Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Things have been very busy over here. So I have a lot to cover, so we’ll break it down into categories for easy viewing!

Hester:

Erin and I visit this lady named Hester. Hester is this phenomenal woman of God. She’s so passionate and has so much faith in Him. Everytime we go visit her, we just leave her house feeling so refreshed. Sadly, Hester has a really bad heart condition. Her heart is too large for her chest. A couple weeks ago, we found out she went to the hospital. We went to visit her at her house a couple days later, and it was one of the saddest things I’ve seen in a while. This passionate woman who we’ve come to love very much was on her bed, just crying with pain. She couldn’t get up really and she was sweating and hot. Erin and I got a cool rag for her forehead and prayed with her. By the time we left, she was feeling a little bit better. We went with her to the clinic the next day to just be there and support her. We’re still not sure what’s wrong, but the doctors told her she has to go to Port Elizabeth to see a cardiac specialist in March. She’s doing a lot better now, but she’s still pretty sick. Just pray for continual strength for her and to give the doctors wisdom. She doesn’t like the doctors in PE very much because they’re from Nigeria and she can’t understand their English, and they can’t understand hers.

Marta:

The other house visit team goes visit this lady named Marta. Marta is a single mother of three children who has HIV. It’s been awesome just to hear stories about how Marta used to be so shut off, but now she’s becoming so much more open and lighthearted. She’s even getting plugged into Ithemba! Well, recently she’s been really sick. Her and some members from my team have been going to the doctor with her. They know she doesn’t have TB or pneumonia, so they think it might be cancer. I guess there’s some lung cancer that’s quite common in HIV/AIDS patients. But, they’re not even sure if it’s that. So just pray for her as well for health and giving the doctors wisdom. Also her daughter, Myna (whos about 2 ½ years old) is getting blood work done today. We’re not really sure what it’s for, but it could be for HIV, so pray that her results are normal.

Valentine’s Day Ithemba Dance/Dinner:

So for Valentine’s Day, we threw together a dance/dinner fundraiser for the Ithemba church in the community. It was supposed to be a romantic atmosphere/get away for the adults, but a lot of children from the community showed up, so it wasn’t exactly “romantic”. It was still a lot of fun though! And we raised about 1,000 rand! Yeah Jesus!

Beat the Drum:

This next week we have an opportunity to be involved in Beat the Drum. It’s this HIV/AIDS movement that goes all over Africa, and this year is in J-bay! They go around and just talk about HIV to bring awareness and talk about abstinence. They also just talk about Jesus’ love for them and how Jesus can bring emotional healing to their lives. So we’ve been getting ready for that. Just pray that we’ll have a lot of stamina during that week, because we’ll basically be busy from the time we wake up until the time we go to bed. And pray also for the hearts of those who we’ll be ministering to and that God’ll just prepare their hearts for the message He has for them.

So that’s everything basically! Sorry this was rather long. Could you also just pray for continual financial support for my trip. I only need to raise $414! Thank you guys so much for everything! I love you all!