Bittersweet Goodbyes yet Smiling Faces

The blog tonight is written by Molly Cody…

Today had a lot of ends. The end of July. The end of our wonderful VBS for the OVC kiddos. The end of a 72 hour sprint filled with chalk dust, tears, sweat, and even some bubbles somehow. And unfortunately, the end to our last bag of “Romeo Delight” cookies. Although the day had a lot of ends, this was just the beginning. We had the beginning of the first day for five kids on their walk with Christ. We had the beginning of vulnerability set in with the Academy students. And we have the beginning of a weekend dedicated to serving those who raised some OVC kids and Academy students, the beautiful and marvelous Che’s, ahead of us.

With a sugar buzz and changed hearts, the OVC kids were able to make a reminder of their life in Christ. Our wonderful team members, Lizzie, Matt, Dana, April, and Kira, shared the Gospel with the kiddies and explained to them the significance of their life in the footsteps of the Lord. The kids made their symbolic bracelet of Black, Red, White, Green, Blue, and Yellow beads to represent evil and sin, purity, growth, and renewal that Christ offers those who choose to follow Him. Although the kids may not have completely understood what we were explaining to them, the ownership of that bracelet by the kids gives them a daily reminder of the life they can have one day with the Lord.

One of the boys who was prayed for last night changed my life today. I had an overwhelming sense of Christ shining out of him as he walked up to me today, took my hand, led me to the VBS room, grabbed me a spot on the wall, and sat silently and attentively as the Gospel was being taught today. His name is Edward. He is a Child of God and he desires love. He was constantly yearning for touch and someone to just smile with him and joke with him and tickle him. He wanted someone to constantly be cheering him on as he toe-punted the hardest soccer ball I have ever kicked before into the goal keeperless goal. I started today more tired than I had ever been and Edwards action of love and grace as he saw me strugglin’ through today pushed me to the end (which is why I am up writing this blog for y’all to enjoy!). The Edward of yesterday is gone and the Edward of today and from here on out is a completely changed, pure, and precious boy I will be praying for as the Lord protects him and the other OVC kids. 

We do not know what happens from here on out but the presence of the Lord and the light of His Work is being done and will be done until all His children are home and safe with Him.

OKAY, back to some more exciting news… The OVC kiddies departed safely (along with the rest of our cookies hehe) and it was back to the Academy students for some more ASP! I was blessed again by accompanying our worship leader (hey Ray – of sunshine) with his section of Worship and what it means to truly Worship. He did an amazing job sharing his story as to how he came to love Worship and we all sang a few songs together and we were even taught a song by them! Although we couldn’t necessarily say the words the right way, watching the community and fellowship these kids have with one another is beyond what words can describe. Worship is the one thing that is the harmony amongst these kids and allows for darkness to fade and the power and light of the Lord shine from all their smiling faces and tone-deaf voices (me included 110%). 

Our Matric we prayed for for today was the gentle Giant, Mphumzi. The second he stepped into the room, the word HUMBLE popped into my head and stayed with me until Paul snatched it right from my mind during prayer. The kindness and gentleness of this young man of God as he enters a room and cracks his first smile speaks volumes in my eyes and the teams eyes. Respect, confidence, strength, intelligence, and humility describe Mphumzi and anyone who encounters his presence is truly blessed by the life he truly brings out in others.

Now, onto the heavy stuff (at least for me): I was given the gracious opportunity to share my testimony tonight with the whole Academy. I am not exactly sure who reads this but some of you may know my story and others not know but I could not describe to you how full of encouragement and blessings I was. I was prayed over by the team and by my (the best) travel buddy, Kathleen, on our way over and the things they said over me and encouraged me with just hit right there on the top of my head. The presence of the Lord was stirring in that room and that was my biggest fear in sharing my testimony tonight. I was scared of my own light in sharing my story. I relate my story very much to Jeremiah 29:7 and Matthew 5:14-16, “You ARE the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden…let your light shine before men…”

One of the most empowering moments in the discussion afterwards was the response a few boys had in that their stories were filled with too much regret and darkness for their own light to shine. Lindsay strongly encouraged them to remember they ARE the light of the world, not they can be.

