Women's Day!

Today was a holiday here in South Africa. It was Women's Day (if you can't tell already by the title) and so all of the academy kids had the day off from school. All 50 came back to the academy, after spending the weekend with their caregivers or family members, to spend the day with us! Most of them came in the aftrernoon at about three, so our team had some time to soak up the day with the kids that met us at the airport, from the academy, and to visit the township of Sweet Home. Our team was split into two and we went our different ways after our e-a-r-l-y morning devotion and some coffee/cereal. The team I went with, I as in Jessica, took the academy children to a science center for the day. It was so cool to see how the kids functioned in a learning environment, outside of the classroom. They asked us questioned, pulled us around to different stations and even took a crazy ride on a Human Gyro! 12 of them did it and we all could not stop laughing! Even some of the leaders took the plung. Some silly screams and some funny faces were made, but what I believe made most of the trip was the car ride there. We took three individual cars to the center, and in each car the Holy Spirit rode. He lived in our conversations with the kids, and sang through our lips. The girls here love to sing, without any music and they truly harmonize together. It's love and it's God.

The other half of the team went into Sweet Home, which is the township, out side of Bridges, that RockHarbor has adopted. This is what Emily and Ryan have to share about their day:


Emily: The rain that started off our day made me weary. Weary that I was wearing the wrong shoes. Weary that I would be cold and soaking wet all day long. Weary that I would serve inadequately. But none of that mattered... because God spoke and He said today is good. Driving up to the township, I never dreamed of seeing such poverty. There is only so much that you can imagine before coming upon the reality of of it all. Poverty like nothing seen or heard of back at home. But something about it all was beautiful. In the midst of the brokeness, I could feel and even see God's hands doing mighty things in Sweet Home. I will keep this short by only telling one story about the day: Our craft for the VBS kids today was to color on canvas backpack that the kids got to take home. We had two groups of VBS kids today and during the second session, we split the kids into two groups. The first group of kids dominated their bags with awesome rainbows and Hosa people drawings that were hilarious. So cute. But while the precious little kiddies were coloring, Erika and I went into slight panic mode when we realized we didn't have NEARLY enough bags for the next group of kids coming in. Long story short... After MUCH panic and much of me "doubting God's abundance and provision," we asked the Che's what we should do. Erika said, "Maybe God will provide the bags while we pass them out." I said, "We'll see." Typical lack of faith on my part. I guess I never give God enough credit. Especially for what He was about to do. One lady stood up and wandered over to some random box that was in the corner and said, "I think we have some left over from last year." Erika and I froze. Mouths wide open, tears in our eyes, and a loud cry from me saying "Oh ye of little faith," we were provided with more than enough bags for the kids. I counted the kids outside. 26. Erika counted the extra bags. 26. Dear God: You are amazing. Forgive me for doubting you. I am so sorry for thinking you weren't big enough to solve our tiny problem. You are absolutely incredible. Thank you for reminding me of that. (This story would have been ten times crazier if you were there. I promise. I am sure Ryan will affirm that for me in his post to follow. =) )

Ryan:

From the day we arrived I have had many expectations looming around in my head of what Africa would be like. I find myself constantly comparing the reality of what I have actually experienced so far to the stories and expectations I have magically made up in my head. When I think of Africa, elephants, hot weather, huts, and jungle cats are usually what come to mind. Today as we made our way in to Sweet Home I brought with me many of my concieved expectations of what Sweet Home would actually be like. One specific expectation that I carried with me is that the devastating poverty and lack of simple necessities in Sweet Home would somehow be a mirror of the attitude and overall posture of the people themselves. When I think of poverty I think lack of hope. I think lack of joy. I always get this mental image of people falling to their knees crying with their arms raised to the sky as a result of the constant battle they face to simply survive. While I'm certain the physical day to day struggle to live in poverty is tremendous, the attitude and spirit of the people in Sweet Home was nothing like the images and expectations I have created in my mind. As we arrived at the place where we would be running the VBS today, our van was swarmed by what seemed like hundreds of children with the large smiles on their faces. The joy in their eyes was piercing as they jumped up and down to greet us. The joy radiating from the children as we arrived was not simply a momenentary spurt of excitment spurred by our arrival, but instead was a constant radiation from their being throughout the entire day. I can't count the number of times a child walked up to me and gave me a hug just because. I can't count the number of times I saw children dancing around like they were at the coolest party on the planet. I can't count the number of laughs I heard from the children of Sweet Home. Today my expectations were shattered. Today I saw what true joy looks like.