Hello again!

7/28 Thanks so much for checking in with us. We realized that we didn't mention where we were at. We are staying in White River, South Africa. It is about 30 minutes from the larger city of Nelspruit. We are stationed with a group of YWAM missionaries and a recent organization called "Ten Thousand Homes". They focus on helping the vulnerable and orphaned children. So far almost all of the families in the community that we have visited have a parent or sibling who is infected with the HIV virus. Since the virus has killed much of the older generation, many children and families are without food or a place to stay, and often times the head of the household is a small child who looks after the other siblings. That is where "Ten Thousand Homes" comes into help. They build care centers in the nearby communities for the children to come throughout the day for care and food. They also provide further education purposes (life skills, construction classes, etc) for the older children when they are done with grade 12. Many have no where to go, and no specific skills to get a job once they are finished with school. We helped start a new outreach yesterday, called "Elizabeth's Inn", in the town of Kabokweni (15 minutes from where we stay). A woman by the name of Elizabeth began providing a home for orphaned children and an after school outreach program. The organization is going to team up with her to build her a care center. We were the first group to go with her to the community and provide food and games for these children. It was such a joy to see them laugh and smile and get to know the volunteers that help Elizabeth. It seems like a huge blessing for the community, Kabokweni!!

Prayer requests: Strength and energy as we begin to build relationships with the community. Since we represent YWAM/Ten Thousand Homes, pray that the impressions that we leave in the community this week will build trust and hope in this new outreach program. Pray for open homes and safe opportunities for these orphaned children! They need to feel God's love! Pray for healing in this entire country. There is so much physical suffering and loss, and still a huge separation between the whites and the blacks.

7/29: Today we went to the Millennium House, which is an orphanage for children under the age 10. Mostly infants and toddlers. Some are sick with HIV or lost parents due to it. The women that work there become exhausted so once a week, a team from the YWAM base goes out to love on the children and play, so that the women are able to rest. These children are absolutely adorable and love to be held! Many of there stories are horrific. One child was found on the railroad tracks, covered in dirt at the age of 1 month. Another at 4 months was taken from the home because the mother was insane and trying to kill her. Most of the time there are not enough workers for the children, so the time they get to be held can be short. They all cried when we left. It was heart breaking!! Please pray for these children in the Millennium House.

We made it!

GREETING FROM SOUTH AFRICA!!!
Well after a long journey, we finally made it! We flew from D.C. to South africa with a quick stop in Dakar. But of course the flight was ONLY seventeen hours! (total of 30 hours of travel time) The first night we arrived we were the only people that were sleeping on the Y.W.A.M. property. They just bought this new property and we were the very first people to sleep in the house. Two other people arrived the next day and are sleeping there with us. Jon a 17 year old from New York City, and Susan, a 26 year old Pharmacist from NYC as well. The first day we traveled to ACTS hospice which is about 10 minustes from where we stay. There we helped the nurses with patient care and tried to make the patients as comfortable as possible. We made friends with one patient named Alfonz, a 54 year old man who used to be a teacher. The hospice was slow that day but the clinic sent over 4 new patients during the time we were there. It was obvious to us to see that the nurses are great at their jobs.... but it was also obvious that the patients really enjoyed our company... Alfonz didn't want us to leave because he knew that no one would talk to him for as long as we did for quite some time. The best part was we saw the nurse the next day and she told us that he was doing much better. We knew in our hearts that the Lord was loving him through us, a taste of the healing power of love.
The next day we went to the clinic (the one that was sending us patients the day before.) When we arrived Myself and Jon began by moving a pile of bricks, and Dani and Susan helped with filing. Shortly after tea time (10:15 A.m) Danielle and Susan were able to head off with Gundula, a nurse from Germany, who heads the homebase Clinic, which allows the patients to live at home, and she visits them for checkups. We headed to the Themba hospital and four homes of patients with HIV and AIDS. The hospital was very intersting. The nursing staff numbers are so low that you barely get care at all, they even ended up removing all the call buttons, which surprised me a lot. There are crammed beds in one large room. Most of the patients had meningitis or AIDS. Then we headed to the homes. Each of these people live with the bare essentials. A room with a bed and a table. Many of them are on TB medicine or ARV's which are drugs for AIDS. They usually have a CD4 count of 20 or below, which is amazing. Many of you may not understand the importance of CD4 count, but it deals with lymphocytes and your immune system. Once they are gone, you have no protection against viruses and diseases. Therefore it is very easy to die. We even met up with one lady who had a CD4 of 0!! I didn't know that was possible. But she seemed to be doing well. It was overwhelming to see the impact that AIDS has on the community. Everyone knows someone affected. In the area that we are at, there are about 37% of people who have HIV/AIDS, which leaves many orphaned children. We met one little infant who was 5 months old, who was orphaned at three weeks. Both his parents died of AIDS. He is now living with a neighbor lady. Tomorrow we head out Mboniswene. This is a town of 200,000 people. many of which are orphaned children. We will be meeting up with a neighborhood of children to feed them and having craft time. In many families, the oldest sibling watches the younger ones, since there are no parents to care for them.
We will check in again soon and let you know how it goes! keep us in your prayers and check back for new updates. We love all of you so much!!
Also forward our blog site on to other people since we didn't have many people's e-mails. Again we want to thank all those who helped us in raising support to make this experience a reality! God is good!
-B & D

Hello All. . .

Blake and I are getting ready to head to South Africa. We are so excited to see where God takes us on this adventure. We thank all of you for your prayers and support. We couldn't have done it without our amazing family and friends. We love you all. Keep checking back for updates, photos and stories about our adventure!!