One of my favorite moments of today happened while prayer walking through Red Hill from Middle Camp to Upper Camp.  A group of about five 3 year olds came running full force towards us with their arms extended and wide grins on their faces.  My heart was so encouraged!  Hope is alive in Red Hill.  In the midst of the struggles, there are children running around with smiles, laughter, and joy.  My absolute favorite part about coming back year after year, is seeing first hand how the investment of Living Hope in the lives of children and families grows and grows and grows the hearts of His people.  It matters.  My first year traveling here, looking around at one of my first Kids Clubs, I thought – these children are the future of Red Hill.  Through the Living Right program, Living Hope is raising up the leaders of tomorrow.  Tears are literally coming to my eyes now as I realize that I am privileged and honored to be a part of God’s plan for Red Hill, in the week that I get to spend with them each year and from an ocean away throughout the year.  We get to participate in God’s plan to raise up these leaders – children with Jesus living in their hearts.  I get to see kids who are now teens, who were 8, 9, 10 years old when I first met them.  Six, 7, 8 year olds were babies when I first met them!  And they know me.  And I know them.  And they know that the reason I keep coming back is because I love them.  And they know that I pray for them all year.  My drive to work each morning is about the time that Kids/Teen Club is happening.  I pray for them right along with my babies at school as I make my way to work each day.  I am excited to think about how I will get to see those little bitty 3 year olds grow up and grow to love Jesus.  These children are learning to dream big because they know that with Christ, all things are possible.  It really matters that we are here and that we keep coming back.  It’s a testament to the love of Christ that unites the Church, regardless of differences in geography or culture.  I love that! It matters that Lesli is here, living real life in Red Hill day in and day out.  Her relationships allow us to stay connected in real and meaningful ways all year to the community of Red Hill that we love so much.  Her obedience to GO has deepened and strengthened our relationship with Living Hope and the precious people in Red Hill in ways that we could only have imagined, and that are only possible by BEING here.  It matters that we come alongside and say, we are here to do whatever it is that you need us to do to help further your ministry, and ultimately our Father’s Kingdom.  We’re here to stop rain from pouring into your meeting place for Club, to prepare and help plant your garden, to encourage you and love you, to sing songs and dance with you, to pray with you, for you, and over you, to share the Word with you, to share life with you.  It matters.

- Written by Emily Simpson

Posted in SA 2012, South Africa by Sara Ingmire No Comments

What an amazing day here in South Africa! We spent the entire day ministering in a place that our church dearly loves – Red Hill. For over six years, Rolling Hills has been coming South Africa and much of our ministry has centered in this special place. Red Hill ranges from 800 to 1,200 people all living in conditions that you will see below. This is definitely a place of poverty, but there is something powerful happening just below the surface…

When we arrived in Red Hill we divided into three teams – Garden, Construction and Preschool training. The Garden team took on the task of developing a large garden to provide food for the community. Phillis and her husband, William (pictured below) live in the home by the garden. Phillis already feeds 27 people in need in Red Hill, and her dream has been to have a garden to feed 100+. There was a look of grateful joy and sheer amazement as she watched her dream come true. Our construction team spent the day building out the roof on the Living Hope club facility. They are doing a great job working with people in the community to see this come together. In addition, our preschool team spent time training leaders of the two preschools in Red Hill.

One of my favorite parts of the mission trip thus far is seeing what God is doing through our very own missionary, Lesli Crawford! She is truly the “Mother Theresa” of Red Hill. Whenever she drives into the community, the kids immediately flock to her. Here is Lesli pictured with Phillis and Lumpka (one of the Life Skills Educators we, as a church, help sponsor in Red Hill). Lesli is a true gift from God, and she is making a huge difference for the Kingdom! I am so thankful for her heart and her ministry!
After this work, came the kids! Kid’s Club today was absolutely incredible! About 94 kids ages 3 to 10 came bounding to the building ready to sing, dance, and hear about Jesus! It was so fun! The kids immediately jumped into our arms only to find love and acceptance. They sang songs about Jesus, listened to our Bible Story, carefully worked on their craft, prayed with sincerity and waited patiently for us to give them a meal – which might be their only one of the day. God was there! As we all sang “How Great is our God,” tears filled my eyes. To look around and see the difference God is making through His church in Middle Tennessee in the lives of precious children half-way around the world. I truly thought, “Only God!” Only God can do something like this!