The students of this Academy have amazing and incomprehensible stories to share and want their stories to be heard. They want to reach lives and shine the light of the Lord but feel it won’t mean much to people because it is filled with so much darkness. THAT IS WHERE THEY’RE WRONG! That is when it reaches the most people in various ways.

So in conclusion, we ask for prayer over these students and the OVC kids for protection and courage in their stories and vulnerability, our safety and health as a team, unity amongst us and the Academy students, guidance for the Che’s, and the Lords grace and protection over Sweet Home. 

THANKS AND MUCH LOVE FROM ZA (South Africa) !

This Little Light of Mine...

This Blog is being written by Allie Lerude and Paul Morrow…

Today started off as a typical South African Day at Bridges Academy.  We taught classes to the Sweet Home kids,  fed them,  played with them,  loved them and did our best to teach them about things such as Grace, Prayer and Forgiveness.  Parachutes, bubble blowing, swinging on the swing set, soccer, dance parties and a lot more hugs and carrying kids  filled the day here at Bridges! 

After Vacation Bible School a few of the kids started sneaking outside and playing with some innocent sidewalk chalk, all colors imaginable!  Molly accidentally drew a picture causing a lot of chalk dust on the sidewalk and Dion, one of the OVC kids,  took the moment to sneak his hands in the dust and then covered his face and Molly’s with the colored chalk.  World War III broke out and chalk flew everywhere,  their faces were coved and the kids made sure ours were as well.  Colors of the rainbow flew everywhere and on everybody!  Spirits were not just high but colorful as well!

After School Program Time!  The Academy Kids were ready for some fun  with Salsa Dancing, Scavenger Hunts, Dodgeball, Basketball  and Spiritual Discipline lessons.  As the team pulled together back in the Red Room one of the 12^th grade students joined us to be prayed for, Emelie, a beautiful young lady ready to go out and make her place in this world.  The entire team put hands on her to pray for encouragement.  The room was filled with deep and serious thoughts and praying!  Emelie listened joyfully as we spoke verses over her and felt filled up and relieved when she heard a verse that read to her earlier this year (Isaiah 11). 

Tonight, all the OVC kids were brought into the Conference Room accompanied by the 12^th graders from Bridges Academy.  Their purpose was to pray over these beautiful children, as they would be returning to their township in Sweet Home, South Africa then next day.  Picture this, all the little kids sitting in the middle of the room circled up by the 12^th graders.  The older students presented, in their native language of Xhosa, prayers that we couldn’t understand but felt the power of their words, actions, expressions and love as they spoke to the kids.  Little children were praying in the circle as their older peers let them know of the love Jesus has for them, kids who normally never sat still were totally focused on these students as they covered them in the love of Jesus and the joy of giving them selves to the Lord.  Around the room our teammates didn’t need to understand because God was speaking to all of us.  Tears broke out from almost every member of the team as kids prayed, held hands and celebrated Jesus.  That little light grew into a blazing torch for Jesus!

This is Allie and I wanted to share what I experienced tonight.  The way that the 12^th grader’s, or "Matrics", as the academy calls them, prayed was incredible.  They spoke with such unity and passion, even though we didn’t understand what they were saying, we felt it.  As the Matric’s were praying blessings over the Sweet Home kids, we saw a little boy named Edward start crying and you could tell something was going on inside him.  All of the Matric’s laid their hands on him and prayed for him.  Once they were done, four more boys did the same thing; one after another these kids gave their lives to Christ.  Seeing these five children who have so much darkness and pain in their life pray to God and seek him was transforming.  I was crying within the first two minutes, simply because this was something I have never experienced.  Seeing these sweet kids want to have this fire that the Matric kids spoke about was an indescribable experience.  Dion, Siphosethu, Edward, Snethemba, and Aevla gave their lives to Christ tonight and tomorrow they’re getting baptized by the Matric’s.  This is a night that I will never forget.  Seeing Dion (who just gave his life to Jesus) lay hands and pray over another kid made me stand in awe.  This group of kids is the most loving, joyful, desirous for affection, beautiful group of children I have ever known.  I am so honored to have loved on them for these past few days; through chalk wars, pushing swings, getting mauled on the trampoline, dancing, to holding these kids as they cried.  So blessed by this experience already, and its only day three!

