Capricorn Parties

Today we helped host the last 2 of the 12 Living Hope Christmas Parties and without the Extreme Response team! Capricorn and Overcome Heights are the 2 communities in which we have the most Support Group Clients serving over 600 people.  The two parties were almost identical: the 100’s of guests gathered in the Living Hope Capricorn facility (4 containers with a roof cover) with some Christmas music on someone’s boombox, every group prepared some Christmas Carols and music to perform to everyone else and then everyone shared a basic meal together. It was truly a fun day! This past week has been an incredible experience - each party has been amazing and unique. Hosting these Christmas parties has been such a great opportunity for Tim and I to get to meet all the clients, patients and children that Living Hope serves. It actually is humbling to realize how many people are served through Living Hope’s different projects. Had we not helped with hosting the parties, we probably would never have gotten to meet all the staff and clients that we did over this past week!

Another good friend leaves

Praying for Al and Michelle

Today we said good-bye to a great man of God who has been serving at Living Hope continuously for the past year and a half, and then some before that, both individually and on visiting church teams. Al has played a huge role in Life Skills Education, particularly in Red Hill. I had the privilege watch him in action when a team from his home church was here last month to do outreach there. He has a quiet strength about him, and when he is in his element, whether teaching God’s word at kids club or leading by example to the Living Hope staff he works alongside, he leaves an impression. I’m encouraged to be a better person when I’m around him, and I know he has had the same effect on others. Al, we’ll miss you. You’ve faithfully served with your whole heart here, and we wish you the best in what God has next for you!

A quiet Christmas Party

The Health Care Centre Christmas Party was relatively uneventful. The Health Care Centre is a 22 bed In-patient Unit for extremely ill individuals. The Heath Care Centre started as an AIDS Hospice, but over the years the patients started getting healthy from the personal touch, good nutrition and controlled medication intake and more patients were leaving healthy than were passing away. Hence why the name has changed from Hospice to Health Care Centre. However, this morning the patients were all a bit under the weather and bed-ridden. The ER team came in to sing them some Christmas Carols, served them some finger-foods and visited and prayed with some of the patients that were more upto it. Thanks so much ER for all you did for all of our different Christmas Parties this past week!

Ocean View Kids

I will forever remember today’s Christmas Party with the children and teens in Ocean View – one of our communities. The ER team helped with a beautiful Christmas story, facepainting and games. But the best part by far was that the Ocean View team used their budget to hire some bouncy bounces and a water slip-and-slide! The 150 kids had a ball – the majority of them did not have bathing suits and would either go in their undies or turn their clothes into makeshift swimsuits! You know, I just always associated slip-and-slides with tons of dishwashing liquid bubbles to make the ride so much more slippery.  Well I learned today that that was a privilege of my white-suburban upbringing in South Africa that I completely took for granted. I didn’t realize that it was not norm until we heard the shrieks of excitement as the kids were slipping down covered in bubbles from head-to-toe and until we heard the adults saying they’ve never seen this before! One even said: “Jinne my bru – you could wash a thousand dishes with all these bubbles!” LOL! Well I hope we didn’t come across as wasteful, but the kids had an absolute blast!

One of the most moving bits about today was when one of the Life Skills Educators called a young teen girl to the front and asked everyone (the team, the children and the other teens) to pray and give her a moment of silence. A couple days prior this young girl (that could not be any older than 14 or 15) lost her prematurely born 5-day old baby. It was amazing to see everyone coming around her and supporting her in her mourning. But then the challenging part came again in seeing this same girl playing with the other kids. She is just a baby herself and was having fun like one of the children. I could not imagine this your girl being a mommy herself. But this is the reality in Ocean View for so many young girls – this community has an extremely high teen pregnancy rate. Seeing this young girl just broke my heart to pray for the girls in this a broken community. 

Masi Christmas Parties

Today was a full-day for us of Christmas parties in Masiphumelele - the township we serve across the road. The first of the 3 parties hosted today was for the littlest of Living Hope’s clients – the Pre-schoolers! There were probably over 150 little ones crammed into the small Masi Baptist church hall. They sang Xhosa songs, they shook their little bodies and danced the cutest little dances – but then the most incredible thing happened: all of them sat quietly and listened intently to the Christmas Story! I could not believe how well behaved they were. It is such a testimony to our Life Skills Educators and how they have played such an influential part in these little ones lives! After the story, they all received some party packs, a sandwich and an ice cream cone! It truly was Christmas!!

The second of the three parties was for the children and teens that attend our Children and Teens Clubs. You could not imagine how many children were there – we prepared for about 200 kids, but there was easily close to 300. No idea how God stretched the supplies, but he has a tendency of doing that! The ER team leader tells of how God stretched their rice in Quito Ecuador to feed a 1000 people – so when we started getting nervous about having enough food for the kids we started joking and saying that “if God can do it in Quito, He can do it in Cape Town”! And he most definitely did! It was miraculous to watch. The only negative to having so many kids in such a small space is that not all of them got to participate in the games and bouncy bounce outside. But you know, I am always blown away at how these kids are so happy about anything – even if they don’t get to get the same experience or portion as another child. It is so humbling.

Then the last of our Masi parties today was for the older of our Masi clients – it was so neat to gather all the adults that attend the Support Groups. The food was late (sidenote: everything is always late in Masi – something we are still learning to adjust to) , so for the first hour the people just danced and sang traditional Xhosa worship songs. We didn’t have a budget for table cloths so we covered the tables with paper – when we were still waiting for the food, I decided to place a handful of crayons on each table. It is amazing to see the reaction: some were worried about what to do and wanting to do it right; others went right to it and like little kids had a wonderful time drawing varieties of pictures. It was just so amazing to watch! Still waiting for the food, some of the clients came up and gave their testimonies. Not understanding the Xhosa I asked one of the ladies to translate what they were saying. A couple of the testimonies were about living lives HIV+ and the struggles that go along with it. For all of them they thought they had to walk this journey alone, but testify about how God brought them into these Support Groups to live in community with others and with Christ. I was floored at their joy and freedom regardless of the circumstance they find themselves in. The food arrived just in a nick of time and everyone had a wonderfully festive time together. Its these things in our lives here in Cape Town that make me appreciate the little things so much more!

Goodbye Lauren!

Today we say goodbye to our very first volunteer – not first departure, but the first volunteer that we welcomed to Cape Town. She came here from New York City where she worked in the fabric printing industry. Lauren has been more than just a volunteer – she very quickly became a friend. The crazy part is, as much as we want Lauren to come back, I have a very strong feeling that Lauren is supposed to go to Uganda. I have told her multiple times that I feel very strongly that she should check out One Mango Tree, an economic empowerment NGO that is known for their beautiful fabric designs. We came across One Mango Tree during our travels through Africa and just fell in love with them. Long story short, Lauren contacted them and it turns out they need a fabric designer!! Imagine that? How cool is our God? So we’ll be praying for her as she figures out what is next for her!