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!