Many of y’all that we have talked to have asked us what a normal day here in J-Bay looks like. While there really isn’t a “normal” to be found anywhere close to ministry here, I can try to lay out a schedule that we do our best to hold to on a weekly basis. Again, how closely this actually is held to varies from day to day, but here you go anyway.
On Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday mornings the entire team of 15 meets for discipleship times. This goes from 9-noon and involves a book study, some kind of discussion, and hopefully (depending on how creative Christina and I are feeling at the time) a hands-on sort of thing. We’ve done everything from making t-shirts reminding us who we are in Christ to collages of our gift sets. Those are the times where we’ve seen some incredible growth right before our eyes and it’s amazing at how quickly those three hours go by everytime.
In the afternoon from Monday to Thursday, the students are involved in their specific ministries – house visits, teaching in the local elementary school, working with street kids, or with an afterschool program in one of the townships. That goes from 1-5 for them. For Christina and I, that time has many different faces. Monday is shopping day, where we buy groceries for the week, and takes pretty much all afternoon, as we hit the butchery, the bakery, the fruit and vegetable store, the chicken store, and the catch-all grocery store. Other days we spend taking students to and from their ministries, paying bills in town, doing paperwork here at the house, writing postcards, or whatever else might come up during the day.
Evenings after dinner are taken up with one-on-ones on most days for Christina. I’ve got two during the week, so other nights I’m here at the house hanging out with the team, continuing to build those relationships. Thursdays are my and Christina’s day off, so we try our best to make ourselves scarce for the day, finishing up with dinner somewhere in town.
Fridays are the team’s day off, so most of those days are spent running them from place to place, or doing laundry, or just chilling on the couch watching the myriad of movies that they like to enjoy to relax. Saturdays afternoons are spent usually cleaning the house or finishing up any paperwork that I didn’t get to during the week as the team is off doing ministry in town. Those nights are our family nights, where we always spend the time together doing something fun, from putt-putt to dinner to a movie and popcorn here at the house.
Sunday mornings are church, free time in the afternoon, and then we go to church again that evening with the community, including students at a Bible college that our team has gotten to know well in the past few months.
And then it starts all over again! Hopefully that gives somewhat of a good idea of what our schedule looks like. If it seems a little packed, that’s because it is. As always, we appreciate your prayers for energy and excitement as we lead this team, especially for the next few weeks before we all go our separate ways for Christmas. Thanks!
