Quia Mora (good morning) from Cape Town, South Africa!
We are living just outside of the city in a small house with Ma and
Pa! This wonderful couple has been
working with children in the neighbourhood for more than 30 years. They feed the community with soup on Fridays,
but more importantly, their house and the park outside of their house is a safe
area for the children, and their home is welcoming to all. They are not only our parents for the month;
they treat all of the community children as their own. They are known as Ma and Pa by all!
For the first two weeks we were here the children were on winter
vacation. For the first week we mostly
played with the children, got to know them and also fed them lunch most
days. For the second week we planned a
day camp! Around 50 children came. It was fun to share Bible stories with the
children while we also fed them lunch and played games.
I have been learning a lot about love this month. I recently read the Bible verse, “If I
have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal.” I began to question whether I really do
things out of love or simply to fill
time or because it is the right thing to do. During the week at day camp I was constantly asking myself if I was
really loving the children or if I was simply filling time. I realized that we can give gifts, we can
spend time and we can teach about God and Jesus, but if we aren’t really loving
those whom we are serving, then it means nothing. Teaching a Bible story to a child will
probably mean nothing if I just do it out of obligation or because that is the
alotted time slot. I began to examine
myself and ask God for a desire to really teach and play with the children out
of love.
That is what I have been learning and growing in. It is challenging!
Different friends of Ma and Pa have been asking if they can take us around
to various places around Cape Town on the weekends. This Sunday we are going to where the
Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean meet with a pastor we met last Sunday! We have
also climbed Table Mountain and gone to the waterfront and the beach 🙂 We have seen so much of beautiful South
Africa!
Another interesting thing about this month is that it is the first month
where we went to church and didn’t have to do anything. We weren’t leading worship, preaching or
giving a testimony. It felt very strange
to sit in the congregation and learn from the sermon. It has been refreshing and we have taken much
away from the teachings.
Thank you for reading!!
Ahnna (in Afrikaans)
