Somerset East

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Many people have been asking what happened last week at Beat the Drum. I’m still not completely sure! That
seems to be the theme of my song since I’ve been in Africa.
God has certainly been working in my heart but I’m still not sure what He’s
doing.

We got there on Friday not sure what to expect (as usual).
My favorite saying when things don’t make sense has become TIA- This Is Africa.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were full of training. We talked about the movie,
prayed, went through the curriculum, played games, prayed, prayed some more,
confessed some stuff in our lives to each other, prayed, and slept and ate.

We were split into teams depending on the school we were
assigned to. Teams were made up of people from the AIM group, South African
missionaries, and local volunteers from Somerset East. My team was assigned to
go to Cookhouse Secondary school located in a small
township about 15 minutes outside of Somerest East.

On Sunday, before we started our week, I got to know one of
the local Somerset
volunteers. Her name is Bhongo. She is 27 and is a single mother of a 3 year
old. She lives in a township in Somerset
and is such a sweet spirited girl. Since we were learning so much about
HIV/AIDS, and I have no personal experience to draw from, I asked her if she
knew anyone with AIDS. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and told me that
her uncle passed away from AIDS last year, and her mother was just diagnosed
with it in January. She then told me that I was the first person that she had
talked to about this besides her sister. My heart broke for her then and I held
her while she cried. For the first time, this terrible disease was staring me
straight in the face. It has ravaged families, raped children, destroyed
marriages, taken lives and broken millions of hearts. I began to understand the
value of what we would be working for this week.

We were scheduled to show the movie at the community center
to grades 8-12 on Monday during the last period. We were supposed to have 300
students, but only about 100 showed up. This posed a problem, because for the
rest of the week our curriculum would be based on this movie, and if the
students hadn’t seen the movie they would be lost! We persevered and showed it
anyway, but with 20 minutes left in the movie, at the most pivotal part, the
DVD began to skip and we couldn’t show the rest of the movie. So we sent the
kids home promising to finish it on Tuesday. Well, that was a great way to
start off the week!

We talked to the principal on Tuesday morning and she agreed
to let us show the entire movie to the whole school from 12 to 2 that day. What
a blessing!

On Wednesday we finally got the chance to be in the
classrooms, but we had a lot of catching up to do. We split the girls and guys
up and covered lessons 1-3 in just 45 minutes. We used the movie to inspire
conversations about relationships, myths of HIV/AIDS, values such as courage
and faith, and unique issues that women face.

Wednesday we got deeper into issues of sex: God’s design,
boundaries, consequences of pre-marital sex, influences, and we continued to
discuss AIDS, and made a case for abstinence. We shared our personal stories
and really tried to connect with the kids. But we didn’t beat around the bush
when it came to HIV/AIDS. We wanted to make sure they understood the gravity of
the situation, especially in their small town of Cookhouse. Cookhouse has the
highest percentage of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The kids were surprised to
learn that.

Friday we wrapped things up by reviewing what we had learned
that week, talking about how to make wise decisions, encouraging them to choose
to abstain, and sharing the Gospel. Then the students were offered the chance
to get free HIV/AIDS testing at the community center. We had over 100 kids come
to get tested from 1 to 5 on Friday afternoon. I can’t begin to tell you how
hard it was.

Standing beside a nervous, 14 year old girl as she waits to
see her test results is a sobering experience, to say the least. I spent most
of the afternoon holding their hands and
telling them they are very brave as they watch the small piece of plastic that
could change the rest of their lives. Thankfully, most of our kids came back
negative. I can only hope that the experience alone will be enough to influence
their decisions in the future. There were a few that came back positive and it
breaks my heart. But I pray that they will remember the hope they have in Jesus
Christ and that their testimony will help set others free from bondage to
sin. 

That was our experience in a nutshell. It was rewarding and challenging all at the same time. But now its back to life in Jbay, and our minsitries here!

Thanks for all your prayers and support!