"He came to bind up the broken hearted!"

Why hello there! Can I first off just say how wonderful it is to know that people are reading my blog! It makes me happy to know that people are actually interested in what the Lord is doing over here in South Africa. So thanks for the support! Well, life here in Kommetjie, South Africa is going pretty quickly! I can't believe it but we are coming up on our third week here! CRAZY! In those three weeks we have made amazing friends, hugged on a lot of precious children, seen beauty that makes me amazed at the Lord I worship and I have become very aware at just how broken our world is! Not much has changed for me right now. We are continuing everything that we have been doing. We are doing random things in the mornings and working in the townships with the kids in the afternoons. This morning we had another meeting and talked about the different cases we have to work with. We got an update on the four year old little girl that was almost raped. The 18 year old boy that tried to rape her was released from prison on a 300 rand bail which is not very much money! So now this boy is living about two houses down from the little girl and he walks by her house almost like he is taunting her! We also learned today that he planned the whole thing with a friend but the friend backed out and was actually the one who ended up telling the sister who then told the police. It just breaks my heart that this little 4 year old girl is having to live near this boy who tried to hurt her so severely! I can't even imagine how scared she must be! Through all of this and through different cases we find ourselves very lost and a little hopeless. It is so hard to know what to do with each situation but the comfort that I have is that the Lord knows exactly what needs to happen and how. We are trying to figure out if we should remove a child from their household and we simply can't decide that on our own. This is where trusting the Lord and the Holy Spirit in us comes into play! We have to trust that we hear Him and hear Him clearly to make the right decision for these children. We can't play God but can ask Him for guidance! Also, this morning I have been introduced to two new ministries that I will be involved in and could be involved in. The first has to do with pap-smears. About a month ago a team from the US came to give free pap-smears for women and ended up doing about 300. They have discovered that this is a great need because mothers are either not discovering that they have cervical cancer and dying or they are discovering that they do have cancer and not doing anything to stay alive. So... my job is going to be to look at the results in a month when they come in and organize people to sit down and tell women if they do have cervical cancer or not. Then I will also be apart of following up with the women to make sure they get treatment. Now this does sound depressing and not very fun but I am actually very excited about it! One of my deep desires for ministry right now and through my life is to build deep relationships with people and I haven't really had the chance to do that yet here. I have been in the office or working with 40 to 50 kids at a time and there isn't time to spend one on one time with people so I am hoping this gives me the chance to enter into those relationships. I am extremely eager to get in there and pour into a life! Any life! This brings me to the other opportunity for ministry. Today I was told that there is a program through Living Hope called Life Exchange. This is where you are able to be a mentor to one person and a part of that is going to do activities such as hiking with them. When I heard about this my heart started to pound so fast and I got goose bumps because I want to do that SO BADLY! All I want to do is invest in a life and get to know that life on a deep level! This program takes gang members or drug dealers out of there everyday lives and brings them into a mentoring relationship with anyone who is willing to share Jesus with them! If there is anything that the Lord is helping me discover it is that I have a DEEP passion for this kind of ministry! Even writing this I am getting so eager to get involved with someone, just one person that needs to know who Jesus is! One person that is caught up in this world and speak light and truth into who they are! Life Exchange asks for a 2 year commitment so I am not sure if they will let me do this with someone since I will only be here the next 8 months but please pray that they do! I want to so badly! Please pray that if this is not where the Lord wants me that I will be patient and have my eyes open for the opportunity to use my passion somewhere else! So, life is going pretty great here and I am so excited to see what happens next. The Lord keeps telling me to concentrate on one day at a time and not focus or worry about tomorrow! Each day is a chance to be used by God whether you are in Africa or in Texas! I encourage you all to take a day at a time and just be open to what that day has in store for you because I promise you will meet someone that needs some love shown to them! You have been given the greatest light in existence so use it! ;)