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So I have been in South Africa for
about two weeks now and so much has already happened. I’m not even sure where
to begin. My mind is spinning like crazy and the only One I can point to is
God. It’s just God. Without God I wouldn’t be here and without God nothing that
I am about to write would ever have taken place.
The first couple of days we arrived in
JBay we had a lot of free time to just explore the town and rest. The second
day we did a scavenger hunt that took us around town and to some of the
different ministries AIM partners with. It was just a chance to familiarize
ourselves with the town of JBay a little more and a chance to meet some of the
people.
We are living at this place called
UCSA and it’s like a camp/compound sort of thing and even though we live here
there are other camps going on sometimes so we never know when we will have to
pack up and go somewhere else for a couple of days. Last weekend there was a camp going on so we
went camping at this place called The Bush. It is about an hour away from Jeffreys Bay
and it is an extremely primitive camp in the beautiful mountains of South Africa.
We stayed in cabins with no electricity and we cooked all our food over a camp
fire. (It is FREEEEEZING in Africa by the way)
I must say it was really neat cooking over a camp fire. We made bread and
sausage and stew and hamburgers etc. It was fun! We also went absailing and
played paintball! (Absailing is the same thing as repelling in America)
Saturday night we sat down to do an
activity and they told us to blind fold ourselves and wait until someone tapped
you on the shoulder. So I blindfolded myself and just waited. Eventually
someone came and put my hands on their shoulders for me to follow them so I did
but I wasn’t sure where I was going. We walked a ways, which seemed to be down
a road, and then they took my hands and put them on a rope and told me to wait.
Finally someone told us to start walking and try to find the end of the rope.
So I went right not really knowing why and the people beside me were doing the
same thing. I could feel someone on the rope in front of me and behind me.
Eventually they said, “If you need help finding the end just raise your hand.”
I didn’t raise my hand at first because I still had someone in front of me and
behind me, then I started to fill as though I was going in circles and I came
to a huge tree that the rope was tied around and I was just confused pretty
much. So again they said, “If you need help finding the end just raise your
hand.” So I did and one of my leaders came and got me and took me to the fire
which was the end. When I got to the fire there were about five other people
there and the rest of our team was still walking around the rope, which was a
big circle by the way. Finally they said, “The ONLY way to find the end is to
ask for help.” Eventually everyone raised there hand and asked for help. It was
a neat exercise. It showed me that it is so much better to just let God lead
the way. When I was holding on to that persons shoulders I wasn’t worrying
about where I was going or what bumps I was going to hit in the road along the
way. I think that is how God wants us to be with Him. We must forfeit our own
eyes and have His eyes instead.
Monday we found out and started our
ministries! I am on the house visits team. There are two house visit teams made
up of four people each. I’m not sure what comes to mind for you when I say
“house visits” but being from America myself I’m thinking you should throw that
out the window and just let me tell you what we will be doing. House visits is
a very broad ministry and it is completely different from the other eight
ministries the AIM team is involved in. We go into the townships every day and
well obviously visit people but every day can look different. The first day one
of our leaders took us around to meet some people that past AIM teams visited
on a regular basis. The first lady we met was Noma and she is a beautiful lady.
She has HIV but is extremely healthy right now. When the AIM team met her last
year she was skin and bones. God is using Noma in incredible ways. With the
help of the house visit team last year Noma was able to buy a container/small
building and she cooks food for about 12 of the township kids who don’t eat
unless Noma feeds them. She feeds them every morning before school. We met some
other really amazing ladies named Hester and Marta.
The second day we went to see Noma
again and she said she wanted us to go pray for her friend Evelyn who had a
stroke. So she took us next door to pray for Evelyn. Evelyn was in bed and she
couldn’t really move, she was just lying there. We talked to her a bit and we
prayed over her. She started crying and talking to us but the only word we
could really understand was thank you. It was extremely hard for us. I’m still
kind of speechless about it but one of the teams went back to see her today and
they said she was feeling a little better and they could actually understand
her today. God is good! After visiting Evelyn we went to another township
called Ocean View and it is the worst one. It is literally just shacks. We
started walking through and these kids started following us so naturally we
started playing with them and they walked with us for an hour or two and we
just played with them. We went to a creshe (day care). It’s a new one that has
only been up and running for five months. There are two ladies taking care of
twenty kids and they have no government grants. They have no toys and only two
mattresses on the floor. We played with the kids and asked the ladies how we
could help. They said they needed toys. We went back today and the lady said
the only time she rests is when she is sleeping. We are going to go back to
that Creshe later this week and just watch the kids for a couple of hours so
the ladies can rest and maybe take a nap of something. We are also going to get
them some toys.
Yesterday as we were about to leave
Ocean View I saw a lady sitting on a bucket outside of a house and I just knew
God wanted me to talk to her so I mentioned it to another girl and she felt the
same way. So we went up to the house and met a lady named Julia and a lady
named Joanna. Julia has something wrong with her stomach and has already had
two operations and is supposed to have a third one. Joanna has bad asthma and
high blood pressure. We talked to them for a bit and prayed over both ladies.
Today when we went back to see them Joanna said she felt really well and wasn’t
having any problems today and Julia’s stomach felt ten times better. God is so
powerful!
It is so humbling that God is letting
my team and I be a small part of what He is doing in JBay. He is already at
work so so much and He doesn’t need us but He has invited us here to come along
side Him and just be His hands and feet. Ultimately, it is not us doing
anything. It is Him doing it all through us!
My team and I were wrestling a bit,
wondering why we have what we have and why these people have what they have
when we are all equal in God’s eyes and I didn’t come up with an answer or
anything. I have no clue why but I do know that this life is temporary! I
believe God has sent us here to share His hope with these people and to tell
them that this life is temporary and there is so much more in store for us who
know and fear the Lord. It’s unfathomable what God is doing and I’m just so
thankful to be a part of it.
Please continue to pray for my team
and I. We need it so much. Please pray that we would let God give us His heart
for the people of JBay and we would just see through His eyes. Pray that it
would be Him and not us. I am praying for you all and miss you all very very
much!
p.s. I have a phone! My phone number is 27792550247. You can call me with a calling card or with Skype! Skype is really cheap and phone cards probably aren’t that much! I would love to hear from you all so feel free to call whenever! If you want to mail anything to JBay you
totally can! I would love to get mail! The address is on my blog page and just
make sure that if you are mailing a package you don’t put a value on it, just
say it is worth nothing because they will tax me big time for however much it
is worth.
