Hey Everyone,
How is everything going at home? I have been doing pritty well. I feel as if now I am settled, and I am really ministering to the people of Port Elizabeth. I have been involved with my ministries for at least two and a half full weeks and have had a great time. I just love it here. So here are my ministries and a little bit of the explination.
Algoa Frial Center– I go here two days a week for a few hours. Here is where all the extreme physically and mentally handycapped children in the Port Elizabeth area go. They have about 250 kids between the ages of 4 and 30… “even the 30-year-olds look and act like kids here,” live here. And somewhere between 150 and 200 have Cerebral Palsy, “I hope I spelled that right.” Many of them are orphaned becuase culturally it is a discrase to have handicapped children.
Sadly, there are so many kids and too few nurses that these kids don’t get too much individual attention, especially for physical theriepy, so they a lot of them have it so bad that they have started to curl up and because they don’t move their bones have fused together. One of the girls there has her legs all the way up by her head, and her arm goes over one of her legs, yet all of it as well is fused together. This place has a lot of hard things to see. I think I have cried being there two times in the short time I have been there, but there is so much room for love. To be able to go in and she these kids that they are valuable, and they are loved is one of the most precious things I have done here.
It is so much fun to go in there and love them by singing songs/ teaching songs to the few that can sing, tickle any and everyone that will giggle, hold the fused hands of Cerebral Palsy children, and just sit there and rub the legs of the ones who cannot move and mentally are not there. I love those kids to death, and they really are so precious, even in Jesus sight. What a blessing to show God’s love to those who need it the most.
Walmer Township Orphenage– Walmer is the name of one of the many townships here in Port Elizabeth. In this Township, there is an orphenage with about 15 kids between the ages of 3 and 15. I go here 4 times a week for about 4 hours to love on and play with the kids. Dorine, “the owner of the orphenage,” is so excited to have me. She told me that most of the time they have girls going in, and for the four boys there they never really get a father figure, so for the next few months, my main focus is on the boys, loving on them, as well as the other children, being that fathrer figure to them. I mostly just go and talk with Dorine for a few hours, do a few dishes, and hang out with the kids. It is very easy going, so there is a lot of room for intentional relationship building. The kids adore me, and I love them to death as well. I miss them so much… which I will explain later…
FireHouse– This is the Youth Group for LightHouse Family Church, the chuch our team is partnering with. Here I help out with the Youth Group, help with the Worship team, hang out with the youth on the weekends, get involved in their lives and I am actually starting FireHouse’s Drama team. I am so excited to do this. We are starting with LifeHouse’s “Everything,” Drama first… which should be good. I will give you all the tag to Youtube later when we do it. It is looking so amazing!
So back to why I miss the kids at the Walmer Township Orphenage. I actually have to ride the bus system to get there every day. But lately the taxi’s have been on strike and it has gotten pritty nasty. They have started to shoot people who pick up others from the township to go to work, “which no one can go to work because of the strike,” they have set a taxi on fire so it would blow up and the buses are afraid to drive anywhere because of all this. So, because of all this, even the buses are afraid to drive into the township, and it is probably not safe for our team to drive anywhere near there, so because of all this, I won’t be going into Walmer until this strike is over. Sadly, the newspaper and people are saying this strike will last the rest of this month, so I might just have to find something else to do untill then. Please pray that the Taxi’s will stop their strike soon, or that God would show me where else He would have me to go.
Also pray for the people who are being affected by the Strike. Many cannot get to work, and so they can’t get any money, so they stay home and drink. Kids can’t get to school as well… so the adult men that are on strike or can’t work are bored allong with the kids that cannot go to school. As I have seen in St. Francis Bay, this combonation is really bad for the kids because there are more chances of them getting raped. So pray for protection for them as well.
As the weeks go by, “which they are going by extreemly fast,” I start to grow more in love with my team, and God shows me more of how I can love Him. As the weeks go by, relationships start to grow, friendships start to increase, and I start to love the people of PE so much more. I know that I will be so brokenhearted when I have to leave. Even now, I hope to come back to PE one day, and possibly live here, I have loved it this much, yet I know that God has bigger plans for me, and will take me to many more different places in the future, yet I will never forget the people of PE, and how much I have learned here.
Oh, good news, for my total support, I only need $1,075! I am so excited, and I would love to get it all paid off by March, so now, if 11 people could please pledge to give me $100, then I will have ALL I need for the rest of the trip! I really need to get it all paid by May, so if God would allow you, please help me pay off the rest of this support! Thank you so much for your support at home, financially and prayerfully. I miss you all, and hope to hear from you guys now and then!
In Christ,
Andrew
PS To those who have started to send me letters, I have been getting them in and LOVE THEM!!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!
