Well four weeks without hearing from us, how have you coped? Don’t worry we’re back! We’re back safely after …… jumping off a stadium roof, jumping out of an aeroplane, swimming with sharks, walking down a vertical mountain and then scrambling back up, sleeping in a cave with wild baboons and jackals near by, doing children’s/teenagers days and camps, attending and supporting a gun dog trial, visiting a Zulu village, reptile park, held a python, team initiative challenges, walked with large rucksacks up Draakensberg, ran a football tournament for patients at Fort Napier, went to mangroves, waterpark, Kruger, travelled over 10,000 kilometres and others…
After a deliberate four day detour down Kruger national park and seeing almost every animal imaginable accept a lion we went to the Padbury’s home in Hillcrest, Durban. They currently run outdoor adventure programmes for local school children. It’s safe to say not a minute was wasted.
First week – Zoe
During our week we visited a Zulu village for a culture experience. We also visited a reptile park that had over 150 crocodiles, with which one was over 107 years old and was over 5 metres long. We all (2 at a time) also held a Python, which was called Fluffy. We also ate Ostrich sausages that were quite nice. We ran a school day programme for children who have learning disabilities and made smoothies with them. In one of the afternoons we went abseiling down one of the 1000 hills (the area we stayed was called Valley of 1000 hills – for good reason!), which was about 100 feet and then attempted and succeeded to climb back up again. Ed’s face was a picture as he went over the edge – let’s just say it was a good job he was wearing brown shorts
(He laughs as he realises that his grandma is going to be reading this).
Wednesday 2nd May we went down to the sea but swam in a lagoon about 20 metres away because the sea we were near didn’t have shark nets up so we were more at risk if we swam there. We then went off to watch a black tip shark being dissected (love the gunk-Zoe). Friday 4th in the evening we ran a kids club except only 4 turned up, then after it we ran a youth club. In both AJ did a talk and we did some activities.
Saturday 6th we had no idea what we were going to do, we just turned up at the Durban stadium. Until we got given some tickets and were told that for that morning we were to do the world’s tallest swing jump at the stadium. We had to climb up a load of stairs on the side of the stadium and then one by one be put to the test of whether we trusted the people and elastic holding us. In the afternoon we went to a water park which had a load of slides – it was great fun going down them and just messing around in the water.
Sunday 6th we went to the Padbury’s church where Ed and AJ led the kids Sunday school which had over 30 kids and Zoe led the youth group which had 4 teenagers in it. Straight after that service we went to a hospital where we wheeled people into a small church where Ed led a 30 minutes service and, as it was only a small church there was no choir so we ended up as the AQ choir.
… This is Mr David Padbury’s approach to gently easing us into the programme…
Second week – AJ
This week our team helped organise and run an outdoor activity day for school children in grade 1 (6 years old), where we ran a few activities such a ‘team challenge treasure hunt’ and Ed did a short devotion on Fruits of the Spirit.
Dave P then briefed us on how to prepare for the Draakensberg mountains as Zoe, Ed and I (AJ) were given responsibility in organising and packing for this short expedition! This included writing the packing list for everyone, organising and buying the meals, considering weather scenarios, emergency planning and so on… All went well, except for running out of coffee on the first morning…
On the Wednesday, Bruce (David’s son) came with us as our guide and we ventured up into the foothills of the rough mountains where every turning corner was a breathtaking view of God’s awesome creation. We soon made camp in a cave with it’s own waterfall in the centre. The next few days we spent exploring, talking about life and discovering an incredible peace and freedom within the mountains. We then came down before dawn on the Friday morning to watch the sunrise, and were greeted by Jean (David’s wife) and her friend with a wonderful breakfast of burgers and home-made brownies!
We visited Spion Kop, which is a great historical sight on top of a hill that holds memorials of British troops and Boers soldiers from a devastating battle during the Boer war.
During the weekend Jo and Pete went with David to support him on his gundog trials while Zoe, Ed and I signed up and had a full day of training for our Static-Line jump (jumping out of an aeroplane from 3,500 feet with a parachute opening up automatically). This was a surreal weekend for us as we learned a new level of trust…
Week three – Edward
After the weekend of training for our static line jump all I could think of was the training, ARCH 1000…2000…3000…4000…5000….CHECK, etc., etc. we went to jump on the Sunday morning but unfortunately jumping was called off so we went to watch the gun dog trials and chatted with jean for the afternoon.
