RivLife has already stolen our hearts :)

Sawubona!! (Hello in Zulu)
Today was our first day at our service sites!! I think we mentioned previously how we had visited numerous service sites and really loved one of them because we were able to talk to some of the women and got along with them really well.  They were such fun and amazing people.  After visiting all of the service sites, both Joey and I felt that RivLife was where we wanted to be, so we signed up and we got assigned to RivLife!  It is truly amazing to be able to do ministry with each other after having done it separately all summer.  We have the smallest team out of all the service sites (five) and we have already seen some benefits to having a small group.  Our group is absolutely amazing!  The people that are serving at RivLife with us are Lucas, Beka, and Elissa.  We are all very mellow, laid back people who like to have fun.  Even in our first day at RivLife, our willingness to serve and love on people was evident.  I think that we will learn and grow from the people at RivLife and also from our team members.  We all care about each other so much already and I can not wait to see how God moves within our team.  So... This morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed out to our site at 8:00 this morning. We arrived around 8:30 and met with Thendi (the women who will be in charge of us while we are there) and realized that our schedule at RivLife didn't start until next week so we were free to do what we wanted at RivLife today.  We went to the Creche, which is like a nursery/pre-school for the little kids.  We played, sang, danced, ran around, fed, held, and did all sorts of things with these little kids.  They are so amazing and already hold a piece of all of our hearts!! Then we went over to a community center where some Go-Go's were volunterring.  The gogos are basically grandmas and some of them volunteer their time to cook food for the kids who come to this center after school.  We helped the gogos make the food and then went back to the Creche and played for a little bit longer.  Then, we returned to the community center and played games there with the kids who came there after school.  We will be serving at RivLife for the next 3 weeks and while we are there we will be helping out in the Creche, helping the gogos, playing with the kids after school, helping in their garden, going to a support group for the gogos and also going to a support group for women with HIV/AIDS twice a week.  We can not wait to see what the Lord has in store for us!! Prayers would be greatly appreciated because we know that anytime God is at work and we, as his agents, are making a difference in people's lives, the devil will be working that much harder to stop it.  We ask that you can pray for strength, renewal, energy, unity, and for us to be filled with God's love.  If you have ANY questions, feel free to ask!

Some highlights from our day:::

Our friends had told us that it was going to rain today so the boys wore pants and then regretted wearing pants because it was so hot when we were playing outside with the kids.  Then, some clouds started rolling in and we were like “Let’s take the kids out to play a little more before it starts raining.” So we go outside and we see some dark clouds and down in the valley I hear a really loud noise that sounded like something was pounding on the buildings and like it was getting closer.  We ran all the kids inside and out of NOWHERE  … HAIL!!!  It was the biggest hail we have ever seen in our lives!  Then it started pouring down super hard and stormed for about 30 minutes and ended up getting sunny again by the end of the day.

Joey got peed… AND pooped on!! Haha well, kind of.  He was feeding one of the little boys and he peed on Joey’s lap.  Later, he picked up the same boy and his arm got wet and then he smelled it and it smelled like poop.  Then, he made Lucas smell it and he started gagging! Ha

I had THE cutest little girl fall asleep on me today.  She went completely limp and was so tiny that it wasn’t even hard to hold her.  The only downside: she was sick and her nose was running.  She fell asleep on my shoulder and slowly slid down as she went into a deeper sleep so I had snot on my jacket from my shoulder to my stomach.

One of the gogo’s is SUPER funny and always jokes about having younger boys as her “boyfriend.”  It is super funny because she has chosen Lucas to be one of her boyfriends and she does NOT stop joking about it and talks about it every time she sees him!  It is super funny and Lucas never knows how to respond so he just stands there and feels awkward, but we all love it and poke fun at him! J