Paul here!  As Allie stated, tonight was an amazing experience.  The 12^th grade students, known as the  came to the gathering with the expectations of doing a quick 15 minute presentation to these kids from Sweet Home.  Instead,  the evening turned into a full borne prayer fest.  As these awesome young adults worked in such natural unison in their presentation something epic happened.  The kids they thought wouldn’t even want to listen to them were not just polite and quiet, they were enamored with what their older peers had to say.  As they spoke to the children in their native tongue of Kosa, a fire deep in the heart of these children ignited!  Five of the boys, Dion, Siphosethu, Edward, Snethemba, and Avela experienced something I don’t think they expected, they heard and felt the love of Jesus tonight!  After the group presentation, as Allie stated, Edward had tears in his eyes. One of the older kids came to him, spoke softly in his ear and then suddenly a large number of their team were laying hands on a young man known for being hard to handle, he was receiving corporate prayer from these students who prayed their hearts out for him, prayers orchestrated by God!  That little light ignited a bonfire tonight as four other young boys felt God boiling in their hearts as well.  There wasn’t a dry eye in the house watching this powerful prayer event change the life of Edward. Edward and Dion saw me crying like a baby and came up to me, looking deep into my eyes and asked me why I was crying.  I looked into Dion’s eyes and said because we were so happy and moved by Edward’s love of Jesus.  Avela, a young boy who seemed to be attached to my leg tonight looked up at me with tears in his eyes, a quiet boy, he hugged me hard and we connected!  I asked one of the Matric guys to come over to see if they could help Avela.  Wow, suddenly ten more of the Matric kids came and hands were placed on Avela’s little shoulders, prayers flied for this young man as Jesus reached deep into his heart and placed his love in Avela, a love that seemed to change him instantly!  If that was not enough, it happened three more times tonight.  I watched one of our team members who said he never cried break done in intense tears.  We hugged each other in awe of what we witnessed tonight.  God brought his children to lead these young kids from Sweet Home to him.  That 15 minute presentation turned into a life changing presentation that brought 5 souls to the Kingdom tonight!

Matric’s,

What a day!  Not just a day, a life changing experience for all of us!  This is only day three and this single event, this blessing of God’s children by their peers changed it all, our team changed as we felt the presence of our Lord here at Bridges Academy, we became even closer, even more connected with each other through this experience.  We brought the Matric’s students back to the conference room to talk with them about what happened, something we do as a team nightly. What they said was amazing!  One of the young men told us as the past four years went by they were known as challenges in their school.  One boy said they were so much of a challenge they lost all privileges except for the privilege of loving God!  They said that tonight changed them as well.  They felt the power of Jesus working through them as they became the tools of our Lord Jesus!  They said they have never felt closer as a group than tonight, this changed them, moved their hearts and let them feel the love God has for them and the importance he has placed in them to be his messengers to others, to be an example and to keep the little light that grew into a torch burning in the hearts and souls of all they touch! 

Day 3... Worship and OVC

Hey this is Ray here!

To start off a busy second day at Bridges we heard that the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) would be arriving here at Bridges Academy in the afternoon. As we prepared for the kids to arrive there was lots of excitement and preparation for a busy day. We ate lunch together and afterwards started off VBS camp with Kathleen and Molly telling the story of Creation with the help of Tomeka a CHE (Community Health Evangelist) who translated. The team quickly made connections with the kids and fell in love with their joyful faces and we were filled with love and compassion for them.

