MY first post 2 weeeks in!

Hello There!

THis is the first time i've been able to gt any time on the internet here in Namibia. It's taken us 2 weeks to find an internet cafe that had more than one computer... and that was dial up! So how do i condense 2 of the most eventful and life changing weeks of my life into one blog. The answer is I can't, it'll take me probably many years to realise the significance of this trip. But i can certainly try to give you a flavour. Namibia is a small little country next to South Africa, small in people that is, with only 1.9 million people. It still took us 9 hours to get from the capital Windhoek, where we arrived to Oshakati up in the North!
So far we have taught for a week in schools children from the ages of 11-18 (though some are 21) about the need fo sexual abstinance before Marriage. This might seem like a peculiar way to spend a month and perhaps a old fashioned one, however it is one which is so neccessary in this country with 2 out of 5 of the people HIV posiitive and this is only the guys who have been checked.
But it has been an experience that has radically changed me. At the start of my week I questioned the receptiveness of these kids to what we were telling them. Telling teenage boys not to have sex is kind of like telling elvis not to eat cheeseburgers. But these kids are bright kids they know the risks, they know all the answers, they know the physical dangers and many of them listened extremely carefully to what we had to say to them.

I should probably explain the we. I am part of a team of about 20 guys half British and american and half namibian and when i say half British and amierican i mean one englishman (me!) and one scot and the rest americans! THis has however been far more enjoyable and valuable than i thought it would be. I have particularly made good friends with a guy called Joey who although had the misfortune to be born in America to American parents is actually British, he loves British music and culture and is a particularly good guitarist so we have had some fun playin songs together.
Amongst us foreigners, I have found most of our conversations revolving around the differences between our languages and cultures which seeing we are gonig on two weeks now i find suprising. I have also had considerable mockery made of my accent good natured mostly!
Of the Namibians, I don't think i have ever met a group of 20 something young people as mature or godly in my life. People have to grow up quickly in Africa, with alcoholic and abusive parents commonplace, so too parents dying early.
It has really broken me to have to face some of the realities of HIV, specially knowing that if current statistics hold which i Pray desperately that they wont, 2 in 5 of them will be or already are HIV positive. This is only also those who have been tested, which 75% of which are women. My leader Stanley explained to me that so few men gt tested because if they know that they are HIV positive they must then become sexually responsible. Which is a hideous thought however who wants to know that they are effectively the living dead. Such a thought led me to write the lyrics How can you tell me to open my eyes/ when all i want is to be blind/ to stumble and fall than realise/that i'm death walking as life

AS well as being deeply challenged and heartbroken i have also been incredibly encouraged both by the kids at the school and just the Namibian spirit in general. THe kids i spoke to all wanted to be doctors and lawyers, and businessmen and pop stars and "soccer" players. in the face of the potential for a future with such a real chance of such a debilitating disease as
Aids; this i found striking. THere is such joy and generousity in this country also! Church has no stand up to sing the hymn mentality every church service is a wild party of unashamed love offered to god, I went to a wedding which was effectively a church service with a wedding tacked on the end. It was amazing though the bride and groom both danced down the aisle! And afterwards were set upon by old ladies with sticks with cow hair tacked on the end shreiking like a marriachi band on speed!
I was also invited to the reception afterwards despite the fact i had never even met the bride and groom! Here i sampled for my first time goat and the insides of a sheeps stomach! It has made me see why nutters like Bono and Bob Geldof rant and rave about this continent. We in the western world need to bottle what these guys have and sell it. Counsellors would go out of business so too would prozac makers!
In terms of my faith in God this has come on leaps and bounds here. I have learnt so much mor the joy it is to serve others and really give myself to those I am around. God really hit me with the verse in 2 corinthians 9 those who sow sparingly will reap sparingly whereas those who sow generously will reap generously. The more I have invested in the kid in the school I am in the more i have seen in return in my own life.As i have prayed for these school kids, and made a effort to get to know them genuinely, putting there interests and agendas before my own the greater connection I have felt with them and the happier in my self I have been by a clear mile!
Ithas been a brilliant place to consolidate what God has been teaching me about my happiness, joy, and growth in Christ being inextricably linked with the needs of others and the will of God he has been so faithful looknig after me in this trip I feel so close to him now.
Everybody warned me that would get under the namibians feet but have a life changing experience and develop a love and committment to Africa, and that I certainly have, but i feel like have been more use than I was warned I would be, I have had some great chats one on one with some of the kids and some wonderful opportunities to share God's love in front of a class of 20-30 kids at a time, and have had a great response from those i have spoken to and so far through our team a good 12 people have become Chrisitans. I give however all the credit to God, he has taken a bunch of well meaning and eager though culturally irrellevant rich westerners and a group of incredibly gifted young namibians and used them to have a significant and for some life changing impact over those we have ministered to. Entering a relatinship with God does not jsut give these guys a nice warm feeling inside, but the strength to resist the potentially deadly desires of sexual temptation, hope and a future, the knowledge that they are hugely valued by the creator of the Universe and adopted into an eternal family where for many their erthly ones have abused and downtrooden them especially the girls.
But it is not through me but the power of Christ that works within me!

THe kids at the school have made me feel so welcome also! One kid today told me that he would put his hand in a frame having just shaken hands with an Englishman, we are also gawped at and waved at as if we were celebrities, often having people chasing after the trucks we ride in the back of. In terms of prayer requests-

We are visting another school next weeek and doing the same there. Could ou please pray for God to have his way there and to have even more of an impact than we had this week.

Also for the school we have left that the new christians migt have people to help follow them up and help them to grow in their new faith, that the cHristian union there who have florished over the past years might really make a stand for Christ on their campus and be obedient to gods work in and through them.
Our team is reall tired also so for some good rest and a renewed sense of purpose and desire for God, also that we might treat each other gently and lovingly despite the weariness.
Lastly for me that God mgiht continue what he is doing in me, and that i don'tstand in the way of what he wants to use me for through my selfishness and pride.

Thank you so much for reading, I really value your prayer and support here or just that you loved me enoug to read this.
Love Nathan