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First week of outreach and it was awesome!  On Tuesday we had a fun day with the whole DTS.  We went on a safari, much like a zoo, but we got to sit in this really cool safari car as we drove around.  We saw rhinos, zebras, antelope, lions, giraffe, and even the elephants.  We went later in the day and so the elephants had already gone into their cages for the night and they usually don’t let people see them while they are in there, but our tour guide liked us so much that he let us have an up close look at them.  And we got to feed them.  It was so cool!!  We had a fun time and it was nice to be with the whole DTS and the families.

 

Technically outreach started on Thursday, but Friday we actually started doing something.  Every morning, except our day off, we meet at 6:30am for worship and intercession.  This has brought so much bonding to our team.  It’s great to get up, come together, and worship God.  I will admit the time is the only part I don’t like about it.  After we did that and breakfast we went and harvested vegetables in the garden… or tried to at least.  Our school leader, Bev, planted this garden in 2006 to grow food for people at the clinic who have HIV and for child headed households.  They relocated the garden last year and it hasn’t been doing well.  Which brings me to our time in the garden…  Bev wanted us to dig up the potatoes.  We only found four normal size potatoes, the rest were about the size of an egg or smaller.  The time spent in the garden wasn’t as successful as we had hoped, but we all were laughing about them and their size.  It was a fun time.

 

After the time in the garden we went to a community named Zwelethemba.  We did a prayer walk through the community and passed out cuties or mandarin oranges.  While we are here we will be going to Zwelethemba every Wednesday afternoon to meet with the children and participate in the children worship service that Elisha and Vim put on.

 

That afternoon we went to the hospital and prayed with people outside who were waiting to see the doctor.  It’s sad how far people come from to see the doctor and how long they have to wait.  We met this one lady who had come from a town about three hours away and had been waiting almost six hours to see the doctor.

 

Saturday morning we went to De Doorns and walked around, talked, and prayed with families.  We split into three groups of three.  Daniel and Luana were in my group.  We prayed with four families, but there was one family that we prayed for that was a Christian family that spoke English.  It was cool to encourage them and be encouraged by them.  As we came back to the combi we had this huge group of kids following us.  It was like a wave of children that we had collected as we walked around the community.  Once we were back at the combi we started singing with the kids.  They love to sing and I to see and hear them sing.  They are all beautiful!

 

Saturday afternoon we went back to the hospital and prayed with people outside.  The time there was awesome!  One lady came up to Jane and I and asked for prayer for her baby.  She told us that her father worked at the YWAM base and she recognized our t-shirts.  Her father and brother work here on the landscaping and maintenance.  Her whole family was there and we prayed with them for her son.  Another lady at the end stopped Luana and said she saw our shirts and wanted to talk to us about HIV and AIDS.  She began telling Luana how she had been raped by a man that said he was HIV positive and that she has never been tested.  She is living with her boyfriend and they have one child together.  She wants to get tested, but she doesn’t want to tell her boyfriend or friends because they would disown her and not talk to her if she was positive.  She told Luana that she wanted her there when she gets tested.  So this week Luana is going to visit her at her house and probably go to the hospital with her.  I’ll update on that next weekend.  Our t-shirts really communicate and open up doors for us to talk to people and them to talk to us.  I will try and get a picture of the t-shirts this week.  We wear them every time we go out and do ministry so it shouldn’t be hard to get a pictures of them. 

 

Sunday our team went to church and the message was really good.  I was super tired so I was fading in and out, but what I got out of it was something I needed to hear.  Lately I have been asking God what next?  I want to know the plan for my life, what I will do with my life, where I will live, who I will marry, when I will get married, how many kids I’ll have.  I have been asking God why He couldn’t just tell me everything.  During church the pastor said that if God gave us our life all planned out before us we wouldn’t rely on Him for His will and direction in our lives.  We would fall away from and not rely on Him and not ourselves.  That really hit me.  I need to rely on God for His plan and know that He will reveal the answers to my questions when it is the right time.  I need to rely on Him for my future plans in life.

 

Sunday afternoon we went to De Doorns again and attended a church service that Pastor Yang and his family put on.  We preformed our first drama about the people with different sins.  It went well considering the little space we had to do it.  Jonny shared his testimony and did a great job!  Then we sang Blessed Be Your Name with them.  After the service we handed out baby clothes to the mothers with babies.  One of the women, Portia, came up to me and told me that she wanted to do what Jonny did and share her testimony.  So next week I think she is going to share her testimony with the church.  I will get pictures of the church next Sunday.

 

For the first week Luana and I have been cooking dinner.  At home this wouldn’t take long, but here it seems as if it takes forever.  The kitchen we are cooking in doesn’t have all the supplies we need, but we just do the best with what we have and the three burners and little oven we have.  Even though it is difficult it is also nice cooking for ourselves.  The food tastes so much better and we can make what ever we want.  I have been trying to eat healthier and run everyday.  Hopefully that will last.

 

The last two weeks before we started outreach I was feeling really down and bored and just wanted to go home.  We weren’t doing a lot and I had a lot of time to think about home and everyone I missed.  Since outreach has started I have had more joy and peace about being here.  During the first day at Zwelethemba there was this one boy that came running to us because he saw us passing out the cuties and I handed him one.  He was so happy, he had a huge smile and he gave me the biggest hug.  That was a confirmation that I was at the right place at the right time and it lifted my spirits.

 

The first few days of outreach were awesome!  The days go by fast and before I know it my head it on my pillow and I am waking up at 5:15am to my beeping alarm.  Though I will lack sleep the next two months they are going to be two amazing months!  Thankfully we get one day off a week.  We get Mondays off so that will probably be the day that I do posts from now on.  About posting pictures…I am trying to figure out how to do that.  The blog site has changed things and now I don’t know how to post pictures.  Expect to see them soon though.

 

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