February 6, 2010

Well I am sitting here after getting off the phone with my mom telling me about the foot of snow back at home while my face and arms are hurting from my sunburn J But anyway…yesterday and today have been pretty great. We had “creative expression” yesterday morning. One of the core values of YWAM is creativity so we have some random times of drawing, doing crafts or whatever and it sounds like something I did in kindergarten but its really pretty awesome haha. Then we had the rest of the day off yesterday. Most people went into town, but a small group of us went to the mall for ice cream and a movie. It was a relaxing day which was really nice to have.

Then today we had community outreach and it was pretty much the best yet J We went to this place called “Michael’s Children Village” run by a ministry called Iris. They take in children that come from really rough backgrounds- usually brought to them by Social Services. A lot of them have been abused- both physically or emotionally, abandoned, mistreated, and so on. It really was heartbreaking to hear their stories while looking these amazingly beautiful children in the face. We met a little baby named Welcome when we first got there. We all guess that Welcome was about 6 months old, only to find out he is 19 months old. He is a tiny little boy and was brought to the village in August after being abandoned at the hospital. He came while being extremely malnourished and sick with pneumonia and Tuberculosis. Those have been taken care of but he also has been diagnosed with HIV. But he now looks happy and playful, and he’s just an adorable little boy. It’s so hard to imagine how someone could leave him in that condition. But…when we there we actually didn’t all spend all of our time with the kids. They needed jobs done around the property, so we split up into groups. My group helped to dig holes and then set up giant wooden beams to be the foundation for a huge giant hut outside. We actually had to recruit guys to help put up the center beam because we needed like ten people to help put it up. But it was really nice to be outside and do something physical and tangibly helping people. Just ended the day with some sun burn J

February 8, 2010

Yesterday was our fun Sunday that lasted a lot longer than usual. Sunday morning felt like a day in itself. It was over 90 degrees in an already hot Church with a very tired and slow crowd. Lets just say there was a lot of sweat, hungry stomachs, and children sleeping…but then community Sunday started! We spent the afternoon/evening swimming in the pool, eating tacos, playing ultimate Frisbee, and watching Saved by the Bell episodes J It was different now that the Orlando team is gone and the Switzerland is here, but it was still great. Then last night a small group of us decided we weren’t going to miss out on the SuperBowl. So since it was a live game, we went over to someone’s house at 1:00 AM and watched the game until it was over at 5:00 AM- probably the quietest SuperBowl I have ever watched. It wasn’t quite the same without the crazy commercials from the States, but it was still pretty sweet- and we aren’t tired at all today J

This week is going to be another interesting week. Our speaker for the week cancelled last minute so we really aren’t sure what we are doing. But this morning we painted pictures of things that we think resemble ourselves and then we shared them with each other. It was actually really cool to see how each painting reflected each person. Then this afternoon we went to Kabokweni- which we will be going to every Monday afternoon from now on. We helped with the feeding program but it was so much better this time because we are finally getting to know the kids a little.

February 11, 2010

So every week I think it just think it cant get any faster and somehow it does haha This week has been crazy fast but pretty good. Our speaker came on Wednesday and he has made some movies so on Tuesday morning we watched the movie “Faith Like Potatoes” that he made. Then yesterday he started speaking to us and, he talked about finding our purpose and calling in life. It was pretty good- he gave us some ways to find our purpose and told his own stories of how God has directed his life. Then yesterday afternoon we got to go back to the Children’s village! This time my group cut down trees- yay! Haha My legs just have a few cuts on them J Then last night my small group went to see “The Princess and the Frog.” I will just say there is nothing like driving through Africa, blasting music, windows down, eating McDonalds J We were all pretty content. Then we spent the afternoon in Dwaleni with the feeding program there. It gets better every time that we go and spend more time with the kids. Today they taught me some hand games and they also tried to teach me to dance- most of the time was spent listening to them laugh at me but soon I will be a true African dancer J haha