MEET VUYISEKA!


I am happy to introduce you to the youngest member of the orphan support group. Her name is Vuyiseka and she loves to dance (especially during worship time), draw, and be hugged! I have continued to be encouraged by our time on Friday's at the orphan support group and blessed by the love of these little ones!

There is one orphan, in particular, that I would like to ask you to keep in your prayers this week. Her name is Neliswa. She is 15 years old but wise beyond her years. I got a chance to sit down and talk with her at our last support group. She told me about the many hard things she has been through in the past four years; being raped, the death of her parents, living with an aunt whose children don't like her, and the challenges of going to a school where kids know her parents died of AIDS and now ostracize her because of the stigma of the disease. She told me that no one wants to be her friend because they are scared that she also has the disease. It was heartbreaking to hear these things. That night I went through the prayer box (we put a box out at every support group meeting and encourage the kids to write prayer requests and put them in the box so that we know how we can be praying for them throughout the week), and I found the following prayer from Neliswa.


Was I born to suffer?
Was I born to be abused?
No! God had a purpose.
I'm here to fulfill that purpose.
I'm here to praise God
I'm here to stay.

God I hope all the people,
Women and children who suffer
From abuse to be free.

Lord I pray to through all the world
From sunrise to sunset God to
Let us free; let us live God.
Lord as your child please
Lord help us from Cape to Cairo
God let the world know who you are

I pray Lord, ploughing my knees
For you God to help me.
In the name of the Holy God
Amen and Amen!

-Neliswa


PRAISES!

God has really blessed me this week! I would like to report these praises to you and thank you for your prayers...

I MET SOME NEW FRIENDS!!! I walked by the tennis courts near my apartment to ask if I could join a league. I told the man sitting at the desk that I played tennis in college and was interested playing tennis here if they had an adult league. It turns out that the man I was talking to was the coach of the University of Stellenbosh women's tennis team (the University has about 20,000 students). Anyway, he asked me if I was interested in trying out for the University team! I was surprised to find out that in Africa each university is allowed to have two players on sports teams that are not enrolled in the university as students. So, I went to the courts after work and tried out and got invited to play on the team. So, I am playing another year of college tennis! Who would have thought?! Not me! God has blessed me so much through the girls on the team. We traveled on Saturday for our first away match and I have 8 new friends-- all teammates!
Africa is beginning to feel more like home. I found a church that I really like and am getting comfortable with driving and finding my way from place to place. I found a coffee shop that I enjoy and the weather is getting warmer here as we are on the verge of summer.

PLEASE PRAY...

Please continue to pray for the orphans. Pray for their safety and health (physical and spiritual). Pray for Neliswa and that she will find friends who she can have fun with, laugh with, fully trust, and confide in. Please also pray for Sinoxolo, an 8 year-old orphan who has AIDS. She knows that she has AIDS and prays to be healthy enough to keep going to school. She dropped a prayer in the box that said:

"Because I know the thoughts about my life Jesus, I love you so much. I would like you to pray for me whom I love very much. My studies, my home." -Sinoxolo