THE CHALLENGES

I am now coming up on my half way mark of being here in South Africa. I have gotten into the groove here. It took quite a while to really build relationships with the kids here, but now I feel that they know me and are comfortable with me. Their are so fun and so special and grow on me more every week.

On the other hand, it has been so challenging here as well. Most of the challenge comes to my patience and my pride. First, many of the things that they really need done here are not what I am good at, not glamourous, and quite hard. They are not what I came to do (I do get to do things that I like as well and that I came to do), nor even want to do. I come from a city where you do what you are very good at and nothing else. But God's ways are different. He calls us to serve Him and others in our weakness. He says he is our strength in our weakness. I have had to give over a lot of expectations to Him and find joy in the simplicity of serving a great God, no matter what I do. Last week I was really ready to call it quits and really had to pray hard, but this week, God did an amazing work in me and has provided a lot of little things to help me. Wow, I am very much learning what it means to serve the Lord in weakness and let Him shine His strength on me.

One thing that I do, that I am not particularly good at nor like, is run the Homework Club. It is basically teaching a class of 2nd to 3rd graders for a couple of hours in the afternoons. I am not a good teacher and have had to learn so much about disciplining kids and teaching that age. I have had to depend on God EVERY MOMENT!

THANDI AND ANELE

Let me introduce you to Thandi, as well as our little baby, Anele. Thandi is in sixth grade. She is very sensitive and often times feels on the outskirts of the friendship circles amongst the kids here. She is quite insecure about herself, but is a very special girl. I do a lot of reading with her and we have her over to our house often. She really needs to know how much Jesus loves her and how special she is.
Anele is a little one year old girl who is the cutest baby EVER! All the kids take turns caring for her, baby sitting her, and getting her to different places around the orphanage. It is great especially to see the little 7 year old boys taking care of her too. Some of the most naughty little boys turn into these responsible little care-givers!

I just wanted to share a few moments with you.

Only in Africa can you wake up to a giraffe in the back field of your house. That was so amazing! This was the view on an early Saturday morning as the giraffe came right up to our fence. I continue to blown away by the artistry of God in His skies. Every sunrise and sunset is brilliant and the stars here are so brilliant as well, I cannot begin to describe them. It is so calming after a long day to gaze out on the sunset and remember what is important, that God is in control of it all.

During the last few weeks the kids had off of school so we did some different games with them, including relay races involving eggs and grabbing apples out of water with their mouth. James was the most intense and passionate apple relay racer I have ever seen in my life.

These are some of the older boys. Sandile, Jay Jay, Ndumiso, Stambiso, and James. They are all so much fun to spend time with.

All the girl volunteers and staff were challenged to play a soccer game with another organization. None of us really have played soccer at all and so we were extremely nervious. All the boys were making jokes of how bad we would do. The morning of the game we all drove to the field with butterflies in our stomachs. All of Lily of the Valley would be watching! All the kids and other staff would come and root us on and we were so scared we would completely make fools of ourselves. But we did suprisingly well and even some of the boys gave us a "good job" smile. We won and became the Lily heroins. And I (even I!) scored our only goal!! Here I am with one of the German volunteers who also played well. And below you can see our whole team!

Weekends are great fun and usually involve spending time having fun with kids. The kids LOVE to come over to our house and bake cakes and sweets, watch movies, and listen to music. I have never made so many cakes in my life! Here they are watching a movie in our living room, packed in.




Today we said goodbye to one of our volunteers, Yohan, the Korean. Next week we say goodbye to another and so there will only be 2 others doing so much. Our workload is very high and so it will be a time of dependance on God for strength. One of the most challenging things here is the disorganization and randomness of the demands here. It is so different than in the States. But I know that Jesus wants me here and it is an opportunity to depend on His strength each day.