We got back late from our Kruger adventure so watch this space tomorrow to hear all about it. We are off to Oshoek tomorrow morning which is right up in the mountains and on the Swaziland border.
We hope you enjoyed our video this morning - if you saw it in church.
Unfortunately it is too long to post on the blog - but is on our social media pages and website.
(www.standrewschurchbiggleswade.org.uk)
We were up early, with breakfast at 7.30am so we were ready for the Hands at Work meeting at 8am. Each Friday of the month the meeting takes on a different focus. This Friday we were treated to Hands on deck- this takes the format of a presentation by members of the Hands team about the different countries they have been recently. The presentations were each very moving in their own way and gave us a great insight into the work of Hands across Africa.
We went back to Mafambisa again where we did many activities today. Some of us started by cutting up the beetroot for lunch while some carried on the painting from Wednesday. We found that today the care workers were a lot more interactive due to the appreciation day yesterday.
The care workers and the Hands team sat under the tree and sang some songs and prayed - some of us joined in from the top of ladders whilst some of us played with the under 5’s. Before we knew it the children from school were arriving at an earlier time of 1 o’clock today.
The children arrived and it was great that they wanted to get involved with the painting of their shelter; girls and boys young and old tried out the paint rollers and brushes. This felt special as the children were owning their shelter and taking part in its creation.
Today we took pictures of all the children with their names in front of them, which means that we will be able to create prayer cards back home and pray for the children by name throughout the year. Today, as it was the end of the week, we gave out the postcards that the Sunday School wrote to the Children - each one with a different message. It is very humbling to watch how much the children treasure these simple gifts.
Jack and Ben rounded the afternoon off by leading a medley of holiday club songs. Great Great Brill Brill is becoming a firm favourite!
Mafambisa Care Worker Day
Today we headed off early to Mafambisa; we were excited to be spending a full day at the Care Point. Jack and Ben were delighted that the monkeys had joined us for breakfast!
We arrived and were set straight to work with peeling, chopping and cutting vegetables - the array of colours was spectacular.
Some of us then played with the balloon footballs with the under 5’s, Lucy raked leaves and cleared the decks whilst Chris, John and Jack set about creating a trench/ditch for the water to run down from the top field in the care point to the drain pipe at the bottom. Currently the water was just saturating the grass making it difficult for the children to play. They were successful!!
When all the Care Workers had arrived we went into the church for the relationship group. We sang and prayed before Carolyn shared an encouragement based on Romans 12 v 3-8. She shared that it is important to use our God given gifts and that although we are many people we create one body of Christ when together. We then asked the Care Workers to share the different gifts that they bring to the Care Point. It was encouraging to hear that they all bought different gifts to the Care Point and had different roles. We also shared what we could bring.
Many of the Care Workers are new to Mafambisa and we wanted to get to know them better. The boys came up with some fun and interesting questions for them to answer. (Watch this space….!) Finally we gave the Care Workers a cross that they could hold onto when they are finding it tough to remember that God is always with them.
Next it was Care Worker appreciation; we poured the coke, cracked open the cookies and set the chairs out - before we had even finished this… Khethiwe ran out and set up her chairs, flung off her flip flops and put her legs up ready for washing, massaging and nail painting!!!
We washed 12 feet, massaged 12 legs and painted 60 fingers and toes as well as put on 6 face masks. It was wonderful to see the pure joy and laughter amongst the Care Workers. We then had a photo shoot against the newly painted blue shelter!
Children then arrived; we sang, we prayed, we ate… Then we played with the long skipping rope before the requests began for dancing and singing…. After 1 rendition of ‘Shine’, 1 of ‘Be Happy’, 1 of ‘Help me be your eyes Lord Jesus’ and 2 of ‘Great Great Brill Brill’ it was time to say Goodbye.
We had such a wonderful time in the community today getting to know our Care Workers better and building relationships with them and the children.
