On Monay: we worked in the garden and said our goodbyes to these women. Then, as always, we went to the Creche and hung out with the kids there, and then finished up our day at the drop in center
On Tuesday: we went to the HIV/AIDS support group and the new women who had been talking to the boys the previous week showed up for the group!! This was very exciting to us because she has been struggling with the disease and we know that this support group will be a great place for her to get involved and discuss her struggles.
On Wednesday: we went to the Gogo support group in Madiba and we ended up staying later and did some home visits with Nomvula. In our time with the gogo's, they fed us a meal, we bought some scarfs from them, took pictures with them, thanked them, and were able to spend our last day just hanging out, talking, and laughing with these women. They gave all of our team members a bead necklace as a thank you which was so cool! After our time with these women, we began doing home visits. I think our whole group would agree that these home visits were an amazing experience for all of us. Although we had spent the last few weeks at an AIDS support group, this was the first time that the reality of the disease has really hit me. There is usually at least one person per home that is infected with the disease and we saw people who were very, very sick. This really challenged me and my faith because I started thinking "Do I have faith great enough that God could heal people THIS sick?" It is very overwhelming to see people this sick and to have the amount of faith it takes to know that God can do ANYTHING. We were able to pray over people in all four homes that we visited which was also amazing. In one of the homes, we were about to leave when they asked us to stay a little longer so that they could talk to us. We did not know what to expect in this moment, but then the man in the home disclosed to Nomvula that he was also HIV positive. After a person discloses, Nomvula (or whoever their sponsor is) can then go through the process of helping them apply for grants in order to receive money to help pay for their treatments. The strength and courage that these people have is truly amazing! Although many people do not want to be tested because of the social stigma that comes along with being positive, there are many who have been tested and continue to rely on God through all of their struggles.
On Thursday: we started out by going to the HIV/AIDS support group. We arrived and all of the women and children were dressed in their traditional Zulu skirts and beads and they had a table set up with a bunch of crafts that they had made. They started out by serving all of us traditional Zulu bread and some sort of cooked leaves that are healthy for you :) Then, they had all of their kids sing and dance for us. During the singing and dancing, they presented us with gifts that they had made for us. The boys received these wooden sticks that are a traditional thing in South Africa and a bead necklace and the girls received a bead necklace and earrings! Then we sat in a circle with these women and talked about our experiences that we had with them. This was truly amazing because they told us how much we impacted and changed their lives and we were able to tell them the same. They told us that we made them feel loved, we made them feel like human beings again, they appreciated that we didn't treat them any different then we would other people. It was SO amazing to see the ways that God had worked within this community that we formed with them. This time that we spent at this support group really affirmed in our group the power of relationships and sharing God's love. We originally wanted to help these women with their business, help them plan things for their group, etc. But after meeting with them, we decided that relationships and love and helping them to see their worth and value was something that would really benefit them as a group. It was VERY hard to say goodbye to these women. They all started crying and we just kept hugging them and hugging them. We took tons of pictures and told them that we would continue to write to them. We reminded them that they are SO loved and that we have learned so much from them and have truly been impacted by their faith in God. As we were leaving, Lindiwe (the new woman who started coming to the support group) was crying and telling us how much we have impacted her life. She said that when she was diagnosed with AIDS, she felt like she was given the death sentence. She said she had been locking herself in her house and just cleaning and avoiding going out in the community. She told us that we were able to make her feel loved again, to make her feel like a human again. She told us that she is going to continue going to the support group, go out of her house, she is going to start going to church again, and she is going to love herself again. This was SUCH an amazing testimony of God's presence and love in this situation. We then went to the Creche and had to say goodbye to Gogo Beatrice and all the kids. The kids were hugging us over and over and the little boys were dog-piling Luke and Joey. Being with these kids day in and day out for the last three and a half weeks has brought so much joy to our lives. Then, we went to the drop-in center where they had prepared CHAKA-LAKA for us as a goodbye meal! It was delicious and we played with the kids for our last hour and a half and finally said our goodbyes. Saying goodbye to everyone was definitely hard, but we also know that the Lord has brought us so much joy from the people at RivLife. We have no regrets in the way we did things during our time there. God is so good and so faithful, and these people at RivLife have brought nothing other than joy, laughter, and love into our lives!! They will forever be a memory and will always have a small piece of our hearts!
WE LOVE RIVLIFE <33
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