Getting a bunch of teens from different backgrounds together to sit, listen and learn about an ancient narrative where all the world will be restored and all evil vanquished should be easy enough right? 

Since South Africa’s lockdown we have struggled to gather.  The world and how people meet has changed dramatically since this pandemic began. We planned to run a camp in July this year, but Covid regulations thwarted our plans. Finally, it is October and we managed to run one of our newly launched Discovery Camps.  These camps were designed over lockdown as we wrestled with what to do to tackle the ripple effect of the devastation of Covid.  After much thought, conversations and prayer, we decided that understanding the Word of God and how it relates to our very existence needed to be on the forefront of these camps.  

Now the question is….how do we get teenagers to understand, let alone want to read the bible?  With Generation Z, data has shown that 68% read their bible only 3 to 4 times a year.  Shockingly, only 9 % use it in their daily life.  The bible has been likened in the mindsets of the younger generation to the Koran or Hindu wisdom literature. Or just boring historic literature.  How did this happen?  We believe it simply was because the bible wasn’t being taught outside of church walls.  Which means so many have been missing out.

Full Disclosure: all of the participants knew beforehand that were teaching about the bible and willingly and voluntarily, without coercion or any bribery. We offered an invitation and they accepted.  

In the span of the school holidays we took it upon ourselves to teach the whole bible in a week.  Genesis to Revelations.  How it started, where it all went wrong, were is went wrong again over and over and over and over and over again, and then Jesus! and then! ….HIS RETURN! Yes! What a great and hopeful reminder,  Jesus is coming back!

When all is said and done and the King commands: “Behold, I make all things new!” 

The Restoration of ALL things awaits us. 

From the airplane all you see are rolling sand dunes and grey boxes that eventually make themselves out to be block houses that sprawl for miles upon miles in the middle of the desert. You wonder how the ancient world ever landed themselves here. With very little water, no natural resources and sparse pockets of green you are shocked that this country is home to 10 million people.

With this physical landscape you wouldn’t of expected Jordan to be exactly the refreshment I needed in this time in my life and Aleph’s broader vision that we have been praying over.

What a privilege it was to be in an oasis in the desert, a sign of hope, and God’s provision to these beautiful Syrian women.

Many of you might know that I have been shifting the majority of my focus from design, training and manufacturing to mentoring and bible teaching.

With the events of last year and ongoing difficulties during this pandemic, we decided to put a pause on our Aleph Apparel and market space. For a while I have felt overwhelmed and stagnant to the point of even feeling like this chapter of my life was completely done. But this opportunity I had to serve in Jordan reignited my passion and love for what I get to do.

Right as I walked into the homes of these Syrian families, the emotions were high with gratefulness. They couldn’t fathom why a complete stranger would come all this way to teach them. They wanted to feed me everything, offered me a room to stay in and “Shakran’s” (Thank You’s!) for days. There is nothing quite like Middle Eastern hospitality.

Prior to my arrival in Jordan, the women expressed the desire to learn how to make a dress. While in South Africa, I spent time researching and creating a dress that would be an appropriate style for Middle Eastern women to wear. And thankfully, the one I made and brought to teach them was a hit! I had two weeks to impart as much as I could about dress making. Thankfully, they were comfortable and skilled already on the machine which made my job much easier.

Everyday we met at Maria’s house. She has 10 kids that I just fell in love with. My friend and I chose to do the training at her home because of all her children and obvious demands of motherhood.

With each passing session my heart grew for Jordan, the Middle East and these women. They had both fled with their families from Syria 10 years ago. One women, a widow, fled with her 5 children from Homes, Syria to the border of Jordan which is a 3 day journey. She said they couldn’t stop for anything, they were literally fleeing for their lives.

Once she got to the border, she was met with a flood of other Syrians in her same situation. Thousands had come to find a safe haven in Jordan. At this point, there were just too many people and not enough help. Hungry, weary and tired, someone told her of a church that was assisting refugees in a city close by. Finding the church, she also found family, shelter, clothing and food! They treated her with the greatest of generosity and dignity she will never forget.

It is ironic how often in tragedy we experience the deepest forms of love. Maybe its because we are desperate and light shines brighter when darkness closes in. But also the heart softens in times like these. It opens up to receive truth and love when great devastation has been experienced. Often we don’t realize our need for God until our world falls apart.

God didn’t want this tragedy to happen. He doesn’t want us to experience heartache, war, death, hunger, assault or anything traumatic. But this is the world we live in, and people are not living according to his original design for us or for this world. Eden was so long ago… and as a society we are continuing to move farther and farther away from his original design. And yet, He still wants to bring us back, show us what Eden was like and restore what people have stolen. I feel extremely privileged to be a part of helping Him bring comfort, understanding, provision and truth into such a dire situation.

What these women have experienced no human should ever have to. Yet in it, The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob showed up and shared with them who He is.

My heart is for people to know that God never wanted us to go through life like this. He wanted Eden, a perfect connection, enjoyment and satisfaction with Him in this world. And not only with Him but also in harmony with people, nature and every living thing!

I am so thankful that our God is a God who restores. A God that is gentle, patient and kind. A God that is for Life, He is just and true and desires to dwell with us.

The women are already making and receiving orders for dresses. One lady had an interview with an NGO that is hiring seamstresses! I am so grateful to have been a part of helping remind these women of what the world was really suppose to look like.

Please continue to pray with us as the women build their businesses or look for work in the industry. We are all hopeful in what God is doing.

With Love,

Vanessa

The Aleph Baja project exists to support youth and families through mentoring, leadership development and restorative outdoor activities like surfing and rock climbing.

