This past month we were placed in Cape Town, South Africa working with a Pastor who runs a church and a school for fetal alcohol syndrome children. We were warned going into it that it was going to be a challenging month!
Once we arrived at our ministry site for some orientation we were told that we were in charge of daily staff devotions, the schools assemblies on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the Pastor’s church service and Sunday school, the school’s Christmas play, and the church’s outreaches on Wednesdays. Sound a little overwhelming? Yes. I couldn’t help but feel like it was the first day of class, and we were reviewing the syllabus with ALL of the semesters details on it. But obviously with a group of 13 we were able to split up the work and make it happen!
My daily role was in the 4th grade classroom. There were 9 students (in South Africa they’re called learners) in the room. Yes these kids were great and I love them dearly but mannn they’re behavior wouldn’t fly in an American school. So it was easy to judge them and think less of them but when I pressed in a little further it was obvious that these children face many setbacks.. Broken homes, alcoholic parents (if they still had their parents), living in major major poverty, constantly exposed to drugs and violence, themselves being victims of physical and emotional abuse, and then not to mention that the majority of them had fetal alcohol syndrome. So yea; to me bad behavior screams “I need love”. Once I changed my perspective, I wanted to love on these kids like crazy. They needed to be shown grace and God’s love. Of course, love looks different in different circumstances. With these kids, they needed discipline, they needed someone to enforce boundaries because they didn’t have anyone at home to do that for them. So loving them didn’t always mean giving them hugs and patting them on the back. It sometimes meant making them stay on task and having them search for answers on their own, and challenging them to walk in their potential.
This school is run by the pastor and his wife. The work they do is incredible! Being aware of these kids’ living conditions, they make sure they are fed multiple meals knowing that it is probably the only food they will eat that day and they just provide a positive environment knowing that getting them out of their home life is the best thing for them. Pretty sad situation huh? But man these kids had so much love to give. They’re absolutely precious. Challenging yes. But none the less adorable. I am honored to know that I got to make an impact on their lives and show them that they are worthy of love and attention.
Overall, this month was a challenging one. High demands for our ministry tasks and then God decided to shed a lot of light on areas I need to grow in. hmmm gotta love that sanctification! It hurts so good! But to go into that briefly, God is showing me my issues with acceptance and fear of rejection, and how I let people’s perception of me control what I do and don’t do and what I say and don’t say. That’s been a huge game changer in that I’ve realized there is so much more freedom for me to walk in that I’m currently not experiencing. It’s the transition from living out of an orphan mindset to living out a sonship mindset knowing that I am a daughter of the King. And this King has already sealed me with His Spirit, and given me His stamp of approval. And His stamp is the only stamp that matters.
*As for my team’s next move, we will be in El Shaddi, Swaziland up in the mountain region working with an orphanage. This area is pretty remote so no internet or communication will be happening over this next month.
