HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!……….and ten other kids. :) Every two to three months we have one big birthday party for all of the kids whose birthdays were in those months. Last week we celebrated April, May and June. Since my birthday is June 23rd I received the privilege of celebrating my 23rd birthday here in South Africa with some of the cutest kids ever. That day I gathered all of the kids together to make cards for all of the birthday people. That afternoon we decorated the dining hall in preparation for that night. After supper that night we sang, ate cake and ice cream and watched the kids open their presents. It was so much fun to see the joy on the kids faces as they opened their presents. They received so little compared to kids in the states, but what they received was theirs. In this setting any toys that come through are community toys for the thirty kids here to share. Toys usually do not have a long life span. Birthday time is a very special time for the kids.

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!
I have a couple of praises. I asked you to pray for Florence’s salvation. She is one of the cooks and a fill in caretaker. Praise the Lord she has dedicated her life to Christ. I was helping her in the kitchen the other day and we were singing Christian Zulu songs. I asked her what those meant to her if she did not believe in Jesus. She gave me a puzzled look and told me that she now believed and was a Christian. I was so excited I danced around the kitchen praising the Lord. :) Praise God for His work in the lives of people.

I also asked you to pray that Thandeka would agree to take when I left.

I found out today that she wants to take over the study when I leave. Praise the Lord. It is so much fun to see how God works things out in His timing, will, and for His glory.

SLEDDING IN SOUTH AFRICA IN THE WINTER.
The teachers in the local schools have been on strike for the last two weeks. Needless to say the kids have been pretty bored but have been stretching their imaginations. Scott and I have been doing construction on the activity room putting up sideboards on the walls. The kids took the scrap pieces and have been using them to sled down the “slopes” that we have on our property. It has been so much fun to watch them. Praise the Lord there have not been too many injuries. This will probably be my last blog until I get back to the states; my friends that have a computer are leaving for the states today. With them leaving it limits my computer usage to almost nothing. I leave South Africa on the 26th and I arrive in America on the 27th. It is very surreal that I leaving South Africa. It does not seem like it has been four months. Thank you for all of your prayers. God bless and have a wonderful day! Oh! One more thing….pray that my ringworm heals quickly. I am not a huge fan of it and my body seems to heal ten times slower here than when I am in the states. Thanks. :)

I had to drive through this! :)

All is well. It seems like it has been a while since I have written a blog. So, I decided to let everyone know that all is well. Nothing extremely exciting or out of the ordinary has happened lately. In fact things have been moving quite slow. We have not been able to do construction for about a month now for various reasons. It has given us an opportunity to focus on other things. I have been able to put a little more time into the Bible studies that I am doing.

With the older girls study I felt like I was hitting a brick wall going through the book of Philippians. It was as if there was no foundation with the girls to understand what they were learning in Bible study. There was no reason in there lives for them to apply the truths of the Word. Through prayer and talking to Thandeka, we decided that it would be beneficial to do a study on the basics of Christianity. God was definitely leading in this situation. The girls have enjoyed the study. During our time of prayer Sli asked that we pray she would know Jesus more. It has been a blessing to be apart of their lives. Nothile

In the past month some of the younger teenage girls have asked that I have a Bible study with them. That has been a huge joy. They are so full of life and are so hungry for the Word. Praise the Lord for these opportunities.

Nqobile

Thando

Thank you for your prayers in regard to me building relationships with the caretakers here. God has given me many wonderful friendships here with them. They taught me how to carry a baby on my back. :) I help Florence out while she cooks and take care encosicona--her baby.

God has been doing such a work in my life while I have been here. Please pray for me as I pray over what God wants me to do when I get back to the states. I only have three and a half weeks left here. I will be very sad to leave. But, I understand that God has His perfect timing and plan for my life.

Sne, Lumlama and Kia.

Fun pictures of the kids. :)
The kids dug a hole and used srap pieces to make a fort. CUTE!

The Kids love to play UNO.

God has given me the wonderful opportunity to lead a high school girl’s bible study. It has been such a joy and a challenge all at the same time. The joy comes from the chance to teach these girls the truths of the Word of God. It has also given Sasha and I the opportunity to build relationships with these girls which were slow moving before we started our study. Before we (Sasha and I) started the bible study the girls might have told us hello, but we did not have much interaction with each other. Now it is hard to walk by them without getting a hug or a friendly hit on the rear end. They have been so much fun to get to know. Starting on the left is Thobile, Ste, Sli, and Patience.
The challenge comes in their limited English. They understand more than they can speak, but it is still limited. God has taken care of the language issue. I wish that I could say I have mastered the language. But, I have asked my friend Thandeka to join the bible study to be the translator when needed. She is the cook here at the orphanage. The girls work closely with her as they help in the kitchen and enjoy her very much. The other challenge was figuring out how their study could continue after I left. I am praying about asking Thandeka to take over the bible study when I leave. Praise the Lord, Thandeka became a Christian a few years ago and is such an amazing believer. But, she is not confident to take over the bible study when Sasha and I leave. Pray that God would work everything out. Pray also as I study. We have been going through Philippians the past four weeks and the girls seem to enjoy it. This bible study has been very good for me as God continues to teach me through my studying of His Word.

