Ithemba means Hope

Have you ever picked up your bible and read the book of James?  I have at least a few times, but it never quite impacted me as much as it did this week.  We have been studying it as a team, and this week I was shaken by how selfish we can be.  I feel like God has been opening the bible up to me in ways that I never knew.  At this point in my life there is no turning back from Him, because he will never turn away from me.  No matter what I do to push Him, He KNOWS that I will follow him again.  Monday morning we were told to read James as though it was written from a friend, as soon as I did God spoke to me.  He comforted me when I was starting to feel discouraged about the work I was doing here and the friends that I was making.

During training camp when we would wake up in the frigid, dewy mornings in our tent, the leaders would play a song from the big tent up the hill.  The song was a warning that it was 6:45 and we have better get out of bed, or we would be doing push ups on the rocks.  There was one song that has stuck with me from Germany to Pretoria to Swaziland, and to now Jbay.  It is a song called “I am Yours” by Misty Edwards.  The main lyric of the song says “I am yours'”, and Misty expresses how after everything terrible has attacked us through the long nights, I am still God’s.  There is something about that song I can’t seem to get away from.  I am God’s, and he has placed me here in Jeffrey’s Bay for some reason that I can’t understand.  There have been many times that I have felt like coming here was a mistake, but this song just reminds me that I am not here for myself.

Being rocked by God this week has not been the only thing on my mind, I am also on the cooking team week for my house.  Let me just say that it has been an interesting experience.  Cooking is not really my thing, so cooking for twenty definitely not my thing.  I have found that God is going to stretch my even though things like cooking for my team.  It makes me really appreciate the work that people have done for me.  All the work that it went into feeding many teams in Georgia and Pretoria must have been overwhelming, but I never once heard the cooks complain.  I would like to thank any of those people that have cooked for me over the past few months.  Without you I would have been eating PB&J everyday.  Although PB&J did cross my mind for the menu this week, not just because they are easy but because I love them!

Working at Ithemba has been a really great experience so far.  This kids are becoming more comfortable around me in the class that I teach.  I work with the kids ages 9-14.  They have a lot of knowledge for how young they are.  It is also striking how hard their lives have been in such a short amount of time.  Yesterday I had the kids write in journals about something they would like to change.  Here are a few of their ideas: kids should stop smoking glue at school, houses should be in better condition, the adults should stop drinking and smoking, and kids need to stop fighting.  If I were to add a few to the list I would say that Jbay needs a place for the kids with no home, the trash needs to be cleaned, and children need to be taught that it is not okay to have sex when they are seven years old.  My list could go on forever, my heart breaks everyday for the needs for these people.  Sometimes I don’t know where to start.  To end on a lighter note one of my students, Dando, asked why people in the movies pull up to restaurants and give their car keys away.  I had a good laugh.