kids but for Bridges of Hope. It's so hard to explain in words the blessings that God has poured into this camp. Be prepared for some eye opening and tearing jerking stories that will make you fall in love with God over and over again.

Thank you again for all the love and support from all of you. We are blessed to have you in our lives and are extremely excited to share God's stories with you all. Please keep us in your prayers. And just a quick note before we are off to bed, please keep Meredith in your prayers. She was playing dodge ball today and tripped in a little hole. Her ankle is not quite up to par, so please keep her and her ankle in your prayers. And please keep praying for strength and energy! See all of you very, very soon!

Love,

Kinsey and the team 

This Little Light of Mine

Hello Everyone!

Today was the second day of OVC camp and we powered through so many activities and spent some amazing time with the kids. We started out the day by acting out a skit that told the story of Paul.  Nolan played the role of Paul, while Hannah narrated to show the kids how powerful and loving God is in a way they could understand. It was amazing to see how the skit successfully came together at the very last minute and how much the kids enjoyed it. I played a minor role in the skit, and then shared a story about my life to support the theme of: "I am an instrument of light." I shared with the kids how I used to be very shy and how God transformed my personality and gave me the confidence to be a light to others as I now lead Bible studies for kids. We gave the kids flashlight key chains at the end and taught them the song "This Little Light of Mine." It was so great to see the whole lesson come together and the kids actually getting excited about how great God is.

The kids and leaders later participated in group games that no one really seemed to understand, but it made it even more fun because everyone just ended up laughing a lot. I was pulled into the kitchen to help out with lunch. I have never seen so many eggs in my life. It was fun working in the kitchen with the kitchen staff and just taking a little bit of time to regain some energy.

After lunch, the kids divided into their three groups for Bible study, crafts, and indoor games. Dustin, Racine, and Jackie led a study on Luke 15:11-32 about "The Parable of the Prodigal Son." They later led a Bible quiz where the kids lined up by cabin and answered questions to earn points. This was probably one of the highlights of the day because it was awesome to see the kids so engaged and excited about answering questions about the Bible. They did a fantastic job answering questions and everyone was impressed with how well they paid attention.

Later on in the day, the kids and leaders had some time to spend outside together. The kids played in the field, on the swing set, and pretty much anywhere they could get out as much energy as possible. I spent some time with a little girl named Shayley. I taught her a hand clapping game and we spend quite a bit of time just making silly faces and laughing. This was my highlight of the day because I feel like this is what I came to South Africa to do: to show these kids God's love and simply love on them.

Jackie did a wonderful job sharing her testimony with the kids. God definitely spoke through her as she spoke from her heart and told her powerful story. There is no doubt that God used her to touch many, if not all of the kids in that room with her story. We were all so proud of her and she is such a blessing to have on this team.

While the kids watched a movie, Kristin led a devotional for the facilitators which turned into a time where they could open up about things going on in their lives and openly share what was on their hearts. Not only has it been great getting to spend time with these kids, it has also been eye opening and a huge blessing on both ends to spend time with the facilitators. We all have struggles, some similar, some extremely different, but it has been wondering being able to bond because of our love of God.

Please continue to pray for our physical, and emotional health. Emergen-C and vitamins are being taken like crazy. I have managed to stay well, but please pray for all of our health and that we are able to stay strong and accomplish what God has sent us here to do.

Much love,

Kelsey

Joyous faces!

Hello Friends & Family!! 

Hope you're all doing well! We miss you all so much!! 

Today we were able to start off the week on such a great note. After breakfast we had team time which began with Dustin leading an amazing devotional in Ephesians Chapter 3. Shortly after, all of us were able to spend some time alone processing all that has been happening this past week as well as what we expect to happen this upcoming week. We each went out into different areas outside on the grounds for about 30 minutes to spend some alone time to journal, pray or read the bible with no distractions. All of us had been so thankful to be able to spend time outside and enjoying God's beautiful creation here in South Africa. 

Prayer has been huge part of our trip. Throughout this week our team has been able to really step into prayer and take time to listen for what God has for all of us. We have noticed how powerful it has been to put aside time out of our busy schedule and pray for everything in preparation for the camp. Most specifically we have been praying over all of the rooms the kids and leaders will be sleeping in, all of the buildings on the grounds, and that the enemy would not have any place here and that God would reign in this place.

