Two days left in ‘Suth’ Africa - Leah

You may think I have misspelled South Africa, but apparently this is the correct way to pronounce the country. Mandy, one of the team house drivers of the “green bullet,” told us earlier this week we were saying it incorrectly. So on a daily, moment by moment basis, we practice saying, ‘Suth’ Africa. Now you would think Mandy would be so pleased that we are trying to pronounce her country correctly. It has started to become more of a game though, to see how many times we can say ‘Suth’ Africa in random conversation. I would like to say I have been successful and could possibly win the game. Mandy disagrees.

Now to switch gears a bit. Today was a jam packed eventful day for all teams. Team A was busy attending support groups and visiting Capricorn (another place supported by Living Hope). Team E created a wall where there was no existing wall. This wall will help house our dear, sweet Mandy’s office, who is from ‘Suth’ Africa of course. Then my Team B successfully presented the Living Hope marketing strategy to Trevor, GM of LHCC.

WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! (Sorry I just did the Arseno Hall sound and arm movement….I got a little carried away. I’m excited!)

Okay, let’s talk about the completion of the marketing strategy. I have to admit how unbelievably proud I am to be a part of this team. God really pulled us together to show Him off. The morning was quite stressful with all the crossing of the t’s and dotting the i’s. Then we needed to get the 18 page document printed and bound. Now let’s assess this situation. Team B completed an 18 page marketing strategy in about 5 days. Yeah that’s God! I won’t lie there were moments of frustration and intense challenges. During those weaknesses, God bought us together and created the common goal….Him. I believe Living Hope now has the ability to change the South African community and international community in many ways.

So you see the beginning of the day was all business related. Little did we know how the afternoon was going to affect us. We were headed to Red Hill to the kid’s club. Red Hill is approximately 30 minutes or so away from the team house. The drive was indescribable. God’s glorious creation was all around with sparkling blue ocean and roaring waves. Then we made it to Red Hill. To give some details of this place, Red Hill consists of around 600 people. The population is at least 50% HIV/AIDS positive. Yeah, I began to feel somewhat overwhelmed. Then you see the beautiful children that make up this seemingly hopeless place.

We were able take part in the kid’s club, which consists of a recreation time, bible lesson, and of course a peanut butter and jelly sandwich....yum! We played several games with the kids: Simon says, Red-rover Red-rover, Duck Duck Goose, etc. I will have to admit I had a lot of fun! Amongst all the fun, it was difficult to not be plagued by the poor living conditions. Pressing on, you know that God is faithful, and that’s all we’ve got. We MUST trust in that!

Then many, many games later, the children learned about the Ten Commandments. It was great to see them listening so intensely. After one of the sweetest prayer I have ever heard, it was time to eat some PB&J sandwiches. I was told to pay attention to how the kid’s ate their food. They would hold it very carefully and cherish each individual bite. This might have been their only meal today. All in all, the situation may have appeared hopeless but knowing that God has placed special people here to work with this community helped to give me some relief. With all that being said, I need to ask a favor…please pray the community and salvation of Red Hill.

Thank you Lord for showing me You today! Thank you for blessing our team! Help us to love others like our life depended on it!

This blog is dedicated to Mandy, our team house driver, in ‘Suth’ Africa.