Hi all,
Time to play some catch up. I’m currently staying at a hostel for debrief, before my team heads to our next country and next ministry site. While I am here, I wanted to post a blog or two about what God did/taught me this past month. The Wi-Fi here is 1000x better than it was in J-bay, so my motivation to write and post has increased exponentially.
So how was it? How was South Africa? What all did you do?
South Africa was wonderful. It is one of the prettiest places I have been. The people are so kind and warm, and the melting pot of culture continues to amaze and interest me daily. I absolutely love getting to know the people here.
In my last post I told you a little bit about our ministry at the Trans Baviaans (mountain bike race), as well as our work at Father’s House (the church in Port Elizabeth). Those two ministry sites took up the first week and half of our time in Jeffery’s Bay. After we wrapped up our time at Father’s House, my team and I had the chance to work with Beats and Books, an afterschool program in Jeffrey’s Bay. Cornie (Cornelius), Grace, Jonathon and Carla work together to run this ministry, and give of their time every weekday to minister to kids in the J-Bay community.
Each of our days at Beats and Books commenced around 9AM. We would head to their house straight from breakfast in our log cabin. Upon arrival, we would spend time in community with the staff. We would have Bible studies, listen to comical stories like how Cornie asked his wife out on a date, or get a head start on projects, depending on the day.
During one of our mornings at Beats & Books we got to celebrate Carla’s birthday with homemade carrot cake. Thank you Grace for making that for all of us!
Our morning projects included a mix of crafty things and clerical tasks. We created a treble clef using paint, scrap boards, and seashells and driftwood we collected from the beach down the street. We created PowerPoints for numerous worship songs, cooked the afternoon snacks for the kids in advance of their arrival, created music theory notebooks, developed QR codes for tracking attendance, and so on and so forth.
In the afternoon, the kids would arrive after school, many of them still sporting their school’s uniform. They would check in, greet/hug the staff and volunteers, eat a snack, and then start to work on homework and numeracy (a.k.a. Math). During this time, I would go into “The Garage” where Jonathon was helping the more advanced kids work through their math problems.
My first day in the garage I sat down by this girl, and took a quick inventory of the problems she was working through. I found myself wracking my brain to recall the fundamentals of long division. I loved math in school, but I can’t say that I have done division in my head in well over a decade. For a hot minute, I silently prayed, “God please help me remember how to do this, so I don’t mess up this poor girl.” Thankfully he followed through and helped me to remember how to get it done.
Despite my initial hesitation, math time ended up being one of my favorite parts of working at Beats and Books. It was fun to see these kids working through problems, and it was even more fun to see them start to understand the concepts.
After math and homework, we would go to Worship. Cornie and one of the other volunteers would play guitar, while the kids would play their respective instruments. Music is a huge part of the ministry at Beats and Books, and the kids are given the opportunity to get lessons on how to play piano, guitar, violin, drums and trumpet. During worship, Cornie has the kids play their instruments, and any of the kids who don’t play instruments sing and dance. It was beautiful to see these kids dance and sing.
After worship, I would often find myself sitting in the library, helping kids learn to read. This was my other favorite part for working at Beats and Books. I love literature, and I loved being able to encourage the kids as they went. Reading can be hard for so many, and it can feel very defeating when it feels like reading isn’t coming naturally. If in any way, shape or form I was able to help them feel like reading is something they can do, then my job there was complete. Each time they looked to me for confirmation of their pronunciation, their face would light up with a smile when they got it right. That gave me life.
After reading, we usually had a dance time where we would go through a choreographed dance. Over our two weeks at Beats and Books I was able to work with some of the other volunteers to choreograph two different dances. We had fun coming up with motions to accompany the songs, and laughed a bunch as we attempted to remember them long enough to teach them to the kids. The kids love dancing, so even if we forgot parts of the choreography, the kids had fun learning it alongside of us.
All of these different activities/aspects of the program at Beats and Books provided the staff, volunteers, and my team opportunities to love the kids as Jesus does. We created a safe space for these kids to learn, eat, worship and feel cared for. What a blessing to the Jeffrey’s Bay community. Cornie, Grace, Jonathon and Carla pour out their hearts into these kids daily. I am grateful for their dedication to the students they work with, and for allowing me and my team to work alongside of them.
I hope you are all well! It is about 6 PM here today, and despite today being cooler, this week has felt like summer! We got over 80 degrees most of this week. This is shaping up to be my warmest birthday month ever. I hope to post again soon.
With love,
Liesl
I am going to miss all of these girl’s faces (as well as the boys not photographed):
Meet Ezi! She has a fun, playful spirit. I loved spending time reading with her.
Ezi, Myself, Lusanda, Elaina, Aya
This girl though – Simoney. She has the most beautiful heart. Simply love her.
