My First Week

June 11th
It is hard to believe I have been here over a week now.  In some ways I feel like the time has flown by and in others, I feel like I have been here for a year.  The first week was absolutely wonderful.  God brought me here with an amazing group of women that I am so blessed to have been a part of their trip.  We did so many things so I will do a quick summary of them.  Our first day here, we went down to the beach in Durban and got some pictures of the lighthouse and water.  It is a beautiful place!  Then afterwards our van broke down which delayed us several hours.  We finally made it to Hilton that afternoon/evening where we were staying at the Old Berkshire B&B.  We went to Tala game reserve where we saw many gorgeous animals.  The giraffes and zebras were my favorite!  We also did some sightseeing and souvenir shopping in a town called Howick.  We went to NCF church Sunday and joined our friend Andy’s small group during the week.  The people at NCF has been so open and welcoming to us that I believe it has challenged everyone in the group to think about how we make visitors or outsiders feel when they come into our church.   They have been unbelievably hospitable!  I believe I will be joining a small group of people around my age on Tuesdays starting this week. 
Now to the real stuff…  Let me give a summary of what Tabitha’s mission is first:  They have two orphanages, one in Sweetwaters community and one in Pietermaritzburg city (where I am staying).  They each house about 35 children.   In addition to those orphans, there are, I believe, approximately 4,000 orphans throughout the community living in child-headed households.  This means the oldest of the siblings (regardless of how young they are themselves) is responsible for however many children happen to live in the home where every adult caretaker has passed away from AIDS or abandoned them.  There is currently one home with 12 children living in it.  The oldest of which is 14 years old.  Tabitha’s mission is to care for these orphans and look after them to see that they have food and medicine.  They also look after patients with AIDS in the same way.  They feed them, they change them, they wrap their wounds, and they share the love of Jesus with them to let them know that they are not alone and there is someone who loves them.  These caretakers travel around the community every day with no pay.  THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO BE JESUS’ HANDS AND FEET!
While we were with Tabitha we had worship at the center at 8am with all the care workers and staff.  The women sing praise songs in Zulu (which is so beautiful) and dance while Yan does the devotion.  We had some play time with the kids here in the orphanage as well as the children in the safe house in community.  We had a food distribution where we passed out food parcels to the caretakers of the sick and some children from child-headed households.  We also did home visits to the sick.  This is the hardest part…  When God opens your eyes to such suffering, it is forever impossible to turn away from it and deny it.  What was eye opening for me was that two of the homes we visited were the same homes Brandy and I had seen before.  One home was the same girl.  She has been sick for 6 years and Gail does not expect her to survive much longer.  She has had a very hard road.  Even worse… she has had two children within those years so the cycle will soon repeat itself with those precious babies.  The other house we returned to was not the same patient which opened my eyes to the fact that it is an ongoing cycle that repeats itself in the same home over and over again.  When a family we know has tragedy strike, it is rare that the same tragedy will hit more than one family member.  When 50% of the population is HIV+ over half the people you know will most likely die this miserable death from this virus.  It is so shocking to me to put myself in their place where this is an everyday part of life and it is “just the way it is.” 
Tabitha also has groups of children come to their center during the day while they are on their ARVs.  Since the kids tend to be ill while on their meds, the school teachers prefer to take them out of school for those two weeks.  They are able to come to the community center to eat breakfast and play some before they are sent home with their medicines and porridge.  These are not the first children that I have worked with that are HIV+, but there is something that is so sweet in their spirit that I barely made it through this breakfast.  I am crying now just thinking about those precious babies. 
So on to iThemba!  I am SO excited about the opportunity to work with iThemba!  This group of young people is SO amazing!  They are so energetic for these children and for the Lord!  It is inspiring!  I look up to them and have learned so much from them already.  This past week, we visited several crèches (preschools) where they have programs running and did recreational activities with the kids.  Thursday morning we went and had a 30 minute devotion time where we sang and spoke about Jesus.  We also went to running club which is a great new program they have started for the older kids to get them involved in some extra-curricular activities.  They hold weekly life groups in the community as well which is like mini-vacation bible schools.  They can come and just be kids.  We play games and one of the staff members gives devotion.  So in a nutshell… it’s a lot of playing and a lot of Jesus!
Side note -- I picked up my “supermini” car Saturday and moved into the orphanage Sunday.  My first day here was amazing.  Not one dull moment!  I am in love with all of the kids already!