adventures in safrica

2010-06-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU BIG BIG BIG TIME!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY ROO! 21 21 21!!LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!

2010-03-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

God is the divine orchestrator.

"For I know the Plans I have for you" Jer 29:11

One thing I am really learning and discovering about God is how true that statement really is-especially for my life. He KNOWS the PLANS He has for US. FOR US! He is the divine orchestrator. I am really looking back at periods of my life and just seeing how God orchestrated it and how perfectly it worked out because it was God's will and He was in it and beside me in it. He orchestrated it. He is so faithful to us and the plans He has for us. He knows how to piece everything together to fit together so perfectly.He is God our creator- He is all knowing. It never ceases to amaze me how everything fits together so perfectly. and I am really loving discovering that over and over while I have been in South Africa and even my journey to South Africa-it all fits so perfectly-His plan for me has been perfectly planned since before I was born ah! God is the divine orchestrator. He orders our steps. He won't let us miss the wonderful and good things has has for us. We can put ALL our hope in Him and we will never be disappointed. He brings all things together for our good.There is such an assurance when we walk with our Papa. He is so loving and knows exactly what we need. We can throw ourselves on his promises-I can throw myself on His promises-His sweet promises. He is the divine orchestrator. He created us in our innermost being-He KNOWS us and He KNOWS what we need and He KNOWS what He is going to give us.

With that said the reason why I am writing this blog is to update you on my life this last week in South Africa, and how sweet it is that God is the divine orchestrator of my life but to keep a very long story short i am sharing the recent revelation of His orchestration.

A month before I left for South Africa I prayed the prayer...
"God I want new things-I want to be stripped of my comfort zones- I want to be challenged by you and fashioned into who you created me to be" -
the answer came 20 seconds into my plane ride. I was struck with immediate homesickness and fear. It was rough-but I just immediately started praying for His peace and comfort. I had to tell myself that and pray that quite a bit and battle homesickness during my first week here-but of course the Lord came through-with much help from family and friends and PRAYER. God and I talked a lot that week. So back to my prayer- I asked God for these things and oh man he has answered them and it has not been easy in fact it has been really hard, but it has been that good kinda hard-the I love this kind of hard because you just know that the end result is so defining and so SO good and so healing and brings you into a more deeper intimate relationship with God.
God began to really speak over me and my heart a heart and vision for Muslims and that He was going to begin to cultivate that vision and heart in me-well i immediately responded (not well i will admit) "well if that is true God then that is all you baby you are really going to have to make that known and do some major construction in my heart"-I was terrified. so of course He answers immediately- He sticks me in Oceanview with no one i know and Oceanview happens to be one the most Muslim populated townships in Capetown and then for the last 4 weeks directs me to Muslims every time I meet someone- almost everyone I have met in Oceanview has been Muslim. crazy how God does things! Well when they announced the outreach places i for sure thought okay I am either going to Zambia or Zimbabwe-kids! that was an easy choice for me. I have always had a huge passion and heart for children's ministry and speaking truth and love over kids! I for sure thought the Lord was going to send me to Zambia (that would be too easy wouldn't it?. When I sat down to pray about it I kept hearing Zanzibar. I thought unreached Muslims? Seriously God. I have no idea what I am doing. But He kept saying Zanzibar so I put my name down on the Zanzibar list. and I also put my name down for Zambia. While all this was going on with outreach- I started really asking the Lord for friendships here-for people to have a heart connect with. The Lord really came through. I connected with two of the married women-Meehan and Lindsey and Lindsey's two girls Macy and Nali. It was so good for my heart to finally feel like I was making some friends here-that I had a community here. So two days ago they announced the outreach teams and I am officially going to Zanzibar. It is 97% Muslim nation-completely unreached and unengaged. And exactly opposite of what I ever planned on doing-but the crazy thing is-the Lord has already really started stirring my heart for Muslims and has given me an incredible heart that yearns to just love and build relationship with them. My team is made up of 12 people and 2 kids-literally everyone on my team are the people I have connected best with since being here, Meehan and Lindsey are part of my team-which also means my two favorite kids here Macy and Nali are going as well. The Lord has put our team together so perfectly. I am already obsessed with my team and really feel connected and bonded to them. He is the divine orchestrator.
So a day after my birthday (April 22 for those who don't know) so April 23 I will be departing for Zanzibar until June 18! I am super terrified but equally excited for what the Lord is going to do.
I love that He is the divine orchestrator. so amazing. and so amazing that my team and I can completely trust in that truth. HE IS THE DIVINE ORCHESTRATOR.

