Race Update: We arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on Wednesday and had a three day debrief (or get together) with the entire squad. On Saturday, my team and Team Fuego left the hostel to head to our ministry site. Lucky for us, our travel time was only ten minutes! We are living in Johannesburg and working with a college outreach ministry here in the city. Please pray for strength and discernment for our team, as well as open hearts for the people we encounter along the way.
Support Update: Thank you all so very much for supporting me this year! I am happy to announce that with my continual monthly donors, I am now fully funded! Thank you so much for your prayers and continual support. It means so very much to me to have such incredible people standing behind me this year. I am so thankful for you.
I also just wanted to share with you some of the pictures from this past month and introduce you to the boys that touched my heart. Mozambique was an incredible experience all around- our contacts, ministry, the boys, and the location. I can only hope and pray for more experiences like this!
These are three of the four boys that currently live at Masana. On the left is Carlito and Nedved. Carlito is currently in the reintegration process and should be going home soon. Ned Ved (in the red) is my absolute favorite child in the world. It broke my heart to say goodbye. Every night, him and I would dance and joke around in the kitchen. We would play fight, and yell “Pash (peace) if we had enough. He is only fifteen years old and is so very smart. He loves to study and says that his girlfriend is his schoolwork. SO SWEET! On the right is Edson (aka: Killer Bean). His favorite movie is called Killer Bean, it’s a cartoon about a bean that goes around and kills other beans. It was pretty ridiculous, but he loves it. He taught himself how to play the guitar and is really good at it. He sometimes leads Masana in worship and is also a very bright student. I miss them all so much.
Each day we worked with the street boys from 7am til 2pm. In the morning the boys would shower, brush their teeth and play until breakfast, then have classes around 9:30 followed by a break and lunch around 1. We mostly spent our days hanging out with the boys and playing with them. These are some pictures of daily life at Masana.
Every day “Dr Lauren” would clean up any wounds the boys had during the second break time while the rest of the boys took naps or played games. Nap time was pretty common at Masana, especially when the boys didn’t have very good sleep the night before on the streets.
This is absolutely one of my favorite boys of all time!! His name is Milton. He is 10 years old and pretty much runs the streets as far as money making goes. He knows how to work the ladies and get people to fall for his beautiful smile and sweet face. I just wish i could take him home with me!
On the left is a picture of me and John (aka-Monster). I absolutely love this boy. He is one of the hardest, strongest boys on the street, yet had some of the sweetest moments with us. One day he got hit in the head at the soccer field and just curled up in Ian’s lap and cried. It broke my little heart! I loved seeing our boys just be boys. On the right is a picture of me and Miguel (aka- cheeks because he has the biggest cheeks ever!). The boys were playing soccer, but cheeks didn’t want to play anymore- he just wanted to hang out with the girls and listen to hillsong on the ipod. I have no idea how this boy makes it on the streets. He is way too sweet and super sensitive. 🙂
Every Monay and Wednesday, my team would travel outside of town to a day center and school for children. There were about 250 children in the program each day. When we went there, we would play games with the kids, help serve lunch and wash dishes, and teach English classes to the older kids. It was hard at first because there were SO MANY of them, but in the last week of ministry, I really began to bond with the children and really felt the impact we left there.
On the left is a picture of Raimie and me teaching English class to the sixth class and the picture of the right is me hanging out the incredible cooks, also known as my “Black Mamas” Cutest ladies ever! 🙂
This is our group for most of the month! We spent a lot of time by the
beach on the weekends drinking coffee and eating at a local restaurant on the
beach on Sundays. Probably one of the most memorable things about hanging
out there was the random people coming up and trying to sell us their earrings,
giant carved boats and end tables. If you make eye contact with them or
even acknowledge them, they will proceed to stand right by your table awkwardly
until you buy something or ignore them long enough. Rather entertaining,
but sometimes downright annoying.
I will update everyone again at the end of the week once we know exactly what our month will look like here in Johannesburg. Thanks for your prayers!
In that day you will say: “Give Thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted”
Isaiah 12:4
