Friday

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5/31/06
Yesterday as I was listening to the radio they were talking about the AIDS epidemic in this country. They were saying that there are 5.5 million people in South Africa with AIDS out of a 35.5 million people population and 36.8 million people with the epidemic worldwide. The fact is though that this is just the number of people that they know about. They say that they are making progress in treating the disease but there is not much evidence to back up this claim. Just recently the vice president of the Free State was tried for raping a girl which he knew had the HIV virus and afterward he showered believing that this would wash away what he had just done. What kind of message is this sending to the rest of the country? Then the witch doctors tell people that if they have sex with a virgin that this will take away the disease and the younger the virgin the better the cure. If these ideas are part of the progress that the government is supposed to be making then they have a far way to go.
Today we went up to one of the farm schools. We go to one on Sunday and one on Wednesday. The children at the farm on Sunday are obviously much less fortunate that the ones that we see on Wednesday. This is evident not only by appearance of the children but also by their intellect and the school building which is taught in. The class on Wednesday has a very good teacher who has connections with another school is Johannesburg which sends clothes to cloth the children. These classes are both composed of about 25-30 children with ages ranging from 3-14. What an amazing women it takes to be able to teach children of all ages including a few children which require special education. These schools are both maintained by the government and are tested quarterly. The quality of their teaching is evident in their ability to learn their memory verse for the week and the new songs which are taught. The education in this country is also another issue which will prove to be a huge problem in years to come. It is coming down to whether or not parents can afford to send their children to a good school. Children in Fouriesburg can go to school in town only until high school when at that point they have to be shipped to another town where they would reside for the week in a hostile which the parents pay for and come home for the weekends and often only one weekend a month. The school in Fouriesburg is apparently of better quality than some of the schools in Johannesburg because some of the parents which can afford it send their children here and they live for the month in a hostile which is mostly unsupervised and they go home the last weekend of the month. Who is teaching these children in the lessons of life? Who is teaching them right from wrong? Who is influencing these children? What does the next generation of this country looking like?
We passed out the mailers at the Flicksburg post office which is where the largest number of the mailers go out in a month. This months mailers were entitled “The Broad Way or the Narrow Way”. These mailers include the salvation message and we disperse about 2600 each month. Please pray that God would use these in the lives of the people that read them and they might understand the importance of this message.
Jeremiah 9:23-24
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories Glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgement, and righteousness in the earth.

6/1/06
The pathway is broken
And the signs are unclear
And I don’t know the reason
Why you brought me here.

But just because You love me
The way that You do
I’m gonna walk through the valley
If You want me to.

Cause I’m not who I was
When I took my first step
And I’m clinging to the promise
Your not through with me yet

So if all of these trials
Bring me closer to You,
Then I will go through the fire
If You want me to.

It may not be the way I would have chosen
When you lead me through a world that is not my home
But you never said it would be easy
You only said I would never go alone.

So when the whole world turns against me
And I’m all by myself
And I can’t hear You answer my cries for help
I’ll remember the suffering
Your love put You through
And I will go through the valley if You want me to.
-Ginny Owens
This song has been a real encouragement to me over and over again.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
For I know the thoughts that I have toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, you will seek Me and find Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, When you seek Me with ALL your heart.
6/2/06
Today I went to Masheang. This is the village which is across the highway from where I am residing and is composed mostly of shacks. I was really looking forward to being able to go here and it was a great experience. I look forward to going back and just walking through the place, passing out tracts, and taking lots more pictures. We were going to visit one of the girls that has been coming to the church for years. Her name is Mahala and she and her husband are expecting a child any time now. We brought her some things for the baby and it was awesome to just see the way that she appreciated these things, she had tears in her eyes. In America we are so spoiled. Most of the people here do not use disposable diapers because they are not able to afford them. While we were there visiting her children came from all around and before we knew it there was a crowd. We handed out tracts and I was able to get some pictures. The children love to have their picture taken and are really good at posing for the camera.
The shacks are composed of tin for the walls and the roof, few have windows. They have no running water in them and most have no electricity. Outside there is an ‘outhouse’ which has four pieces of tin, three walls and a roof, with a bucket where they do their business and a truck comes around to empty them all once a week. They do all of their laundry by hand and hang it on the fence, which surrounds their house, to dry. Please appreciate everything that you have because some of these families don’t have a good diet, their children have no shoes for their feet, some of the rags that we use look better than the clothes that they wear, and some have to pay rent for the shacks that they live in.
Ecclesiastes 5:10-11
He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, They increase those who eat them; So what profit have the owners, except to see them with their eyes?

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