Many young people in Northern Baja grow up facing hard realities every day. All too often destructive influences and coping mechanisms are more available for youth than opportunities to access healthy outdoor spaces and activities. Using an Assets Based framework, we approach each day believing that every person is created unique and full of potential. Through restorative activities, mentoring and outdoor leadership training we invite youth to experience new possibilities for themselves. Whether it’s learning how to swim, stand up on a wave for the first time, or reach the top of a hard climb, the underlying goal is an experience of success and empowerment, supported by peers and caring adults.

Our dream of restoration is rooted in the teachings and example of Jesus to “love your neighbour as yourself.” It means working side by side to uplift and inspire one another. At the end of the day our vision is simple: we want to see young people thrive.

We left Jeffreys Bay on the 5th of May to drop off Nala, our Rhodesian Ridgeback, with my brother and sister.  

We set out on the road to visit key ministry partners as well as people doing extraordinary work all along the South and East Coast of SA.  

I came to call this trip our ‘State of the Nation Trip’

We have not traveled South Africa extensively for a while, especially since Covid and lockdowns that are still going on. 

We needed to get out! And see dear friends and how this country had handled these unprecedented times. 

We traveled through Western, Northern and Eastern Cape, Free State, Kwazulu Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and back home. 

We would visit all the provinces except Gauteng. 

South Africa is a massive country. With extremely diverse landscapes and vast wide open spaces. 

We were left in awe most of the time. 

Words like beautiful, breathtaking, awesome and glorious got thrown around a lot.

 ‘How cool is that?!’ One of my more favored expressions.

We drove over too many mountain passes, which is not great in a Toyota 4Y engine. 

We saw tropical estuaries on the East Coast and savanna grasslands filled with Acacias. Game was abundant. We almost hit a massive male giraffe around a bend on the way to Satara. We truly got to see Nature in all its glory.

We also drove through many towns and villages. 

As we did, one can not be filled with some worry when going through these places. 

The condition of many of the roads are in shambles. Monumental sized potholes for miles and miles. 

With the only sign of anything being done was a small sign on side of the road saying POTHOLES!  I doubt they will ever get fixed – there are just too many roads and at too high of a cost. 

Outdated infrastructure can not support the needs of a fast growing population. 

Many places we visited did not have water or electricity. 

The decay of small towns are alarming. Houses are delapitated, post offices and many municipal building burned down by angry protesters due to service delivery…. or so they say. 

Why this is all so alarming is because South Africa was not a nation known for roads with potholes, energy and water crises, or decaying and abandoned towns.

Everywhere we see people and wonder how they are making a living!? We see the youth and wonder what future is there in these places?

It is hard to consolidate the beauty and productivity of our natural eco systems and then compare it to our urban regression. 

I often pondered the verse where Jesus says “See I have come to make all things new”

Which leads me to our mission of Restoration and I ask HOW?

I highly doubt the roads, buildings and infrastructure of South Africa will ever be restored again.  But I have learned and know that this is not where our focus should be. 

Let us look to the restoration of the heart of man that can only be accomplished through faith, obedience and alignment according to our Creator’s masterplan. 

God’s whole reason for keeping us as humans around on this earth is so we can get back to a place of dwelling with Him!  In the world He made for us and where He said in the beginning ‘IT IS GOOD’.

When we dwell with Him we see life, growth and a natural rhythm that is so easy to flow into. 

But dwelling in a place outside and void of Him, we see decay, abandonment and ultimate corruption.

This is where we have the freedom to choose our stance towards all of this. 

Will we blame-shift? Become bitter and live in a nihilistic way? 

Or will we make the individual choice to become part of the restoration process? 

I choose to put my trust in a God that promises that He will restore that which has been broken down.

I choose to see the green shards of grass that comes back after a devastating veld fire. 

I choose to make a difference where I am with the time that I have been given.  All the while living in the knowing that there is more life to come eternally. 

Isn’t that comforting to know?

Let us look for opportunities where we can breath restoration into people and circumstances. 

Let us strife to live in peace with as many people as we can and extend hospitality to the stranger in our midst. 

Let us not wait for others to do something for us all the while we have the capacity to do it ourself. 

Let us love with the love promised by the One who said that He came to make all things new. 

Reghert van Zyl – Aleph Surf Founder and Director 

MARCH 28, 2021

Mozambique’s government has said dozens of civilians were killed in an attack this week on the northern town of Palma, including seven people whose convoy of vehicles was ambushed as they attempted to flee.

Omar Saranga, a spokesman for the defence and security forces, told journalists on Sunday that hundreds of other people – locals and foreigners – were rescued from Palma, a logistics hub for international gas projects in Cabo Delgado province.

“A group of terrorists sneaked into … Palma and launched actions that resulted in the cowardly murder of dozens of defenceless people,” Saranga said. The exact number of people wounded and killed, or still unaccounted for, remained unclear, while most communications with Palma have been cut off. The town of some 75,000 people had previously been a refuge for people fleeing growing insecurity and violence elsewhere in the province.

The assailants struck Palma on Wednesday, in a seemingly coordinated attack from several directions. Human Rights Watch said the attackers indiscriminately shot civilians in their homes and on the streets. Witnesses described bodies in the streets, some of them beheaded.

Many residents ran into the dense tropical forest surrounding the town to escape the violence, according to Mozambican news reports. But a few hundred foreign workers from South Africa, Britain and France clustered at hotels that quickly became targets for the rebel attacks.

The is just one of the dozens of attacks made on civilians living in Northern Mozambique.  This conflict with islamic terrorist has been ongoing since October 2017. 

Insurgency in Cabo Delgado

Please join us in praying for the Mozambique people.  For protection and assistance from the international community. 

RESOURCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Cabo_Delgado

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/28/dozens-of-defenceless-civilians-killed-mozambique-attack

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/28/africa/palma-mozambique-ambush-intl/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56550359