letter to my church

Greetings from sunny South Africa! I am basking in the sun while the summer still lasts, yet the wind catches you by surprise every now and then here in Cape Town. Despite that, it’s gorgeous! In about 1 more month though, I’ll be putting my wetsuit on to be swimming
I’m wanting to update all of you on how things have been and where I’m at here with YWAM in case you haven’t been caught up from my blog or my dad. Things have been amazing for me in my walk with our father and in this incredible environment. YWAM has definitely pushed me to dig deeper in the Lord. My first 3 months of DTS were of course here on base in the classroom with different lecturers and teachings every week with my team of 30. This community and support is something I couldn’t have survived here without. The intercessions, love, leadership, teachings, encouragement, worship, growth and overall enjoyment has been through these people.
After the first 3 months, all of us on the team are then sent to go on our outreach. As you saw in our video there were 4 places to go and that was Thailand, Kenya, India, and South Africa/Swaziland. I was going to be on the South Africa/Swaziland team but if you haven’t heard already I had been created a special circumstance here with YWAM.
Since they’re such an apostolic ministry, sharing with them what was on my heart about the World Cup and the issues around it that have really impacted me to want to do something was the best thing I could have done. My leaders released me to do my own individual outreach under the care and nurture of their support, here in South Africa for the World Cup. So I have been striving hard to get this ABSTAIN2010 campaign to move! I’ve had many get involved and helping create a team to make this happen. Not easy when you start out all on your own, but the adventures and growth so far have really stretched me! Let me tell you it’s been a journey and it’s only just begun.
The campaign which is still definitely in the works is about prevention and awareness about the issues of prostitution, human trafficking, HIV and AIDS focused around the 2010 soccer World Cup. Yes the increase in all of these is already happening in droves. It’s been on my heart to at least make people aware in the world, especially here, that this event could make our world a whole lot worse if we’re not careful.
God’s just shown me in so many visions/ideas what could be done to share this knowledge and also the solution that’s inevitably a value from Himself. Abstaining from sex outside of marriage is the solution. I’ve really been pressing into how to take this answer, and concept to share it with the world.
Here in South Africa at least, where the concept of abstinence has been thrown out of the window. I mean they sell condoms at local train stations, beaches, and even the president tells people to just shower after and they’re protected. So within the warped mindset, there’s this urgency to bring back what’s been lost. Take God’s Kindgom and realign is back to his original plan. Right? That’s what’s been on my heart and desiring to do while here.
The specifics have been what I’ve been working on frantically here in the past 2 months. I mean normal campaigns take 2 years to plan. I’m doing what I can and God’s really impressed me with the contacts and also learning out of this whole thing.
So, with a bit of my sharing, I wanted to let you know that this of course means that my outreach is specifically for me to extend until after the World Cup end in July. So I will be coming back beginning of August.
This has been an interesting turning point since the teams have come back this past week and all are telling their amazing stories of doing random evangelism like cleaning streets, getting on television, healing people, oh and the team’s chemistry that either went really well or really challenged them. It’s made me a bit sad to not have been a part of some of them, but the relationships and things I’m building and creating here are also inspiring to me. Also the support and inspiration I feel my team’s felt by me taking this huge leap of faith has been seen. They’re all excited and supportive of abstain2010!
With many of them leaving but a few staying to help me out with this campaign, it’s been a strange feeling of sadness and yet ready to move this campaign again full time!
So please keep this all in your prayers for the project and the people who are going to and already are effected by these issues.
I’d like to finish saying that I thank you so much for having me in your prayers and supporting me financially as well. It’s SO comforting to know there’s a family back home who care about a place so far away.
There’s possibilities if this campaign pushes well, to create a girls soccer academy with the focus being to kick hiv/aids here in cape town from ages 10-18 after the World Cup with famous footballer Bennie McCarthy here. They may ask me to head up the project, so at least the networking and inspiring is brewing here.
I will be continuing to write in my blog and also will be sending through information about campaign once we’re more finalized. I will also have the website and more up soon.
Sadly I’m not playing soccer at the moment, but my knee is not bothering me and as I can tell from no pain I shouldn’t be needing surgery. Thanks for your prayers! However, I am not currently playing because of the work that I’m ready to focus on to drive this campaign as hard as I can. It’s the first time in my life I’ve been able to drop something of such value out of my life, but also the first time I’ve been able to be ok with it.
I pray all of you are well, please give my dad a hug for me because I know it’s hard for him. 
Till more information comes, have a blessed day!

Thank you!
Noel Cameron

noel@abstain2010.com
www.noelcameron.blogspot.com

Statistics on the trafficking and HIV and AIDS just to have an idea:

GLOBAL

• 27,000,000 million people are in slavery across the world –IOM
• 33,4 million people infected with HIV by 2008 (UNAIDS)
• 1,2 million children are trafficked each year (Unicef)
• ½ of those children are African children.
(World Hope Int'l., 2008)
• It is a business that has generated $33.9 billion (U.S.) or 339 billion Rand.
(Belser, 2006)
•
• The U. S. Department estimates that a total of 500 000 tourists will converge to South Africa during the world cup.
Reasons why people are trafficked
• Slave-like labour
• Prostitution
• Forced marriage
• Sale of their Organs or Body Parts

SOUTH AFRICA
• South Africa is home to the world’s largest population of people living with HIV (5.7 million), (UNAIDS, 2008).
• Between 28 000 to 30 000 children are currently being prostituted in South Africa, Molo Songolo, 2000
• Victims recruited from rural areas or informal settlements and transported to the urban centres of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Durban, (IOM report on Internal Trafficking in South Africa)
• West African syndicates operate in Pretoria, PE, Joburg, and Bloemfontein and traffick local black South African females into the sex trade. (IOM, RITSA, 2008)
• Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo are the main ‘recruitment’ areas for victims of Human Trafficking (IOM, US AIDS Research report, Die Burger, 2008)