you lose some... then you lose some more

This week we've endured a double sporting embarrasment, cheering on our woeful rugby and cricket teams as both were destroyed by South Africa. First up we got all the Next Level kids round to watch the 36-0 drubbing and they had a ball! Face paint,fancy dress and a lot of taunting. The winning fancy dress costume included a genuine Springbok tail sticking out of Ronel's jeans! Full marks for attention to detail and innovation (she got it from the local witch-doctor!).

Then on Sunday sarah and I joined Paul & Elaine at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town to see the 20/20 cricket. A huge crowd, with Table Mountain in the background and a not too shabby scoreline, meant we had a great time. We think we were out-numbered by 1000 to 1 as England supporters, which made it more exciting to cheer on all those fours and sixes (yeh, all 3 of them).

Quick update on our renegade Next Level member who stole our ipod: He appears to have left town without a trace! His mum has reported him to the Police as a 'missing person' and none of his friends have seen him. Please pray that he keeps safe and that he comes back soon.

Disappointment this week

I'm writing this with about 45 minutes to go until we have to be back at the house, where we'll be meeting the police. Last week one of the young men in our youth group stole a cell-phone from the house, whilst we had left him alone doing some work in the garden. He had asked for work because his family were running out of food.

We confronted him about the phone, but he denied having taken it. However, the following week at church, some of the other boys confessed that they had seen this lad with the cell phone during the week, boasting that he could get free calls! When we got back from church we found the house had been broken into, and the charger for the phone stolen, along with an adaptor. We confronted him again, he confessed, and returned all three items. However, the following day we discovered that our ipod had also been taken, and the young man in question was nowhere to be found.

We took the difficult decision to take the matter to the police and let them deal with it. We really didn't want to go to the police becuase of the serious implications for this lad, but at the same time we know that he's committed a crime and crossed a line that we don't want any of the other young people to cross, with ourselves or any other staff members. So we are hoping that whatever the outcome he will come to his senses and look at what he is doing with his life. We were very shocked and disappointed at what he's done, but still have hope that he can pull himself up with God's help.