busy days....blessed days... :)

Good evening from South Africa – this is Emily bringing you the nightly update!  Today was a busy day, full of lots of learning, fun, and laughter – and with much ground taken for the Kingdom, we all hope. 

As Jared mentioned yesterday, the “civil unrest” in Sweet Home early Monday morning made it impossible for us to go into Sweet Home yesterday or today.  Luckily, today there was plenty for us to help out with in Philippi for the job training that that Bridges is doing for a group of seven young people who are involved as OVC (orphan and vulnerable children) group facilitators for Bridges.  The fantastic part is that four of them are Bridges Academy alumni who many of us know from previous years:  Nomafili, Nono, Sinazo, and Pretty are all part of the Jumpstart job training program (which will hopefully result in their employment with Mr. Price – a local Target-like chain here in SA).   

 

What a joy to get to see these girls again, and to spend some real time discussing important topics like customer service skills (taught by Jared) and personal finance (taught by Keira).  We also got to hold mock interviews and resume consultation with them one on one, helping them refine their skills as they prepare for real interviews!  Please join us in praying for these young women, as well as the young men in the program (Yongama, Yanelisa, and Chumani), as they prepare for interviews – please pray that their real skills and personalities would shine through in these intimidating interviews, and that they would soon be on track to long term employment with Mr. Price! 

When we returned to Bridges Academy this afternoon, a mini-basketball tournament had started, featuring Rock Harbor’s own Matt Andre as head coach of the boys basketball team!  It has been such a pleasure to watch Matt coach these boys, with his consistent, caring, yet firm demeanor, his patience and skill as a coach, and his ability to keep the boys in line (which is not always easy with Bridges boys, we all know :)…they boys are loving basketball and today’s teamwork and consistent play on the court showed how far they have come.   It’s always so fun to hang out with the screaming fans (Bridges girls) who so enthusiastically cheer on our team (and often the other team!) – it was a great afternoon of investing and building relationships with these awesome kids :) 

Finally, we ended the evening with our usual devotions with the Academy students.  After much enthusiastic worship (which is always incredible – a special blessing that God graciously gives me in particular is the privilege of leading these students in worship – it NEVER gets old, and almost always makes me cry - much to the delight of the students), Jared shared a devotion from Proverbs 3:1-6, encouraging the students to keep their eyes focused on Jesus through tough times.  We then had the students split up into small groups and had them pray for each other….the idea for this came from my amazing experiences over the last three weeks of friends gathering around to pray for me and my upcoming year here in South Africa.  It has been the biggest blessing, and a practice that I realize should be so much more a part of how we live out the gospel together.  We should pray for one another – and we should do it often.   I absolutely love stretching our Bridges kids a bit during devotions (or other spiritual development times) – they trust our staff and our teams to lead them in these sorts of activities, and we take our spiritual shepherding roles very seriously.  Tonight I was holding back tears as I saw them laying hands on one another, praying blessings and praises over one another, and holding hands in unity as they lifted one another up before our loving Father.    These kids know how to go all in with God at times, they know how to engage in deeply spiritual practices, and my overwhelming prayer for them is that they are continually drawn ever closer – like moths to a flame – to Christ and to life with him, and that they get new glimpses each day of His incredible love for them.   

 Keep us in prayer, friends…..we feel their full effects.  Things are going well for us, and we are feeling good and energized by all the work we are getting to do here.  God is at work and we are listening and discerning how to best engage with it.  Please pray that the Spirit would speak ever louder….

Much love from all of us,

Emily :)