Ja Bulani America!

Sorry for the delay in posting, the week has flown by! Last week we went to the Capricorn township every morning for Holiday Club, which is the sameas Vacation Bible School. Our part was to support the Life Skill Educators, who are alwaysworking with these kids. It was a blessing to have such little responsibility (we only did oneskit and helped brainstorm a few games) because it freed us up to really build relationshipswith the children. Capricorn township looks like many other townships here-there are shacks approximately half thesize of a shed at home, stacked next to each other in what looks more like chaos than order.The families don't have much, and drugs and alcohol are incredibly prevalent, but the childrenare excited to come to Living Hope every day to learn more about the Bible, and most were open in sharing about their homelife and family ties to hardships like disease and addiction.After playing with kids all morning, we'd have a short lunch break and then head back to thecontainers at Capricorn for Kid's Club. (Sidenote: we actually meet in shipping containers, so the rooms are narrow and long, and the main room is a concrete slab surrounded by containerswith a roof built over it. It took us a few days to stop giggling at the thought of sendingkids into a container for their crafts :D)

I got close to an 8 year old named Faith. She's been in a wheel chair her whole life, all we knowis she was "born like that." I have no idea what disease or muscular problems she has, but Faithis incredibly strong. I was able to take her out of her wheel chair one day so she could "dance"around the room on my hip. But on the second day, I heard she was strong enough to stand, so Ihelped her walk and jump and dance like the other kids. It was such a blessing to be with her, to seethe fear she had that she wouldn't be strong enough, that she wouldn't be able to jump every time I encouraged her to. But she trusted that I wouldn't let her fall. It gave me a vivid picture of how life shouldbe with God. Sometimes we need him to pick us up and carry us when we're not able, and sometimes weneed to have faith that He knows what we're capable of. Even though we can't walk on our own strength,God will give us all we need to accomplish his will.

Kid's Club is just for the older kids (over 12) and we played a game with them each day, thenapplied it to the Christian walk-- like obstacles in our lives, the need for community,how different problems affect our relationship with others, etc. Between the 9 leaders here andthe 13 of us, we could meet one-on-one with the same child every week. This week, the kids go back toschool, so more ages were allowed at the afternoon club, and it was less structured. Club always startswith singing "make a circle" ("mahk ah crun" is what it sounds like in Afrikaans) so we can do fun worshipsongs. Our favorite is "Ja Bulani, Africa" Which means "Sing for joy, Africa"--the team ends up humming itall day every day, so it's great that we finally know all the words =)

This past weekend, we planned on going to Robben Island, but the water was too high and the boat trip got cancelled. Instead, we hung around the water front and got to visit Hoak Bay to see the seals (yay!), grabbedsome dinner, and drove up to Chapman's Peak and ate as we looked out over Capetown. Sunday we had a barbeque (braae, as they say here) and invited people we met from Y-WAM as well as all the LifeSkill Educators we work with. It was amazing to have two large groups of people over--Y-Wam we'd met once at church,and the LSE's we'd known about a week--and to know so little about each other, but to be so open and comfortableto talk. We had a surprise guest, Lucas, who the team met when hiking Table Mountain last week. He's not a Christian,and recently graduated from college, so he's in South Africa trying to figure out "what life is about." Steve got to sit down and share the gospel with him, so keep Lucas in your prayers!!

For the next 2 weeks, we're spending mornings fixing up an old campus to become a place for volunteer teams tostay as well as a space for the community to use to learn skills like starting businesses, culinary skills,sewing, and so forth, so they can be empowered and play a key role in changing townships for the better. This is so exciting because these skills will allow people to finally escape the cycle of poverty and find a purpose for their lives...and hear aboutJesus! Completely Free!!

Keep our team in your prayers. Pray for patience as we do menial tasks such as clean out gutters and mow lawns. These things seemtrivial but are necessary to provide the community these awesome services they need. Pray for the kids from Capricorn. Pray thattheir hearts will be open to us, but more importantly open to the love of Jesus. Pray that we will not grow weary, but continuouslygive God our all throughout our long, trying days. Pray that we will see God in new ways and have FUN!

Much LOVEKJ and crew