Day 1 in the books

Hello everyone!  Jared here.

Today was our first official day in country and as we have all come to expect, our plans were turned upside down and re-arranged.  As some of you may have heard there has been some "civil unrest" in the township of Sweet Home where we work that has made it to dangerous for us to visit.  Sweet Home is one of the more primitive of the townships and the people are demanding that the government build houses and deliver more services to the township.  Currently the township is made up of corrugated steel shacks with little to no sanitation.  Apparently, the people of Sweet Home think the most effective way to get more government services is to burn things.

We were all pretty disappointed not to be able to go into the township today but instead of going into Sweet Home, we met with Sisanda, the leader of our Community Health Evangelist program.  The purpose of our trip is to research how our ministry can invest more deeply into the townships and orient our future teams toward this.  It was so great to sit down with Sisanda for a couple hours to hear her heart for the community and figure out where we can fit in and add value.  From my perspective, Sisanda has one of the most difficult job's I've ever seen and she does it with such joy and grace.  Her role is to recruit, train and develop volunteer community leaders in all of the townships that Bridges of Hope works in and then develop individual programs to meet each communities needs.  Easy job for one person, right?

It was a bit overwhelming hearing the long list of needs and issues in Sweet Home but it was also very exciting as there were clearly lots of ways for our teams to invest.  It was also encouraging to hear the impact Sisanda feels the program has had on violence in the townships.  God is moving in Sweet Home!

After our meeting with Sisanda we met with Maxi who works in community development for Bridges of Hope.  Maxi came across an opportunity to potentially place township people into entry level jobs at a big clothing chain, but the issue is that they need to receive 40 hours of job training before August 12th to qualify.  Our team is now stepping in to provide basic job training over the next couple days!  The exciting part about this is that it seems like a program that we can build and continue on long term.  

Our night ended with worship and devotions back at the academy with the students.  We were also able to debrief the day and there was definitely a new sense of excitement as to how God seems to be shaping new paths for our ministry.  Please pray for the unrest in Sweet Home and that God would continue to open doors for us!  This morning's devotion was from Ephesians 3 and is something we want to proclaim on this trip. 

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.  To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."  

- Ephesians 3:20-21

Thank you for your support and prayers!

Funny side note: the academy girls are trying to get me to let them cut my hair.  They said they'll only charge me $100 cause I'm a friend.  :)

Too beautiful not to post twice! A reminder of God's promises. :)