 It was a tight schedule as we jumped into after school programs with the kids right after VBS.  Lindsey led an ASP on Pilates, Dana led an ASP on teacher appreciation and home economics, Lizzie talked on serving and evangelism, and I led an ASP on worship. Last night the team prayed for my confidence in teaching and having something valuable to offer and today God really answered that prayer. I was able to talk to the 10^th and 11^th graders about why we worship and what worship looks like. It was such an awesome experience! I started off with telling a bit about my story and how I learned about worship. The students’ voices and passion for worship was incredible and I was able to encourage them to have conversation with God when they worship. Later in the day I was able to lead worship once again and really was able to lead with a new confidence for the gift God has given me. It was so amazing to be able to be a bridge for the students to meet with God and sing so joyfully in worship! Afterwards Danielle told me many of the girls really were touched by what I said about worship and one girl told me that it really touched her heart - how awesome is that!? It blew me away to see their joy for worship and hearts to listen. God really taught me that I do have something to give and to be confident in that.

Jared here!

This afternoon was one of my favorite memories of my four trips to South Africa.  We’ve never had Academy Students and OVC Camp at the same time and we were spread pretty thin.  One of our team members, Kathleen, had a great idea of bringing some of the senior academy students to help us with the camp.  We invited seven of the 12^th grade girls to join us instead of going to their regular after school programs.  When they arrived we explained that we’d like for them to run two hours of programming for 22 kids and they had about 15 minutes to prepare.  They huddled up and put on a program that put ours to shame.  The kids were so attentive as they taught them songs and the story of Job.  It was incredible to see the respect the students commanded and how the little ones looked up to them.  We had a few of our team members there, basically just cheering them on as they ran the show.  It was a beautiful picture of what Bridges was intended to do - teach one to teach another.  How powerful it will be to send these students back into their communities to give back.  I met most of these girls four years ago as shy 9^th graders and was feeling pretty proud and emotional watching them as grown women, sharing the scriptures and bringing such joy to these little kids. 

After devotionals each night, we break out into small groups.  I “humbly” thought that I could “pour into” the house parents and spend some time with them.  As we opened the scriptures and started discussing, my man Mthobeli just started dropping truth on me!  He was explaining how our stories have power and the enemy wants to use fear to keep us from sharing our stories.  He said that when we share it, there is freedom in Christ.  When Paul shared his past and how he persecuted Christians, he put on display his freedom in Christ.  Come on!  I found out that when he’s not looking after the boys at the academy, he teaches at a local church.  Mthobeli loves these boys so well and what an example he is to them.  He carries himself with such humility and I was so blessed to have gotten to listen to his wisdom tonight.

I’m really proud of how our team has jumped into everything.  I already see so many taking bold steps of faith and risking with one another in vulnerable ways.   God is on the move here and it’s really fun to be able to join in!  Tomorrow is probably our busiest day of the trip so pray for endurance and patience.

Thank you for all your support.  Your words of encouragement mean so much to us.

Day One...Discovering Bridges

Todays blog is written by Matt and Meredith...

The day started with everyone waking up from a 12 hour nap (haha jet lag is a real thing). We started with a team breakfast and a devotional by Kathleen to help us prepare spiritually and mentally for the day. The morning was spent preparing for the onslaught of kids we would be working with tomorrow; there was  a tragic death in the Bridges family (the Academy we are staying  at) so the Wadley's (Bridges Founders) decided to bring the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) kids to the retreat center for camp.  We made beds, cleaned floors and swept bathrooms it was a blast! Following that we headed off to the Academy and spent lunch with the kids getting to know them. Kathleen got her hair braided and it looked fabulous!

We had four after school activities planned for the kids; Dodgeball with Matt, Scavenger Hunt with Molly, Spiritual Discipline with Danielle and Ice Breakers with Kira. We ate dinner with the kids tonight and we all split up amongst them kids in order to get to know them better, but the real fun began after putting the dishes away... A chair against a wall became a goal and the kids ran around wanting to take the winning shot. Other groups played the cups song (lead by Meredith), Allie was shown the girls dorms, Paul did magic tricks with a group while others, like Ray, sang songs with the kids.   Overall,  it was a great time.

