Wow!! I can’t believe how much time has passed since I’ve last posted on my blog!!! So many things have happen since then, so I’m going to try my best to catch you up!!!
On Thursday Sept. 26, we were blessed to be able to take 39 of our most faithful kids from Kids club to a one day KidsFest my church, Hillsong, was hosting during the school holidays. It was a wild and crazy day, full of fun, games, songs, and a good message about how NOTHING can separate us from the love of God through His Son Jesus Christ. The kids are STILL talking about it and singing some of the songs we learned. Here are a few pics from the day:
As you can see by the picture above, our crew was wiped out by the end of the day and many fell asleep on the bus! It was such a great experience for our kids!!!!
A BIG THANKS to those of you who sponsored some of our kiddos to go!!!! Thank you SOOOOO MUCH for allowing them this opportunity!!!!
The day before, Hillsong also hosted an event for the youth and Jolin and I were able to take a small group of our older kids to be encouraged to stand up and make a difference in their country.
On the third of October, our wonderful leader, Antje, returned from Germany!! Boy am I glad to have her back here with me!!!! Planning and running KidsClub, and all the extra events that come along with it, is SOOO much easier when there are two brains and four hands!! 
Right after she arrived, we were presented with the opportunity to work with another global ministry, called Samaritan’s Feet, whose goal is to put shoes onto the feet of 10 million children. Not only were we blessed to give shoes to 180 of our kids, but we were also blessed to have the founder, Manny, come and speak to our children about his story and why he started this organization. Manny grew up a very poor child in Nigeria, with no shoes and no hope. Then a missionary from the States came to his community and gave him a pair of tennis shoes and taught him how to play basketball. This simple act changed his course, as he worked hard to get better in basketball, so much that he earned a full scholarship to play basketball at a university in North Dakota. After graduating with a Master’s Degree, he became a technology executive, but was called to serve the children who were living in circumstances that he came from. He left his career to pursue this calling, starting “Samaritan’s Feet”. Each time they distribute shoes, they don’t only focus on the giving of shoes, but also washing the feet of the children, like Jesus did, and praying with the children and encouraging them to have hope for a better future. It was such a special day and our kids were so blessed by the day!
With Antje back, we’ve started doing home visits to the kids each week so that we can meet their families, build better relationships with them, and also just get some basic information about our kids, like birthdays, clothing sizes, and how many siblings or other children live in the house with them. Honestly, I will say that at times it is very overwhelming to be surrounded by mothers and children calling for my attention and wanting their names and information written on the paper, some of them not even kids who come to kids club. On the flip side, it has helped me to learn so many more of the kids names and to know who lives in which family. It is such a wonderful feeling to hear your name being shouted as you walk through the township and to have the kids fighting over who gets to hold your hands while you walk. I’ve learned that I can actually hold hands with about 6 kids at a time: 3 fingers for one, 2 fingers for another, and one around my wrist, and replicate on the other side. I will say it makes it quite hard for walking though! 
Change: God blessed me with the opportunities I had at Speelkring Preschool where I worked at during my time of transition. I’m so thankful for the teachers and kids that I met in this time, and I will never forget them. It was clear that God was beginning to close the door for me there, while He was opening the doors to Bizweni, but change is always hard. I slowly “weaned” them off of my services and have completely stopped going to Stellenbosch during the week. I’m “on-call” if they need something and I’m planning to attend their Christmas concert coming up at the end of the month. Saying good-bye was bittersweet, but I know that the path with Bizweni is exactly where I’m supposed to be. Thank you to all of the staff of Speelkring who created a safe place for me to heal and find my place again.
The day after our Samaritan’s Feet event, Bizweni Centre participated in a sports day with children from several other special needs schools in the area. It was a fun, well-planned day, and our kids really enjoyed themselves! They can’t wait for the next one!
Summer has begun here, but we’ve had some pretty crazy weather, last weekend in particular. There were unbelievable rainstorms that our streams and dams just couldn’t hold. Rain doesn’t stop us from having kids club and the kids still come, but on this week there was even lightening and thunder, which is uncommon for this area, so we cut everything short, gave them their food, and encouraged them to get home quickly!
But one of the dams broke, causing major flooding in the township and within the city as well. Many roads were shutdown because of the flooding and many houses were filled with water. Bizweni, the special needs school I’m now teaching at, happened to be on the pathway of the flooding. Thankfully even though there was water inside the school, there was not too much damage. In this photo you can see Bizweni in the back corner of the picture.
We were desperate to know how our children in Sir Lowrys Pass (SLP) were doing, as the last time it rained so much, several houses were swept away in the river. Several of our families were evacuated to the town hall, as they were worried that a 2nd dam would burst, causing a major problem, and washing away many homes. Thankfully we had a few people we were able to get information from until the roads were safe enough to get into the township to check on the kids. Here are some photos of what we found when we got there:
Thankfully, we found out that our kids were safe, although their houses may be wet, they were safe. Several of them were busy moving back home from the town hall when we were out walking. Some other friends were needing a safe place to stay, the pigs and the goats, so we took a few of our kids to get up close and personal. I was able to put some of my “farm-girl” skills to use.
