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.