S. African Schools and Awesome Old Ladies :)

Yesterday (Monday) I spent the day with my favorite auntie, Gail. She is in charge of all of the support group leaders in Capricorn and Overcome Heights, the two townships I work in. Auntie Gail and some of the support group leaders (awesome, amazing women of God, who I adore!) went over to a retirement home outside of the townships. I spoke to the women about stress and it was awesome! They had a radiant presence about them that I can only guess comes with getting to be 75+ years old and going through trials and tribulations and coming out on top in the end. The oldest lady of the bunch was 84 and she told me that she doesn't have stress or worry because if she stresses or worries, she won't get any younger. And she added that God has been good to her in her life and she is thankful but doesn't worry. :) What a lesson to us all yea? We walked back to the Capricorn building (about 40 minutes - don't worry! it was safe) and I got to see the tail end of kid's club. Marsha and Gail and I were walking together and laughing about how funny it must look for a white-haired, white-skinned, blue-eyed girl to be walking into a township with two African ladies. Although we were laughing and joking about it, the feeling of aparteid and oppression still exists here. I pray for the day when it doesn't exist.

Today I had a special treat...something I've been waiting for since last year....I went into a primary school with the LSE's and got to see what schools are like in the townships and how the LSE's teach lessons. First we went into a 1st grade classroom, then 2nd grade, and finally 5th grade. We had approximately 1/2 hour each for the lesson. The LSE's are allowed to go into this school and teach about HIV/AIDS and abstinence. There are some schools in the area that are not interested in hearing this information from a faith-based organization, but it is a blessing that many of them do. Anyway, the first classroom we went into had 46 children. It was at the beginning of school and so they were getting their "breakfast," a meal of beans and rice. The next one had two classes because one of the teacher's was ill and so the other classroom had to take on the load. In this classroom, there were many children sitting on the floors. Much of the materials are hand me downs and are really just old and decrepid. It made me sad to think of all we have in the U.S. at school and we still are not satisfied. As teachers and school staff we complain that we don't have this and we don't have that....myself included. . .. and it puts everything in perspective when you see children who are in a place to learn sitting on the floor because their teacher is sick and there is no substitute.

I was able to teach part of the HIV lesson to the 5th graders, which was awesome! They were very attentive and very smart :) And I'm very thankful that my dear friend, Ilana (LSE), trusted me enough to allow me to do part of the lesson. That kind of acceptance means more to me than I can say. AND I saw a familiar face (I'd been searching for her all week at kid's club, but didn't see her) It was Jennifer!!! :) To all of my teammates from last year, I'm sure you know how super excited I was to see her beautiful, smiling face. For those of you who weren't on the team last year, scroll down on my blog and Jennifer is the beautiful girl with me holding the paper cross. I wanted to cry I was so happy...and I literally almost screamed out her name. Oops! But I didn't...I went up to her later and she promised to come to kid's club this week and next. Let's hope!

I then went with Stacey and Shagmie to teen's club in Overcome. I had been worried later last week because not one teen from Overcome teen's club had signed the commitment form for Wait For Me. Today we separated the girls and boys and talked to them separately. Stacey spoke about what is abstinence and why is it important and I talked about the reality that maybe some of them had already had sex, but that through Christ you can be redeemed. You don't have to feel bad about yourself or feel like you can't recommit your life and what that means to me based upon my story. Every girl, granted there were only 7, signed a commitment form today. Two of the boys did. I'm thankful that they did but I pray that it was heartfelt; that they knew what they were commiting to and that they really want to save themselves for marriage. The fact is, that many of these teens face very high risks when they have multiple sexual partners and the younger they start to be sexually active, the worse that risk becomes. Please pray for each of these teens and their commitment to abstain from sex until marriage. They really are making a commitment to God to respect their bodies and be living sacrifices to Him.

This week is already racing by....tomorrow I'm talking with a group of health care workers/staff about stress in the morning and helping my dear friend Danielle at the prevention center, then off to kid's club. I missed them today. Then Thursday I'm going to a secondary school and off to teen's club in the afternoon. AND Friday the team comes! Yay! And I'm off to be with them at the Team House.

I do need some prayer from you all this week. I was asked today to give my testimony at the Wait For Me concert (again another honor). I did this at the youth service in Overcome last year and it was difficult but freeing as well. Please pray that I am able to prepare well and provide the information that those teens need to hear; that God's words will be my words. I pray that even if it is meant to touch just one of those youth, that it does despite the color of my skin. The Lord is my Keeper and I put all of my trust in Him....I pray that He provides me strength and comfort to get through it.

I am grateful to you all for your prayers and love. I miss you and I am excited to see your faces soon.

With lots of love ~ Jaclyn