I will definitely send more information and prayer requests out the more that I know. Right now I know VERY little.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

The Lord is moving in Oceanview

2010-03-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

Some stories from Oceanview:

We met with a Muslim family and talked with the mother of the household,Chitcha-she is amazing. I started asking her about the Muslim faith and what not and the Lord really opened the door to talk about Jesus. But here is where it gets crazy ahhhh. Ok so David(the married couple i walk around with is David and Shannon) After we had been in their house for awhile just having casual conversation David was praying that the Lord would open the door so that we could talk about Jesus-and he told us later that as he prayed that Noah(Chitcha's brother-who was a lot harder to talk to) got up from across the room where he was sitting next to Chitcha- to go talk to David about Muslim cleansing rituals and other things concerning the Muslim faith. While David and Noah were talking-Shannon and I talked to Chiticha and as we were talking to her about Jesus, Chitcha comes out and says...oh man wait for it....that she believes that JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS FOR HER SINS ahhhhhh. so good. We talked for the next hour with her about Jesus. And she invited us to come back-so this past Sunday (March 7) we went back to talk to her for about another 40 minutes and got to pray for her and a lot of family drama that is going on right now. She really opened up to us about her struggles and hopelessness. It was so good to be able to speak and pray God's truth, hope, and love over her! And we get to go back next Sunday to see her!

We also went into a new part of Oceanview called Mountainview. It is the really poor part of Oceanview. Most of the people in Oceanview live in houses-but in Mountainview they lives in Shacks made out of cereal boxes or anything they can find to make a home out of. They live in Mountainview because like Masi's wetlands they were promised land by the government and like Masi the government never followed through on that promise-so they live in awful living conditions. so we went up into that community. I walked around with the women on my team. We met this woman Erica and her family. We talked to Erica for awhile and then I asked her if she needed prayed for anything and she said yes...so we went into her house to pray for her and some other woman. Their main prayer request was for jobs(that is the prayers request you most often hear amongst the people in the townships).We got done praying and I asked Erica if she knew Jesus and she says "Yes YES-I love Jesus-He is my savior-my lover-my everything, I live my life for Him" and then begins to tell us this crazy story....her father last year was dying of TB-in the hospital room-the doctors said he had minutes to live-and so her response is to grab oil and she anointed his face- touched him and said be healed in the name of Jesus and he stood up and walked out of the hospital room got tested and DOES NOT HAVE TB. ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! and he gave his life to Jesus and is getting baptized Sunday.ahhhhhhhhhhhhhHHH!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!
so back to present day:
We are talking to Erica and we ask her to say a prayer over us and she starts praying a super power, spirit filled prayer it was AMAZING and LEGIT. and while she is praying her father who was healed from TB comes in and starts praying over us. oh man it was awesome. She then proceeds to tell us after she is done praying that she does house church in Mountainview and 4 days a week stands outside and any person that walks by she tells them about Jesus! sooooo amazing! so I really want to walk around with Erica next week and do evangelism with her-and i asked her if she would want to walk around and she said...OF COURSE EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW MY BELOVED MY KING!
ahh GOD IS SOO GOOD!i am so pumped if you can't tell!!! and then we met her grand kids and I immediately fell in love with them.. I asked them if they loved Jesus and the 8 years old says...YES JESUS HEALED ME LAST YEAR-she apparently was on her death bed and Erica anointed her and prayed that she would be healed and she was!!! ahh
so then we continued walking and we met these two women who were also on fire for God and they lead bible studies in their home! so good soo good. when one of the girls on our team asked them what would help fix Mountainview-one of the women Loraine's response was "Jesus"-she said if Mountainview could come to know Jesus and could be united in seeking His kingdom then they would see revival and provision in Mountainview. Seriously these women were rocking my world.
and then we met Denise and she loves Jesus but her husband is Muslim. She told us that she felt like the Lord told her she was suppose to be married to him and to be faithful. She said when she first met him the Lord told her it was going to be a rough and rocky marriage but that if she remained faithful to God and her husband then he would bless her and her husband would come to know him through her faithfulness and they have been married 27 years and she prays everyday thatt her husband would come to know Jesus! so we got to pray over her and it was just so amazing.
So after all this we didn't know what to do next. So we started praying for direction and as we were praying these 4 teenage girls called us over and we talked to them for the next 2 hours-they braided my hair and they talked to Shannon about marriage-and asked me questions about boys and relationships and the States and what not and we are doing bible study with them on Friday at 3pm and I am so so pumped. This is where my heart gets super excited-pouring into teenage girls about their worth and identity and speaking truth and Shannon is the same way-so the two of us are so so so excited!!
so that is Oceanview today. I am getting more and more excited about Oceanview. I am really encouraged!