Church, thank you for your prayers, your time, your giving and your constant investment. God is using us in a mighty way for His glory! Your obedience is making a huge difference! I am so thankful for Brent, Jason, Lesli, Ethan, Mark, Zach, Emily, Sam and Nathan who have come year after year to serve in this place. I am thankful for Sara, Steve, Tama, Conner and Claudia who are here now investing in God’s work. And, I am thankful for each of you! It takes all of us working, praying, giving and serving together to make this kind of impact.

As Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” We are planting seeds here in Red Hill – not just seeds in garden that will feed over 100+ people, but seeds of the Gospel that will impact generations! Many of these seeds we are already seeing sprout up in Christ. God is alive and moving Red Hill! And, I believe, the best is yet to come!

- Jeff Simmons

Posted in SA 2012, South AfricaTags: Cape Town, Living Hope, Red Hill, South Africa | by markahlberg No Comments

This is my third time coming to Cape Town, and even though we’ve only been here 4 days, I’ve already had several things that I had determined were myths proven to be, in reality, very real:

Myth #1: Robben Island does not exist.

We plan, year after year, to visit Robben Island. And, year after year, we’ve been hampered by weather, maintenance, and culture. It had reached the point where I decided that Robben Island was just something they told tourists about to convince them it was real and then make fun of them behind their back. Even as we sat on the ferry waiting to leave the dock yesterday, I fully expected a voice to come over the loud speaker to inform us that the water was too choppy and we would not actually be disembarking.

But that voice never came, and I finally got to experience Robben Island. If you want to read more about Robben Island, you can get the full history here, but in short Robben Island is where many of the political prisoners fighting against Apartheid were held in the second half of the 20th century, including Nelson Mandela. We received a guided tour from a former inmate, and were taken on a driving tour of the other buildings on the island. This place holds a very important place in the history of South Africa, and the weight of that significance could be felt everywhere on the island. A very memorable experience to say the least.

Our team on Robben Island, with Table Mountain in the background

Myth #2: Avril and John Thomas don’t exist

John and Avril Thomas are the founders of Living Hope, the incredible organization that we have the privilege to work alongside here in Cape Town. I had heard every year that we would hopefully get a chance to spend some time with John and Avril and hear the story of Living Hope firsthand. And every year we were told they were visiting partner churches in America while we were over here. There was even one year they spent a Sunday at Rolling Hills while we spent the morning at their church, King of Kings Baptist.

But last night we were visited by Avril and had the opportunity to hear the story of Living Hope, and what a story it is. Such an incredible testimony to the faithfulness of God when we follow His leading in obedience. Living Hope has so many exciting ministries working to provide the hope of Christ to the disenfranchised across Cape Town, I couldn’t even begin to tell you all about them. If you haven’t already been, I strongly encourage you to visit the Living Hope website and see what they are doing and how you can partner with them.

Myth #3: The Church is different all over the world

OK, this one is just partially busted, but we had the opportunity to attend three different church services today with three very different styles of worship, and yet it was even more apparent by the end of the day that the God we serve is so much bigger than a style of music or a brand of preaching.

Our day began at King of Kings, which is about as close to traditional Baptist that you can get. It was a wonderful time of worship and teaching, and we left the service feeling refreshed. We then headed to River of Life Church in Red Hill, a charismatic African church with impassioned preaching and regular opportunities for congregational response. This was our first time attending church in Red Hill, and it was so wonderful to spend some time worshiping with the people we’ll be ministering to this week. Lastly, we live-streamed the Rolling Hills service, and were challenged and inspired by the worship and teaching from half a world away.

