We are a group of young couples from Valley Church in West Des Moines, Iowa who have felt God's call to help The Pines Christian Care Center for Children in Welkom, South Africa as they care for children who have been orphaned by the AIDS Pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Saturday, March 31, 2007
Kevin Barber Today was another day of mixed emotions. We had a light work day and made some progress on the flat in the morning despite Anne spilling black paint all down the stairway - we did get it cleaned up quicly and there's very little evidence of the incident.
After working in the morning we took a driving tour of the surrounding townships. Our first stop was the Phumlani Cemetary - an entire section was for children who died under the age of 4 - Brian said that probably 99% of the deaths were from complications from HIV/AIDS. The number of graves from 2006 and 2007 alone were overwhelming; the section we saw went back to only 2003 but was probably about the size of 2 football fields of tightly-packed, small graves. We estimated around 2500 graves and around 70 from this year alone. An image that will stay in our minds of this was an entire row of empty graves sitting for when they will soon be filled.
We then drove through Thabong and saw the house where the original 6 orphans at The Pines lived with their grandma. Next we stopped at the dump to drop off trash. The people who live at the dump (actually have homes built out of discarded materials) competed to unload our trash for a tip and rights to take what they find useful from our trash. Some of them sell the recyclable items to collectors who come by. Others are just looking for useful items and food.
Our next stop was visiting the two children from The Pines who are hospitalized. Both of their conditions are improving - God is Good, keep the prayers coming.
When we came back to The Pines we had lunch and then (an hour later) went swimming with the children and had a great time. The afternoon was further filled with more light construction work and outdoor games with the children. They tried to teach us Rugby, but it was lost on us Americans!
We finished off the day with a Movie on "the big screen" and popcorn with the kids. They enjoyed watching Cars, the movie in Brian and Lois' flat and we had fun spending time with them.
Our Scripture reading today was James 1.
Thank you for your continued prayer and we wish you a happy Palm Sunday tomorrow... it will be fun to have Palm Sunday around actual Palms!
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Kevin Barber Today was another day of mixed emotions. We had a light work day and made some progress on the flat in the morning despite Anne spilling black paint all down the stairway - we did get it cleaned up quicly and there's very little evidence of the incident.
After working in the morning we took a driving tour of the surrounding townships. Our first stop was the Phumlani Cemetary - an entire section was for children who died under the age of 4 - Brian said that probably 99% of the deaths were from complications from HIV/AIDS. The number of graves from 2006 and 2007 alone were overwhelming; the section we saw went back to only 2003 but was probably about the size of 2 football fields of tightly-packed, small graves. We estimated around 2500 graves and around 70 from this year alone. An image that will stay in our minds of this was an entire row of empty graves sitting for when they will soon be filled.
We then drove through Thabong and saw the house where the original 6 orphans at The Pines lived with their grandma. Next we stopped at the dump to drop off trash. The people who live at the dump (actually have homes built out of discarded materials) competed to unload our trash for a tip and rights to take what they find useful from our trash. Some of them sell the recyclable items to collectors who come by. Others are just looking for useful items and food.Our next stop was visiting the two children from The Pines who are hospitalized. Both of their conditions are improving - God is Good, keep the prayers coming.
When we came back to The Pines we had lunch and then (an hour later) went swimming with the children and had a great time. The afternoon was further filled with more light construction work and outdoor games with the children. They tried to teach us Rugby, but it was lost on us Americans!We finished off the day with a Movie on "the big screen" and popcorn with the kids. They enjoyed watching Cars, the movie in Brian and Lois' flat and we had fun spending time with them.
Our Scripture reading today was James 1.
Thank you for your continued prayer and we wish you a happy Palm Sunday tomorrow... it will be fun to have Palm Sunday around actual Palms!
Show / Hide Comments 1 Comment(s) Post a Comment
