Today is Saturday and today we dedicated the building that we have been working on all week. Dan led us in prayer and then we all split up and went to different areas of the building and either put our hands on the floor or the walls and just prayed. I felt overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the circumstances that these children face every day. Overwhelmed by the feeling that God knew that this building would be used for these children on the day the first brick was put in place decades ago. Overwhelmed with gratitude that when these children walk into this building they will feel safe and feel God's loving arms protecting them. Overwhelmed by the enormous responsibility Key of Hope has to teach these little ones about God, and about how to better their lives. So many emotions overpowered me. It was just such an amazing experience knowing that everyone else was praying the same sort of things, dedicating this simple building for great things. Things I can't even imagine that God can accomplish with the help of this simple dirty building that we worked on all week. It is something I hope I never forget.
At about 9:20 vans started arriving, delivering children to come to the building for the program. This was all new to them as they were used to meeting in a tent in a field. So there were a lot of big eyes and lots of happy, excited smiles. I stayed outside and took pictures of these vans arriving and the unloading of children. It went so smoothly considering it was the first time they had done this. I'll never forget one van had 45 children packed into it. Only God can fit 45 children into one small van. Truly a miracle! The final count was 323 children. We had 75 come from Effingham which is where we had our VBS, so that was totally thrilling! I sat with the boys, one little guy about 3 years old in my lap. I just felt at home, like I was exactly where I needed to be. You know when I see these children I just see children. I don't see the dirtiness. I don't see the weird assortment of clothing, or rips or mud. I don't see HIV, in fact most of the time I forget that a lot of them have HIV. I don't see orphans. I simply see children that need love and attention. I heard someone remark the other day about how bad some of the children smell, and I thought it was funny because I just hadn't noticed. It's hard to remember that behind those bright engaging smiles is a child who quite possibly has been raped (perhaps more than once), who quite possibly has HIV, who quite possibly has no mother or father, a child who doesn't know anything about safety except for the safety that Key of Hope provides.
The program went fabulously. The lesson was on Zaccheus. They even used John as the tree and put one of the little boys up on his shoulders as Zaccheus trying to see Jesus. We also did our dental hygiene to day. Krisie and Emily were fantastic teaching the kids how to properly brush their teeth, and how to care for their toothbrushes. We were each given a group of kids and we gave our group toothbrushes and little mirrors and helped them see their teeth and brush them the right way. It was a lot of fun seeing all those cute smiles as they showed off their clean teeth!
Dan gave such a great message to the kids at the end. He has such an incredible gift in how he interacts with them. It is really amazing to think he has only been there in South Africa for three years! After that the vans started to arrive to take the kids back home. It was sad to see them go, knowing we might not ever see them again.
When all the children were gone, we cleaned up and went to McDonalds! Yes they have McDonalds here! Some of the team have been going to McDonalds every night after dinner. This was my first time though, and amazingly it tasted the same as in the US. I have to say it was incredible. I was starving. lol! After that we went back to our rooms and changed clothes. We then traveled to the world cup stadium in Durban, and the beach that was within walking distance from it. John and I took the tram thing up to the top of the arch above the stadium. Dee and Fabian went with us. The view was incredible. Everyone else went to the beach. Jake, Matt and Nick went swimming in the ocean. By the time we got to the beach it was getting pretty dark, and the swimmers were freezing. lol! We stopped at the grocery store on the way back to our rooms to pick up meat to cook for dinner. We had a Brie? Not sure about the spelling of it, but essentially we had a bbq. Lots of yummy sausages, chicken, and Ostrich burgers and steaks. Afterwards we sat around and talked about the whole week, the highlights and such.
What a great day. I'm sad that everyone is leaving tomorrow, but glad John and I are staying a couple more days. It's been so much fun getting to know Dan and Rachel better over this past week and I really wish I could spend more time with them and not have to leave so soon. They are such an inspiration to me.
Alright I have got to sign off now. It is now officially Sunday (12:01am) and we are having a sunrise service on the beach in the morning so I had better get to sleep. I have tons of pictures from today but as you can see, just no time to get them up here. I promise they will be coming though. :)
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