Oceanview

2010-02-22T04:16:00.000-08:00

Oceanview.

This past week we found out the townships we will be working in for the next 9 weeks and I got placed in Oceanview. I wanted to give you a little background on the community so you had a little bit of a picture of what Oceanview is like. Oceanview is the only Coloured township that All Nations currently works with. It is estimated that 30,000 people live in Oceanview. The community was created during apartheid, when they were uprooted from their homes in some of the local tourists towns and placed in what is now known as Oceanview. The community of Oceanview has really experienced being caught up between the black and white cultures in South Africa. Many still feel neglected and abandoned with no hope or ambition for the future. The main issues that the community deals with are alcoholism and drugs, and HIV/AIDS,teenage pregnancies, unemployment, and a high drop out rate in schools. The three main religions in Oceanview are Muslims, Christians, and Rastafarians. The main language spoken is Afrikaans and English.

Our first day in the community was this past Friday. My team is made up of 3 families, 3 Afrikaaner's, a couple from Florida, and me. We split into teams of three and went out to meet people in the community and to familiarize ourselves with the area we are going to be working in. The area of Oceanview we chose to work in is called "Ghost Town" because no one has ever gone that far back in the community to work. A lot of the people we met we so thankful that we were there. This gave us extreme favor with a lot of the people we came in contact with. There was one girl that I ended up walking around and talking with for 2 hours named Cher, she is a 20 year old single mom that works full time, and she was so easy to talk to. I really connected with her and am super pumped to spend more time with her. I got to share bits of my testimony and story with her, but I really loved being able to hear her story. She was amazing, and I get to hang out with her again on Thursday. So I am really asking the Lord for favor with her. I really want to speak truth and identity into her heart.

I am really excited to work alongside the families on my team. Two of the families have 2 girls each-Macy,Nali,Emmy and Jenson. And the other family has a 6 month old boy, Ethan. I have already really loved getting to know the families and seeing how they do missions with their kids. The little girls are bringing a ton of joy to my heart-we have done a lot of adventuring and dance parties with them-they are so much fun. I am really looking forward to doing ministry in the communities with kids. Boom. God's army!

We had a game night Saturday and played Apples to Apples with people from Germany, India,America, and South Africa. It was entertaining to play with so many different cultures because what Americans thought was funny, no one else did and vice versa.

This week is our first week of our normal schedule for the next 9 weeks. We have Mondays off, Tuesday and Wednesday we are in class from 8-5, Thursday, Friday and Sundays we are in the communities, and Saturdays are work days slash days off.

I thought I would leave you with my random observations slash terms of South Africa"
-none of the windows have screens, just bars to keep the baboons out!
-eggs,mayo, and certain brands of milk are opened, used, and NEVER refridgerated.intersting.yet I am still consuming these things.
-they don't split checks at restaurants...oh and they have no idea what a check is..you HAVE to say bill
-we get a tea break during class
-hooting=honking
-just now= in a couple of minutes
-chips=fries
-crisps=potato chips
-are you ok with?=do you understand?
-sort that out-take care of it
-light evening meal=dinner
-now now-RIGHT now
-takkie=sneakers
-hash=is the pound sign your phone (that took me awhile to figure out what the lady on the phone meant)
-you are not tall you are long (which they have never said to me)
-cresh=preschool
-top it off=refill

and one my favorite gifts of all from the Lord this week is I found Dr Pepper in South Africa. I was not having a good day on Sunday...and I turned the corner in the mall and there was a place called the American Corn Dog Stand and sitting on the counter was a Dr Pepper can. I had to ask Whitney if it was real! haha WOOO! I was so excited. So thank you Jesus!

WEEK ONE!

2010-02-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

So a little update.