Services and churches may be different around the world, but the Church and the God we serve is the same, and the call to minister to a dying world is equally the same. May our hearts break for those in our backyard the same way they do here.

Cape of Good Hope, as seen from the Cape Point Lighthouse

Posted in SA 2012, South AfricaTags: Cape Town, Living Hope, Red Hill, South Africa | by markahlberg 1 Comment

The Rolling Hills Mission Team and Living Hope Life Skills Educators

Hello from South Africa! Our Rolling Hills team made it to South Africa yesterday morning, and we hit the ground running. We are all feeling so blessed to be able to serve here!

Yesterday afternoon, we spent time at Living Hope’s facilities, where we were trained on all of the different parts of their ministry. There are an incredible number of ways that Living Hope is reaching out into the community! We were able to tour their healthcare facility, where the Living Care arm serves people from the community chronic illnesses, such as HIV and TB. We also had a chance to tour the facilities for Living Way, an arm of Living Hope that helps equip people with economic and job skills so they can learn to support themselves. While at Living Way, we were able to meet Joey Lankford, their business developer, who moved his entire family with young children from the United States to serve for three years in South Africa.  Not only is his passion for helping raise up people to thrive on their own and in turn to raise up others amazing, but it was so fun for me to see a family who is doing long term missions together.  It can be done, and Joey and his family are living it out!

Today, our team was honored to host a retreat for all of the Life Skills Educators who work for Living Hope. We wanted to take time to pour into people who day in and day out give so much of themselves to the people they serve. So, we all took a trip to the Camp Bay Beach to spend the morning by the ocean. We were able to spend a lot of time in fellowship, including a soccer game on the beach. After some fun in the sun, we headed back to The Team House, where we are staying, for lunch and a time of Bible study.  During the afternoon, Ethan and I also had the opportunity to take pictures of each of the Life Skills Educators and write down their individual prayer requests to bring back to Rolling Hills with us.  That part of the day was most inspiring for me, as we heard from people over and over asking for prayers to do the best job they can for God, for inspiration in their work, and for the people that they serve.  The Life Skills Educators we had the privilege of working with today are so passionate about serving people and helping make their communities a better place for this generation and generations to come.

Some other fun notes from our trip so far:

• We have been able to spend lots of time with our own Leslie Crawford.  She is doing amazingly well here, and it is so fun to work with her in her element here in Cape Town.  We can’t wait to see Red Hill through her eyes.
• Our team celebrated Jeff’s birthday today with lots of fanfare (and an amazingly delicious cake).
• Leslie was so delighted and thankful for all of the books donated by Rolling Hills families.  She can’t wait to put them to good use in Red Hill and other areas served by Living Hope.

Overall, this trip has already been amazing.  I am learning so much from the people here, especially about what it means to follow God’s call with my life.  I can’t wait to see how God is going to move throughout the next week!  Please keep our team, the staff and volunteers at Living Hope, and the people communities they serve in your prayers as we continue our journey.

Watching the sunset from The Team House

Posted in SA 2012, South AfricaTags: Cape Town, Living Hope, Red Hill, South Africa | by Sara Ingmire 1 Comment

I have been confronted everywhere I turn as of late with the kingdom of God…what it is, what it’s not. We’ve talked a lot about it in my small group, I’ve been reading and writing about it to some degree, and now I sit at the airport in Cape Town ready to fly home to my family, to celebrate Thanksgiving, and I am left wondering yet again how what I THINK about God’s kingdom matches what I see it to be. Sixty kids in the Red Hill township praying, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” works the spiritual brain, I have to say.

My trip to Cape Town has been both familiar and different than any of the ones before. It has been such a blessing to see my dear friend, Lesli, and to see how she works and how so many have surrounded to support her here. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing all this through her father’s eyes, and I continue to think and pray about what God would have Rolling Hills do and be in this place. The journey continues for me, because I have every reason to believe how I and the collective “we” at RHCC view and understand God’s kingdom will matter in what takes place here. I love the privilege I have to do this with fellow sojourners…please pray.

