Hey Everybody!!!
I have been missing you all so much. I am so excited to tell you the news of what has been going on. I will try to fill you in from when I last posted about week 1 here in Jeffreys Bay.
Week 2 here in Jefferys Bay
So to begin… we had to go to a camp called the Bush. I had fun… but as I have explained to most people…. it was hard on me because I was not able to really feel settled there. I wasn’t able to really rest. I was just moving to another place becasue we couldn’t actually stay at UCSA becasue of a camp that they had going on. Then later on in the weekend, some of us found out that UCSA was yet again kicking us out of our home again the next weekend for another camp… and we would have to move somewhere else for the weekend. At that point, I started to feel so angry and frustrated with the conditions of us staying at UCSA. I was so frustrated I went to bed at 7:00PM and just laid there in my bed asking God why and telling Him how my trust had been shattered. Then He told me lying there that though I didn’t know what was going on, I just needed to trust in Him that He knew what He was doing.
We were able to move back on Sunday and on Monday we found out our Ministries. I will explain my ministry later. On Tuesday AIM took some of us, including me, aside and told us that we were chosen to be leaders for the camp the next weeked. On one side, I was so excited to be a leader of a group… but on the other side…. I was scared because I had never been a leader before. What would these kids be like? Could they even speak English? There was no time to really think about the whole thing because Wednesday night we started our training for the camp. Every day we would have training, worship and prayer. At that point, me and my team-mates who were leaders were under UCSA, not AIM. So we were on that schedual the rest of the week.
Friday finally came, and the kids started coming into the camp. That evenig, I was assigned 8 guys, Brandon, Phumlani, Simon, Nico, Stephan, Jp, Johan and Luleko. Another thing happened that evening, I started to get very sick. My throat ached, my cold was pritty bad, and my lungs started to have trouble breathing. Every Morning and night I would come to our new home, for a week with MXP, taking three showers every day to cough up the flem in my lungs. I was so week, but I prayed every day, and my brothers prayed for me that tis week in particular would be more of Christ, and less of me at the camp, and that He would give me spiritual caffine to stay well while I was working with the kids. God was so faithful to answer my prayers. I would get up, work with the kids from 7:30AM-11PM and when I would get home I would crash with my sickness and tiredness… I just new that God had been giving me strength while I was there. On Sunday, I was told by three of the our Leaders that I needed to go and sleep. So after lunch on Monday, I went to the MXP house and slept for 4 hours to get rested.
In the mean-time of my sickness, God was working with me and my students in amazing ways. We were growing closer and closer as the days went on. We were diging into our spiritual lives and starting to really see what it means to be a Christian and follow Christ. By Monday, I started to wish that I could have had more time to spend with my guys, and get to know them better, but knowing that the next day they would be gone. We opened up so much with each other. If you all could pray for each of them as they are back in school, that God would keep them strong in Christ there, and help them to really live for Him.
Week 3 in Jeffreys Bay
The begining part of the week I was helping out with the camp, and on Wednesday I had my first day off since September 6th!!! It was so wonderful and nice to relax. I slept ALL DAY LONG. On Thursday, I was finally able to see and start a little of my ministry in St. Francis Bay.
My ministry in St. Francis- Monday-Thursday, I work at an after school program playig with kids and investing into their lives. Fridays are spent doing house visits around the community praying for parents and visiting them in their homes. Most of the kids I work with go home to Abusive homes where the parents probably drink, do drugs and abuse their kids physically and emotionally. Often times, the parents might be at work, so the kids come home to an empty home. A lot of these kids have probably been molested once before if not multiple times. Our job is to be a “parent” to them, loving them and caring for them… being probably the only one that ever gives them love at all in their life. One of the kids I have grown fond if is Sevano… a little boy who is probably 6 years old. He is my little “buddy” who comes and gives me hugs and has me hold him every time I see him. Please start to pray for Him. I truly love him with all my heart.
We were not actually able to start our ministry this week because of it being a national holiday here in South Africa. Monday will actualy be our first day of real ministry. I work with Alyssa, Leah, and Faith. Our leaders are Chris and Christina. On Thursday, we looked around the place we will be working at. We also did house visits bringing Darche’s, “little Oranges,” around the community praying for people and letting them know that we would be there in Friday to do ministry. One place we stoped at, a woman named Ellen, was sitting outside in the dumps. We started to talk to here and ask her what was wrong and how we could pray for her. After a while, she opened up telling us that She had problems with Smoking and Drinking, and every time she tried to quit the devil would tempt her back to doing all those things. Along with smoking and drinking, she was distraught becasue she had Skin Cancer and didn’t feel like she could go to God about it all. We talked with her for 10 minutes telling her about the passege in James 4:7-8 where it says, “Submit yoursleves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Then we went into her house and prayed for her for 5 minutes asking God to give her strength and to heal her. Afterwords, her skin looked like it was starting to clear, her face started to shine with happiness and she felt more at peace. We left and told her we would come and visit again to pray for her. Please continue to pray with us that God will give her Self-Controle and that she will resist the Devil, and that Christ will continue to heal her.
Monday will be our first day of ministry. Pray that God will give us strength this week.
Account wise, I would like to ask you to pray that God will continue supply what I need. I know God could so easily supply all I need by December. I am about $900 short by December. Even if God could provide all I needed by November, I would rejoice.
This next week I will be doing ministry at St. Francis and the week after, I will be doing a program called Beat The Drum… which is an Aids Awarness program… at a place a Somerset. Pray that God will start to prepare us and everyone else working. And that He will also prepare the hearts that will hear the message.
I Hope I havn’t bored you all with this huge update, so I will be short now… But I want to thank you for praying for me and being there for me. I love you all!!!! Keep me and my team-mates in your prayers!!!
Love,
Andrew