The children here had their school break from April 2-13. During this two-week period Sasha and I lead a VBS. It was so much fun.
We asked the high school girls to tell the Bible stories and Sasha and I lead the songs and the games. Praise the Lord all went well. The first week we spent our time in the Old Testament. We started with creation lead into sin and our need for God. We played games that coincided with our stories. For example instead of “sharks and minnows” we played “Saul and David”. The second week we spent our time studying the birth, miracles, death and resurrection of our Savior. It was so much fun to see how the kids learned the songs and enjoyed the Bible stories. At the end of our second week the caretakers and a few other people involved in the orphanage were invited to our rap up of the week. They listened to the kids sing songs they had learned, heard them answer question about the bible stories and heard them recite their bible verses—John 3:16 and John 14:6. Again praise the Lord. The Kids enjoyed performing for their audience—as most kids do.

I have asked you to pray for Charmaine in the past. Please continue to pray for her. I had a wonderful visit with her the other day. She seemed very well and even walked us half way up the road when we left. When I first met charmaine she was almost too weak to get out of bed. We could not stop praising the Lord for her health. Also pray that God would protect her at her home. She has unsaved family that live near her, but they do not look out for her well being. Just lately a man that had abused her before came looking for her again and her family let him know where she was living and housed him for the night. Praise the Lord, he was unable to get into her house when he came looking for her, which is a miracle. I would be able to break down her door no problem.
Thank you again so much for your continual prayers as I am here. May the Lord be glorified.

I pray that everybody had a wonderful Easter weekend. I certainly did. Our Easter celebration was a long but wonderful two-day event. Ceryl who is the new on site-director of Agathos is a pastor and is involved in a lot of community work. He coordinated our Easter celebration and invited the people that he ministers too, to join in the celebration. We had a little over eighty children and over one hundred adults the first day. The second day not quite as many showed up due to transportation issues, over all there were a lot of people and a lot of celebration. Most of what was sung and said was in Zulu and I only understood a couple of words, but I worshiped right along with them. This picture is of one of the ways that people made it to the service. Seat mbelt laws only apply to those sitting in the front seat.
It is always a joy to experience cultural differences first hand. The meetings were supposed to start at 10:00, but people did not start showing up until close to 11:30. I had to drive Ceryl to get a key and we did not get back until 12:15. They had already started singing, and the rest of the day went as planned. In between meetings Ceryl asked if I could go with the kids during the second meeting. I thought that he meant to help but little did I know that he meant to lead all eighty kids for an hour. I realized all of this when I got to the room and a nice high school girl came to me and said, “It is all yours.” She was nice enough to stay and translate for me. I have to admit that my headache was not very comfortable that day and all that I wanted to do was sleep. I had to step back and remind myself why I was there in the first place. It was defiantly not to sleep, but to serve our risen Savior. Praise the Lord all went well.

For those of you who do not know who Charmaine is I shall tell you.:) Charmaine is a 47(she does not know her real age) year old woman that is dieing of AIDS. She lives in a cute one-room house that she has painted very beautifully and takes great pride how she has decorated. She has been unable to buy food for lack of money and has not been strong enough to get out to work or really do anything. Sasha and I go to her house once a week to bring her food and clean water. She has not been able to make it to church since she has been so sick. So, Sasha and I read scripture to her and pray with her. Please continue to pray for Charmaine. I went to visit her on Thursday; her doctor has her on a new medication that is making her uncomfortable. The day that I went it was raining and the van that I drove was unable to make it down the dirt road. So Thandi (one of the caretakers) and I had the joy of walking. Thandi had two bags of food and I had a 5-liter bottle of water and a bag of food. It was such a great bonding time for the both of us as we slipped the whole way to charmaine’s house. We were able to pray for her and encourage her with scripture. Things were certainly put into perspective for me when Charmaine seemed overwhelmed with the couple of bags of food that I brought her. She kept saying that it was a dream to have all that food on her counter. Charmaine also had the chance to encourage me. While I was there Charmaine asked how I was keeping myself, and before I could answer she replied by saying “why should I even ask look at your self you are fat, of course you are keeping well.” I have learned it is good to be “fat” in this culture. Keep in mind that this comment was coming from a woman that was barely eighty pounds just six months ago because of her AIDS. She now is on medication and is very proud of the weight she has gained.