After the kids study hour our team was in charge of leading a nightly devotional. Since the last teams trip it has become a tradition to share more testimonies with the kids. Ray opened us in worship and with encouragement from Jared, three girls from the academy came up to sing by Rays side. During our second song of worship the kids and everyone really started to get into worship while we all sang "Blessed be Your Name".  Singing clapping and chanting echoed throughout the room, God's spirit was certainly with us tonight!  Lizzie was the first person from our team to share her story with the academy, our theme for our devotionals this trip is "God is my (blank)". After her testimony we split into groups and Matt had this to say about his small group...

"At some point we asked the group if they felt special and targeted by God to have the opportunity to have been placed in Bridges.. But one of the kids "Siya" immediately spoke up and said he 'felt so loved that God put him in a place with so much love and opportunity.. And for him to see the hardships his friends go through, when he goes backs and visits the townships'. I was taken back by his vulnerability in the moment and his maturity in recognizing how blessed he is".

At the end of the evening the room was filled with shouting and hugging as our team and the academy students wished each other good night. (and this was a slow day).   We are so excited for all that God is doing here and ready for more tomorrow!

Stay tuned for the next post from all of us here in South Africa!





 

Landed and Safe!

Jared here.

Wanted to get a quick post in to let everyone know the team is landed, feeling rested and settling into Bridges.  All the flights were really smooth and everyone seemed to get some decent sleep on both flights.  This was our first time connecting through Dubai and since we had an 8 hour layover we were able to get out of the airport and see a few sights.

Will try to post a more detailed update before we go to bed tonight!

Thanks for all your prayers!

South Africa here we  come!

Tomorrow is the big day.  We have prepared ourselves to the best point possible.  Our team is ready to go and meet the awesome people of Sweet Home and Bridges Academy.  For the past few weeks we have been learning more and more about ourselves,  prayer,  spiritual warfare,  sustainability,  and our role on this mission trip to  South Africa.  Each team has been formed,  we have our assignments and we've prepared ourselves to deliver lessons on the bible, hope, forgiveness,  prayer, stewardship, how to read your bible and the list goes on and on. We even have prepared a team dance for the talent show!  We are pretty awesome if I have to say so myself!

We have all gotten our passports ready, paid our bills due while we are gone,  and received the shots necessary to keep us safe overseas.  As team we have become strong with each other,  become more proficient at listening to God and more confident in our task.  Our leaders,  Jared, Chalane and Danielle have worked exhaustingly to get all the details ironed out and to make sure we are set and ready to go tomorrow. 

As we embark on this trip all of us would like to thank all the people who got behind us financially and in prayer to make this trip possible.  Tomorrow we meet at LAX at 2:00pm ready to board a flight on Emirates Airline to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.  This flight should take us about 15 hours arriving in Dubai at 7:35pm on Saturday.  From there we have about an 8 hour layover to rest and get our selves ready for the second part of our flight to Cape Town, and estimated flight time of almost 10 hours.  33 hours after take off we should be in Cape Town South Africa!  Can you believe it????

We have a pretty busy schedule to follow and will be meeting a number of new faces with new names for us to learn over these next two weeks, so, stay tuned to this Blog for updates on whats happening with South Africa 2014.  Each of our team members will be writing parts of this blog to keep you up to date and aware of what we are doing, learning, and experiencing. 

What can you do for us?  Please give us your thoughts and prayers with the following in mind:

•   That our words, thoughts and deeds are wise and thoughtful.

•   That we use the gifts God has given us, Compassion, Patience, and Understanding to help those we come in contact with become self-sufficient and full of god's spirit.

•   That we, as teams and individuals can be effective in what we do, bold in how we approach the challenges ahead of us and courageous in our purpose.  

•   That the people and communities we interact with receive us a it is meant, as people who wish to help them become self-sufficient and focused on HIM.

Well, here we go off to South Africa