Back Door is the name of our rural village community that we are serving this month through Iris Ministries. It is amazing to see in person the stereotypical African village where people are starving for food and have no running water (having to walk kilometers with buckets on their heads to retrieve enough for cooking and drinking alone). These homes have no indoor plumbing, bathrooms or much of a kitchen for that matter, but the one thing most shocking to me is not the exact opposite of the poverty mindset many of us place on Africa, it is the love for one another that I have seen. Here in Africa, the believers in the community are rich with love and passion for our Lord Jesus and one another. I am blessed to be here to take part in just a hint of all the positive things going on in this community of Back Door, as well as Cork. Every day my team takes part in a variety of activities including a daily feeding center (approximately 100 children/adults), preaching, cleaning, gardening and home visitations. Each aspect of our ministry could be a blog of its own so the best way I can show you all that we do is through a variety of pictures. Enjoy!!
Blowing bubbles to entertain the 30+ preschool children-a ministry of Iris-in which the children are fed, taught basic English vocabulary such as days of the week, months of the year, Christian songs, and the Bible of course. They are loved well here and give it right back to us—as we come on Fridays—they greet us by running into our arms! They simply want to be held and played with and that our team does well!
The children say goodbye to us—I love these children so much and am blessed to see them being taken care of here through Iris.
A young girl (most likely an orphan) in a small village about an hour away from Back Door is helping us garden with a baby on her back. Notice how they create their own baby carriers with blankets (and more often white towels). Amazing strength these people have to serve. This garden, one of the two we have been clearing, watering, and planting new seedlings will be used to feed the orphans in Cork. Praise God!
Dave poses with some of the many orphans at Cork Village after a day of laying a cement foundation for their new church building. You can see the new water tanks in the background where the entire community is free to come and fill their buckets with water (thanks to the well just donated by Mountain Top Church in Birmingham, Alabama). It really shows me the power one church can have in transforming a village by providing a fresh water well to a community that used to have to walk an hour to the river (recently infested with Cholera). Their lives will be forever changed.
I let the girls fix up my hair with braids (soon to be dreads if I don’t brush it soon!) and relax for lunch after a long day in the sun gardening and helping paint a sign on their newly built orphanage “House of Hope”.
Daily feeding line at Partners in Harvest, Iris’s Ministries, starting with the youngest children to adults. Typical meals consist of mashed potatoes (powdered version), chicken fat, fish heads or corn mush. One day our team will join them to eat—but one clincher-in Africa they don’t use utensils!! I’ll let you know how that goes=)
One of my favorite little girls and I are reaching to catch a bubble during play time. This girl is usually downcast and shy. I don’t know her story yet after going on some home visits, I can see that due to HIV/AIDS, many parents are gone and children are being raised by aunts, grandparents or siblings. I can also see how vital the Children’s Village (aka orphanage) we are staying at in our time here in South Africa (helping to clean from mold and paint next week for its grand opening next month) will give many children like her a way to have a new family an be well loved and taken care by local pastors and their wives. Our home visits will help determine which children in the community have the highest need.
African countryside consisting of small homes made of bricks. Typical houses have no running water and usually one to two bedrooms with up to 15 people living in one home. Many people have multiple children (anwhere from 1 to 9), the higher end of the spectrum being more typical of the small villages. It is dry yet beautiful in the countryside. I am looking forward to seeing more and more of these communities be transformed through active churches, water wells and food/job programs.
A grandparent holding her grandchild while helping us garden behind the orphanage in Cork. What amazing strength on her part (while the baby boy sleeps on her back!)
An adorable boy plays in the sand with bricks at the preschool. More to come on the activities of the church in a later blog! Keep on praying for our team—health– as Melissa just found out she has fybromyalgia, hearts, energy and love to be poured out on all we meet! We love you guys!
Lindsay
