~FUNDRAISING UPDATE~
I am now 8 days away from the the deadline to be fully funded! It is crazy how far the Lord has brought me already. Starting out with a goal of $18,700 was so daunting. I was constantly breaking it down into smaller numbers trying to fathom how I would reach that goal. But somehow, someway, God has brought me here, to now only needing $2,000 left to raise. I ask that you would consider donating today to help me stay on the field before my final deadline on the 31st! All donations are tax deductible!
~
A huge hello to you all from Lesotho! We have now switched countries, continents, languages, and ministries. This month we are living on an orphanage, playing, teaching, and loving on all the kids here. God has already taught me in huge ways about His love for us through seeing the fruit of His love for these kids. For their privacy, we can’t post pictures showing anyone’s complete face. But the kids loooove taking pictures so I’ve also been learning more about camera angles. And since we spend all our time in ministry on the orphanage, I wanted to show you as well as write to you about how we spend our time!
(Here’s my teammate Hannah and I outside of the preschool building. The Orphanages name in Sesotho is Tholoana ea Lerato which translates to “Seeds of Love”)
5AM: It’s 5am waking up in the morning for us here. But it’s not the dead of the night kind of 5am. It’s the sun’s already up, there are sheep and cows grazing outside your bedroom window, there’s a slight chill and crispness to the morning air, and it feels good to know so much day is still ahead of you kind of 5am.
(There’s a herd of sheep and cattle that stop and graze around the yard throughout the day)
It rains a lot here at night. The first night in particular, there was a HUGE storm. The wind and rain was so strong that it actually woke us all up. But when we walked outside in the morning, there was a beautiful full rainbow to greet us. About a week and a half later, Sydney, Cae, and I had been caught in the rain while some of the older girls showed us around the city. We ran for shelter under an empty market stand and when the rain had finally stopped, there was the most vibrant double rainbow I’ve ever seen! The rest of my team back at the orphanage were able to tell the kids how the rainbow is a reminder of God’s promise to us that He will never flood the Earth again.
(Many other teams also posted pictures that same day of the same rainbow even though we are living hours apart)
6am: We walk over to the main building where all the children live to bathe the littlest 8 kiddos, clothe them, help serve breakfast, prep for lunch, and clean up a bit. This is a really sweet time with the kids. Some sleepily put one shoe on after the other, some help find clothes for the littlest, and then others are running around like crazy. But no matter which category they fall into, they never pass up a good morning hug.
(normal breakfast looks like this: gifted bread from the store torn apart and dispersed among 33 bowls)
(some mornings their drink is a juice mix, other times is a type of porridge. Although the breakfast doesn’t look like much to us, it’s actually pretty customary to what most of their nation has to eat in the mornings)
(some days also involves a little bit of lunch preparations. And all mornings involve a LOT of dirty dishes)
(Bath time!)
Next we take a break for some breakfast and some quiet time.
(My teammate Brynna sitting at our all-purpose table)
9am: I am with the group that holds a daily bible study for the older kids (11-17). We come together for some worship, discipleship, and just a time of diving into the scriptures together. It’s amazing how hungry they are for the word. A while back, they were all gifted with bibles but they have so many questions about different concepts and passages and just what some things mean. So we asked them what they wanted to study everyday for the moth and it turns out they loooooove parables…and also have a lot of questions about them. So everyday, we’ve been reading from scripture, examining the meaning and then answering allll the questions. More often than not we go off on rabbit trails and find ourselves in other parts of the scripture but we always find our way back. And it’s fun to see truly how much the bible is interconnected with itself. This past week however we have been focusing on what it means to hear from God and finding examples in scripture and sharing stories from our own lives. This hour is easily my favorite part of the day.
(my teammate Hannah leading worship for all the kids before we split up!)
