A Box of Cheez It

I'm not one to cry, but a box of Cheez It crackers had me in a complete meltdown! I was sitting with my small group last night doing prayer requests when one of my members made a slight movement and knocked over the box of cheese crackers. My eye had noticed it earlier that evening, but that simple act of watching it fall caused my lips to quiver and tears to spring up in my eyes. Another member noticed my facial expressions and asked what was wrong. As I explained, the tears just started falling:

I've mentioned on this blog the Dream Team. They are a group of young adults who, after living hard lives that we could hardly begin to imagine, found the Lord. They committed themselves for 1 year to serving the people in the colored and black communities and then be sent out back to where they come from to make an impact there.



With them, we split into 2 groups and were supposed to teach at two colored schools life lessons to the children for 4 days. Above is the group that I was with. Our group would learn to be very flexible because nothing went the way we thought it would! We learned that there would be a strike the first day we were set to teach, and at the school my group went to, that meant that we would be playing entertainers for 4 hours instead of teaching! I fell in love with my class though :)

The second day, we found out that we wouldn't be teaching because the principal needed that day to catch up on curriculum, so we swept the streets of Paarl instead. On the third day, the principal from the school cancelled having us altogether, so we went to a school in Mbekweni, the black community. We actually got to teach a life lesson (ours was on following your dreams) of 30 minutes to 6 classes, the way it was supposed to be! But then the last day, we arrived at the school only to find out that those teachers went on strike too! And while the colored kids went to school, the children in the black community went home. When we got there, the principal was explaining to the children who actually came that there would be no class. What was pretty amazing though was some children came up to us and handed in their dream cards (we asked them to write down their dreams and we would collect them the next day)! Before we got picked up, we were able to play a few games with the children. It was so much fun and lots of laughter to be heard.

While we were at the schools, most of our team brought snacks to eat when on break. On the third day, a lot of us brought stuff like trail mix, fruit snacks, wasabi peas, and pretzels. The Dream Team loved them! They were surprised that we brought food from the States and I remember one girl saying, "You're making me fall in love with food that I'll never get to eat again!" I had brought a box of Cheez It with me for the airplane, but didn't open it, so I brought it with us on the last day. As with the other foods, they liked the crackers. I remember one girl in particular loved them! She kept going back for more and more! Soon enough the bag was pretty much empty and our ride came, so they went back in my backpack without another thought.

Seeing the box that my small group member knocked over just brought back all the memories from that day, and I just completely lost it. Even though we knew these people for less than a week and only spent 4 days together, we fell in love with them. Our parting was full of tears! But I'll always remember the words one what one said to me, "We may never see each other again in this life, but we'll meet again in heaven."

I never knew that a box of Cheez It crackers would make me cry. I never knew that I would have a heart for Africa. But thanks be to God that He gave this wonderful experience and for the opportunity to meet an amazing group of brothers and sisters.



God bless, Jen

South Africa TreX 2010 - Reflections #1

Dear friends,

As you can imagine, there are many memories and many thoughts for the team as we enter life back in the States. Some of us have already adjusted to life back in the States. For others of us it may take a while.

Our mission trip to South Africa was a wonderful one, full of many beautiful moments and heart-breaking ones as well. As I was thinking about what story to share, I decided to share about a little girl I met at Butterfly House, a health center for HIV patients.


Our team got to visit one day and we were able to spend some time with the kids there. There were about 20 kids ranging from toddlers to age 7. In some cases, the kids are HIV negative but their parents have HIV and are too weak to take care of their kids. In this sense, the center acts as a day care.

What's amazing is that the kids have so much life in them even though they are HIV positive! Of course the kids probably do not even realize this, but it was such a blessing to spend time with these kids and keep them company.


Of the many kids, one of the little girls stood out to me. She was really cute and her hair was amazing. I forget her name but I will call her "Trollie" because her hair reminds me of a Troll toy I had when I was a kid.


Like many of the kids at Butterfly House, Trollie was a happy, fun, little girl. She enjoyed me chasing her around the building. Look how excited she is when I cornered her.


She resorted to some funky sign language, presumably a peace sign, and so I copied her and offered her a truce.


Our partner Monte Christo Ministries (MCM) is one of the many donors to Butterfly House. Some of your donations went to support a child like Trollie! Thank you for being a blessing!


In Him,

Peter

Almost Over Already?!?!

I can't believe that almost 2 weeks is almost up! As you might imagine, tons of stuff has occured since the last time we updated. I don't have a lot of time to write everything all out, but all of us have been affected in so many ways! I love what God is doing with us and how we get to see how He is moving in South Africa.

We have got to see a lot of the different ministries that MCM does and it's amazing to see what this organization is doing in the communities here to make a difference. We've gotten to see how our money is being used as well as what the culture is like.

Right now, half of the team is at a school teaching while the other half of us are at the Miglots House. At the Miglots House, a group called the Dream Team live here. We've been partnering with them to teach, but today one of the schools' teachers went on strike so we had nothing to do. But we got to do some bonding which goes a long way as well :)

Please pray for the health of our team as almost everyone has been sick (minus Elliot and me) and pray that God will continue to show us what He's doing even in our final days here.

Love, Jen

We're Here!

We made it to South Africa! We landed Sunday morning at 8:00 am after traveling for 25 hours! We were very tired, but excited to be here.

We got to tour around Paarl, South Paarl, and Mbekweni. It was very eye opening to us to see the rich communities and how by just going a few miles we were in the poor parts of town.

We are fortunate enough to get to work with a group of Africans called the Dream Team. They all have rough pasts, but after receiving the Lord, turned their lives around and want to influence the youth. We are going to be teaching with them at 2 primary schools 4 days.

We had quite an adventure today because the teachers at the schools went on strike, and some of us were mentally drained with having all of the children for 4 hours! We were supposed to only have been there to teach one lesson 4 times, so it took a lot to change our plans! Please pray that the team gets strength as we are all very jetlagged and super tired. Also, please pray for the people that we will be in contact with; that they will have open hearts to receive God's love and that we have open hearts to receive them. God bless!
-Jen

Only 3 days until we leave to South Africa....Wow, time sure does fly by real quick.

We will have a life's adventure that we will never forget.

I truly believe that, when we Trust in God and go good things, He will move Mountains to protect and help you. We are all putting aside time, dedication, and efforts to our missions trip, and I know that God is happy and is by our side.

Please pray that we all stay strong, uplifted, and listen to every voice of God during the trip.

Lisa