South Africa_The Farm

What a beautiful country! We arrived after a very long flight and have been spending the last few weeks at Shikwaru, a game farm near Mokopane (in the Limpopo province, NorthEast corner of SA). We are a team of ten: Jeremy, Ashley, Kate, Andrea, Jen, Jade, Jessica, Drew, JP and myself. Half of us are Response Team leaders (a few of us in training) and the other half are Nomads or Interns.

The last few weeks, we have been training at the “farm” for our ministry as well as doing a lot of spiritual discipleship, but all that will come to an end as we head out to the Eastern Cape for a few weeks. We will be in schools in an area two hours north of Cape Town. It will be a two day drive to get there with two vehicles, one pulling a trailer. Later we will be going to the NorthEast Cape and then over to Namibia for ministry. (Yes, that is a lot of driving, pray for safe travels! However, we do have six drivers.)

Living on a game farm has been an incredible experience. The night skies are amazing! Daily seeing herds of Impala, Wildbeast, Blessbuck, Zebras, Giraffes, Warthogs and more. The rains have made everything very green. The grasses are high making it hard to see a lot of game, but not impossible.

We had a once in a lifetime experience our first weekend here when we got to help move their two Cape Buffalo (one of the big 5) from one area to another. A helicopter herded them to the fence where they darted them. Once they dropped we got to see and touch them up close. A vet checked them over (the female is with calf) and then they partially woke them up and literally pulled them across to the other fenced area. Later in the day they wanted to try and herd some Blessbuck and Impala over to a different area. We all hid in the tall grass as the helicopter herded them to a channel area between fences, then we were to close in the area like a human net, but they would not pass the fence line. However, the helicopter pilot blessed us all with rides over the farm, two at a time.

We have an official web site that will contain some video:

www.nomadsouthafrica08.blogspot.com

And now the ministry begins, we are ready…