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Monday, March 24, 2014

Good Shepherd’s Efe Jane Cudjoe, Youth Leader, Travels The World by Pastor Judy Lee, ARCWP

http://judyabl.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/good-shepherds-efe-jane-cudjoe-youth-leader-travels-the-world/
Effe Jane Cudjoe standing in middle of community, Pastor Judy Beaumont, ARCWP standing in back,
www,arcwo,org

Our Youth Leader, Efe Jane Cudjoe is on a Semester Abroad from Brown University. She was chosen to visit Viet Nam, South Africa and Brazil with a small group of other outstanding students. She is studying communities and their medical services in these very different places. She is an ambassador of God’s love and care for all people as she lives and learns on three Continents. Her witness of love is especially powerful as she experiences a world shaped by apartheid-apart-hate, until the victories of Nelson Mandela and all those courageous persons who fought for freedom with non-violent protest and sealed it with unexpected love and tolerance.  She already knows, having been born and raised a first generation African-American  in Florida that freedom and all civil and human rights are won through non-violent action and Christ-like courage and love but that decades later  there is still much more work to be done to nourish equality in the hearts of people and in the essential systems like schools and employment and medical care.  We are eager to learn the lessons she learns in South Africa. And we also will attend carefully to her lessons from Viet Nam encountered so many years after the least popular war in American history.  How exciting it is that we can now send young people to share and learn from the wisdom of these cultures-as our swords are finally beaten into plowshares. In this context,  our youth are the plowshares preparing the fields for a new level of knowledge and understanding.
Below are two messages from her with pictures from Viet Nam and South Africa. All of our love and blessings go with you, dear Efe Jane.
 March 24,2014
“The trip we are about to embark upon is unfathomable and totally inaccessible to the majority of people in the world… we will make the experience about reciprocity and exchange.” During our time in Brazil, Vietnam & South Africa we will be investigating the ways in which communities can ensure the health and well-being of all citizens amid mounting challenges created by changing economic, environmental, and social forces.
Effie Jane's photo.
Effie Jane's photo.
We made a home cooked meal at our hostel, and ate it on our balcony, which looked out onto the sea.
Effie Jane's photo.
Molo! Pastor Judy Lee & Pastor Judy Beaumont and All, 
(Molo means hello in Xhosa)

I hope this email finds you and Pastor Judy Beaumont well! 
I also hope everyone at Good Shepherd is doing well too! 
I am currently writing you from Muizenberg in 
South Africa. 
For the next two days, we will be staying 
in a backpackers hostel. 
We are currently going to be in a hostel because
 we just returned from
 our two week stay in the village-Zwelethemba. 
Zwelethemba is a primarily black community and was an all 
black community during apartheid. I had an amazing time 
not only learning 
quite a few words in Xhosa 
(the X sound is made with a clicking noise made
 by clicking the tongue against the top of the roof) 
but also 
getting to bond with my home stay mother in addition 
to learning of the hardships and triumphs 
that many of the individuals in the community have faced. 
Amidst various issues such as high rates of 
HIV and unemployment 
to name a few,
 the love that the community exuded 
is one that I will truly never forget. 
During our time in Zwelethemba 
we not only heard the rich stories 
of our homestay mothers but we were 
also given the opportunity to go on site visits, 
such as our visit to a TB hospital. 
On Monday we will be heading to the Bo-Kaap, which is a 
primarily 'colored' and  Muslim community in the 
center of downtown Capetown. 
Although I know the experience will certainly differ 
than that which I had in Zwelethemba I am so excited. That being 
said my time in South Africa has been amazing thus far. 
It has taken a bit of time for me to get use to the  
racial categorizations in addition to the long history 
surrounding the use of such 
categorizations. But although these divisions 
based upon race are highly evident
 I feel so welcomed in this environment. 
Each day I am so thankful for this experience 
and I am certain that without 
your continual love and support 
in addition to that of Good Shepherd and 
Dad, Mom and Nana, none of this would have been possible.
 I'm still unable to believe that I have been given 
this opportunity and I'm so grateful.
 Please send my love and blessings to all 
at Good Shepherd and please let them 
know that I am doing well. I miss everyone dearly!

Love & Blessings,

Efe Jane

 P.S. I will be sending more pictures soon!



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