Return to Cape Town

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. It has been about a month since I returned to Cape Town after my visit back home to Colorado. My time at home went by fast, but it was great to see my family and some friends while I was there. My family got some time to rest in the mountain town of Telluride, which is such an amazing place. If any of you Coloradans get a chance you should go check it out.

While I was gone our team went up to the largest township in South Africa called Soweto (in Johannesburg) and led a camp in which many youth learned about HIV/AIDS and many committed their lives to Christ. Since Ive come back, after I adjusted from the time change, I hit the ground running. We were picking up where we left off. It has been cool to see the businesses in Khayelitsha that started while I was home. Most of the business owners are doing quite well in their different ventures such as selling chickens, running a fruit and vegetable stand, selling frozen meat, and selling photographs and business cards.

The young man, Simphiwe, who started a photography business has also gotten involved in another project outside of Africa Jam. Along with some members of my church we have initiated a project called Freeway Football. There are soccer players from some of the townships of Cape Town who find themselves playing the sport they love off the side of the main Freeway in the city. We want to tell the story of these teams and their players, as well as using local photographers like Simphiwe to receive training and document the stories. The hope is to raise up and train local photographers in order to make a book that will be sold, with profits coming back into the communities where the soccer players are from.

It has been amazing to see the progress of the project so far and God's hand in it. Already for our pilot phase, Nikon has come on board to sponsor and provide cameras for Simphiwe and another local photographer. There is already a publisher willing to publish the book, and we are trying to line up more sponsors. If you are interested in checking out more of the project you can check out the website at www.freewayfootball.org. Please keep praying for this project, for Africa Jam, the success of the business owners, and for vision and direction for myself and others involved. Thanks so much for all your continued support. Peace
Ryan