Ministry!

Thursday was my first day back to ministry since the camp ended. Wednesday we had a free day in PE (Port Elizabeth) after helping out with the camp. We just went to a big mall and hung out for the day. On the way back we picked up Melissa from the airport!! She’s the one from Canada who lost her passport in Joburg and had to fly home for 3 weeks. So, now she’s here and we’re so glad!

So ministry…my ministry is helping out with an after school program in St. Francis Bay. It’s a little town about 20 minutes from JBay. This town is often forgotten and definitely neglected by the white people. It’s a really interesting place. There is a huge disparity between the rich and poor. There is a huge rich neighborhood with fancy houses and rich native English-speaking white people. Just down the street is the township that is left to fend for itself with its scrap metal houses and barefoot children. This is where the school is located. It’s called Talhado Children’s Centre.

We’ve only been doing ministry in St. Francis for a few days now, but it’s been pretty good. My ministry team is Alyssa, Andrew, Faith, and myself. Chris and Christina, my leaders, are also really involved and help us out a lot. So far, we’ve just been playing with the neighborhood kids, trying to do programming, and getting to know them; nothing fancy. What we will eventually be doing is doing VBS style programming in the classroom every day from 2-5pm with three different age groups. It’s mostly to keep the kids busy and preoccupied while their parents are at home drinking and neglecting them. Seriously, a lot of these kids don’t even know who their dad is. I just found out last night that some of these kids begin drinking at 5. FIVE!!!! This is outrageous! If they’re parents aren’t able to feed them, they give them alcohol to make them pass out, so they don’t have to deal with it.

I guess I’m struggling in my ministry a bit. I’m realizing that I really need structure to function, and so far it’s been quite unstructured. Also, I definitely see the need that these precious kids have, but I’m not convinced that I came for this. I want to make a difference, but I didn’t picture it happening in this way.  Gosh, I can’t seem to find the right words. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there are kid people and non-kid people. I fall under the latter. But, if this is what God has called me to in the time being, so be it! I’ll follow Him.

I still don’t know where I’ll be in January, but I’ll keep praying that the leadership will make good decisions.

Oh and my next blog will definitely include pictures.

Much love to all.