This Love

I feel like a lot of my blogs are about the same thing. About how I love my life and how I love Port Elizabeth and how I love doing ministry. But seriously, all these things are true! I’ve noticed how fulfilled and alive I am because of serving here. It comes so naturally, and I’m constantly finding new ways to get involved. The relationships that I’ve made so far are awesome. Everything has happened so freely and easily; thus far I haven’t really had to work at anything much at all. And God has definitely brought me here for a specific reason; it’s becoming more apparent everyday.

Lately, I’ve been feeling drawn toward the white South Africans. I have a huge heart for fighting injustice and wanting to see the Lord work through the black community, but I also see God working on the white people as well. I’ve found I have a real connection to these people and see the racism that is in a lot of their lives because of Apartheid. Life after the Apartheid is still so new; the generation of my parents and their parents haven’t known any differently. I’ve spent more time in the townships than a lot of them ever have. I feel that building relationships with white people is another way to fight the injustices in this country-just in a different fashion.

I’ve never really pictured myself working in youth ministry. It’s funny because when I was a senior in high school, I helped out with the junior high youth group, but was never really that into it. I certainly tried it out and even attempted to get to know some of the girls, but I see now that I wasn’t ready for it. I’ve matured so much since then and have come to find that my niche is for sure with South African high school girls. The youth group, Firehouse, is going to be one of my main ministries this semester.

I’ve met a couple girls that I really want to pour my life into. A few of us met a girl named Christine while doing our “bigger and better” game. She is my age and a really cool girl. My friend La and I spent 5 hours with her at the beach the other day; it was so fun. Also, there is a really special girl in the youth group named Donna. I almost feel like God brought me all the way to South Africa just for her. This 16 year old girl has had a lot of hurt in her life, but has such great potential. I want to be careful with what I say about her so as not to exploit her in my blog. On Tuesday, she brought over a box of things to express what I mean to her, it was the sweetest gesture perhaps anyone’s ever done for me. The box contains so many personal and sentimental things. Here are just a few: A necklace for me to always remember South Africa, a 2 cent SA coin that has since been discontinued, a penny to remind me of home, some verses and quotes, bookmarks, her lucky rock to remind me that God is my rock, a shell that is plain on one side but beautiful on the other, to remind me that something’s really are beautiful on the inside, her lucky marble, and a myriad of other little things.  I’m really excited about getting to know Donna more and being able to see God transform her life.

I can’t wait until we are in full swing in the next couple of weeks. We will know where we’ll be for our ministries very shortly! Things are only going to get progressively more exciting.

Love just makes sense.