Rainbows...

Hi friends,

Today we are wrapping up another awesome day at Ithemba-one that ended with a beautiful rainbow (we saw a few today) that started in the bay and ended in the township we have been serving in. For me, it was comforting to have God show up in that way-a reminder that He is a Covenant God and He will keep His promises. One day He will wipe every tear we've seen and rejoice in every smile we've encountered. Until that day comes, we count it a blessing to be alongside these children, at this point in time, as our stories are interwoven by a masterful storyteller who knows how it will end.

For me today was a hard day-i am coming down with the flu (a lot of the children have runny noses and a few you can tell are sick)...other teammates are also feeling a little run down-so please keep our health in your thoughts and prayers. On a brighter note, the pharmacy here is great and they were able to give us some good meds and we stayed in tonight and rested.

Aside from the health issues, we still pressed in and had a GREAT day at Ithemba. We awoke earlier this morning than previous days so that we could arrive at Ithemba to feed the kids breakfast which was a treat. When they broke for classroom time, we headed to the mall to buy them some special treats. We decided to do a fun-day/field day for the kids Friday and needed supplies to prepare. As we mentioned yesterday, we've observed some basic needs we have felt the Lord lead us to meet...so we bought "back to school" pencil boxes and filled them with the basics for each child-pencils, colored pencils, crayons, erasers, rulers with stencils, stickers, etc. We can't wait to assemble the gifts and give them to the kids!!!

We also noticed a need for underwear-some kids have accidents and nothing to change in to-so we bought up a nice reserve for the teachers to have on hand. It is so humbling to see the basic needs we take for granted to sometimes go unmet-so we are all so happy to help.

After our trip to the mall we grabbed some lunch and headed back to Ithemba to power wash the fence (Yeah Matt and Ben-it was a HUGE job to do in the cold semi-wet day we had today.) We hope to paint it on Thursday or Friday if the weather cooperates.

While the men were on fence duty, the girls played with the kids and helped finish the canvases that will be for sale.

After wrapping up our day, Lindsay,Katie,Jess and I drove through the township to drop off one of the kids -Timba-at home. Picture dirt roads with wood or metal leaned together (like what you saw in the movie Slumdog Millionaire) and in the "nicer" area 10X20 feet concrete boxes with dirt floors.

As I am hunkering down in my four blankets on this wet, cold & windy night, I can't help but let my mind wander to the kids on that dirt road I drove down just five hours ago-wondering how they will survive the windy, wet, cold night on a dirt floor without the luxury of heat or an extra blanket to keep them warm. Please pray for them.

Ephesians 3:19-21.

In His Grip,
Becca, Matt & Rich

P.S. Rich paid me to say this; Rich won Dutch Blitz and Gavin lost.