At around 12 o'clock all the children finally arrived for the beginning of the O.V.C. (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children) Camp! We were all so excited to see their bright and shining faces. This is a younger group of kids from last week with ages starting at 6 years old. We welcomed all of the kids by rolling out a red carpet and cheering for them all as they came off of the bus. The joy all of these kids had on their faces was absolutely amazing and such a great way to begin our second week of camp!! :) 

Camille here! While the campers were busy watching a movie, a handful of the RH team and all of the facilitators stepped aside to listen to a devotional led by Meredith. She read from 2 Thessalonians and God was affirming to the facilitators that His plan above anything else is perfect. Each of the facilitators have different things that are going on in their life but they were still able to give God the glory which encourages the body of Christ on a deeper level. Despite the circumstances that we face, it doesn't dictate God's goodness. We were just reminded of His goodness and the power of God being able to touch each and every one of us in different ways. Camille out!

Tuesday will be a very busy day with many activities planned and great bible studies prepared. We will also be having team members sharing their testimonies (one for the first time) so please pray for strength, courage, boldness, and that God would be on display and speaking through us as we tell our story.

Continued prayer for physical, emotional, and mental strength for the upcoming week would be much appreciated also, as about half of the team are battling colds and fatigue. We are all so thankful that we are a part of what is going on here in South Africa and have the opportunity to love on these precious kids. Part of the theme for Tuesday will be talking about how great of a Father our God is. Please pray that these children will be open to hearing what we have to share and teach them. We want to make sure that they understand our loving our Father is and how they can have a personal relationship with Him. We are SO excited for what is to come today and know that God is going to do great things!!

One of our group's favorite verses for this trip we wanted to share with you is is 2 Timothy 1:7 - For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. We are ready for all that God has for us and will stand fearless as we do what we know God has called us to do here.

With love and big hugs,

            Jackie and Racine (feat. Camille)

Molo!

In case you were wondering what I just said, molo means hello in Xhosa! We had a busy day of cleaning and preparing for the week to come. We have a lot to prepare for since we are in charge of some Bible studies as well as crafts for the kids. We have strong feeling that the Holy Spirit is going to work in incredible ways this week. Not that incredible things did not take place last week, but we feel God has great plans for this new group of kids. We ended our day with a prayer walk around the retreat center praying over each and every room. Specifically for protection over the building and the kids. Are hearts are heavy from the previous week and we want the Holy Spirit to pour into these kids.

We have a few prayer requests from the team that we will feel strongly about. We would love prayer in the following areas: processing the stories that the kids have shared with us, how to integrate ourselves back into our normal routines when we get home, protection over the camp and our team, protection for the kids and our team with the different conversations that arise, staying strong emotionally when facing challenging situations and turning to God for any unanswered questions we might have, for God to provide us with energy when we are feeling exhaustion, and just to keep our team happy and healthy.

The kids are arriving around 11 tomorrow morning and we are just thrilled to meet all the new and beautiful faces. We are excited to invest our time, love, and energy into these kids and to see the wonderful plans God has for these kids. We thank you for your prayers and we love and miss you all!

Love,

Hannah and Kinsey 

Preparing for our camp next week! 

A Day of Rest

Hello from the adventurous South Africa team!

We have had a fun filled day recuperating from the week before. We drove around the country with our team and some facilitators, aka Space, Zli, Blax, and of course our amazing driver, Sue. We had an incredible breakfast deep in the hills of Africa. Did I mention that it was all you can eat?! They had some wonderful delicacies that I cannot pronounce or spell, but they were really good. And of course they had some foods that reminded us of home like chicken nuggets, eggs, and waffles. Once our bellies were full, we headed on home. The car ride was eventful as it always is. Space started us off with some wonderful worship songs and before we knew it, the entire car was screaming and praising God. It was a wonderful morning.

When we got home, we took a quick little nap and did some house cleaning around the retreat center preparing for the OVC (orphaned and vulnerable children) camp. Let me tell you, the retreat center is sparkling. We are very excited to meet the new group of kiddos that we will be working with. The retreat center was quite when returned home. We weren't sure what to do with ourselves. It was just way to quiet and lonely without the 110 kids and 20 facilitators to welcome us home. We are definitely missing our random worship times that pop up in the middle of the day or the spontaneous dancing.

