Moritz Life

Jonathan Moritz, Jul 27, 2007 11:01:56 GMT
Well it feels like I just arrived here in Africa and yet in a week and a half I will be heading back home to California. Although I have been here for a while the time has just flown by. There is so much more I want to do and see here. It feels like just as we are making some valuable lasting relationships here we are having to leave. I feel like there is so much more we could do here if only we had the time. But looking back so far we really have done so much work here. God is definitely at work in South Africa and we are oly a small part of that. But we still have time here to get more done and make more of a difference.I will miss this place. Oh yeah and we went on a safari last week and it was extremely kick ass. We saw lions and elephants and hippos and rhinos and giraffes and zebras and all other kinds of animals. It was pretty much beyond belief. Keep us in your prayers as the next week and a half are going to be very, very busy for us here. I will see most of you pretty soon. Jonathan

Friday was my last day of training as an Executive Team Leader with Target. I had been in training for 8 weeks, and on Monday I officially report to my new store.

The store I will be working at is a little further than the store I trained at, but by taking the freeway I can get to the store in 15 minutes from my apartment.

I learned a lot at my training store, met a lot of great people, and had a lot of fun while I was there. I am really excited to start my position though, and I will definitely continue learning for a while yet, as there is so much to learn for this position.

Hi All,
I asked Jonathan to describe the kinds of things they are doing there - so here's the latest he sent about 45 minutes ago:

We kind of have a schedule of things we are doing every week. I guess it is like we are running a program for the church. We are cleaning and painting the back side of their church and we will be building a roof for it soon. Also we are teaching English to some of the Congolese refugees (as most members of the church are Congolese refugees). We are also teaching them new English worship songs and teaching them how to read music. Twice a week we have the kids at the church almost all day. That's insane. I love kids but holy cow. It is good though. We have made a lot of good friends.

South Africa is such a weird place. There are so many languages and cultures and religions all in one place. And their is still a lot of racism and segregation.

On Saturday we are going to two game reserves here. I guess they are like safaris, so we should be seeing lions and elephants and rhinos and giraffes. I am excited about that. That is basically what we are doing so far. We played soccer on the beach of the Indian ocean yesterday it was amazing.

Hello Everyone - this came in about 6:20 am PDT this morning from Jonathan:

I am still here in Durban. I finally got another chance to get on the internet. This city is so crazy. It is a big westernized city but it just seems like someone picked up Africa and dropped them in the middle of it. It is weird, but cool all at the same time. We were working for like 12 hours yesterday. It is pretty tiring. I try to sleep as much as I can. I dont remmeber what I told you all in my last email. But we are staying at this christian guest home that is pretty much like a hostel. It is in a white area of town so we are allowed to walk around the small area we are staying in. But we cant walk anywhere downtown where the church is without at least one of the black members of the church with us. People keep telling us that it is extremely dangerous to walk around and that we are lucky to not have been mugged yet. I talked to this one white south african who told us that we should get on the first plane out of here because this place is absolutley crazy. But I still feel relatively safe. Well I am gonna take off.

At 2:10 am PDT Jonathan wrote the following email to us:

I am at an internet cafe in Durban. We got here on Tuesday in the afternoon after about 35 hours of travelling. I was really tired. Everything is good here. The missionary family is really awesome. We are staying at sort of a Christian hostel here in Durban, and we are working in the inner city here at the church and at local shelters. This place makes Compton (in Los Angeles) look like Disneyland. There is a whole lot of poverty amongst all the wealth. The racial divide is also huge as all the white people are loaded and the rest are poor. We are having a good time. The work is gonna be long and hard but good I guess, but we are having a really good time. I went and stood in the Indian ocean yesterday. It was amazing.

This verse was sent to me this morning and I thought it appropriate given what Jonathan had written:
For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.
PSALM 9:18

We appreciate your continued prayers for Jonathan and his group of fellow students.

I found out this past weekend, after almost 6 full weeks of being unaware of the store at which I will be working when I finish my training, which store I will be calling "my own".

As you may know, I've been training at the Herndon and Willow Target store, which is about a ten minute drive to my apartment. A Store Team Leader from a different store in town came in on Saturday to chat with me, and he let me know that I would be going to his store. He is from the First and Shields store. This store is further from my apartment, but it is mostly freeway to get there, but I can still make it to that store in about 15 minutes.

I'm really excited about this, not only because I finally know where I'm headed once my training finishes, but there are many opportunities for me at this store to improve it and to learn many things.

It is so hard to believe that 25 years ago today, Lloyd and I tied the knot. Time has really flown by, but when I look at our sons, I realize that time does pass quickly. Lloyd took me out for lunch to the Olive Garden where we enjoyed our favorite lunch - soup, salad & bread sticks. Tonight, my sister Lori and her husband Darryl who are visiting are taking us out for dinner to the Black Angus (steak house).

I didn't really expect to quietly pass this anniversary by, however with moving away from our boys to an area where we really don't know anyone or have any family - it just wasn't feasible to have a party to celebrate. We will, however, do some celebrating later this summer perhaps, we just have to figure out what we're going to do!

The last 25 years have been wonderful to spend with Lloyd (at least most days)! Love you babe!

You haven't heard much from me here recently. Life has been busy.

Not only was June the month of our move to Yakima, I was away for a large amount of the time. Just a few days after arriving here I was off to the Colorado Springs area for four days. There I had the opportunity to take a cog train up to the top of Pike's Peak, over 14,000 feet elevation! Last week I returned from 8 days in Anderson, Indiana for the North American Convention of the Church of God. And, even I was home, there were other times of travel with Kathy to Seattle and Clarkston, Washington.

I'm looking forward to being home more in July!