Africa Update #2
Wednesday August 12th – finished the windows projects and did some sanding and painting of cabinets at Bethel. Also got the opportunity to spend time on the beach – well worth the long walk down the sand dunes to get to the beautiful ocean side! God’s amazing handiwork!
Thursday August 13th - Spent our first day in the community around Xai Xai. Half of the South African team (we are here with them for the first week) went to one school. Our team went with the other half of the SA team to another school. The school there was a simple plastered reed shack with a cement floor and 2 benches. Most kids sit on the floor, and there is very little for the teacher to work with as far as supplies and teaching materials. The students included several orphans. All of them are dirty and in tattered clothes, but the outward condition can’t contain their childlike enthusiasm! We delivered new clothes to the students and also spent a lot of time playing various games with them, and just generally giving them as much love as possible. We also delivered a set of educational Legos for use in the classroom. One of the SA teens trained the teacher on how to use the Lego set, while Laurie was able to use her language skills to translate into Portoguese.
Friday August 14th – Today we spent all day at a village quite a drive away from Bethel to begin building a new School/Church. Half of the team began the building project by putting up the frame of the school (which will be about the size of an average garage). The rest of the team kept the kids of the village busy with games, songs, balloons (a big hit) and playing ball. We spent almost 9 hours on site playing with the kids as the others were digging and drilling – I am not sure which group was more tired. The kids at this location were in even worse shape than the other village we visited. Many of them are orphans, or are being cared for by their older child sibling. It is amazing to watch how well the older kids care for the younger ones, keeping them close and often carrying the young ones by strapping them to their little backs. After such a long day the kids really were warming up to us – laughing and playing with us with such glee. I held one small boy who was just smiling and laughing for no apparent reason other than that he was enjoying the attention so much. While we were playing with the kids, a group of the mothers of the village were standing back observing our team at a distance. By the end of the day one of the mothers joined Laurie and I as we rested under a tree. We played with her baby and bonded over being moms – even though we didn’t speak each others’ language. It was a great moment as we interacted with her and the other mothers (who eventually joined us) and felt their acceptance.
Saturday August 15th – Day 2 at the same village site. Today we mostly focused on finishing the school/church building. This entailed affixing the tin roofing and putting in the reed bunches that are wired around the frame for walls. The finishing touch was putting a cross on top of the building along with another cross at the door made of reeds. We wanted to be sure to claim this building in the name of Jesus Christ! Although the church/school will be run by a local pastor and his family, the village is run by the witch doctor Fransisco. Fransisco is in favor of building the school as it will be good for his community (he was even working alongside us). He understands the gospel and knows of the path to salvation, although he continues to be a practicing witchdoctor, and even trains others in witchcraft. Please help us pray that Fransisco will make the choice to discontinue his ways and follow Jesus Christ so he can lead this community into the light, rather than the destructive paths of ancestor worship and witchcraft.
At the end of the day the pastor and the witchdoctor said words of thanks for our efforts in building the school. It was a dream come true for the village, and they called us “angels sent by God”. As I was leaving I was embraced by one of the elderly women of the village who enthusiastically thanked me and kissed me on the cheeks as I got tears in my eyes. It was a wonderful feeling as we left the village, seeing the new reed school/church with the cross lit by the setting sun, knowing we were giving the village new hope and a place to learn and grow in Jesus.
Sunday August 16th – today we spent the morning at a church service in Xai Xai. It was a wonderful service and a terrific message, translated from Portuguese into English so we could all understand. Church was followed by time at the beach, with lunch at a beachside restaurant owned by friends of the Harpers.
Monday August 17th – This morning the youth group from South Africa left, so it is now very quiet! Les was injured in a fall down the stairs in the middle of the night (please pray for her continued healing), so we decided to spend the day at Bethel rather than the planned school visits. We found plenty to do while we encourage Les to rest (not an easy task!). Laurie sewed skirts that we will give out to orphan girls. Mary Lou did a number of organizing tasks. We all worked on writing out alphabet practice sheets to use for the school children. Once letters were written out, Les and Laurie came up with sentences in Portuguese or Choengana (the language spoken by many rural villages) for each letter. After that I drew simple pictures to help the kids remember the sentence meaning. These cards will be laminated so kids can practice writing and learning letter sounds and words. After our day of work we had dinner with the Harpers and some other missionaries who are working in Xai Xai. Only Les and Mark would agree to host a party of 10 for dinner, after struggling to get the water pump to work (we were without water for most of the day), and having a fall down the steps as Les did (not to mention that they had just said good bye to 30+ teenage guests just that morning). They have endless energy and hospitality!