This is a picture of Charmaine's house. It was raining that day, so it is not a very good picture.

Jason went back to the states today. Pray for him as he travels and seeks for God's direction in what to do next.

Lots of fun things have been happening lately as well as some challenging things. The kids are off for the next two weeks for their break in between terms. Sasha and I are running a VBS for the kids during their break; I will get pictures posted soon. One of my biggest challenges lately has been trying to get to know the caretakers here. The caretakers are women that Agathos has hired to be the “moms” for the kids. They are here just about 24/7, with the exception of their weekend off once a month. Each mom is in charge of six to eight children. The living situation is set up in three room suites. The mom is in the middle room and she has a room of kids on each side of her. Having someone that they can go to and rely on gives the kids stability, especially when there are volunteers like myself in and out quiet a bit. They are wonderful women that care a great deal about the kids that they watch. Almost all of the women are Christians. The policy in the past is that only Christians are hired to be the moms. This was broken a couple of months ago when they hired Florence. Florence used to be a residence in one of the rooms, now she is a relief mom when the other moms have a weekend off. She is one that I have been able to get close to and she has been wonderful in trying to teach me Zulu. She has been coming to church and has been showing a lot of interest in Christianity. I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to her a couple of days ago about the Lord. She said she is not ready to become a Christian, but would like to one day. Please keep her in your prayers.

the afternoons are always a great time for the kids invade my room. I love it, even though it can be over whelming.

There are many joys when trying to work when kids are curious.

The routine is very easy to get used to here. We have an early rise for breakfast at 6:30. The kids are off to school by 7:00 and the volunteers and caretakers have a time of singing, reading from scripture and praying. Work generally starts by 8:00. We do a lot of construction work--painting, putting up ceiling, chain sawing, digging, etc. I have enjoyed the wonderful learning experience during work :) The kids are usually home by 1:00-1:30. Everyday when the kids come home from school they hand wash their clothes, hang them and then iron them for the next day. A couple time a week Scott, Sasha, Barbra and I run a homework time for the kids. Each of us are in charge of a group of kids. This is such a great way to get to know a few kids more personally. My group of kids love to review math, but have a hard time with their English homework. It is great for me because I get to use my imagination to make English more fun. :) Everyday at 5:30 Zamani(who is 18, our oldest boy here) tells a bible story to the younger kids. It is a great experience for him to grow and to be able to take a form of leadership. Dinner is at 6:00 and showers at 7:00. It is a very long day at times, but the afternoons are great to hang out with the kids.
Things for me are going to get busy soon. Our nurse, who has been here 14 months is leaving. So, I am going to be taking over the medical side of things, to the best of my ability. All that it will include is taking care of cuts and scrapes, fevers, all of the sicknesses that any child would get. Plus I get to work with things like ringworm, scabies, boils, and making sure that our HIV+ kids take their pills morning and evenings. I will also be in charge of taking out HIV+ kids and mom to the hospital once a month to get their check ups. I have been filled with a lot of information in the last three weeks, please pray that the Lord will give me the strength to do all I need to do. Sasha has offered to help so she will be traveling with me as I go to the hospital.
God has given me the wonderful opportunity to get involved in the community around here a little bit. The past three weeks I was able to travel with the nurse as she did her medicine in the surrounding community. As we traveled I met Charmaine. She is a 47 year old woman that lives in a tiny one room house and is dying of AIDS. Jules(the nurse) has been bringing her clean water and food once a week. Since Jules is leaving I decided, through much prayer, to take this ministry over. The only issue is transportation. For now I am going to be using agathos foundation's car. Please pray that the car will be open to me when I need it. Sasha and I will be traveling once a week to Charmaine's to bring her food, water and to read scripture to her. Thank you so much for your continual pray.

Praise the Lord! I am here and very safe. The trip over was a long 15 hour flight from Washington D.C to Johannesburg. As always I met some very nice people on the flight and made friends that lasted up until we got off the plane. Going through customs was a prayer request of mine before I left. Praise the Lord, that went well. between his broken english and me not knowing what I was supposed to say...he threatened to arrested me. But, all of that was cleared up and I made it through. I met up with a board member of Agathos at the airport and had dinner with him and his family. I spent two days in and had an orientation.

In the picture above is our team. Jason(0n the left) came from may-november. Then he came back mid January and will be here unil November. Scott, Sasha, and kendrick arrived a couple of days after I did and will be here until the end of June. Once a week we go to J.D and Barbra's house for dinner to discuss our week and have a time of prayer. J.D. and barbra are partners with agathos through the ubuntu project, they do a lot for agathos.