Hello!

Hello! I hope you are doing great and have had a great week. Thank you for praying for our children who have been so sick. There are now only two of our children who are still sick. Thank goodness that they are better! It is not fun seeing anyone being sick, but especially little children. I worked in the “isolation room” where the sick children were kept separate from those who are not sick. Being with sick children this week has been challenging, but God has given me the strength needed. Mom asked me if I was going to come home and change my major to pediatric nursing and I just don’t think so. But I learned so much-I made a lot of rehydration water for those who were sick because the children were losing so much fluid and not able to keep the formula in their tummy. The rehydration water was 1 liter of hot water with 8 tablespoons of sugar with ½ tablespoons of salt. Thankfully the children drank it so stay hydrated! I was able to spend a lot of time with these children and I wish I could describe them to you by name. I am just amazed at how their personalities are so different and they are each precious in their own way. The youngest child who was sick was 3 months old and God used him to touch my heart…let me tell you the story real quick. I was having a hard day-it was this past weekend, and I felt like I had so much to do-the laundry, bottles, helping with the other children, dishes, cleaning, changing beds, feeding…and I was feeling overwhelmed. On weekends, there are not as many aunties and volunteers to work and it is a very busy time. But there was not a possible way for me to do everything needed and take care of those who were sick and entrusted in my care. And I was so tired and just lost my focus on working for the Lord and in the Lord’s strength. I went into the isolation room to check on the children and one of the boys was crying. I picked him up and cradled him close to me and he immediately stopped crying. I just began to pray to God about all that was on my heart and I started crying just from exhaustion and wondering why I did not pray earlier. My tears began to fall on Mandla. When I looked down at him, he was looking at me. He looked me in the eyes and smiled at me. I felt a God’s love and joy through Mandla’s sweet smile. I believe that God speaks to us every day in small ways, just sometimes we seem to busy to notice or think of the small things like this as a gift from God.

This leads me to tell you something else that God showed me this week. I was reflecting on the number of days we had been here and how many days were left and I realized that this past Friday marks 40 days until Katherine and I leave. I began to think about how the number 40 is such a significant number in the bible and I began to look up different passages about this. In Matthew 4, Jesus was led in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and he fasted during this time. Jesus was tempted by the devil and he always responded to the devil’s temptations with Scripture. In verse 4 Jesus told the devil, “Man should not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” In verse 10 Jesus said, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” I realized how God’s word is like our spiritual food and can not live a day without it. I also realized that God longs to be the one true God of my life…
Another passage that I wanted to share with you comes from 1 Kings chapter 18. This is about Elijah. Elijah was in the desert, fleeing for his life. An angel appeared to Him and told Elijah to eat. Then he traveled for forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb, where God said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord.” Then there was a powerful wind that tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks, an earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in any of these. After the fire came a gentle whisper…the Lord was in the gentle whisper. I was challenged for the next forty days to focus on serving the Lord with my full heart, looking to His word when I am homesick or have a broken heart and to look for God in the “gentle whispers”-the smile of a child, the sound of laughter, the encouragement of a friend, the warmth of the sunshine(it is cold here-I guess it would be the coolness of shade at home), the songs of birds in the mornings, a sunset, and just to have an open heart to see how God is working everywhere. How do these two Scripture passages challenge you?

On Friday, Katherine and I went with another volunteer named Cornee from Holland to an open flea market called Bruma flea market. This was quite an experience! There was so many beautiful authentically African made things and I was able to buy some really beautiful things. I am not going to tell what because I do not want to spoil surprises for those I bought things for. But what was even more neat was how God opened the door to share with Cornee. I will tell you a bit about him-he is a 40 year old man who we work with at Door of Hope. He works in small babies (newborns to 3 months) but we still see him a lot and know him well and knew it was safe to go with him to Bruma. He helped us when all the Africans said, “Ladies come here! I give the best prices! Come look to see what I have to offer!” After we had shopped for 2-3 hours, we decided we were hungry and wanted to go eat lunch/supper. Well, this meal lasted for a couple of hours because we were just talking and sharing. Cornee came to Door of Hope to try to “find himself again…” he shared with us how empty he feels inside and how his heart has been broken by circumstances in his life. Katherine and I shared why we were here and I shared how I have come to understand how I have found that I know I am only complete in Christ and can only find true purpose, joy, hope, love, abundant life in Him. He seemed to think about his for a while and just said the he could not understand how we could be our own individual self when we are living under the direction of someone watching us in the sky. We shared with him and tried to share our testimony…please pray for this man who is searching and pray that he comes to understand that God wants to know him personally…

This weekend was a great weekend of working and loving the children and I am so glad that they are better!

Yesterday, about 6 of us volunteers went to the Lion and Rhino Nature Reserve and saw some beautiful animals. The lions were so majestic and huge! We saw girl and boy lions-the boy ones are the ones with big manes, which I think everyone knows this but I was not sure so I asked and got made fun of. But we saw baby lion cubs and you could pay to play with them but I didn’t. Sometimes they would bite at you and claw at you and I just decided to watch. We saw cheetahs but did not get to see them run. We saw huge rhinos with their babies. Zebras and their babies, ostriches(they are such funny looking animals), many kinds of antelope, snakes (they were in cages-there were deadly snakes there and a huge python and cobras-I not like), lots of wild birds that were pretty, and we got to see tigers and leopards, but the majestic creatures were in a large cage with lots of land around them and I know they just want to get out and run. But would a tiger eat a lion or a lion eat a tiger? They do not live in the same kind of places do they? Don’t tigers live in the jungle? Oh and we saw hippos and they were swimming and one of them was pregnant and I was afraid she was going to sink to the bottom, but they would blow water out of their nostrils and it looked like a whale doing this. It was funny.
For dinner we ate at a place called Carnivores and it was fun and different. Wait until you hear what I tried…you are going to want to do this too! In the middle of restaurant there is this huge roast thing where all the animals are cooking and it smells really good. Then they bring you huge meats on a big stake and ask you if you would like any. I tried everything!! Let me tell you what I ate: spicy chicken liver, chicken wings, pork sausage, rump steak of beef, leg of lamb, venison meat balls, venison sausage, zebra, kudu, warthog, and crocodile. Oh my goodness! The chicken liver was chunky and very spicy, the chicken wings were like those at home but not fried, the pork sausage was tasty, the beef was normal, the leg of lamb was tender but not much taste, the venison meat ball was delicious, the zebra was white and has a unique taste, the kudu was my favorite(it was like a really lean pot roast and very tender-a kudu is a type of antelope, I think), the warthog was awful-it tasted fishy(I had to spit it out-yucky), and the crocodile had lots of bones in it and I did not like all too much. But it was fun and I hope you all get to eat game animals like that someday..

This week K and I work Wednesday thru Friday. Yesterday, two more of our children were adopted! One of our boys went to Denmark and a young girl went to Norway. I can not imagine the life that God has planned for them there…I do wish that the United States could adopt from South Africa, but right now this is not allowed…we should pray for this. Also continue to pray for a social worker. Last week, two new babies were brought to us from the hospital and they are beautiful-they are also so small and were born premature. But God is showering them with love and care at Door of Hope!

I love you all so much!!!

Love, Rachel