Tuesday August 18th – Today Laurie, Mary Lou and I along with Les and one of the Xia Xia school supervisors did some school visits in the community. The first school was in a fairly well-off community (compared to the other we’ve seen), with children that were obviously from families that could care for them pretty well. However, the community is still in deep need, and there were several orphans that we met there. We handed out clothes to the children, had snack time, and did a craft with foam crosses and glitter glue. We also gave a testimony to let the children know that we were there to share Jesus’ love for them. The children were very bright and fun to interact with. A favourite thing of all of the children we’ve met (and some adults too) is to have their picture taken and then get to see themselves on the digital camera – a big hit every time!
At the second school, Les needed to drop us off so she could continue on to Maputo for a meeting. We also did a testimony about Jesus’ love, handed out clothing, had snack and craft time and did some singing. We also trained the teacher on how to use the Lego kit and dropped off lots of school supplies. Mark was supposed to pick us up at 3pm, but got a little lost so didn’t arrive until about 4. During that time the teacher was a wonderful host, laying out a mat for us to sit on and having the kids dig up some ‘manioc’ (a root like a potato) for us to snack on. We tried to be gracious and eat the manioc, even though it wasn’t exactly to our tastes!
Wednesday August 19th - We stayed at Bethel to do some more projects including window installation in the library/classroom (Craig); finishing the orphan skirts (Laurie, with Mary Lou inserting elastic); laminating teaching materials and the alphabet cards (Kelli & Laurie). Aside from the productive days of work, a highlight has been seeing the whales breech just off of the shore on several occasions. It’s almost too amazing to believe that these sites are right in front of us!
Coming up – Thursday will be a final day of work at Bethel to finish our various projects. On Friday around noon we will be leaving for South Africa to stay at Mark’s parent’s house for a few nights by Kruger national park. On Saturday we plan to do a safari in the park to hopefully see the “big 5” animals before we leave Sunday and arrive home Monday. Once I am home I will add pictures and final stories so check back next week!!
Wednesday August 12th – finished the windows projects and did some sanding and painting of cabinets at Bethel. Also got the opportunity to spend time on the beach – well worth the long walk down the sand dunes to get to the beautiful ocean side! God’s amazing handiwork!
Thursday August 13th - Spent our first day in the community around Xai Xai. Half of the South African team (we are here with them for the first week) went to one school. Our team went with the other half of the SA team to another school. The school there was a simple plastered reed shack with a cement floor and 2 benches. Most kids sit on the floor, and there is very little for the teacher to work with as far as supplies and teaching materials. The students included several orphans. All of them are dirty and in tattered clothes, but the outward condition can’t contain their childlike enthusiasm! We delivered new clothes to the students and also spent a lot of time playing various games with them, and just generally giving them as much love as possible. We also delivered a set of educational Legos for use in the classroom. One of the SA teens trained the teacher on how to use the Lego set, while Laurie was able to use her language skills to translate into Portoguese.
Friday August 14th – Today we spent all day at a village quite a drive away from Bethel to begin building a new School/Church. Half of the team began the building project by putting up the frame of the school (which will be about the size of an average garage). The rest of the team kept the kids of the village busy with games, songs, balloons (a big hit) and playing ball. We spent almost 9 hours on site playing with the kids as the others were digging and drilling – I am not sure which group was more tired. The kids at this location were in even worse shape than the other village we visited. Many of them are orphans, or are being cared for by their older child sibling. It is amazing to watch how well the older kids care for the younger ones, keeping them close and often carrying the young ones by strapping them to their little backs. After such a long day the kids really were warming up to us – laughing and playing with us with such glee. I held one small boy who was just smiling and laughing for no apparent reason other than that he was enjoying the attention so much. While we were playing with the kids, a group of the mothers of the village were standing back observing our team at a distance. By the end of the day one of the mothers joined Laurie and I as we rested under a tree. We played with her baby and bonded over being moms – even though we didn’t speak each others’ language. It was a great moment as we interacted with her and the other mothers (who eventually joined us) and felt their acceptance.
Saturday August 15th – Day 2 at the same village site. Today we mostly focused on finishing the school/church building. This entailed affixing the tin roofing and putting in the reed bunches that are wired around the frame for walls. The finishing touch was putting a cross on top of the building along with another cross at the door made of reeds. We wanted to be sure to claim this building in the name of Jesus Christ! Although the church/school will be run by a local pastor and his family, the village is run by the witch doctor Fransisco. Fransisco is in favor of building the school as it will be good for his community (he was even working alongside us). He understands the gospel and knows of the path to salvation, although he continues to be a practicing witchdoctor, and even trains others in witchcraft. Please help us pray that Fransisco will make the choice to discontinue his ways and follow Jesus Christ so he can lead this community into the light, rather than the destructive paths of ancestor worship and witchcraft.