Posted in South Africa, UncategorizedTags: Cape Town, Kingdom Work, Red Hill | by Brent Hutchinson No Comments

Phyllis, Lesli, Nadine, and Lumka (out of photo) praying for Red Hill

Today was a magnificent, sunny day in Cape Town, visiting with our RHCC missionary, Lesli Crawford, and spending time in Red Hill, that little village across the world that has become so familiar to me. God is working to change lives through faithful servants in Red Hill, and really, through Living Hope all over the western Cape; I just got to see part of it today. The day began with a sweet prayer time led out by our Team House chef, Nadine. I always knew she had a tender heart, and she listened when she believed God told her to go to Red Hill and pray every Wednesday morning. There is something about obediently and sacrificially giving of yourself when God says, “go,” and I am thankful for Nadine and her leadership in this. The photo here is of the ladies in our prayer circle who prayed ever so sweetly while overlooking the village and out to the sea this morning for God to remove the oppression in Red Hill. As much as God is real in Red Hill, this darkness is, too. It’s palpable, really, yet there is a strange holiness there at the same time. Odd, I know…

At the end of the day, I got to help serve a warm meal to over 70 children and teenagers. RHCC and JMI help make this happen four days a week–sometimes providing the only meal the kids get in a given day. My Aunt Garnet can’t stand for anyone to be hungry–she never has–and she would have loved standing in that food distribution line with me, helping portion out stew and pasta this afternoon.

I look forward to our RHCC team returning here in February and picking up where we left off eight months ago, but also being part of all that has happened in Red Hill through faithful servants in the interim and well beyond us. If you’re praying today, pray for Lumka, Kennedy, Phyllis, Lesli, and Julia…

Posted in South AfricaTags: Living Hope, Red Hill | by Brent Hutchinson No Comments

I am not an animal person. At all.

I realize there are people reading this who can’t get their minds around that. If you are one of them, I recommend you go on the South Africa trip next year; I am convinced that spending a week in Red Hill will make you sympathetic to my point of view.

Red Hill is populated by approx. 1000 people and approx. 200 dogs. Apparently each dog has an owner, and the majority of them all look the same: 50-60 pounds, brown/blond hair, pointy ears and medium-length tail. Someone told me last year that after 5 generations of cross-breeding, dogs all gravitate toward this look. I don’t doubt it.

But those aren’t the dogs I’ll remember ten years from now. I will, however, remember Foxy, a black and white dog that looks to be a generation or two away from pure-bred pit bull. For the past week, Foxy made pouring concrete a nightmare.

You see, I was on the construction team this week, and we were tasked with pouring a slab of concrete. This slab, once completed, will be home to the Red Hill Kids Club and will receive 40-50 kids every weekday to learn about the love of God. There were three of us on the  team, and I was the only one not licensed as a general contractor. We were paired up with a local contractor and two local workers for what looked on paper like an all-star team. With this team in the US, I would have been saying “A 25×25 slab in four days? No sweat, do you want us to throw some walls on there while we’re at it?”

But this is not America (we affectionately call this phenomenon Tina, and she shows up any time you let your guard down in Africa), and thus we were not framing on day one and backing up a concrete mixer to pour the slab on day two. No, we were mixing cement, sand, rocks, and water on the ground batch-by-batch and installing the concrete in 8×8 sections. And all the time we were battling the elements, especially on day one when we had 20-30 mph winds blowing through on a regular basis and on day two when the thermometer hit 41 Celsius (that’s roughly 105 Fahrenheit). By the end of day two we had our perimeter cinder blocks installed and one of our six sections poured.

As you can imagine, this was a frustrating point. It was becoming clear that we were going to be pushing it to get everything poured before we left.

Oh, and did I mention we ran out of water at one point? ‘Cuz we did. You can imagine it becomes difficult to mix concrete when your hose runs dry.

