Community Fun and Games

After an extremely tough and challenging week and 3 break ins later we have come out the other end, dusted ourselves off and trying to figure out what we have learnt from all this. I am sure that there is a lesson in all this somewhere, it certainly has been a test of character. I started out feeling angry and bitter with the perpetrator and the situation, but have moved on to now feeling desperately sad for this person. Sneaking around at night, breaking in and taking stuff that does not belong to you must surely be a very sad way to live life. No one can feel proud of this behaviour and they will never value the stuff that they now have or the money they got from selling someone else's possessions. Through the week I have also grown to realize that this stuff is not mine or even Camp Sonshine's, we have been blessed by the contributions of many different people. By the grace of God alone we have been given these possessions, they have been provided by God and belong to Him! We truly appreciate the prayers of friends around the world during this tough week, I truly believe that by the power of prayer alone our hearts have been changed and our attitudes in dealing with this have been pleasing to God.



Today we celebrated with the community by holding a Community Fun Day. We wanted the people of this community to know that the actions of one person will not change the way we feel about them and will not stop us from doing what we still feel God is calling us to do. At 10 AM (the official start time) we had about 10 kids in the school hall ready to start. I am not going to lie, this was a MASSIVE disappointment! However, we started things as promised by singing some of our favourite camp songs. Slowly more and more people began to arrive and in true "African time" style by the end of the day we were topping 80 active participants! The crowd was mostly kids, we were hoping that they would bring their parents too, some did. We divided into groups and rotated around 4 activities. There was lots of cheering, participation, fun and laughter. We ended the day with some more songs, spot prizes and I then spoke a little about what had gone on during the week. I explained that we were sad about what had happened and would very much like anyone who knows anything to let us know. As everyone was leaving a parent came forward and told us they she knew who had our stuff, she did not want to be identified to the police and she even mentioned a stolen item that I had not listed. She gave me the alleged perpetrator's name and address! I have now passed this information onto the police. Not sure what will happen from here, but at the very least the community knows that we take these things seriously.

A highlight of the day was one little boy who volunteered to help one of the leaders pack away some equipment. As he was collecting balls and cones he said "my mom is dead", this is a shocking statement when it is just out of the blue. Haley, our awesome leader asked if he had a dad, he said that he did, but said that his dad was not nice to him and that his brothers teased him all the time. Haley asked him if he knew that he had another dad, he said "yes, I have Uncle Clive". This was obviously not what Haley was getting at so she explained about how God is his dad in heaven and how He loves him very, very much and will never hurt him or be unkind to him. This little boy seemed to have some vague concept of God, but then said "the devil is going to get me". We have no idea what this poor kid has been taught about God and the devil, but Haley was able to have an amazing conversation with this kid, telling him the TRUTH! We are so grateful to have had this opportunity and pray that little Maurice will sleep better tonight knowing this truth.

Good Week, Growth Week . . .

At Camp Sonshine in Maryland, USA we are taught that there are no bad days, only good days and growth days. Well, this past week has certainly been the latter for us here at Camp Sonshine Africa!

It started with the headmistress of the school wanting to once again change all the kids around (the kids that Camp Sonshine Africa are helping to catch up as they are very far behind in their academic progress). This is an ongoing debate / tension that we have as we do not believe that it is in the best interest of the children to keep switching them and changing them around. We feel that our purpose is in quality rather than quantity, we feel that it is far more beneficial to fully educate a few kids to the best of our ability rather than give many kids 15 minutes a day! Anyway, we have a meeting planned for tomorrow (Monday) to further discuss this issue, I just wish that it would become resolved once and for all (according to the signed agreement that we have).

On Wednesday during our after school enrichment program some money was stolen from our office area. One of the kids had opened some letters from pen-pals and managed to find some money in an envelope that two of our kids had earned while doing a movie shoot. We spoke about steeling and how wrong it was and asked the person to come forward and speak to one of the leaders . . . no luck. It left me with a horrible feeling, one of the kids that we are trying to help is now steeling from us. It is true that we should not leave money lying around, but the fact that it was not in plain sight, but in an envelope seems to make it worse - someone was looking for something.

On Thursday evening our after school care container was broken into! Fortunately we have lots of burglar bars, so none of the big stuff was able to be taken, but there was obviously a small kid involved as no one bigger could fit through the bars. The place was left a mess and annoying things such as our multi-plugs, small desk-top stove plate and CD players were stolen as well as more letters opened. I am not going to lie, my first response was not to give thanks that we were able to provide these things for someone who needs them! I was extremely angry and honestly felt like packing up and getting a "real" job! When you work hard trying to help people and you are thanked like this, it is not a good feeling!

Having had the weekend to think things through I realize that it is only "stuff" and that really, it is not our "stuff" anyway! God has given us all that we have to run these programs, now through no fault of ours someone else has some of this stuff. It can all be replaced or we can do without it, we were blessed with it for a time. I now feel sad for the person who did this, why do they feel the need to creep up in the dark and take what they know is not theirs, this seems a sad existence to me. I pray that they will find what they are REALLY missing inside themselves.

