This month has been an AWESOME month. God has used our team to heal people from various injuries and ailments, bring people to Christ, share his love with children and adults, and spread the gospel all over Cape Town; even on our days off.
All of the work that God has done this month would not have been made possible without those who sacrificially and selflessly gave of their own money to support my teammates and I.
A few people opted to purchase days for $55 to support me on my journey and two of those days were purchased this month!
Thank you so much to my Aunt Debbie Mantonya who purchased Friday, March 20 and Happy Belated Birthday!!!
On Friday, my team and I were split up at a local school, Simon’s Town Primary and High School. We had been there all week working with our contact that volunteers in the PE classes under one condition, that he can share the love of God to each class he teaches. Friday was a special day, however. Simon’s Town is a costal town where the South African Navy ports and it just so happened to be its “Navy Day” weekend. So on Friday, I got to help two fourth grade classes go on their field trip to the harbor. We had a fun day bonding and telling the children why we are in South Africa and just loving on them while sharing about God.
In the afternoon after school, we came back to our town of Ocean View and loved on the neighborhood children for a few hours. This is something we do every Monday through Friday, we play with the children and afterwards talk about Jesus and have a time of prayer. Most of these kids have parents that don’t care about them, abuse them, and treat them poorly. Because of this, there are a lot of behavioral issues with the children. It can make play time quite difficult, but one thing I have enjoyed doing is showing the children discipline they don’t get at home, but then covering it in love and explaining that because I love them, I correct them when they do wrong. It is so cool to see the respect that follows and the love they still have for us.
On Friday I spent most of my time being an airplane launcher. I would lie on my back and lift the children up with my feet and let them soar through the air. This was a big hit and all the children lined up to get their turn as an airplane. It is always sad when it is time for us to go home. None of the children want us to go and we usually end up giving each child “one more” airplane ride or “spin”. It is so hard for me to say no to their smiley beady eyes. I want nothing but to continue to love on them, much like our Heavenly Father wants noting but to love on us.
Friday night, we went back to Simon’s Town School to minister and have a Bible study with about 20 students that stay in the hostile because they live too far from the school to commute back and forth each day. We played games, introduced ourselves and one of my teammates spoke about running the race and keeping our eyes on God. At the end of the night, a 17-year-old girl named Philasande approached me and asked if she could talk with me. She told me that God pointed me out to her and told her to share her deepest secrets with me and that I would have the words to encourage her. As I stood there and listened to her tell me her story, I got so excited that God had sent her to talk to me. Our stories are very similar and it was so awesome to be able to use the pain from my life story to minister to Philasande. I was able to encourage her and pour into her the love from our Heavenly father. I was able to meet with her on the 24th one last time to say goodbye and as I was encouraging her with more words from God, she expressed again her gratitude. Philasande had been praying for weeks and months that God would send her someone to speak to her, encourage her, and giver her the answers she needed. After asking several people for advise for it to only be worldly advise, God finally sent me to her. She thanked me for allowing God to speak through me and expressed how glad she was that she worked up the courage to tell me her story.
I am so glad that God used me to speak to this young girl and to offer her encouragement and advise. It was so evident that the Holy Spirit was at work the whole time ministering to Phalasande’s heart. I would say that ministering to her was the highlight of my day and week. Thank you again so much Aunt Debbie for having a hand in that day!