At the end of the day the pastor and the witchdoctor said words of thanks for our efforts in building the school. It was a dream come true for the village, and they called us “angels sent by God”. As I was leaving I was embraced by one of the elderly women of the village who enthusiastically thanked me and kissed me on the cheeks as I got tears in my eyes. It was a wonderful feeling as we left the village, seeing the new reed school/church with the cross lit by the setting sun, knowing we were giving the village new hope and a place to learn and grow in Jesus.
Sunday August 16th – today we spent the morning at a church service in Xai Xai. It was a wonderful service and a terrific message, translated from Portuguese into English so we could all understand. Church was followed by time at the beach, with lunch at a beachside restaurant owned by friends of the Harpers.
Monday August 17th – This morning the youth group from South Africa left, so it is now very quiet! Les was injured in a fall down the stairs in the middle of the night (please pray for her continued healing), so we decided to spend the day at Bethel rather than the planned school visits. We found plenty to do while we encourage Les to rest (not an easy task!). Laurie sewed skirts that we will give out to orphan girls. Mary Lou did a number of organizing tasks. We all worked on writing out alphabet practice sheets to use for the school children. Once letters were written out, Les and Laurie came up with sentences in Portuguese or Choengana (the language spoken by many rural villages) for each letter. After that I drew simple pictures to help the kids remember the sentence meaning. These cards will be laminated so kids can practice writing and learning letter sounds and words. After our day of work we had dinner with the Harpers and some other missionaries who are working in Xai Xai. Only Les and Mark would agree to host a party of 10 for dinner, after struggling to get the water pump to work (we were without water for most of the day), and having a fall down the steps as Les did (not to mention that they had just said good bye to 30+ teenage guests just that morning). They have endless energy and hospitality!
Tuesday August 18th – Today Laurie, Mary Lou and I along with Les and one of the Xia Xia school supervisors did some school visits in the community. The first school was in a fairly well-off community (compared to the other we’ve seen), with children that were obviously from families that could care for them pretty well. However, the community is still in deep need, and there were several orphans that we met there. We handed out clothes to the children, had snack time, and did a craft with foam crosses and glitter glue. We also gave a testimony to let the children know that we were there to share Jesus’ love for them. The children were very bright and fun to interact with. A favourite thing of all of the children we’ve met (and some adults too) is to have their picture taken and then get to see themselves on the digital camera – a big hit every time!
At the second school, Les needed to drop us off so she could continue on to Maputo for a meeting. We also did a testimony about Jesus’ love, handed out clothing, had snack and craft time and did some singing. We also trained the teacher on how to use the Lego kit and dropped off lots of school supplies. Mark was supposed to pick us up at 3pm, but got a little lost so didn’t arrive until about 4. During that time the teacher was a wonderful host, laying out a mat for us to sit on and having the kids dig up some ‘manioc’ (a root like a potato) for us to snack on. We tried to be gracious and eat the manioc, even though it wasn’t exactly to our tastes!
Wednesday August 19th - We stayed at Bethel to do some more projects including window installation in the library/classroom (Craig); finishing the orphan skirts (Laurie, with Mary Lou inserting elastic); laminating teaching materials and the alphabet cards (Kelli & Laurie). Aside from the productive days of work, a highlight has been seeing the whales breech just off of the shore on several occasions. It’s almost too amazing to believe that these sites are right in front of us!
Coming up – Thursday will be a final day of work at Bethel to finish our various projects. On Friday around noon we will be leaving for South Africa to stay at Mark’s parent’s house for a few nights by Kruger national park. On Saturday we plan to do a safari in the park to hopefully see the “big 5” animals before we leave Sunday and arrive home Monday. Once I am home I will add pictures and final stories so check back next week!!
Thank you for such a wonderful report. We continue to pray for your safety and health (Mary Lou, please get well soon from Malaria!). So nice to know you are all full of Holy Spirit, and bring so much joy and hope to local people, with your soundless language sometimes. May God continue to guide you and protect you.
ReplyDeleteJohn, Anita and kids from Iowa
Last night I watched an episode of "Touched by an Angel." And today I got to read your daily episodes, including the day your were said to be "angels sent by God." Great work and great reporting. We continue to lift you and and pray for your protection and for His work in your lives.
ReplyDeleteHerb