Africa Tour Report (part 1& 2)

University of the Nations Workshop - Cape Town, South Africa

Thank you so much for those who helped financially with that trip. I have found when I need to step out in faith to do a big trip like that, that God uses the faithful to stand with me to do it. I want you to see a little of what I was busy with and what the Lord was doing there.

Africa Report
Cape Town South Africa is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It was winter and the rainy season so everything was lush green. The first few days I stayed in the Somerset West area at a beautiful bed and breakfast of a musician friend Hanli Slabert. She and her husband formerly lived on a farm in Zimbabwe. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of political unrest there, many of the white farmers have been murdered or at least run off their land. As they told me their story I was grateful that they escaped with their lives. He was born and raised in Zim and it has been very hard for him to start over in South Africa. Hanli’s South African family has helped and I know the Lord has used it to deepen their relationship with Him.

Restoring The Sound – Trevor Sampson and I have been friends since some of my first trips to South Africa in the early 80s. He and other SA musicians came to minister with us in Europe too. He was raised as a “Cape Coloured”. This is a people group that was birthed from a blending of black Africans, Indonesians, Malaysians, and Europeans. They have a mel ado complexion and a very distinct culture. Many, like Trevor, are very talented musicians as well. Restoring The Sound is a project Trevor has pioneered as a music, arts and community center that reaches out to the poor in the Cape Coloured community. I was such a blessing to see how they are ministering to that community through the arts. This is SO my heart.

Ministering to the Cape Coloured Community - I had the opportunity to minister in five churches in the Cape Coloured area. I not only sang, but also taught a worship seminar, critiqued a wonderful musical, taught on “The Abundant Life – God’s Desire for Us”, and prayed for many. What warm hospitality I experienced from them.

YWAM Worcester – I moved to the YWAM Worcester base to help get ready for the Arts Festival I was overseeing as part of the University of the Nations Workshop. I had a team of four YWAMers, most of who were on the practicum stage of their School of Event Management. They were a great help as we set up the stages and booked all the YWAM musicians to perform during the workshop. It’s always good to visit different YWAM bases around the world and get a feel for what they are doing. You can tell that we are from the same “DNA” yet each one has it’s own vision, culture and mission field. What a blessing to take part in their AFRICAN worship times. Someday I’m going to write a song called “I learned to dance in Africa” . I was able to invest in the Worcester staff by speaking to the whole base about the vision and function of the University of the Nations. I also had a special fellowship with the musicians of base and their “Troubadour DTS” (focus on creativity and the arts).

U of N Workshop – Every two years the U of N Workshop is held to help us as a global university have a greater since of unity. We often have it in four locations at one time to give YWAMers from many nations the opportunity to attend a big international event hosted by YWAM’s chief leaders. Our locations this year were Cape Town (South Africa), Cairo,(Egypt), Lausanne (Switzerland), and Kiev (Ukraine). There were about 400 at each location. We were linked together through our YWAM video link called “Genesis”. This enabled us to listen to the same speakers everyday. I, along with the others on the College of Arts and Sports leadership team organized an arts and sports festival at each location. Many of the photos on the DVD are of that festival.

The week was filled with inspiring speakers like Loren and Darlene Cunningham (YWAM’s founders), Joy Dawson, David Hamilton and Tom Bloomer (U of N Provosts) and many more. We had much prayer and worship together. For me a highlight was spending almost all of Tuesday evening praying for Zimbabwe. There were many opportunities for YWAMers to grow through our afternoon workshops. Mine was entitled “Music and the Arts as a Missions Strategy”.

College of the Arts and Sports Leadership Committee Meetings (Cairo, Egypt) - On September 14th I flew about 14 hours from Cape Town to Cairo. Africa is BIG! There I met the next 5 days with our CAS Leadership Committee. In this annual meeting we have hours of discussion about how our courses are developing and how we can multiply them and still maintain a high quality of education and experience. It’s very exciting to see how our part of the U of N is expanding. There are currently about 50 CAS courses running around the world. My job is to oversee and support the music courses.

We had one day to see the Pyramids, visit the National Egyptian Museum, take a boat ride on the Nile and do a little shopping in an Egyptian market place. Incredible to be in such a historic part of the world. I enjoyed seeing all their beautiful goods at the market place, but I must say, it is not easy being a Western woman in an Arabic country. It was one of my first visits to that kind of setting. I’m sure there is a lot to learn about it.