Hello! So this past week has been the leadership conference and I've still been going out and getting to know the lifeguards and talking with them. I love talking with them!

            The other day I was sitting with Ziweli and one of the other lifeguards, Dumi, and talking about what they believe. Dumi was explaining about ancestor worship and all that entails. It was really interesting to hear about how the belief in ancestors is that you pray to them and then they pray to god. Also, that in Dumi's perspective, it was cultural, not as much as spiritual decision. Dumi believes that God exists but not Jesus and I don't think he believes that the god that created us wants a personal relationship with us.

            Then Ziweli had read the story of David and Goliath in a Bible that Marcus had given one of the other lifeguards. We were talking about how God gave David the power to overcome and beat Goliath and Ziweli says "So God gives the power to kill." Whoa. That's challenging. Michael and I attempted to explain to him about how David was God's follower and how the Philistines had rejected God. That God gives us power against our enemies and then that was David's enemy but now our enemies and from an unseen power (Ephesians 6). I say "attempted" because I have no idea what our answer was completely because God had to speak through us and I think we helped Ziweli to understand. But how awesome is that! I love hearing questions like this because it means that he challenges things for himself instead of just taking them in without thought, which means he was engaged in our conversation.

             So I had that conversation where I learned about the spiritual and ancestral beliefs of South Africans and yesterday I got a whole new side of things. I was sitting with my teammate Marcus and some of the lifeguards and two Afrikaans (white) teenagers came up that knew Marcus and Michael and we started talking. I learned a whole new perspective and really feel like I'm understanding more and more the different sides and views in South Africa. They had a very pre-Mandela point of view that was very racist and honestly hard to listen to. They said that before the whole Mandela and ANC (African National Conferance) thing the country was almost all Christian. I asked them then what about the oppression on black South Africans. They said a lot of the stories were made up and that they didn't allow black South Africans to vote so they could keep them "under control." The debating spirit it me wanted to rise up, but I kind of heard God say how can you reach them if you just argue with them? So I tried to divert the conversation to more about them and what they like to do. But ya.

            Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season! It doesn't feel like Christmas is even close. I'm going to go from summer heat and the beach to snow and cold… 1 week! Peace!