I'm shivering right now. I don't know if it's from the cold of the broken window or the adrenaline pumping through my body. I'm just sitting here, reading the word online and praying for God to analyze my heart.

I came home from work and opened my door only a crack. The first thing I saw was an abacus on the floor. That's when I knew someone had broken into my house. All my unpacked boxes are now pretty much unpacked and splayed about the floor. To describe my living quarters, I believe the term is: trashed. Everything is everywhere. Someone broke through the kitchen window and destroyed my house searching for valuables. They took the mixer, the turntable and two iPods.

I started to fill with adrenaline. I got mad at myself for leaving my iPod out and hoped they hadn't taken the external hard drive. They didn't. It still stands by the router.

They shattered my piggy bank in my bathroom. I'm more mad at the mess than the destruction. They went through my bed looking for valuables but came away with nothing. After the police came to check it out we found my bike in the alley. I guess it was too hard to take.

I thank our God that they didn't take the hard drives. All of the information, pictures and videos are still here.

I'm pretty sad right now. I don't feel safe. I don't really want to live in this place anymore. I hear noises at night and I get paranoid and now I have a legitimate reason to be. I kinda want to go back home where it's safe. Where I'm in control and I know no one's going to break into our suburbian house.

At the same time, I've already accepted it. I am extremely grateful that they didn't take the hard drive. I think what I'm most upset about is just the mess. Plus, they walked with their shoes on my pure carpet.

The landlord just came by to drop me off a piece of wood to put on the window. I'll drill it in after the police come back again to check for prints and take pictures.

So that's it. Maybe because it was dark and no one was home they thought it'd be an easy target. The entrance was from a window in a very dark alley with no light. They climbed up my garbage can to get in the window.

I trust everything in God's hands. I'll trust Him to take care of me. I may want to go back home but at the same time I know that whatever happens only because God allowed it. I could wish I was in a safer neighborhood all I want but at the same time God could let something bad happen to me in the suburbs. This is a true test of belief. Is there a God in control of everything. No matter what happens to me I'll still reach the same calming conclusion. Yes.

Go to Google Images and type in:

We leave tomorrow! The trip has gone by so fast. No more loading and unloading a drum kit onto a bus and trekking it through random shopping malls.

It was the music celebration time of commissioning. We performed in between other vocal and band groups for a total of two and a half hours.

In the morning were workshops in which we participated.

Then there was a sack lunch and three hour break before the concert. In the concert was a girls vocal group, mass songsters, the music conservatory kids, and the Torrance Band in between all of that.

With all the singing and excitement people started getting up and dancing. Once again the ladies formed a train led by the eldest and they danced through the aisles. One thing led to another and as everyone got more and more excited, the band jumped up and had to join in the dancing.

Major Ivan ended with a message and we finished around six. We went to dinner at a steakhouse in a mall. During the meal the waiters randomly stopped what they were doing and did a synchronized line dance to a country song. That was entertaining.

Here are the decorations outside the hotel.

One more day...

After much service and playing in malls we have finally reached the main reason for the trip and that is the South Africa Commissioning of the cadets.

Our first stop of the morning was a mall to shop for 50 minutes. I got a hashbrown from McDonalds.

Then we went to Jabulani mall to perform. It went pretty good. We played indoors in front of a department store and go a fairly large crowd. People kept coming and going so it was hard to tell how many stayed. They liked the carols and of course Shosholoza. We were handing out the Christmas CDs and we ran out!

We had lunch at the Carl Sithole Social Centre. It's a children's centre that takes care of kids abandoned or abused from ages 3 and up.

Commissioning was held at the University of South Africa. It was a huge place and they decorated it quite nicely. There were nice floral arrangements and these drape things hanging on the ceiling.

The music conservatory kids were there doing most of the program. They had some drama skits, some dancing and singing. Their choir, although put together a week before, was very powerful. They can really sing and get those harmonies really strong. And it was just their youth chorus.

There were some mass band songs with their youth band playing with us. The theme for this commissioning is Shosholoza for the cadet's session "God's workers."

At the end Captain Kyle gave a sermon about every Christian rising to their calling to be a full-time minister wherever they are in life.

Day six was our only non-working day and I don't know how we could have spent it any better.

