Day 4

Hello everyone!

We had another fantastic day here in South Africa. It was a little rainy, but that hindered neither us nor the other Living Hope workers from making sure the children had the best day ever. At Capricorn we brought all of the kids inside to do praise and worship, to learn the memory verse, and to just play! At Overcome, with slightly fewer options due to facilities, we brought 57 kids into the shipping container to watch a movie. We followed the movie with a craft and lunch and then sent the kids on their way.

We also had another fun day of lunch at the beach. Due to the rain, we all sat in the van to eat. Despite us being inside, we still got a great view of the hardcore South African surfers who fought the weather to still go out and ride the waves.

The weather eased right as the teen camps started in Overcome and Capricorn. At Overcome, we also had all of the teens come in the shipping container to sing and watch “Facing the Giants,” which fits perfectly with the theme of the week: resilience. And it was so exciting to see many of the teens we’ve had all week come back again today, despite the rain! In Capricorn, the boys were able to get out and play soccer and the girls were able to play netball (a girl sport here which sort of combines ultimate Frisbee and basketball). Following the games, our team was lucky enough to have a great worship time with the kids. We learned today’s memory verse (Philippians 3:14), and then Meagan, the team leader of the Living Hope staff, gave a great lesson on the seriousness of God’s commandments. She bluntly put that if all we were gathered to do was to play games, then we were wasting our time. If our time together did not include talking about what Jesus Christ has done in our lives, then it could have been used better.  Our Brookwood team was then able to break up, and each person was able to pray with three or four kids. We prayed for the Capricorn community and for each kid and their families. We praise the Lord that one kid made a first time decision of faith!

Overall, today was wonderful. Despite the rain and cold temperature, we were able to have a spectacular time with the kids, the leaders, and with our Brookwood friends. We also had a delicious dinner and a fun-filled night playing Nerts! Could anyone ask for a better day?

Natalie (friend of Francie from Vestavia, but has seemingly meshed with the group)

Paul (Lifelong Brookwood member “BBC 4 Life”)

p.s. We were lucky enough to see two double rainbows today and capture one of them on camera!