The kids that God has allowed Susan to encounter have been so engaged in learning. Most have expressed a great appreciation for the information about how not to contract HIV/AIDS. The students were excited to receive their certificates for completing the program.
Susan sent pictures of one of the HIV/AIDS graveyards she visited. Her comment was that the epidemic has claimed so many lives she cannot count the vast number of sites similar to this one. What struck me about this photo was how many graves had fresh dirt on top of them.
The schools are so very different looking from the ones in our community. The staff doesn't have computers, some of the schools don't even have electricity or indoor plumbing. The chalkboards barely hold onto the walls, and yet the children feel blessed to be there. The children are grateful for their visit and treat the teaching team as if they are rock stars! Susan ask the children to sign her shirt so that she can keep a little part of them with her when she returns home.
Susan asked me to introduce the newest member of our "family." Her name is Nompuelelo Buthelezi means "successful."
Nompuelelo was born in 1991 and orphaned when her Mama died in 2000. She has a 14 yr old sister that is away at school. Nompuelelo lives with her Aunt, her mother's sister. Who does not have the means to care for her. She is wearing Susan's cross, it is hard to see, but when Susan gave it to her she said she fell into Susan's arms and cried .. she is precious! She was an orphan but no more she is Susan's daughter!
Just below is Nompuelelo's letter is a tear jerker... word for word - no changes (not even the spelling)
"I'm Nompumelelo Buthelezi and I'm not from a rich family. My Mother died on 2000 16 was Novemeber that time. My dream is to became a business woman I wanna work hard at school for my future. My family members are so hard for me to get a better education. Sometimes there are things that I don't get easier like some of school things. I accept what they give me at home because I know that they don't have enough money to give me everything that I need. But I use to keep all that behind my back all I'm doing is getting prepared for my dream. And I know that one day I will achieve my dreams. And God will lead me to my dreams only if I believe in Him. My sisiters Mother always say one day you will be a successful business woman only if you believe in your self. I always pray to God to be with me everyday and to be with me in eberystaple that I take. My family said to me I must stay away from bad friend's and that what on my mind every when I meet my friend. I am so lucky to have people who still teach me good thing's wile my mother has past away. I sometimes miss her and get angry. Sometimes I use to say God doesn't love me because He took my Mother away from me. But since you came to our school I learnt more and now I understand that God love me and I still have to hold on to my future and do my best to achieve my dreams. One day I will see my self on University of Durban. That when my future is going to light a big flash in my eyes and I will say well come to my future where they will be no tears, no fears, no worries but only blessings of bright an successful future for my self.
Please pray for me. One day I really wannar be a successful business woman. I really wannar be an enterpriniership one day. And by God's way I will.
Thank you all for coming to our school and teaching us with things that happens in our world. May God bless you all."
I pray that you will join me in thanking God for how He has knit these two together in love and that you will ask God to give Susan an even clearer vision as to what He is unfolding for her to do.
So you saw the fabu wedding cake a few days ago... well as promised, I present to you the fabu bride & groom... Mr. & Mrs. Terry Myers (aka Terry & Carrie!)
And here of course is one more look at those amazing cakes!
Words cannot adequately express the deep appreciation Susan feels for each and every person that supported this African adventure with God. The financial and prayer support which has enabled Susan to meet God in a totally new way.
Susan has been able to see God in the face of a man who finds his meals at the bottom of garbage cans. To see God in the arms of a woman in the last stages of AIDS that spends the moments she is able to be out of bed caring for six children. To see God hands of a couple caring for 700 orphans daily. To see God in the eyes of an orphan girl named Nampoomoolaylo. To see God give the gift of the Holy Spirit to many many people right in front of her eyes.
All of you who have supported her financially and in prayers have truly been used of God and it has been such a blessing! With deep sincerity .... thank you.
During class Susan felt prompted to talk with the kids about what they think their purpose in life might be in respect to the life choices they make, what dreams they think God has placed in their hearts. Some of their dreams included:
- Soccer player - Accountant - Celebrity - Social Worker - Business Woman - Police Officer - Miner - Doctor
In their conversation one young woman asked "How can I attain my dreams, if I have no one to support me?" Susan expressed how that touched her deep in her soul. That it led her to share how all things are possible through Christ and how everything in Heaven and on Earth is God's and He decides. Susan said to me that she felt as if God was softly nudging her heart about what she said. That since her encounter with this dear soul that she has wondered how will this young woman hold on to that dream if she is left with no hope... wonder what are the odds that she makes good choices and wonder... will she continue to believe that she has something to look forward to — like college.
Having the opportunity to attend college may allow this young woman to realize how valuable she is to her Creator.
I am amazed at how these children have such a lovely response to unlovely circumstances and praise God for it!
The teaching team includes Susan, Tshegofal-so, Jabu, Lebogang, and Zodwa. Each day they meet with the students to learn from them and to discuss how not to contract HIV/AIDS. The students were asked to write some of their questions, and here were just a few:
Q: Can you get AIDS if you drink after someone? Q. What peoples get HIV? Q. How can you see if you have HIV? Q. You said the condoms have holes in them, so if you have sex will you get pregnant or not? Q. I (heart) u! Will you be my friend? Q. In America how do you treat HIV? Q. Do you get HIV if you kiss a long time? Q. But once you are into this "thing" there is no way out - what must I do? When the class was finished Susan passed out stickers, the students were so thrilled to have the stickers and swarmed her for them! Susan remarked about how fortunate and blessed we are in the United States, that the conditions we live in are remarkably comfortable compared to the conditions these students encounter. It was a source of encouragement to her.