We were asked to run a 5-a-side football tournament, and me being the master of football that I am (NOT) I was put in charge of it!!! We ran it at Fort Napier hospital for 35 of the patients. It was great to see them all having fun and enjoying being outdoors. I spent most of the morning running up and down a VERY steep bank retrieving the football as the fence around the pitch didn’t reach the ground.
This day was also Zoe’s birthday and we all enjoyed the ice-cream cake which can be summed up in one word, WOW. We went out for a birthday meal at a Thai restaurant, which can also be summed up in one word, interesting (or the rest of the team would say AMAZING.
Tuesday morning was spent running a program for grade 8 (age 13, 14) back at kloof gorge, the rain didn’t stop us, it dampened the spirits of some of the students but we didn’t let it stop the day!! We ran lots of team building and personal development activities and AJ led the devotion.
Wednesday, D-day for us three intrepid jumpers. We arrived at the airfield and kitted up in jumpsuits and found our parachutes, and even put them on. We did some last minute revision of our checks and then went and boarded the plane.
As we took off I couldn’t help thinking “I’m not going to came back down in this plane, I’m going to jump out!” it was a strange feeling when our jump master, Roy, signalled for me to turn around and step out onto the plane wheel, now remembering I’m over 6 foot, trying to turn round in a very small aircraft at 3500 feet and a 160kph wind without falling out is a bit of a challenge, but I made it. After a reminder to smile and hanging about on the wing for about 10 seconds, I was signalled to ‘jump’. Right into the exit drills of checking, which went right out of my head as I realised I was falling at a fast pace back to planet earth. So ARCH 1000…2000…um…um….ummm…..oh….oh yes, checks, oh good the canopy has opened and there are no faults with it, good. Now enjoy the flight, the views were amazing and it is an amazing way to see Gods creation. The flight for all three of us went well, AJ did a back somersault out of the plane and I landed in the sugarcane. We were all very pleased to have done it and want to do it again!
Thursday, and its Peters birthday, after a birthday breakfast we headed off to the coast to go swimming with sharks, all very well until you see the boat, a rubber dingy, or a rib for you boat experts. We kitted up with wetsuits, snorkels and flippers and went to sea. After a long boat trip we had a practice dive on a reef and we saw a pod of dolphins and lots of lovely fish, we then went to the sharks, there were mainly black tips and a tuna came by to say “hi”. It was incredible to be in the sea, without a cage, swimming with sharks about 3 meters below us. There must have been about 15 to 20 sharks swimming round us, some coming incredibly close. Keep an eye out for photos of that day. It’s amazing to think that one day we were skydiving then the next day we were diving with sharks.
After the sharks we went on to a site where we were to run a camp for the next 2 days. We had a braai (South African BBQ) and cheese cake for Peters birthday evening. Friday morning the students arrived and we went strait into activities and enjoyed running the program. The two days were very full of both activities and eating Jean Padbury’s food! The 40 students all had a great time and the AQ team also enjoyed the time there. Some of the students were at the youth group we ran a few weeks ago, which was great to see them again and catch up and continue to give Christian input into their lives.
We drove back to the Padbury’s to pack and say good bye and head back to Kaniki. The journeys all went well and we enjoyed staying one night at a campsite with Elephants which were free to walk through, some came within 5 meters of our tent during the night.
Were now back at Kaniki, Ndola, Zambia and have settled back into life here. John and Grace Miles, who set up AQ in 1998, are here to teach us for 2 weeks, and its going to be amazing!!!!
Prayer points:
• That our last 5 weeks here will be great ones to remember even as we start to miss our families more as we know we will see you soon.
• Bupe, one of the girls we worked with in Lusaka, is in a hospice. She has been growing in strength every day, please pray for continued growth of strength.
• Our final Expedition to the bush, where we will be laying the concrete foundation for a hammer mill, in 2 weeks time.
Praise points:
• For a great time in South Africa
• Exciting futures for all of us
• Great times with John and Grace, were already looking over the edge.
