Day 5 in South Africa

Jen here, bringing you up to date of day four and five of our South Africa missions journey. We feel truly honored to be here, partnering with Living Hope and doing the Lord's work in the Cape Town townships of Red Hill, Masiphumelele(Masi), Capricorn, Oceanview and Overcome.

The construction team continues their work at Living Way, putting doors in place for life-skill building classrooms, building an overhang for an administrative building, installing new exhaust fans into rooms to protect workers making diapers and candles for a living, among other projects. They witnessed a devastating fire in Masi from their construction site, affecting 10 or more families. Please lift those families up in prayer...their well being, health, strength and hope as they attempt to salvage what little shelter, land and belongings they had.

A few of our team members held a health care retreat today for about 22 workers from the Healthcare Center at Living Hope. They traveled to Seal Island by boat, a first boat ride for many of the workers. The time of focus on spiritual growth, prayer, team building and communication skills left the health care workers feeling refreshed and it really seemed to lift their spirits.

This was day four of five for our "Boomerang Express" (Australian Outback-themed) vacation bible school. It's been an amazing experience all around, and we feel privileged to work alongside the life skill educators that work with these kids in regular afternoon programs. Their passion for God, His word and these kids is amazing and quite inspiring. Despite the circumstances the people in these townships live in, they are filled with so much joy, love and praise for the Lord. There is no doubt God is at work here. Both kids and volunteers have come to confess their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior this week. Even a blow-up Kangaroo, appropriately named "Joey," was able to lift the spirits of unexpecting pedestrians...draw smiles, waves and cheers...while leaning out of the passenger window of our van, as he made his way from Red Hill through Oceanview and into Masi.

Yesterday evening, we traveled into the Cape Town harbor waterfront or a relaxing evening of shopping and dining. It's quite a different experience from the areas we are working in on a daily basis. So hard to believe the amount of wealth and poverty here at the same time.

You can check out a couple more photos below. Please keep our team, the teams we're partnering with, and everyone God brings into our presence in your prayers as our missions journey wraps up in the coming days. And just continue to praise God for all he is doing here and pray that his work would only continue bringing people hope and transformation by belief in Him.