To start the day off we visited the Ethembeni Children's Home which means "Place of Hope." This home takes in children from ages 0-3 who were abandoned by their parents, abused or have AIDS. There were about 43 kids there at the time and about 4% of them have AIDS. They try not to know which ones have AIDS so when there's blood they treat each one as if they were positive so they can show the same amount of love to every child.

The band members played with the kids for a while and the kids didn't seem to mind the company. They really liked to play with our cameras. Their caretakers gathered them up in a standing group and they sang some English songs. The others that couldn't sing just bounced around a bit. They sang "Jesus Loves Me" and "I Love You, You Love Me..." One little girl kept wanting me to hold her or she would cry. Although a bit heartbreaking, it was a reminder of God's love to be able to spend some time with them at the beginning of the day.

We continued on to the Apartheid museum to see the oppression and segregation history of South Africa. I was reminded of the racism and segregation we experienced in America but the problem has lasted longer here in South Africa and it's much more extreme. No pictures were allowed inside so I can't show you how cool the place looked in terms of architecture and design. It was very art museum-y and modern.

McDonalds was our lunch. Jacqui took a massive 30 something person order and fearlessly walked beneath the arches of gold and ordered the fast food restaurant dry of all it's food. Slowly the food trickled back by way of helpers from the north and we feasted upon the bus that was to take us to our final destination: the Sun City Pilanesberg Game Reserve.

The ride was about 3 hours to the game reserve. Mostly people slept on the way except those who were listening to CDs or watching their iPods. When we got there we had a brief restroom break before getting onto two open top bus-like vehicles to begin our safari through the tame game reserve. We passed around a waiver to sign. Our driver and guide told us that if the elephants came close enough they might touch and move the vehicle a bit. It would be at that point only that we were not to take any pictures.

It was a large game park that we drive through. There were paved roads and dirt roads. We were able to see a variety of creatures including ostriches, boar, an elephant, monkeys, hippos, rhinos, African deer whose name I forgot, various birds, giraffes crossing the road, and zebras. It was cool to see them running around. You never knew what you were going to get when you go on these drives.

Here are some of Mike's pictures because he has the zoom lens that I do not have.

We ate dinner at the restaurant at the reserve before we headed back to the hotel on the bus. It was a pretty fun day off. Now, back to work.

As predicted, today was about the same as yesterday. We rose, broke fast at the hotel then headed to our respective places, either at the corps to paint or the music conservatory to teach.

Beat up shield with natural distress.

While scraping paint, Major accidentally made the continent of Africa.

Two painters painting.

The finished wall. Finished as in we applied the primer.

Wallerific

And the results...

A pile of lead paint chips to inhale.

We went back to play at the mall and just like yesterday it started raining when it was time to leave.

The nosebleeds.

The not nosebleeds.

And here are a million people crowding in a small elevator.

So today was pretty cool. We went to a flea market to haggle for good prices. I got some keychains and stuff. The Smith's got two wooden giraffes. There were wood carvings, handmade jewelry and more African wood stuff.

There was a positive response at the mall again. That's something to be thankful to God for. It reminds us that we're not here to display ourselves but if anything good happens it is because God is working.

Most of us wore casual again today but for a different reason. It was to get dirty as we cleaned and painted a corps/ housing facility.

Breakfast was large and hearty as usual. Our first stop was at a mall to go to the grocery store for water. We didn't want to dehydrate as we worked in the sun.

The painting crew was dropped off first while the rest went to a music conservatory at camp where they instructed kids on their instruments preparing them for the upcoming commissioning.

Following the tour of the facilities, the painting crew then had tea time. They prepared us some tea and cheddar cheese sandwiches with butter. We started a bit late because of the preliminary tour and tea but we're going back tomorrow to finish what we started.

I volunteered for the indoor painting of the cement wall. We had four cement walls to paint to match the regular wall. The others did other various painting tasks. Some had to scrape and touch up the outside walls. Some painted the bricks red.

After much scraping, fear of lead poisoning, and paint rolling, it was time for lunch. There was this air raid siren that whoops once to signal the facility that it’s tea time or meal time. I felt like heading to the bomb shelter.

