Ricardo - a short, wild life....

Ricardo was one of the kids at the SOS Village. Wild and untamed is how I would describe him....He hung around with a group of boys who were always into trouble and on September 30th it caught up with him. The boys had climbed over a wall to escape the village, were running across a busy street when a car struck Ricardo, killing him instantly. And now I'm left wondering what could have been...

Here are my strongest memories of Ricardo:
At the KG: When I was volunteering at the kindergarten last year, I had many run-in's with Ricardo. We tried our best to make him stay in class and listen to the lessons, but he was always too antsy, he literally couldn't sit still! And if he did stay in the class he was generally disruptive and combative towards the other children. So much of the time he spent running around in the courtyard or helping the custodian, Uncle Andele. But the sweetest memory I have was when he graduated from kindergarten last year, he told one of our other volunteers to "Tell that guy (Denzel) that I graduated!" He was so proud and wanted someone to know!

When I would see Ricardo in the village in the evening, he was always in motion, running around, climbing things, he couldn't be bothered to come down and talk to us boring old people!! But at the same time he loved to go into the hall where we did a lifeskills program with the teenagers and wreak havoc! That is how most of us from YFC remember Ricardo. Running around, being disruptive, but impossible to catch to talk to, impossible to get him to stop for a moment and listen to you...

I don't know what his background was, all the kids at SOS have suffered from either abuse or neglect or both and have been sorely let down by the adults in their lives, he has 3 other siblings still living at the village.... I don't know how long Ricardo had lived at the village... I know his SOS mom worried about him and had trouble keeping tabs on him, try as she might... I always wondered about Ricardo myself... since he couldn't stay in class, how could he learn? And if he had no education, what was his future? To be honest, I thought without some sort of intervention, Ricardo would end up in jail. And so maybe God knew Ricardo was too wild for this world, he couldn't be tamed and he couldn't be forced to conform to society, so now he's at peace and I hope his soul is free.... I miss seeing Ricardo race past me at the village... and again, I can't help but wonder what might have been... I have nothing but love and memories of this wonderful, wild child...Ricardo

YFC General Assembly

So YFC has a General Assembly (GA!) every 4 years and this year it was held at our training centre in Magaliesburg, South Africa (just outside of Johannesburg). Its the first time it has been held in Africa, so we really wanted to make a big impression on the rest of the YFC world! Here is one of my favorite pictures, taken at one of the evening sessions.....I love the colors and how the cross is illuminated....





This is the logo of GA....








So most of us volunteers in Cape Town went early to GA to help with getting everything ready and then we were "on duty" the whole week. The dates of GA were Sept 19-26th. Over 800 people were there from over 100 nations! It was truly amazing! I was part of the Admin team that had to get everyone registered and into rooms! No small feat, believe me! Here are some pics of registration and of me and Natalie at the Info Desk...









At the opening ceremony the worship band really got things off to a great start with incredible, spirited worship songs (the worship band is from Cape Town so I know most of them so it was cool to see them on stage and using their God-given talents!)









And we had some Zulu dancers to get everyone in "Africa mode"! It was a fabulous night....










But then every night was great! There were talks given every morning and evening. Because I was helping with admin, I missed most of the morning sessions, but luckily I didn't miss most of the evening sessions, because they were mostly given by Robert Gelinas. He's a pastor from Denver and to say he was phenomenal is an understatement!!! He gave 5 talks on being "People of the cross". In the most powerful message he gave he asked if we were willing to accept whatever "cup" God might have for us in our lives - referring to Mt 26:39 when Jesus said "...My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but as you will." He asked us to think about what cup God may have placed in our lives and are we willing to accept it or will we run from it? One of the other speakers talked about how important it was in his life when as a teen, an older man in his church told him God had told him to pray for the young man, every day. And how that man had encouraged and stood up for him in the church. He challenged us all to ask God to show us one young person that we should pray for every day and to tell that young person we were praying for them and what a difference it could make in that person's life...I know who I'm praying for....will you also take the challenge?

All throughout the week there were special sessions for all the Young Leaders at the conference...almost 300 of them! It was the kickoff of a 2 year program these Young Leaders will be going through to equip them to go out in their countries and proclaim the gospel to other young people. On the last night we commissioned these young people...here's a pic....



It truly was an incredible week, so many great stories....but to be honest, this introverted girl was exhausted by the end of the week and anxious to get back to Cape Town and back to "normal life". So finally here are some pics of us waiting for the train and then on the train we took to and from Magaliesburg.




Here are some pics of my fellow YFC staff, me with Rolf's wife, Lizzie (Rolf is the National Director - formerly our Cape Town Centre Director) and then Rita, Rosa and Natalie....

It takes over 24 hours to get from Cape Town to Jo'burg, so we had lots of time for fun and games......

our favorites? Rummikub and Sequence!!! Lots of fun!










And finally a picture of the scenery going by - SNOW on the mountains and a beautiful lake in the valley below!! South Africa is truly so breathtaking!!