Which brings me back to Foxy. On the off chance we were able to complete a section and get it leveled, Foxy would feel the need to walk in it. At one point, after we fixed her prints and had cleaned up for the day, she bit the caution tape we had set up and ran through the slab just to show us this was her house and there was nothing we could do about it. This only reinforced my feelings toward animals.

This whole time, I was trying to see why I was here this week. We obviously weren’t going to finish the slab, and everything we did finish was soon marred by one animal or another. It seemed every obstacle we climbed was followed by another.

And then we had our big community celebration tonight. 200 members of the community came together at the clinic I had helped restore last year to see what their kids were learning and get some free food (mostly for the free food I suspect (an uncooked hot dog on a bun with butter and a watered-down ketchup-like substance (I’m not prone to parentheses within parentheses (within parentheses) but this just tells you how far these people will go for free food))).

During this event, the “mayor” of Red Hill got up and thanked all of us and talked about how much he appreciated us getting the clinic fixed up last year. He thanked us for working on the slab for the Kids Club. And in that simple gesture I was reminded why I traveled 30 hours to spend a week seemingly beating my head against a wall. Because it’s not about me and what I want to accomplish and how I think things are supposed to go; it’s about being a part of God’s plan for Red Hill. It’s about allowing God to use me however he sees fit.

We have spent much of our debriefing time in the last couple days talking about our role in the redemption of Red Hill as planters and waterers of seeds. In our brief time spent with these people each year, we are best used as a connection, a conduit to merge the needs of the community with services provided by local organizations. It’s not the most glamorous of roles; it’s often quite frustrating in fact. But it’s what they need.

And the best part of coming back a year after my first trip has been seeing where the seeds planted last year have started sprouting. For a community that appears so stuck in its ways, change is obvious. To come back and see the clinic being used to teach people basic health tools makes last year that much more worth it.

So I prepare to leave Cape Town again, leaving a slab of concrete mostly finished and another piece of my heart here as well. I don’t know what the next year holds for me, but I am eager to get back here next February and see children praising the name of Jesus on a slab of concrete laid by a couple of nobodys willing to be used by God. In that moment, I’ll ignore the dog prints in the corner and forget the frustration of a week of obstacles and know that this year, too, has been more than worth it.

*On a side note, I find it very appropriate that we spent the week working on an area for children’s ministry to happen in South Africa while our church is starting a campaign to build new space for children’s ministry in Nashville. The first phase of Wildest Dreams 2 is done, it’s just in South Africa!

Posted in South Africa, UncategorizedTags: SA 2011 | by markahlberg No Comments

Day 3 on site in Red Hill.  Today was filled with our teams doing many different jobs throughout the community.  One team painted a local church and varnished the windows and doors.  Our construction team cruised along down the backstretch of laying concrete under a pavilion.  Our medical team went door to door visiting with people and performing some check-ups.  And our counseling team walked around to different homes, inviting them to a meeting tomorrow to potentially get a Celebrate Recovery group up and running in the community.

After we returned to the Team House and ate dinner, we debriefed, like we do every night, the events of the day.  The scripture passage highlighted tonight was out of 1 Corinthians 3.  We talked about how equally valuable the planter and sower of the seed are, and how God is the one who allows the growth.  It was so encouraging to think about how the things we are doing could impact Red Hill, even if we don’t see any change while we are here.  In today’s society, we have grown so accustomed to such a fast action response, and many times we expect the projects we do and events we plan to save an entire people group on the spot.  Tonight, for me, was a huge reminder of God’s sovereignty and how He has his hand in everything.

The odds of someone coming into the Church seeing the painted walls and varnished windows  and immediately surrendering their life to Christ is probably pretty slim (not to say God couldn’t do that).  But, what if someone heard the Church had a new look, and they decided to check it out one Sunday, God could certainly reveal Himself to them and they could find their need for Him to be Savior and Lord of their life.  That’s not too far fetched of an idea.

In the same way, God could use someone going door to door inviting people to come to an informational meeting on alcohol and substance abuse to bring an alcoholic to a recovery group of accountability that could lead them to living a life free of alcohol. Maybe the recovery group gets to be so big it has to meet in a larger space, such as a pavilion with concrete flooring!  Who knows?