In our conversation I could hear the seeds of hope of what God might be planting in her for the future. She spoke of continuing to pray over an idea that she thinks may be from the God to help these children continue to college. More on that in our next post!
The air was filled with electric excitement -- all because of Jesus! Sunday Susan spent the day learning how to really praise Jesus - her new African friends taught her as they danced, swayed with raised hands, sang, confessed sin, and SHOUTED PRAISES to our Amazing King!
She was overwhelmed with the love and faith displayed by the people she encountered. People who trust God just to be able to continue to exist today. People who are so amazingly grateful for every single blessing they receive.
At the tent revival meeting she attended more than 40 people went forward to receive Jesus. At one of the church meetings a woman stepped to the microphone and bared her sin of drug use earlier that week and gave thanks for Jesus' forgiveness. The common occurrence at each of the three services she attended was that it was really about worshiping God, singing and praising - people from the crowd going to the microphone to share what God had taught them or how God had cared for them that week ... that the pastor's message was a very very brief one at the end of the service, not the central component of the service. It was a refreshing time of happy holy moments.
Hands down this is the most unique wedding I have ever been to! It was truly a creative celebration in Christ. Carrie & Terry were united as one in Christ next to a small waterfall. Among children running, wiggling and jumping - snow cones, pizza and a ginormous hostess wedding cake. The carnival atmosphere made me smile! Although I am minus pictures of the bride & groom in this entry. I plan to upload them as soon as I receive them!
My friend Sarah sent this to me last night ... I hope it encourages you as it has encouraged me!
"God uses crises in our lives to fulfill his purpose, if we only step outside ourselves to see it. Think about all of the "stumbling blocks" in our lives that are actually God's way of opening our eyes to his ever-redeeming love.
Several months ago, my teenage daughter came to me with the news most parents fear hearing "I'm pregnant". I always imagined how I would feel if I heard those words, but no amount of preconceived notions prepared me for reality. First I stood in disbelief.... then anger.... and then I was heartsick. The only words I was able to utter were "just leave me alone for a minute".
Before I became a Christ follower, I would have responded much differently, however my own sinfulness still made me think "what will people think of me as a parent?" Those few precious moments after the news, I got out my bible and sat quietly in reflection and prayer. I asked God to help me respond the way he wanted instead of the way I wanted. What came to me in those moments surprised me quite a bit. I was shown how, over the years, my own judgment on the parents of teenage moms was not very Christ-like. Or, that instead of looking on every pregnancy, and every infant... no matter what circumstances they were born under, was a gift from God. EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE! What was shown to me in those minutes after the news was that I was raised by my grandmother, because my mom was also a pregnant teen, and how alone my mom must have felt.As a walk along side my daughter, instead of feeling embarrassment... Jesus is walking along side us cradling my daughter in his arms. When we get "not so nice" stares from other people... I remember that it is not the opinion of others that makes us worthwhile, but the strength that Christgives us through trials and life's circumstances, if we only turn to Him for guidance.
I thank God for being there for me after I heard the news of my daughters pregnancy. I know that He is with us no matter what mistakes we make in our lives, and no one is outside the realm of forgiveness. I ask and pray that we can all look on our brothers and sisters as made in God's image, and that any birth as a celebration.. no matter what the circumstances!!!!!!! We are anxiously awaiting the birth of our grandchild, as a creation of Christ and ask for your prayers that my daughter gets through her pregnancywith little stress and forever gratefulness!!!!!"
Sarah, you and your family are in my prayers, and each time you come to my mind I thank God for you!
I was going to explain how our Father keeps giving me opportunities to give things over to Him. How He also allows me to witness friends in the same place, facing opportunities to surrender to Him. But everything I could think of to say has already been said by Paul and Keb Mo...
"I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!" Romans 7:24,25 - 8:17
So I suppose all there is left to do is give it up ... give it over ... What do you think?
Small team, but mighty in the Lord! Meet the three saints that are going off to experience God in South Africa in just two weeks.
Glynn Smith, mission trip leader and SAMission Board Member, bringing AIDS education to Africa. Glynn is coordinating all aspects of this tactical effort to teach twelve schools again this year.
Mark Carey, long time friend and bible study partner for about eight or ten years of Glenn's. Mark lives in Long Beach California with wife Kathy. They have three children all married and there are at least a handful of grandchildren.
Susan O’Hara who Glenn met indirectly through attending the same International AIDS seminar at Saddleback church two years ago. Susan wanted to go with us last year but was not able to because of family circumstances.
The Good news . . . . . Initially a little disappointing that they only have a three-person team going from the USA this year, especially after the ten-adult and eight-teenager team from last year. Anyway they just accepted that this is God’s plan for this year and started to plan accordingly. The good news is that they are still going to teach twelve schools again this year even with our reduced contingent from America. This means that our local partners are starting to take this program over and make it their own. This is what needs to happen: Support this trip . . . . With two and a half weeks left before we leave we are still a little short of their trip support goal. If you are able or feel led to support this trip, your contribution would be most helpful. God has never left us short and we know that whatever he provides will be sufficient. Support an Orphan . . . . If you are not already sponsoring a child, we have two hundred children from Richards Bay on the sponsorship list with Horizon International. There are probably about a hundred and fifty of those kids that still need sponsors for $35 per month. Be a Monthly donor . . . . Because of a handful of donors making monthly pledges to SAM we are now able to start helping some of our partners in Richards Bay. Some like Kenny just unselfishly working for the Lord and trusting that he will provide. Then there is Clement and Thuli that have taken on the responsibility of caring for all those kids in need.
so that she can keep a little part of them with her when she returns home.
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