4 weeks and Counting...

Hello friends!

Welcome to my journey in Africa. This is where I will post updates of what is happening in South Africa and with me, and where you can see pictures! Thanks for joining me on my journey. I am so very excited to see where God leads me (and Sandile) in this adventure with Him. I leave in 4 weeks! Crazy isn't it. I cannot believe it has come so fast. My dream is finally becoming a reality and it is almost surreal...Am I REALLY doing this? I am really moving to Africa and getting married! Garry and the team are getting ready for me to come and preparing my room which I am excited about! There are already some girls staying at the house and a few more who will benefit from what I can offer them. I can't wait. I cant wait to be an overflow of God's love, grace, and healing for the broken. Here is a letter from a desperate young lady whom I will hopefully become involved with. Unfortunately her story is not unique.

People call me.............but my real name is ................ which means “Gift”. My mother used to tell me that I am a gift from God. The reason I write this letter is that I am not happy and I don’t know what to do anymore. I come from a family of five, one brother and three sisters. My father died in 2005 and my mother, she is the only one taking good care of us, but she is working only two days a week. The aim of writing is that I am not happy as I had to grow up in a children’s home in Durban. The reason I went to the children’s home, it’s because I was raped by my step-father and my step brother and was hurting so much and I fell pregnant and had a abortion. That was 2001 so my Social Worker moved me to another children’s home in Botha’s Hill where they would take good care of me, the people there were like my family. In 2003 my mother came to the children’s home to fetch me. I went back home to my sister’s. I was happy to be back home and at that time I was doing grade 11. There was a guy next door to my house who was so powerful and people were scared of him because he had a gun and he was doing bad things to the community and raping girls. One day he saw me and forced me to go with him to his house and he raped me and he kept me to his house for two weeks and he was sleeping with me over and over, until I found a way to escape. So I went home to my mother’s house and kept quiet about it until my mother found out I was pregnant, so my mother asked who was the father, so I told her everything because my mother was scared to go to the police so she suggested that I should keep it quiet otherwise he will kill all my family. In 204 I gave birth to a boy who looks like him. Even if I try to forget and put that behind me and concentrate on my son I can’t give him the love I’m supposed to give him and I always shout at him, but I do love my son very much, it’s just that he reminds me of what happened to me! I wish God will just take my life coz I don’t know who I am anymore. I am like a dog, even if I try to run and live my own I can’t find happiness. I am not happy about what happened to me. Me I don’t have friends because I don’t fit into any friendships- but my only friend is God and his Son. I want to change and become a better person. I wish I could find happiness. At first I was such a strong young person and now I have become completely weak. So I want you to pry for me and make this pain go away so that I can find a job and support my child who is my only hope. You are my last hope.

Girls like this are so desperate for hope and the good news of Christ. Please keep her in your prayers!