This month we have been working with children at their schools. We are right outside of Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, look it up 🙂 I haven’t had a chance to write and post a blog yet this month because we only get Internet on our off days and 20 minutes away in town. We go to their school and play soccer with them. We have a stretch routine and then we do some drills with the ball and then we play a game.
After the game, we share a Bible story of some sort with the kids and then there’s a snack. They only get the snack if they listen to the story; just a way to encourage them to listen.
All of these kids speak Afrikaans, which is very similar to Dutch, but few of them speak English. We can only hope that if they cannot understand us, then they see our example and how we live and take that to heart. The language barrier can be frustrating, but we can’t lose heart.
Thats been a challenge for most of us this month so far, not losing heart in ministry because of things like the language barrier or the simple fact that we can’t really see what we do affecting the kids. The kids are raised with strong physical discipline in the home, thats all they know, so the older kids beat up on the younger ones when the younger ones act in a bad way. Its hard to see and try to stop the kids from being so violent and not think that it makes no difference because thats all they see in the home.
We have to believe that we are making a difference in their lives because without that faith, we wouldn’t be able to continue in the work that we are doing here.
