Author:
Kristine Magbanua
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 23:15:16 05/08/04 Sat
Dear Friends and Family,
It's report back time again. I hope that you are all as excited as I am about what God has been doing here in KwaZulu Natal which, need I to remind you, means place of birth. This week has been a very productive one for all of us. It's been very good as well in regards to organization because the past week, for our Life Skills course sometimes we don't find out what's goin on for the first hour until that hour starts or what the radio topic is going to be. We sometimes end up teaching on topics like Communication and Leadership which very few of us know about, let alone have to teach it for an hour. But here I go...
Monday - we had our Life Skills course in the morning, the speaker also happened to be a prophet named Mark Visser and he prophesied over our team inidividually. I may not want to tell you what he prophesied over me :-P. In the afternoon I led the team on an open air to Unit one which is the acclaimed unit for violence and gangs and such. Arlen went to a meeting with Joe White and the other Life Skills coordinators in Pinetown so I led the team. We had a good tiem with mostly kids of about 50 altogether, so the evangelism was more hanging out with the kids, playing games and singing songs. In the end when we said good byes I had baout 10 or 15 mob me so that i could hardly move. They just craved so much attention and love they would fight each other to be the one standing next to you or to hold your hand. One thing that we got from the Lord for this place was to really just give them a sense of value in their lives because many do believe lies about themselves that they are justtrash and worth nothing (as testified by Megans team who work with street kids). I had to get Tevin and Ben to pry the kids off of me because our taxi was waiting and everyone was inside except me (I was talking to the owner of the store where we did our open air).
Tuesday after our course we went to a place near the town center and helped with a feeding program that feeds old people. it was awesome to see their faces light up because they were touched that, of all people, foreigners and white people had taken time out to visit them and to help to feed them. It's just a testimony to them that someone does care that they live and that they are valuable enough to be given time to.
Wednesday - In the afternoon again (our mornings are taken up by the course) we did evangelism and I got to catch up with Ncami and follow her up. She's having a hard time with someone slandering her name in the community. I told her about the two greatest commandments and she was shocked to find out that she has to love her enemies. In the end she made a choice to love that person and we prayed with her.
Thursday was the best day for me so far! In the evening we went to God's Golden Acre orphanage. The lady who runs it, Heather Reynolds, has been on the Oprah show. That night we did music and skits and dances with the kids, but all that they really wanted to do was to be around us and be hugged and cuddled, which we did. In the afternoon before that we were split up. I went with Anna, Kim, Brianna, Nathi (one of our local guys) and Ilana to paint the roof. Arlen, Ben and two other local guys with us from World changed chucked out rubble while the others on the team helped the kids with homework and stuff. It was just a relaly awesome time because when you think about it, Heather found some of these children as infants starving to death because their parents died of AIDS and many may have never heard the words "I love you" before. So the fact that we shared that with them was already a very big thing and I know that god's heart is going out to these children as well.
I want to spend the rest of my time just sharing to you about how our Life Skills course is going. I think the biggest thing for me is that by far I have seen so many changed lives. Now we have 150 people who are coming consistently to our course in Mpumalangga but around Durban, there are several other courses going on. Many of the people have come because all that they wanted were money and jobs. The skills that we are giving them, yes it will help them to get jobs and all (many of them want to start their own businesses) talking about Communication, Entrepreneurship, Business ethics, what have you. But it has been designed to help their mind set and worldview to change because it is so Christian based. we have had Healing of the Past, Relationships, Vision and Goalsetting, etc... People have come to these courses with hopelessness, no vision for the future and believing that they will never amount to anything. Now I hear them talkin and telling us that they now know that theymust live for something greater than just food and clothes, they know now that there is more to life than money and they have a better hope for the future. "I used to believe I was nothing, but now I know I'm made in the image of God." Was what one girl said. many of them have also made choices to forgive those who have hurt them and have chosen abstinence. Yesterday we broke up to interest groups, like what they want to do such as Beauty and Fashion, the medical field, politics, journalism etc... and for an hour each one of us will take a group and talk to the people about that subject. I got the Social Work group which was one of the biggest (10 people) and boy! I thought I knew about social work and all that i could say was, my mom was a social worker and almost nothing else. But I did help them in the sense that i got them thinking about the problems in their community and what can they do to help that NOW, and to educate themselves in those issues. The thing is many of themhave only graduated high school (these are 20 and 30 yr olds) and have no experience or no money to start anything. But by themselves they've realized that they can do something about it by getting together and seeing what they can do to serve the community to gain experience and by that, hopefully someone will have an interest to hire them. Two of the girls said that in the past they had been raped and from that, they want to help rape victims because it's just a thing that people shut up about.
Something God is reminding me of - I came here not for my own gain, but to serve Him and give Him glory. From that, I myself will grow in my relationship with Him, in character and in my relationship with others.
I'll end on that note. But before that HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, to all my lovely Aunties out there. I love you all and can't get to you now but I am thinking about you.
God bless you all!
In Christ,
Kristine
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
|
Feedback: 