Last day of ministry in Mthatha!

Hi everyone :) this is another extract from a letter to my prayer partners describing what I've been up to lately here in Mthatha. I have also included a bit about what I will be doing over the next few days!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers. I have been so blessed to have you backing me through this trip.

I typed up this email before arriving at the village this morning, but could not send it due to connection issues.

"We are on the way to our last day of ministry at the moment. It's so sad that the week is already so close to being over. We have had such a great time with the people from Viedgiesville and Qweqwe so far! Friendships have been developed and strengthened and lives have been changed on our team as well.

Today my prayer is that we would be able to change lives forever through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I'm praying that the teenage girls especially would experience Gods love tangibly and hear his voice. When we leave they will not be alone, and I pray that they will really feel God with them and his love for them throughout the rest of their lives.

Please pray that as we pray blessing over the kids and teenagers and adults, that they would really sense the Spirit coming on them and filling them." It was so sad to leave the kids today! But I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to minister to them and get to know them. I know that I will see some of them again in the future when I come back to Mthatha.

This afternoon we've been doing water distribution ministry again. It was awesome to see some of the same girls as yesterday who I met and made friends with. My Xhosa has improved so much since last year and I want to make a concerted effort to improve my vocal before the next time I come.

The other teams left early this afternoon, and it us quite wonderful to have more space here at the base. This evening we will be looking after PJ and Nathan, the kids of the missionaries at Sondela, so that they can go on a date with Ant and Sue. Tomorrow we are going to Hole in the Wall for a debrief and relaxing day. Please pray for us as we travel, as the roads have been very bad in previous years that we have gone.

We leave late morning on Sunday to drive to PE and then back to Cape Town at 5am on Monday (Janine's birthday). Please pray for safe travels and good unity for the team as we squash so close in the car.

Thank you for praying!

First two ministry days in Mthatha

At the moment I'm in Mthatha, a rural area in South Africa, the traditional homeland of the Xhosa people. I'm here with my church on a missions trip, doing some community development, running a holiday club for kids and a discipleship program for youth. The rest of this post is an extract from my prayer request to my prayer partners. Feel free to read it and pray if God leads you to.

Our ministry times have been going quite well, without too many issues. Yesterday it took a while go gather some of the kids from the community, because word hadn't spread that we were coming. We took the time to walk around the village, praying and greeting the people as we went. Within about an hour we had a whole group of kids and were able to play games, do sport, sing songs, chat and run our holiday club program of worship, Bible story, memory verse and craft activity.

After the memory verse, I went out with the teenage girls and some of the leaders to chat. We did an icebreaker to get to know each other and explained why we were there and what we wanted to do. I gave them paper, and we asked them to write down questions that they wanted us to answer during the course of the week. Some of the questions broke my heart, like "what do I do when I'm in deep trouble?" and "what should I do if I have HIV?".

Today Emily spoke about healthy eating and how to look after your body well and focused on what to do if you have HIV. There is a shortage of Antiretrivirals in the area, and since the government officials take preference, the poorer clinics never receive any antiret supplies. There is no way for people here who have HIV to prevent it's development into AIDS and thus it is still a death sentence. The most heartbreaking question we got today, aside from "how do I help my friend with HIV?" and "is it ok for me to have sex with my boyfriend on a Sunday?", was "what can I do if my parents are forcing me to have sex for money?" I nearly cried when I read it! We cannot change the culture here in one week. We can't change the parents minds, the boys actions or the government presence. Trying to tell these girls that they have worth and purpose and are created in God's image and are loved by him just doesn't seem enough.

Please pray for incredible wisdom for us all. The teenage boys are also having a ministry time now during the kids program, and they asked questions about evolution and creation, because the school syllabus teachers such contradictions from the Bible.

The weather is also another concern. It has been VERY cold and the rain today prevented us from being able to do practical work this afternoon. Part of this time was going to be for water distribution, like we did yesterday, but obviously people didn't need water from us because of the rain. It's such a blessing to the nearby village that it's raining, as their water is off for the whole village. So I don't know if we should be praying for the rain to stop or not ;) Just pray that we will be able to be productive and find things to do to bless the missionaries here when we are not able to do the work that we had planned.

On a more personal note, I'm very grateful to have been able to wash my hair in warm water today as I havent been able to since Friday. I'm feeling very clean and happy! Praise God for another good nights sleep, and earplugs that enabled me to sleep through when some girls from the other team got up at 4:30am to shower! I've been able to rest get some much needed rest and personal space this afternoon and I'm feeling good. Please continue to pray for good sleep and good health :)