latest Ndwedwe trip

GPFTF

Incase your wondering GPFTF stands for "Gods plan for the future". Its a class been set up in recognition that there isnt any support for the newly baptised or interested contacts. Its every saturday morning. It was run by David white and Ben topham - wise brothers. They have both now left as have all the other volunteers so this week i volunteered to lead it. I had been the previous week and led the first 20 mins as cam wasnt around, and it was really enjoyable! I arrived this week to see 3 new faces, bongani, pilile and bekka, of whom had come as a result of being drawn into the bible education centre because a bunch of us were singing zulu songs outside the shop. Kwanda had told them about the class on saturday morning and they came! So that was awesome to see. We sit in a group around a table and this week we looked at a bunch of verses about the ressurection of the dead and the idea that christ is coming TO the earth and the dead shall be raised, which then gives a good basis for not believing in heaven when we die. To be honest it was quite intimidating at first, there were 5 people older than me by a good few years and from a different culture and every sentence i said i just hoped that they would agree and come to the same understanding from what we had just read, and didnt have any wierd traditional or cultural views on the matter! Im 23, i hardly have a wealth of experience in teaching! But my strength isn't my own, my strength comes from Christ who fills me up and helps me, its from him i was able to teach!

Mariannhill skills course

Phil, Adam and i are running a skills course in the church in Mariannhill township. The idea of it is to provide the unemployed will skills so that they can be self employed. Its a 4 week course, one day a week. Phil is teaching a group how to screen print, Adam is teaching how to make earrings and im teaching them how to make greetings cards. At the end of the 4 weeks we are taking the products they have made (along with them) to the craft market to sell what they have made. This then we hopefully show them how its done and how easy it is! They must then go out themselves and find shops to sell their products etc and we will do a follow up after 2 weeks to see how they are getting on or any problems they might be having. Its quite exciting!

Choir

Phils main project over the past 8 months has been recording a choir to create a CD. Its an incredible story in itself how the choir all came together but thats phils story to tell. All the choir members are FANTASTIC people! they are very fun...here are some photos of them in action...

This is Tammy, listening to her sing makes you want to give her a hug

Buhle, the babe. She can sing

Arrival of new wheelchairs

Friday 22nd October, finally we see the result of months of hard work and effort of fundraising as we arrive at Happys to meet thula, our wheelchair supplier. God had also helped organise the day for us too, when we arrived the entire school were together in an organised assembly sort of way (a very rare thing) and there was a company there (im not really sure what they were promoting) with an entire PA system which gave us a platform for presenting the wheelchairs and turned it into a ceremony. It couldnt have worked out any better! thankyou God!

The state of some of the wheelchairs were just not worth thinking about, ripped seats, ripped back rests which meant thy had no back support, broken wheels, no foot plates so they had no where to rest their feet, they really were disgusting! But there was nothing more joyful to see them lifting themselves out of these wheelchairs and into a brand new one whilst the urban beats were pumping out the speakers and the other students were cheering at the joy of their friends.

Nozipho also recieved her electric wheelchair and almost lost her hearing at the same time through the amount of screaming and clapping. Thula lifted her out her chair and into her new one and showed her how to work her new chair. Understandably she was incredibly nervous at using it for the first time as she was centre of attention in front of the entire school including the teachers "Hamba, hamba" they were all screaming at her (which means go). For the first time since she was 15 (shes now 29) she was able to move for herself, to get to where she wanted to on her own, what an incredible thing! She also has leg rests, before people would accidently knock her legs and she couldn't do anything about it.

It was such a beautiful day and i feel very blessed to have been a part of it and witnessing their joy as they received their new chairs. I know that they are very thankful! 15 chairs were delivered in total and there is still more money coming in to buy a couple more!

Tomorrow Thula is coming back to start and fix the 18 chairs that can be fixed...

How to tell your living with an aussie...

Dani Pogson, iv got a lot of love for you!

GOD

Monday i had a list of things to do...the kind of list that could go very wrong and take a long time to get everything sorted. But God WAS with us and it was so evident.

The day started with going to the visa office to see what the requirements were to extend our visa. The car park was the tiniest ever, and the place itself was really busy, and it was the centre of town, but there was ONE car park spot left and we got it. There was no where else to park within a mile radius because it was on a main road so we were bless with that one. Then i expected to stand in line for a couple of hours waiting to see someone to ask what the requirements were. As soon as i walked in there was a lady stood there just waiting to speak to me. She handed me a piece of paper with the requirements on and a form. basically i just need to fill in the form and hand them a bit of money. Again i was expecting to have to provide medical reports, police reports etc so i was in and out within 10 minutes!

then we had to find a pharmacy in town because i had to buy a wheelchair. which is a story in itself. maybe ill cut it short. i felt moved by the spirit to go and speak to this man whilst there was a group of us singing to the ward in the hospital. I always find it a bit hard to speak to the men in the hospital, its not one of my greatest talents i dont really know what to say. But God lead me there because this man needed something that he couldnt provide for himself. He was discharged from hospital but couldnt go home because he needed a wheelchair. It just so happened that we had some surplus money from fundraising, money that we could buy this wheelchair with. So we were driving through the busy streets of durban and we found the pharmacy without getting lost. AND there was one car parking spot right outside the doorway of the shop! in the middle of durban! this is rare. i was expecting to have to order a wheelchair. but god was with us, we just bought one there and then, as easy as buying a tin of beans. and it was affordable! the guy brought the wheelchair in the box down for me and asked where the car was parked. HA! right outside the door...

I was just so amazed at how smooth everything went that morning. It felt that we were doing the right things that god wanted us to do and so he was with us and he made them run smoothly.

SIYABONGA BABA!