Today was a good day of rest and it was much needed. We have been exhausted from the previous week with the late nights and early mornings. It was definitely worth it. We have had some time to reflect  on the past week and talk about the questions we've had. A lot of questions that we all seemed to share was the questions why. It is so hard for us to understand why these kids have the life they have, but it was nice to talk about our emotions and feelings out loud because we were able to understand that God has a plan for everyone and it's not our job to fix these kids and their lives. We are ambassadors of Christ and we are here to spread God's love to these kids and that's what we have done. God has blessed each one of us with a unique gift and we have been able to use those gifts throughout the week to touch the hearts of many children.

We are excited for the week to come and cannot wait to meet the new group of kids that we will be spending the next 5 days with. God is good and he has great and wonderful plans for these kids. Our team is ready to serve in any way possible and just excited to get this week going. Please keep us in your prayers. We miss you all and can't wait to share all the incredible stories that God has done and continues to do.

Love,

Kinsey and the team 

Last Day of BYD camp!

Hey Everyone!

Thank you for the prayers of support and the comments; we love to read them! What an awesome time we had today. We met up with the kids for breakfast and then began cleaning up the grounds before they left. We were able to worship with them one last time and as always their voices were beautifully singing to our God. Before they got on the bus, we all had a special time of encouragement with the kids, staff, and RH team. Not only did the leaders encourage and speak to the kids, but the kids ended up sharing some tender moments with the RH team and say how appreciative and thankful they were of our impact on their lives for the past three days. It was very moving and brought some of us to tears. We were so humbled by their words and amazed at God's love for us through these kids. It was very hard to say our goodbyes, but we have hope to see them all once again in heaven. 

After the kids left we were able to get a little rest before we headed out to Cape Town. We had a lot of fun reminiscing with the facilitators and staff that were still at the retreat center.  We were able to talk about all the ways we saw God in this camp and how He has impacted the life of not only the kids, but ours. 

After our rest this afternoon, we picked up some of the CHEs at St. Paul's Church in the township of Philipi. Something that has been put on our hearts to do this week was to encourage these amazing leaders. The CHEs (Community Health Evangelists) are basically volunteer social workers in the communities. They work so hard every day, in addition to taking care of their own families. We had some notecards prepared to give them to encourage them. In talking with their leader, we decided to take them out for a fun time of food and fellowship, to bless them for the work they are doing.  We ate at Karibu which overlooked the beautiful Table mountain as well as the port of Cape Town. The food was great and we even had some live entertainment! We all had a great time enjoying each other's company and said our farewells, however we'll see some of them Monday for the start of our next camp.

We look forward to getting some rest this weekend as well as some fun breaks. Pray for renewed spirits so that we're able to give just as much love and attention to the next group of kids coming. In our debrief and prayer time tonight, we all had a sense that even though next week we will only have a third of the amount of kids we had this week, God has a great work for us to do. We desire to have more this next week and feel that this week prepared us to do so. 

Thanks again for all the prayers and support!

RockHarbor team

There is power in the name of Jesus... to break every chain!

Good morning!!! Well it's already morning here on Friday.

Wow! Where do I start?  I'm going to try my best to briefly recap so many major events and happenings. With so many answered prayers and amazing moments yesterday, we came with full expectations today.  That would turn out to be quite an understatement.  It's such an amazing thing to start our day in prayer and time with the camp leaders and facilitators and this is what helps set up our obedience to how God might be moving each day. Despite many team members fighting physical or emotional fatigue, we took these requests to the Lord.  All week, the team has been intent on seeking how God might use us fully, but also be aware of how HE is working within our lives as well.  One incredible example of this happened  after breakfast when a team member shared their personal story and testimony of how God used prior pain and experiences as part of HIS amazing plan.  After the testimony was shared a few individuals began to share similar experiences in their own lives and came forward to start the process of healing and forgiveness.  Over the next hour maybe 20 young women also shared their painful stories and memories with the speaker or others, many had never told a single person before.  This was no small coincidence, rather a specific planned event.  The Spirit was on the move in the way words were spoke through 1 team member's testimony, which in turn led to sharing and began the healing process for so many young women here at camp. This would not be the only time God used a speaker to encourage us to bring up these painful moments or tragic events in our lives, there would be much more in store for later in the evening.

As you can imagine, keeping 100+ high school teens fed, plugged in and out of trouble can be quite a task.  Thankfully, we have such an amazing group of young men and women here and quite often find ourselves at the end of the day wishing for more time.  So, like the previous afternoons, we had rotations which allow the groups to spend time doing crafts, bible study and games or sports activities.  It was a blessing to see the staff, facilitators and ROCKHARBOR team all mixed and working together and spending quality time with the students.  Just another example of God setting up this time, with these students and staff for amazing conversation and interaction.  Today, every camper made their own cross necklace out of beads at crafts.  It was so neat to see the creativity and simple joy the kids show while working on their necklace.  Today's bible study lesson featured Queen Esther and God's plan of protection and salvation.  Finally, the games rotation featured soccer relays and some intense competitions on the field. 