(Here’s a picture of where we hold our bible studies! Usually the older boys are with us as well but they had extra work to do in the garden that day)
10am: The little kid group beings their bible study and the oldest girl living in the orphanage translates for them. Which is such a cool experience for her. She is able to grow in leading and teaching young kids, and building them up in their faith in a way she has never been challenged in before.
11am: Now we have have a group bible study with just my team, and then it’s a few hours of free play time for the kids. They are all on break from school for the majority of the month, so there is a lot of free time during the day that usually is not there to just play around! We dance a lot, jump on the trampoline, talk, walk around holding toddlers, explore the garden, and literally just do whatever.
(Every day my watch alarm goes off at the most random moments)
(He may be small but he has a pretty powerful kick. And a good arm too!)
(This is Khanya, we shared a peach from the garden one day and it was very special)
(the big kids were bouncing a little to rough for them so they decided to stick to my lap instead)
(I wish I could show you the silly faces in this photo!)
(these kids never fail to make me laugh)
(my teammate Sydney working in the garden with a few of the boys. A lot of their food comes from the garden they have and it also serves to teach the kids life skills for their future!)
(My teammate Cae taught a few of them how to play UNO!)
12-2pm: We then separate to make lunch and have some rest until we are back outside again. Around 1pm, sleepyness starts to hit real hard. That’s when I personally tend to find a toddler and just rest with them for a while.
(this is where we cook all of our meals)
(And here’s us being lazy on the trampoline once everyone else left. I’m pretty sure we were all close to falling asleep at one point)
One four year old has a BIG place in my heart. He is sweet, funny, and a little sassy. He loves to be held, to cuddle, to play, and to TALK. Although he understands English pretty well, he can’t talk it yet. But that sure doesn’t stop him. So many times he’ll be sitting on my lap basically alseep and then out of nowhere he will sit up straight, turn around, grab me with his hands, look me dead in the eye, and say a few full sentences with great importance and I have no idea what he said. It’s the most adorable but also kinda sad thing because you can tell he is just really trying to tell you something. But his most favorite thing to do is press the buttons on your watch to change it and then proudly show off his accomplishments to anyone that’s nearby.
(Here’s little Leseli. Look throughout this blog and other pictures I’ve posted to prove how many hours he has spent in my arms)
2pm-4pm: During the afternoon we will also try to plan some group activities to do before dinnertime. The older kids have also begun teaching us different step moves and it is SO.MUCH.FUN.
(some days the adventure is going on a 7 mile walk outside the gates)
(sometimes it looks like teaching them the church clap. ^here’s me attempting to dance with two kids on me)
(And sometimes it’s playing capture the Flag for the first time after we just got done with our picture scavenger hunt!)
6pm: Then some nights after dinner, we will also do something special with the kids like hold a movie night. The first Friday, we introduced Tarzan to them and they all loved it! Then the next week we watched the Greatest Showman! But by 8pm, it is inside and getting ready for bed for them (and us too).
(the first movie night we couldn’t get the TV to work, but that didn’t stop them from loving Tarzan)
(This little boy wears his bunny onezie everyday for bed. A few seconds after I took this picture, he crawled up on my lap and passed out)
The other nights of the week our team spends it together doing feedback, weekly debrief, worship, team time, and other random things we have to get done (like blogging!)
(Taught my teammates how to play the card game Michigan!)
(oh so fun laundry day. You just have to make sure that the sky will stay clear and there are no cows nearby to knock your clothes down)
(Here we are preparing for a woman’s conference we held for the girls and staff of the orphanage!)
And that’s our day!
Is it too soon to say this month is my favorite?
(Here’s a picture of Maseru City!)
~
I am so beyond thankful for this amazing month and the past four months with this team. Next week during debrief, we are going to have team changes. This means all new people, new norms, new challenges, and new growth. Having gotten to a place of such safety and vulnerability, it’s a bit hard to imagine continuing on surrounded by anyone but these girls. But there is a time for change, and it is now.
LOVE, Vessels of Joy
