A Day in the Life {Tuesday, March 10}

Today we visited our 25^th school since we’ve been here in SA. We visited 5 in Hazyview and now 20 here in Kosi Bay. It is crazy to think our team has had the opportunity to influence literally thousands of children in such a small period of time. I continue praying some part of our message will stick with each child. Most of our presentations focus on the message: “I am important to God.” We address positive self-worth and communicate how special each child is to God through our dramas and testimonies. The dramas are very effective in capturing the kids’ attention. In the lower primary schools we start out teaching them the “Hello Song.” We teach them how to say hello (with different gestures or dances) in many different countries around the world. They get really into it, it’s adorable. In the upper primary schools we do an illustration using “chappy” (gum) and Rand (SA money). This is probably the best illustration we do. It definitely has the whole classroom- or assembly- laughing by the end. We do another drama after these illustrations called The Walk of Life. As one person from my team “walks through life” he is repeatedly stopped by friends that call him names. After he is called ugly, stupid, worthless, and told that nobody loves him, a Christian shares about their best friend Jesus- someone that thinks you are important and special. It’s so cute when you’re the “walker” because you get to be really interactive with the kids. We’ll say, “Oh!! Did you hear that, he just called me STUPID! Do you think I’m stupid?” All the kids will yell “NO!!!” And when they say it in Zulu it involves a tongue click so it sounds like they’re clucking at you.

Please keep praying that our message would connect with these kids. Their lives are filled with hardship, and I truly believe they need Jesus. Many of these children have heard about Jesus before, but there is so much junk around them that suffocates the truth. Christians we have met here will tell you Christianity in SA is wide but it doesn’t go deep. There is a bunch of ancestral worship and other practices mixed in with Christianity that skew truth. Others have heard about Jesus but don’t know what a personal relationship with Him means. Outside of Christianity there’s also religions like Shembe… and in this particular area in Kosi Bay we have heard there is a high concentration of witchcraft. Please pray that God would speak through us here. Pray that educators will be open to using our curriculum in their classrooms.