We painted more after lunch and Major Ivan wore a make-shift bandana to prevent paint from splattering in his hair. He was painting the wall indoors with me as Daniel and Clint were scraping and touching up the ceiling. We called him a pirate. Then we called him a boy band member or a Backstreet boy. Throughout the day we'd just bust out singing, "You're all I ever wanted... dun, dun dun, dun dun…"

At around 2PM we cleaned up and headed over to pick up the music conservatory people and took the bus to the hotel. We had an hour and then ate dinner with the cadets at the training college again. Yesterday they prepared for us KFC. Today was a treat of meat and potatoes on rice. It was the highlight of many people's day.

Then with full red tunics and uniforms we went to play at the mall.

Kevin or someone got some shopping carts to wheel our stuff over to the middle of the mall. We played in this oval outdoor area of the mall. It was pretty cool because it was like balcony seating for those watching from above. We played Christmas carols mostly and of course the crowd favorite: Kevin's medley version of Shosholosza. I think I heard some people singing along.

During certain songs Kevin would let someone come up and conduct. Bryan handed out shakers for others to play along. It was a lot of fun. People kept gathering round to hear this American band.

As soon as the concert ended it started to rain. We tried packing up as fast as we could because the downpour intensified quickly. The bus drove extremely close to the doors in order to help us move everything back in from the mall.

The cadets were there supporting us so after loading the bus we went with them to a coffee shop in the mall for a relaxing end to an eventful day.

Day 4 pictures

We got to wear casual clothing! Isn’t that grand? It was pretty laid back today.

A two hour bus ride took us to a Salvation Army camp where we played a bit for a THQ Christmas party. They really got into it. As soon as they heard us play the traditional African folk song Shosholoza, they jumped up and started dancing.

We played jingle bells until Santa came riding in on a bicycle with children trailing behind. Old Saint Nick gave everyone a present. We received Salvation Army mugs and Christian pens.

After the gifts there was a barbeque with lamb and a traditional South African sausage. The meal was quite meaty and hearty.

During lunch Bryan got stung by an unknown creature. This is the stinger he pulled out of his leg.

I found a dead frog on the field.

Anyways, we had a brief rest back at the hotel before we headed to a music camp with kids 18 and up. They were preparing for commissioning. We played for them and when it got to Soshaloza they really got into it. Dancing and singing along they screamed for an encore when we finished. Then they came and joined us to play it for another mass band session.

It’s only day 3 (technically day 2 if you minus the travel day) and we’re already very encouraged by everyone here. Hopefully we can be just as much a blessing and witness to everyone else as well.

Twas the trend to wake up at 5AM for the band. Maybe it was jetlag. Maybe it was because the sun actually rose around 5AM. I jumped out of my bed and ran to the alarm clock in the other room to see how late I was. It was 5AM and super bright. I guess I wasn’t late.

Breakfast at the hotel was excellent. It was a traditional English breakfast with baked beans, eggs, toast, tomatoes and hash browns. There were beef sausages and pork. There were many juices including, guava, and orange.

Enough about food. We obtained a drum set from the corps across the street from our hotel and piled into the bus for our 10 o'clock service at Katlehong Corps. The bus took us out of the main city and into the areas with beat up roads and houses that looked like they were constructed by the owners.

We got there in time to practice a bit and talk to the corps members before service started. People seemed happy to see us. We were very honored to be able to visit them.

The kids of the corps were in the back playing and singing, being led by two teenaged girls. The kids really like singing and dancing. Then we moved onto the service. There were around 85 in attendance, about half in fatigue uniform. It was a privilege to play for them as they said they never get to enjoy a band so large.

Then it came time to sing the songs that they sing every Sunday. Everyone knew the words as there were no song books or powerpoint. As soon as they started singing everyone stood up and some ladies started dancing down the aisles. They formed a train and some of our band joined in as well. The elation was contagious to just praise God in song and dance with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

After service their corps band came and joined our band to form a very large band. It was fun playing music with everyone. It also gave another way to connect with everyone.

They were very appreciative for the Torrance band to come and share music with them. They said that they don't always get to hear a band like this and that this day will remain in their memories for a long time. I'm sure it was a Sunday we won't soon forget either.

Later we got back to the hotel for only a little bit before we loaded the car and headed to South Rand Corps. It was a pretty big place and we performed some songs as well as the girls doing their vocal piece and a timbrel routine.

The evening concert concluded with a time of mini sandwiches and fellowship with everyone. Today was the first time many of us have seen an African worship service. The day kept us busy but it was very fulfilling.

Day 2 pictures