Hello everyone!!
First of all, I'm really sorry for the lack of updates! Life out here has taken over and got pretty crazy, and have hardly had 5 minutes to sit down and blog. Found it difficult to bring myself to write on here because I know theres no way I could describe to you the incredible things the Lord is doing out here.
The past month has been really busy, it's been filled with so many different things! Will try and cover as much as i can now!
It's not the Church that has a mission, but the God of mission that has a Church.
So, at the beggining of March we went to Durban for a three day mission conference, this was held in a beautiful modern church over looking the sea. I really enjoyed the conference, it was extremely intresting to see how mission works all across South Africa and gave such a sense of hope of whats actually being done out here, and all the different communities that need so much help. There was also really great worship during the conference, led by Andy and Jenny Flanagan who performed a concert during one of the evenings. While we were there, Nicola and I stayed with a lovely host family, they were very welcoming. We both really loved staying with them, relaxing by the pool ,and getting to know them, even to watch the BBC England news, drink a cup of tea, eat yummy home made western food and have an actual shower was SO great! - we didn't want to go back to the township at the end of the week!
We've moved house! - Nic and I are no longer living with Dudu, we've moved to another area of the township and are living with the rest of the girls on the team and our boss, Londy. Our new house is great, three rooms and has an actual roof rather than scraps of tinned metal above us, so when it rains in the night it doesn't sound as loud! We also have a tap and a working bath/basin thing and a half working oven. Although it can get very crowded in our little house, it's really good fun living with the rest of the girls! Oh we also have a new adition to the house hold - a 6 week old puppy Londy rescued! Us girls have taken the role to looking after her and nursing her back to health.
We've been introduced to our exciting new project. We went to visit a preschool in the township, called Grace Chapel Educare Centre which is our first big project. The preschool looks after 180 children aged 1-6, and these children are taught by only 5 teachers. The building is small and dark, the walls are bare, cracked and concreted, and the children's school bags and jumpers lie on the hard floor of the corridor. When we visited, it was lunch time at the school and all these young children were sitting eating lunch on the dirty dusty corridor floor. The state of the school really effected us, and we are so excited to work there and help them! Our main task is to fill in the walls, so they are crackless, paint the corridor and make it nice and bright (we've decided to cover it in large, colourful murals of animals, safari scence and a big large tree that will be made from the children's handprints). The toilets are in extremely bad condition, they will hopefuly be transformed into a little underwater scence, with crabs, brightly coloured fish and other sea creatures.
We are going to try and put hooks along the wall of the corridor so the children can hang their bags and jumpers, giving the corridor more a lot more space. This is all so exciting, but it will also cost money. Although Ethembeni can provide some money, they won't be able to cover the cost, so if you feel like you could help us to help these children and change the preschool please donate as little, or as much as you feel you want to! The link for our page is http://www.justgiving.com/transformsouthafrica every penny will go such a long way here!
We've had a busy week, with lots of plannng to do for various events that we are holding - english lessons, holiday clubs, stories of hope and encouragement, organising an exercise regime for members of staff, planning the pre-school and on top of that fitting in time to chill as a team and sleep!
I'll try and keep you all more updated for the next few months. Happy Easter, missing everyone!
Lots of love xxxxxxxxxx
