It's 6 am and I wake up with Pa banging pots and pans saying "goeie more!!!" pronounced as huea more-ah meaning good morning in Afrikaans. I roll out of the top bunk bed for another day full of events.
It's the end of month 2 and I could not believe how fast the months are going by! We had the privilege of working with Pa, Ma and Mirna this month with the New Hope Jeremiah Project in Western Cape about 20-30 mins away from Cape Town, South Africa. Our two teams (our team Degel and team Genesis – which merged into one big team calling ourselves team DeGen) stayed in the home of Ma and Pa. There are 13 of us. The girls all got the 2 guest bedrooms with bunk-beds and the boys slept in the living room with mattresses on the floor every night – there are only 4 of them and we truly thank God for them.
Before I get into what we did this month, I want to tell you about Ma and Pa and the amazing people they are. They have such big hearts and are so selfless it's beautiful. Ma is everything the woman of Proverbs 31 is. She prayed for Pa to give his life over to the Lord for over 18 years. Just 6 years ago, Pa gave his life to the Lord and had no longer had the desire to drink and do drugs after 30+ years. He now tells everyone about Jesus and how prayer can change people's lives. Both Ma and Pa give of EVERYTHING they have – and I mean EVERYTHING. They know that everything they have is the Lord's and nothing is theirs. If a child needs food, Pa will not eat so they can. If Ma gets a donation of food, she goes to people's houses to give some away. Anyone is allowed to go in and out of their home and get some tea, coffee, or food if they ask. They will never say no. They have taken in their 12 year old granddaughter, Xena, since she was born. People are always at their house, whether it's kids from the neighborhood, friends or family.
Mirna, her husband and their 2 year old little boy Landon, live in an extension of Ma and Pa's house in the back. They don't live in a spacious house yet they allowed 13 American strangers to live with them. They repainted parts of the house, put in bunk beds in the rooms and made a small bathroom outside in preparation for us.
Mirna and Pa have their own business. They help to provide for the family and New Hope Jeremiah, but sometimes there is no work for them. They have gone weeks without work yet every time they have everything they need. Every Friday they feed the neighborhood. Even in times of scarcity, they have an enormous pot of food each Friday. They trust and know that God provides. They never worry about what they need because they know that if they pray and ask the Lord, He is faithful to provide every day.
Did I mention that New Hope Jeremiah isn't a separate facility but their actual home?
New Hope Jeremiah started because they wanted to help children realize the the Lord has a plan for each and every child. Hence the Jeremiah Project based on Jeremiah 29:11. Our ministry this month was going to people's houses to pray, play with kids around the neighborhood and pour into pre-teen and teenage girls who are involved with praise/gospel dance with the Jeremiah Project. We were able to talk with these girls about feminine hygiene, modesty, boys, what a woman of integrity looks like, the dangers of internet chat rooms and social networking sites and we were able to have bible studies with them. We also had the opportunity to go to Xena's school and share the gospel with 300 elementary school children. Our last night with them we had a praise dance party outside with loud speakers. We had taught the kids the song 'waves of mercy' and Linsey and AP presented the gospel to the children. We had a great night full of laughter and tears. Friends we had made during the month came to visit us before we left.
Overall, month 2 was a great month! It was hard at times living in community, which I will talk about in my next blog, but I was definitely appreciative of everything that we experienced and did. Currently I am sitting on the train heading to Johannesburg. We have been on the train for 28hrs so far. We're en route to Nelsprit for our month 2 debrief. We're spending the night in Jo-burg in a vacant office and then getting on a bus for a couple of hours and arriving in Nelsprit. Then we're ready for month 3 – Swaziland.