It was so fitting that we are currently doing a series called "@ WORK" at church. We have learnt about the fact that we are not working for man, but in all that we do we are working for God, no matter what our job is. Today we learnt that we need to be faithful in the small things - do an excellent job doing what God has called us to do, when He sees that we can be trusted with what we have been given, He can trust us with more. We need to control the things that we can - such as our attitude! It really made me think about how I deal with the situations of the week, it is OK to use it as a teachable moment with the kids, letting them know that this is NOT OK, but getting angry and bitter about things would not glorify God. Something that really stood out to me was when Jeff (Henderson) said that trying times are fertile soil for building our character. I am in the fertile soil right now . . . I pray that my character will be built in a way that is pleasing to God!

Back to school . . .

After 2 weeks Easter Break schools go back tomorrow! This is an exciting time as well as a potentially stressful one for teachers. Often after children have been out of their normal routine, and with the children we work, with many times neglected at home, they come back to school badly behaved and generally unruly. While this is understandable, we ask for your prayers for these children and their teachers that they would quickly settle into the new term, that the teachers would be blessed with an extra dose of patience and that learning would be fruitful.

Our Sonshine Academy kids will be blessed with a new volunteer - Brad, who will be with us for about 2 months! Brad came out with the NorthPoint team(from Atlanta, Georgia, USA) and has stayed on to help out where needed! We are so grateful for his willingness to help and we just know that the kids will be so blessed to have a positive male role model around!

We are very excited about this school term and about what is happening in our country as we get ready to welcome the world to South Africa as the Soccer World Cup begins on 11 June. Please keep the Camp Sonshine Africa staff in your prayer too as we plan activities for the extra long winter break holidays! We usually have a 3 week break during this time, but due to World Cup fever hitting our shores we are "blessed" with 5 1/2 weeks of school holidays in the middle of our cold and wet winter! Planning indoor activities for this length of time could be challenging! Any and all ideas are most welcome!

Ask and it shall be given unto you . . .

This week began the first school holidays of the year, a much needed break for students and teachers alike. During the school holidays Camp Sonshine Africa runs a holiday club to give the children of Maitland Garden Village something fun to do - keeping them off the streets, occupied and having fun while in a safe, caring environment. This is the first holiday club that we have run that has not been sponsored by Cape Youth Care - the local organization that we partnered with. Cape Youth Care has unfortunately had to close down due to an unexpected and very sudden complete cut of government funding. Camp Sonshine Africa has fully taken on all the projects in Maitland Garden Village that Cape Youth Care were funding. Camp Sonshine Africa has no magic source of funds, but we believe in these programs and that God will provide what we need. So far this year has been financially stressful as we have literally had to cut all program costs just to be able to pay staff. So, to run a holiday club we had to charge kids to attend. Even in charging them we did not fully cover our costs and activities such as our planned Easter Egg hunt were going to have to be changed into looking for spray-painted rocks - not even almost as fun as finding a chocolate egg!

Early this week I had a random call from a local business saying that they wanted to help - this never happens, people don't just call us wanting to help. Anyway, even taken off guard I excitedly arranged a meeting with the company manager. They have been looking for a local NPO to help out in whatever way we need help, they found our website and called up! I told her about the programs that we run and what we had planned for the school holidays, she asked where we were getting our Easter Eggs from, I explained that I did not know and that we were hoping that someone would be able to provide these for us. She told me to consider it done and the next day she dropped off a massive bag of assorted chocolate and marshmallow eggs! She also said that her staff would like to be involved on an ongoing basis by giving of their time and possibly even financially. I was astounded and grateful and also felt a little foolish when I remembered the promises that God has given us - that He will provide for our needs and that what we ask will be given.

Little kids get this concept, I have had the amazing privilege of hanging out with my (almost) 2 year old nephew who is visiting from England. He does not worry about how he is going to be fed or clothed, he just knows that he parents will give him what he needs. He is also not afraid to ask for things, around afternoon tea time he comes up to the nearest adult saying "bikkie, bikkie (biscuit, biscuit)". He has no doubt about whether he will receive one, he knows that because he is asking, he will get one. He is not the slightest bit perturbed if one person says "no", he simply asks someone else; he may eventually resort to giving hugs and kisses to get one and at that point you simply cannot say no. (Now I know that if this became a constant request all day long his parents would not allow this as they do ultimately know what is best for him, but one biscuit a day is quite reasonable). Seeing his faith and trust in getting what he needs and even what he wants makes me know why God asks us to come to Him with the faith of a child.

On top of all this we were doubly blessed when I was able to collect 3 massive bags of clothes, school supplies and fun stuff that a team from NorthPoint Church in Atlanta, USA had brought over. I was so privileged to spend the day with them as we hung out with some of the Garden Village children and went into their homes. Their amazing generosity and kindness was overwhelming especially bearing in mind that they got all these things together to bring over before even meeting these children and families. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!