I just finished my first week and two days of CPx. The first week was mainly orientation. We got introduced to the staff, and our schedule, and where we will be spending the first 3 months doing outreach. I will be working in the community(township) OceanView. Which I will give you a little more of an update and idea of it later. More to come on that! The last two days of teaching have been on how to rapidly multiple churches. and my mind has gotten blown. I felt like I just went through spiritual brain surgery. it was intense and so amazing. I already feel so challenged. The man who taught the workshop is named David Broodryk (www.discipleship.co.za). He gave us the overview of how to facilitate and disciple people of peace to rapidly multiple churches. And then the next 3 months will teach us how to practically do this model of "church."

I live at All Nations main team house, called Africa House. And I LOVE it! Half of the students in CPx live there as well, and the rest live in a house right across the street. I live in a room with the Whitney and Rachel (the Norman girls) and a girl from Florida named Nicole. There are 42 students in CPx and we represent 12 different nations: USA, UK, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Colombia and Canada.It has been fun slash interesting to live in a community with so many different races. It is challenging and so exciting! I really love having people around all the time, but the property is big so it also allows room for alone time!

Two of the students in our class are from Masiphumelele (Masi), the township community that I have worked in the last two times I have come. Vovo who is around my age who has fully given her life to Jesus and is on FIRE and the other is Lucas, a former Rastafarian who has encountered the Holy Spirit and rests in God's grace and love. It has been amazing to witness the fruit of the short term teams that have come here! And it is even more exciting to watch, especially these two step even further into the Lord's destiny and will for their lives.

This past week was Whitney's 23rd birthday. So we spent all weekend celebrating with her. We went to Boulders Beach and jumped off boulders and swam with African penguins. It is moments like that that I can't believe that I get to live somewhere so beautiful for five months. We all got super fried because we were in the sun all day, but Whitney got her first birthday sunburn! woo.

And for all the LOST freaks out there. Where we live in the valley in Capetown looks like scenery right out of LOST. So it makes the with drawls a little more tolerable.

Contact Info and Singing Oklahoma to African Police.

2010-02-07T13:40:00.000-08:00

HELLOO

! OK we got south African cell phones a couple of days ago WOO! SO if you want to be awesome and spend the 25 cents it costs to send me a text and make my day that would be awesome, my number (with the country code) is 27-0763942624

if you do decide to do this send your name somewhere in the text the first time so i know who it is. Also if you call me from skype on this number it costs you like 2 cents a minute..YOU SHOULD DO IT.

My skype name is amanda_sperle. So if you want to skype just email me to set up a time and hopefully we can work it out.

my email is amanda.sperle@gmail.com. YOU SHOULD ALSO SEND ME EMAILS! they are making my day right now.

OK one last contact thing, our mailing address here is:
P.O. Box 1606
Sun Valley, Cape Town
South Africa 7985

i would love to get letters from you and maybe just maybe i will write you back...OK there is a huge possibility i would write you back!

get excited for all the communication!!!

Ok my first adventure slash story of living in South Africa:

Our good friends Mike and Kalyn invited us over to their house after dinner on Saturday night to hang out with them. So Kalyn came to pick us up and we jammed 7 people into her toyota sudan car thing. HMM SO ILLEGAL! While on our way to their house we got flagged over by the police at a roadblock...awesome. Side Note: They usually have road blocks on Friday and Saturday nights to look for people who are driving without a license, or drunk or drugs. So here we are a car of missionaries that just got in from Oklahoma getting pulled over on our first day in South Africa. The police were not pleased with the amount of people in the car. Kalyn kindly explained that they were her friends from American that just flew in She then recommended that we sing "OKLAHOMA" to them. So we then proceeded to sing "OKLAHOMA" and they were very please with our singing and waved us on. And as we drove off said " Tell Obama I said Hello."

So there they now have a new appreciation for the song Oklahoma, as do I.

We start our CPx classes tomorrow at 8:30 in the morning. I am still recovering from the plane ride over here.I really excited to get into a routine and really start my time here.And t be able to share with the world all the crazy amazing things i am seeing!!!

and as promised to Stephen Pyle and John Lusk- I am hoping, no promising to update this blog once a week.

just got my blog on for the first time EVER.

2010-01-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

Ok. So I figured it was time to finally set up a blog since I am moving in two weeks to Capetown, South Africa for five months! I am going to attend a church planting school through an organization called All Nations. I am super pumped to get equipped to share the good news of Jesus and to see people come to experience the unconditional LOVE of Jesus.