Wednesday

Good morning, everyone. It's Thursday morning here, and we had another wonderful day yesterday. The longer we are here, the more need we see.

Yesterday morning, the nurses made housecalls at the Masimphumelele township, which is very different from OceanView, where we were on Tuesday. Instead of making housecalls, one of our team members, Carol, was asked to stay behind at the clinic itself and see patients, as the nurse who was supposed to be seeing patients is trying to do 3 or 4 people's jobs right now and is unbelievably overloaded. Carol said the morning was heartbreaking. Serious injuries, sick children, very few medications and supplies, not nearly enough staff, the list goes on and on. The needs are so great.

The kids club team had quite an afternoon at Capricorn. Capricorn is one of the most underserved areas in Capetown-no schools, no community center, no programming, no anything. Ashley Lovell has been working in this neighborhood for months now to establish relationships with the children, many of whom are addicted to drugs and/or involved with a gang by the time they are 12 or even earlier. Anyway, Living Hope (the organization we are involved with) held the first-ever Kids Club there yesterday, and we had no idea what to expect, so we had all hands on deck, just in case, and we're glad we did. We ended up with over 150 kids, meeting outdoors in a field to talk about how your body is a temple and how to take care of it inside and outside. The kids were amazing--they are so in need of love, physical contact, affection, anything that shows them that someone cares about them. Before we gave the kids a snack, we had them wash their hands. Because there is no water, we had gotten a big tub of water for the kids to come wash their hands in, and then one of our team memebers, Mike, was waiting with a big bath towel to dry their hands. You should have seen the looks on the faces of these kids--being served by someone else, even if it was as simple as drying their hands. Mike said it was one of the most moving experiences of his life.

We have each seen more need and more hurt in 4 days than many people will ever see in a lifetime. Please pray for us as we process what we are seeing and love these people who need it so badly.