Clare

I just stayed in a rural village called Clare for the last week and a half. I stayed with a woman named Minah and her husband and her two children Philile (18) and Siyabonga (8). I absolutely fell in love with these two girls. Philile spoke very good English and we spent a lot of time talking about her life and boys and faith.. it was incredible. She's absolutely beautiful inside and out and I just so wish for her to rise up out of the typical future for a young rural South African woman. She has a boyfriend in University who comes to visit once or twice a year ... this already raises huge flags. South African men are not the most faithul and trustworthy in relationships. Siyabonga on the other hand couldn't speak any English or even any Siswati, so we used a lot of hand gestures and pointing. She would try to talk to me in Tsonga anyway and would try to talk very slow for me to understand, but jibberish is jibberish no matter how slow it is. But we really connected. We slept together, her usually ON me. And she always woke very early to be in school by 7. I would wake up also and help her get ready: clasp her shoes, fold her collar, comb her hair... it was one of my favourite times of the day.

I stayed in Clare to really push forward with a feeding program we're starting up in the area, including 13 villages and 700 kids. As exciting as it is that these 700 kids will soon be receiving a meal a day, it is definitely frustrating work. I wanted to cry multiple times a day trying to get the details organized. There are a lot of challenges that come with South Africa: expectations, power hunger, lack of initiative, church politics (I guess this is everywhere) ... but when all these things arise when working together to care for the orphans in these communities, the frustration becomes large scale.

"And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday"
Isaiah 58:10

True fasting.

The Sky is Falling

I have a new roommate. His name is Sebastian. I’m so excited! He’s tall, dark, and handsome and we had a real connection when we first met….

Okay Sebastian is a lizard. And he lives in my room. How did he get there, you ask? He fell from the sky. Seriously. Well he fell from the roof. He has been living in my roof (him and his family, I’m sure) for a long time and usually goes to work around 5 am. It always sounds like he’s drilling through the roof, looking for gold or oil or something. Maybe he’s digging to China. I always awake, convinced he found China. But he never does, until the other morning. I heard him doing his usual digging and then he just fell out of the roof, scurried around a bit and then made himself a home in my armchair. There he stays, very well. I mean, it’s not uncommon for men in Africa to leave home to find work. We’ve worked out a deal, though. He can have free room and board if he eats all the mosquitoes and spiders. So far so good. I wonder when his family will come to join him.







Where's Sebastian? We often play this game. He's usually creeping on me from some part of the chair.

Can you spot him?

I'm too excited to sleep

I sit here after two incredible days feeling far too excited to sleep. I spent two days in Bushbuckridge (the area I'm mostly working in) with George, Levy, Vivienne, and Simon. We spent significant time in each area dreaming, praying, planning, walking, and talking.

I can see it. I can look at Cork and see the fields of maize that will feed all the kids. I can see that place healed of old wounds and divisions and finally coming together. I can see the trust regained. I can look at Clare and see the church feeding Lorraine, Clerence and Remember out of its doors, Gogo's working the garden and volunteers looking them in the eye and telling them they matter. I can see it. Seriously, I look over the land, I look at the church and I see it.

I can see Ellery smile again.

This month is what we call RED MONTH. We're pushing hard. We should be bleeding by the end.

I feel very encouraged by the people we have on the ground. Mina is a beautiful woman who deeply cares for her community. She will tear up just talking about it. Her heart goes out to a family: Lorraine, Clerence, and Remember. They are living all alone. Lorraine is the oldest. She's 14. She ensures this family is visited twice a day.

What I've really been feeling lately is that I want to live a life of sacrifice. My mother originally taught me what it means to sacrifice. Through her actions when I was just a babe she taught me that sacrifice is the noblest and most powerful act of love. In this season of my life, this looks like fighting for the millions of young kids (like Victoria and Elizabeth) that have NO parents NO food NO hope and who (like Victoria and Elizabeth) deserve much more. I want to make sure 12 year old girls don't have to sell their bodies to get something to eat. I want to make sure kids have the opportunity to go to school and learn. I want to make sure a family headed by an 11 year old child doesn't feel alone after their parents die. I want to make sure people like Gloria know that their kids will be taken care of when they die. I want to make sure girls like Ellery smile.