day 141: wading through wednesday

don't think i'll ever find myself writing, "another typical wednesday here" (or any other day of the week for that matter)! had a fun time teaching at siyazakha today. we're seeing relationships with the teachers & principals at all the schools grow. we're earning trust & respect and it's opening doors even wider for the gospel.

had some really cool moments with the learners today! in order to really grab the students' attention & remind them of the importance of the topic at hand, we often remind them that although HIV & AIDS are prevalent around the world, south africa has the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. today, one of the grade 7 classes was completely shocked. their responses were heart-breaking:

hands shot up around the room with questions. one young girl shook her head in disbelief saying, "this cannot be so!" one girl who was seated in the front said with wide, concerned eyes & an immediate sense of urgency, "can we decrease it???" the kids were so full of questions at that point that we had to hand out paper BEFORE the lesson in order to proceed. as we went on with the lesson, they continued to raise their hands asking for more paper on which to write questions. typically, they save their questions for the end. today, though, many of them wrote 2, 3, 4 questions a piece.

as we read through them later, our hearts were again heavy. we continue to be bombarded by incredibly tough questions.
"if i have HIV what must i do? answer me please!"
"is it true that God does miracles like the blind man who could see or the paralyzed man who could walk? if so, then can God heal someone of HIV?"
"do you believe a pastor can heal someone of AIDS?"

PRAY for us as we seek to answer these questions (& many others) next week!
PRAY with us that this generation will be the one to turn things around here in south africa.

on a much lighter note...
- i tried to incorporate more xhosa into the lesson today. pretty sure that "mosquito" (ngcongconi) is my new favorite xhosa word. it requires two clicks (the letter "c") & an incredible amount of laughter by the learners when i attempt to say it. if i could spell it out phonetically, i would. just use your imagination!

- (while sitting in the staff room during a break between classes) (in a hushed, CALM voice) i said, "sarah, there's a mouse...DON'T freak out." i have to admit...he was kind of cute.

- a few girls in our most difficult class (of the WEEK!) called me over to their desks today & asked, "why don't you do an after-school club here with us...just girls?" i was reminded through that that it's often the ones who are most difficult to love that are the very ones who need to be shown love the most. also encouraging to hear they are hungry for more...&, again, i have to admit...i am too!