For a good amount of this month my team is going into schools and we are teaching kids of all ages. The schools here are very different from schools in America, its common to see an 18 year old kid in the 9th grade and to have class sizes around 60. I was actually really nervous going into the first high school with my team because honestly who thinks its easy to teach a huge class where everyone is so close in age to you? The school was in one of the slums of Johannesburg called Diepsloot, this is a very poor and run-down community where violence and drugs are a huge issue. Kids are constantly being caught smoking weed in the bathroom or bringing weapons into the school. I know what you guys are all thinking “wow Brieanne what the heck are you doing, you definitely don’t belong there, and how in the world could you ever help those kids”. I wasn’t sure how I was going to help them, but I was definitely going to try.
We arrived early in the morning before school started to set up for our first class of the day and to make sure everyone knew what they were doing. The lesson we were going to teach them was The Plan of the Enemy. We started off with an icebreaker where we had two puzzles and we picked to teams of kids to complete the puzzles as fast as they could, except we took out a puzzle piece so the puzzle wouldn’t be complete. We also took a class photo and then took another one where we took a few kids out so the photo as well was not complete. We then explained to them that the enemy wants to try and take us out so our lives would be incomplete without them. We then showed them a video on the TV we brought (thank goodness we had power that day) about a man named Nick Vujici. Nick doesn’t have arms or legs and at an early stage contemplated suicide, but he overcame that and now he’s married with a very successful career and is very happy. We explained how the enemy tried to take him out, but he overcame and how life would be incomplete without him. I was then telling these kids how much God loved them and how we loved them and how God has a specific amazing purpose for each and everyone of those kids. I asked some of these kids what they wanted to do when they grew up and their answers just made my heart melt, they wanted to be doctors, and social workers, and lawyers. I told them that if they work hard I 100% believe that they could achieve that, but I also told them that it was going to be really hard an that they are going to have set backs an major struggles but they need to overcome those struggles and give them to God. I taught this lesson in a few different classrooms and I truly believe that I was able to make a small impact in their lives.
We weren’t only in high schools, I also got to go and help in a kindergarten classroom as well. I was so excited coming into this because I love little kids and I’ve taken early childhood education classes in the past, so I knew to run a class but man this was different. We started off the day outside by teaching all the kids a bible story and doing a memory verse and doing some dances and singing songs which they loved. After that we headed into each individual classroom, early on in the day I was getting really frustrated with the teacher because to me she seemed way to strict on the kids and how she ran a classroom was not the same of how I’d run a classroom. I tried to help the best that I could but by lunch time I was feeling burnt out. After lunch they played outside and at that time I felt like I got a second wind and was running around playing with all of the kids having tons of fun. After recess it was time for them to lay down and take a nap and it was at that time that I realized why their teacher was so strict with them. These kids were WILD, and when I say wild I mean like a different breed of crazy kids, they wouldn’t listen to me and were all getting in fights with each other. Wow yeah it was such a crazy long day but I loved it, I got to love on these kids and do a bunch of fun things with them so overall it was a great day.
Well yeah so I guess that’s what it’s like for me to be a teacher here in South Africa! I’ve been here for about 2 weeks now and I’ve really started to fall in love with the country and the different ministries that we do. I am still fundraising for the world race while being on the field and I’m over 50% funded! If you want to continue to hear about these crazy stories and to keep me on the field, then please consider donating to me on the top of this page!
Love you all!
Brieanne