Our evening agenda featured the kids dressed in their formal attire at dinner, followed by a red carpet entrance with VIP photography before entering the nightly worship segment.  What God had begun earlier in the week and especially earlier today would now come into the picture.  Like one of the new team favorite songs says "something's moving, something's changing..." this was about to be seen.  Throughout worship, something was moving, something was changing.  The Spirit was moving and hearts and lives were changing.  One of the camp facilitators also shared his testimony which closely resembled the testimony above from this morning.  Again, no coincidence and God was clearly at work.  Before the Lord's Supper there was a time for personal reflection and an opportunity for every camper to right down an area or sin in their life that they felt was holding them down or they were hiding.  The small paper would be nailed to the cross and lit on fire.  As each camper began to place their small note at the cross God really came near to so many and showed up for their first experience with HIM.  Over the next bit, God touched so many lives and many of the campers were literally crying out with all they had to God.  Team members were able to pray over many of the students and continue building up the next generation.  Together, all these papers were lit and quickly went up in flame. When the time came for the alter call, nearly 3/4 the whole room went down to accept Christ!  That's over 75 people!!  I'm sorry these short few paragraphs really can describe what ALL happened hear today, and many of you will soon hear about them when we return.  I can't even sleep as this was what we had prayed for leading up to this trip and all week.  That campers would come to know God and experience HIM here.  So, that is why I'm still up writing the blog.  There were such powerful moments in prayer, surrender and healing.  The last few hours would be spending time in conversation and prayer for many of our new brothers and sisters in Christ.  There was a lot of prayer focused on healing broken hearts, open wounds and starting anew in Jesus.

Unfortunately, we have to say see you later to this group of campers tomorrow.  However, we know now that even if we don't see our new brothers and sisters again here, we will rejoice when we meet again in Heaven.  Please continue to keep the team in your prayers as today was a very long, very intense and heavy day if those words even remotely describe the events above.  I'll close with this, God is on the move here, in Cape Town and across South Africa.  There is a new generation of leaders being raised and trained to help lead their homes, townships, cities, country and world. 

Thank you for your support !

Chris

Speaking truth from the Spirit

Getting Bible knowledge

Bead crosses at crafts

Prayer over one of the camp leaders

Cherished conversations and bonding time

Prayer and WORSHIP!

Welcome to the family!

Hello there!

Day two of camp has been nothing short of amazing.I have some extremely exciting news to share with you all. My group (Kristen, Susie, and I) were in charge of leading bible study for the day. As we all prepped last night, we had note cards and outlines all ready to go. The topic: your personal relationship with God. This morning we met to brush up and felt the Holy Spirit tugging at us to really get deep with the children. It can be tough in another country. There are obviously language barriers, so the balance of using simple words that they understand and the wanting to dig deep can get tricky. We stopped and just prayed and listened and God told us today there will be mighty things done in our room. Intimidating to say the least. But up for anything that God has for us.

As the first batch of kids start to pile in, we look over at one another and start preaching away. They were engaged and interactive. The second batch then comes in and this group was so intrigued and they ask questions upon questions. They are such smart kids and ask such intelligent questions that have all of us on our toes but the three of us know that we open our mouths and not our words come but God's. Finally, the last group comes trickling in and they are silent. We have been asking engaging questions all day that has given us some kind of feedback and they just stared back. "You are certainly a quiet bunch" Kristen chuckled. So we just started throwing questions at them. Do all of you have relationships with God. And they habitually said yes. Then a few turned to a facilitator to translate something to us. He said, "We have only heard of Jesus but do not have relationship." So our next question was asked, the one God had prepared our hearts for, does anyone want to accept God into their lives? Silence. Silence. One hand. Two hands. TWO HANDS were raised by beautiful girls. So we asked them to come up to accept God. We put them in the middle and the three of us and a few more surrounded them. I prayed phrase by phrase so they could then repeat what I said. The most important phrase they repeated was God I accept you in my heart and want to live my life for you.

There is a party in heaven today. Everyone, we have two new sisters. Pray for them!

On a side note, the team rocked today. God gave us the energy that was SO needed. We miss you and love you all!
Blessings,
Alexa