The Lord really gave me a different perspective tonight.  Rather than working because I have tasks to do, I can pray to see that these little tasks be used in furthering the Kingdom.  I can think about how lives could be changed in the future, after I’ve left Cape Town, and how God could use the Church we painted to do so.  It’s amazing what a little perspective and a change of attitude can do!

Nathan

Posted in South AfricaTags: SA 2011 | by markahlberg 1 Comment

On a normal Sunday we would get up go to one church and listen to one worship service and one sermon. Today, here in South Africa, we were blessed with 3 different services.

In Nashville, most services you would go to would be relatively similar. Cape Town, not so much. Even though they were completely different each one was powerful, awesome and spoke to each one us!

We started the morning by going to King of Kings Baptist Church. This is the church that Living Hope was founded out of.  We were able to experience communion with them. King of Kings is a smaller church but knows God’s heart for a lost a dying world around them.

Next we went to Masiphumelele Baptist Church. This church is like no other that most of our team has ever experienced before. Masiphumelele Baptist is a Xhosa speaking church.

As we walked in we were immediately greeted with warm smiles and hand shakes. Even though we could not understand most of the service, we knew one thing most of all, this church loved and worshipped the Lord. From the singing, to the clapping, to the amazing  testimonies and even some dancing, God was there!

Our last service of the day was at a church by the name of Hillsong (oh yeah, you might have heard of it) It was amazing to be able to experience it. There are 6 Hillsong churches in the world. It is a very large, upbeat church. It was a really neat experience to be able to be apart of.

So…

3 churches, one day…

Each special in their own way.

Each loving the Lord.

Each in one city! Amazing!!

Today was also special in another way. We were all able to go to the top of Table Mountain. Table Mountain is one of Cape Town’s crown jewels. It is the tallest geographical point and looks like God made a table out of a mountain. We rode a suspended cable car to the top and walked around. Afraid of heights anyone???

Giving the day of worship that we have had. It was amazing to be able be on top of Table Mountain and then look down on a city that is so diverse, but so similar. Being up there puts God’s work on display and you can’t help but praise him for his amazing work!

Danielle

Posted in South Africa by markahlberg No Comments

Today was our requisite tour day. Call it team bonding (which it was), call it fun (which it was) call it learning about the country we serve and it’s people from all walks of life (which it was), just don’t call it frivilous.

We started the day driving through wine country.  Regardless of how you may feel about wine, it exists.  Jesus made it during His first miracle, and in South Africa, they make a lot if it.

The area where they make it is stunningly beautiful. The highway that lead us there just happened to go through the largest township, Khayelitshia, home to over 1,000,000 people.  It was not beautiful.

Talk about making you think.

There we were, representing the richest nation in the world, the one that uses most of its resourses, going on a fun day, driving quickly past some of the poorest in the world, who live on little and own even less.

What do you do with that?

After Wine country, we went to an area of the richest in the country, a tourist place called Franschhoek. We were total tourists.

From there we went to a rugby game.

This is where God spoke.

If you have seen the movie “Invictus”, you are aware when Nelson Mandela came into power at the end of the Aparthied era, He used rugby to unite a nation.

Many thought the approach silly and impossible, but he did it. He used a game, something many thought of as fun, something many thought of as  frivolous, to bond a country together.

While sitting there I was stuck by the thought, many consider what we are doing here as frivolous. Many will consider our work in Red Hill a waste of time. We can’t solve all the problems here, we certainly can’t solve all the problems of poverty in two weeks.

But what we can do is unite. Unite each other as Christians in service. Unite the beauty we see in this country and it’s people with the beauty of a life in Christ.

Just as Mandela brought all poeple of this country together through a game, we can strive to bring the love of Christ to fruition through giving the most of what we have inside to the least of these we see outside.

It might be fun (it might not), it might seem like just a game to some.

It will not be frivolous!

by Ethan Nokes

Posted in South Africa by leslicrawford No Comments