If you have not already read the blogs of my teammates to find out about my current location, I will go ahead and give you a life update.
We arrived at Refilwe, a community project outside of Johannesburg, on Wednesday night. Refilwe impacts the community in a variety of ways. It has a free pre-school so mothers can work during the day. A major component is the 25 foster children that live here with women who have committed to provide them with a stable family life. These kids are provided with many opportunities to learn practical life skills for the future. People come here for church on Sundays, to get a hot meal when they are without, and find a loving family community.
Yes, I am wearing a cap and beanie…it is freezing in Africa!
We spent a few days cleaning up camp, our living quarters, and preparing for VBS. I realize now it is much more difficult to prepare emotionally and mentally for working with kids in this culture and setting than any summer of Crosstraining or Marketplace VBS at South Haven. We spent several days calling out the kids in prayer. By that I mean asking the Lord to bring kids from all over the community to this camp. The average in the past years has been to have 150 kids at camp each day, but there was a strong concern that the numbers would not be as high as in the past years because the school teachers in the area are currently on strike. This strike has caused camp promotion in the schools to be at a minimum.
I must say the Lord gave us what we asked for…
We prepared for 100 kids; however, the Lord doubled that and brought 200 kids on day one. Praise the Lord! The tricky part is…we did not think about praying for the number of us to multiply if the number of kids multiplies. The first day was crazy, but we survived and day two and three were much less chaotic.
Lauren Morris and I have a group of what was supposed to be 13 year olds, but since we were the oldest group it became the group of 13 to 17 year olds that grew to about 25 kids. Several of these kids are solid and know the Lord, but for the most part they are kids that come from difficult home lives with one parent, no parents, or unstable parents. Typically these circumstances come from a loss of parents because of AIDS/HIV. Many of the kids in our group are foster kids that live at Refilwe. Looking in their eyes knowing there is more going on than the eye meets completely causes your heart to break. I could already pick out a few I would like to bring home with me! Needless to say our kids are great, and I am excited to see how the Lord works in their lives this week. Over the last few days, we have had several pray to accept Christ as their Savior! Praise the Lord!
Pray that…
1. The Lord increases the attention span and interaction during lessons of our kids to hear about God’s LOVE this week.
2. We are able to connect with them even though we have grown up in completely different circumstances and cultures.
3. The students have a consistent relationship with God and interaction in a Christian community here at Refilwe after we leave.
Only in Africa do you teach kids about Jesus 20 feet from a large crane/construction project!
