ABBY AND EMILY'S MINISTRY

This excites my heart!  Our girls have always been heavily involved in our ministry, but this is a ministry of their own :)

I've spoken about Pastor Clement quite frequently and just recently we were out to his place for a visit.  Their Christian school (reaching out to orphans and the poor) was just about to start its school year.  Pastor Clement asked Abby and Emily if they would like to be involved.  He had a need for them . . .
The school works hard to get the kids speaking English fluently.  This is hard when they are surrounded by Zulu speakers 24/7.  Clement was hoping that our girls would want to come out once a week and play games, read books, color, etc with one of the younger grades  AND do it all in English.

The girls were so excited and started planning right away!  They had some "ministry funds" to buy supplies and worked hard at talking through a schedule.

Their first day was this week on Tuesday.  The 45 minutes included- action songs, a story book, a coloring page that went along with the story book and a game that taught the English phrase, "Hi, my name is _____"

They are definitely looking forward to next week!

YOUNG ADULTS EVENT

Eight young ladies came out for the year's first young adults activities.  This was our first time leading it, so we felt a bit like we were floundering!  But, everything seemed to go well and, minus the two that will be leaving for college, they all asked when we were scheduling the next one.

Here is the line up of what we did:
Ice breaker game called "two truths and a lie"
Big pot of soup and bread
Kyle gave a devotional
Then we closed with the game "Pit" . . . always loud and fun :)

And yes, for all those who recognized it, we did hold the event in the Care Home.

Please be praying for the next meeting in February.  We are making up little fliers to pass out at church and hoping we can catch some of the young adults that "slip in and slip out".  There is a HUGE young adult population in Richards Bay and we would love to find a way to minister to them.

CLOSING OF THE CARE HOME

Yes, we've officially closed . . . all for good reasons.  The biggest reason being that our area is a lot healthier.  And it felt like it happened overnight!

Several great things happened in the last year that led to this:
1)  education about AIDS was everywhere.  This opened dialog about a person's status, encouraged people to get tested, and decreased the stigma surrounding AIDS.
2) then the medications to treat the patients started becoming readily available along with more doctors to handle the numbers.  The ARVs are incredible- someone can go from being bed bound to up and walking in 2 weeks as their immune system gains strength
3) big companies in our area started supporting their HIV+ workers, providing education at the work site and even mobile clinics to bring them their medications and take blood for testing if necessary.

All of this has caused a dramatic reduction in the number of dying HIV+ people, increased the family acceptance of them, and essentially made us obsolete.

Are we upset by this?  Not at all!  This means moms and dads are living longer.  It means we have more time to reach of the communities with the gospel.  It means that HIV+ people are being treated better.

So what next?  There is still a lot of work to be done!  Lots of kids were "left" behind when their parents died and so many young adults have grown up without learning any life skills.  We are praying to see how God wants us to be involved.

Please pray with us!