Tigers, Braais, and all nighters, Oh my!

Oh my! How time is flying by! Sorry for the lack of update last week. We were introduced to the world of cricket last tuesday. It was a day of fun spent with friends who were trying to teach us the sport which we picked up on kinda quickly. The past two weeks have been great. So much has happened. God is continuing to do amazing things and continues to teach me new things everyday. As a group we are still doing great, I couldn't have asked for two better girls to be partnered with! Our house is full of fun and craziness. Courtney and Ashley have been so fun to work with and are so encouraging.

This past week has been a hectic one, I would say one of the busier weeks we have had in awhile. On our day off monday we went to go play with tigers. We got to spend the day with stacie, which is always fun, and we were able to see a different part of south africa as we had to drive out of the city some. We were all for getting away from the city for the day. But we had a blast walking and petting tigers. Definitly a once in a lifetime exerience. It is so easy to forget that we are in africa at times living in edenvale. We live next to a mall and have gone to about three in one week and are surrounded by aparments and businesses and the urban life that it doesn't feel like africa. Driving on monday took us out of the city and to a rural part of the area. That was when I was reminded that I am still in africa. Working at the school, usually reminds me that I am still in africa, but
just driving through different towns and seeing a different way of life then that of the city was good to see. We definitly drove through areas of lower income, but there were some beautiful scenary. Once it becomes the rainy season and everything becomes green it is going to be so beautiful. It is still dry, although it should start raining soon.

Wednesday was our day at the orphanage and I spent more time at the other house visting with kids. We mainly work at the hospice house, but wednesday I hung out more with the kids at the other house. An oppurtunity has opened up for me to work with a child at the orphanage and I am looking forward to see how God is going to use that and work in that situation but I am also a little nervous as well. This has been something that I had been praying about before I even left the states, so we will see what the Lord does. But the three main kids we work with are doing well. There was a new boy this week. One of the other boys there was having a bad week, he had been doing well the past two weeks but this was a rough day for him. Depending on how he is feeling we soemtimes see him on wednesdays.

That night I went to a stay awake at aurora school. They were raising money for the school by getting people to sponser the kids as they stayed awake all night. I'm not going to lie I wasn't really looking forward to going and staying up all night. It turned out to be so much fun and a good time. I was able to get to know some of the students better and just talk with them. We had fun playing games, dancing and jumping on a trampoline. The middle of the night hours were spent watching movies and standing by a fire (it was feezing that night). While there I got to talk with the owners daughter and the owner and able to get to know them a little bit, which was nice, because when we are there during the week we don't get to talk with the owner because we are all working. I must say some of those kids have so much energy and had no problem staying up all night, I on the other hand had to drink some coffee (and slept most of the day thursday). A few fell asleep around 3 or 4 in the
morning. It was a fun time and the kids will now go home for about 10 days for a break as they are switching terms. For some of these kids they are going home to bad situations and home lives and are faced with difficult decisions so just pray that they would make the right choices and that God would protect them.

Friday was a national holiday and was braai day (which is the south african word for grill, so everyone cooked out). We went to the office and had a big braai with the missionaries there and got to meet new people and learn about the different things they did and where they came from. We also spent part of saturday with some of the women from the office as well and then that night with some other missionaries watching football so we have gotten to know more of them this weekend, which has been great and we are able to recognize them at church. It really is a good group of people that work there and are all very friendly.

This past week has been amazing. Thank you for your continued prayers and I ask that you continue to pray for the children that we work with that they would come to know Christ and that they would all have a safe vacation at home. Also that we would be able to reach the people in our apartment complex as well.

complex outreach

When I was told I was coming to south africa and my main outreach would be working within our complex I didn't know what that invovled or what to tell people. Well I can finally tell you. Our goal while here is to meet people within our complex and get to know them and get them connected within the church. To do this we have gotten a group of people from church to help us with this. We have started to have a weekly hang out (either game night, movies, putt putt, etc) with people from the complex and people from church. Our plan is that when we leave the people from church can continue to minister and build relationships with the people from the complex. Last week was our first game night. While it was basically all people from church we did have one person from the complex come. I was excited that someone from the complex came. Even from that one person coming we have been able to hang otu with her and are planning on continuing to get to know her. That in a nut shell is what we are doing within the complex and reaching people.

aurora school

Along with working at the orphanage we also work at aurora school which is about thirty minutes outside of town and is a private school. We mainly work with grade 2 and help them with assignments. The teacher has both grade 2 and grade 3 so we help her with different tasks and with whatever she needs help with. We are only there in the morning and early afternoon so we are there when they have recess/lunch so during that time we just hang out with kids and try to get to know them better. This week I had a kid ask me about the devil and things like that. I tried to answer the best I could.
Working at the school has been good and I've enjoyed it. Just pray that God would continue to open doors for us and that we will continue to meet people in our apartment complex. We were able to meet a couple people which has been good and we are continuing to develop relationships with them. Thanks for the continued prayers.

Lambano Sanctuary

Our main focus while here is working within our apartment complex, but we also get the oppurtunity to work in a few other community outreaches. We work with the youth at church but we also work with the lambano sanctuary (the orphanage).

This week the kids wanted to be creative so we colored and enjoyed arts and crafts.

After some creative time, we usually get beat in soccer. This week courtney and I did pretty good and are improving with our soccer skills. The three older kids that we work with are around the ages of 10-13 and then there are a two other boys who are about 11 and two little girls who are under the age of 2. These kids look alot younger then what they really are so it is hard to tell ages by looking at the kids. We have enjoyed working with these kids. This week we left the hospice house and went over and helped the other kids with their homework. It has been good working there and we have been enjoying it.

quick update

We've been here for about a month now and have been gone from the states for over a month. This past week has been a transition, as I fade out of the honeymoon stage of being in a new place and slip into the working stage. Things are quickly becoming more normal. This past week we started working with the orphange and school. When we are at the orphange we worked with the hospice kids and I had forgotten how emotionally draining it is. I was able to play some soccer with some of the healthier kids and one of those kids will be leaving soon and going back to his home. Some of these kids are over a year old but have severe delayed development. This is an orphange for kids who have HIV/AIDS and most have other problems as well. There is one little boy who is severly anorexic and his body is shutting down and they are doing what they can for him and he is a strong willed kid, but its heartbreaking at times.

We also work with a private school that is about thirty minutes outside of town. Last week we worked with grade 2 and helped the students and checked papers. The teacher has about 60 students and grade 2 and 3 are in the same room so she teaches both. Kids are kids no matter where they are. Second graders will be second graders. We mainly helped out with checking papers and keeping kids on task. While we are there they have lunch/break so we are able to play and interact with the other kids as well. I will say being here has made me more apprieciative of the schooling I had and just the ability to be able to go to schools where we didn't have to worry about teachers striking or having enough school supplies.

This past week being able to get a taste of what we will be doing on a regular basis has been good and I am able to prepare myself more for future visits and just knowing what to pray for on a specific level. This past weekend we went on a baking spree and made tons of cookies or "biscuits" as they call them here for our neighbors. We were able to meet some neighbors and we are organizing a game night at our flat for neighbors and people from church so that they can become invovled with the outreach as well. Our goal is for the people from church to continue working with the people from the complex after we leave.