17, August 2005
I have not written at all about TAPIZO….she is the girl that is helping Charlie take care of Yamkayla. She is a beautiful woman. She and a couple other girls just graduated from a home care base training program that lasted 6 months, they all graduated with honors. I am so proud of these woman. She really glows with joy, happiness and security in the LORD. I think I already wrote about this woman and how she stepped up for Yamkayla when Charlie left S. Africa in 2004. If it wasn’t for her, Yamkayla may have ended up in the streets with his aids in which he was already sick. She helps Charlie out so much. I wish we could bring her home with us. Today, we went to the child welfare agency where Charlie is taking care some of the footwork towards adopting him. He always takes Tapizo with him on all these appointments. Every since I met her, I throw my hands in the air and give a holla like “whoo….whoo!” “Raise the roof!” I do this because when I see her, I see GODs work. Yesterday, I went with Charlie to visit a girl named Ana and her mother. She lives in a row of shacks that sits behind a row of shacks that sits behind a row of shacks off the road. I say this because it seems the deeper you go into the shacks, the more damp, dark and smelly it is. Anyway, this girl is about 32 years old and looks seventeen. She is partially paralyzed and looks a little retarded. She got TB and it was untreated. It ended up in her brain somehow and she was in the hospital a long time. She came out in that condition. Charlie and I went by to see how she was doing. He asked the mom questions about her health and spoke encouraging words to the mother. He asked her what she needed, again, I was amazed at the answer. All she needed was oats, chicken and some shake Charlie buys for the girl, ENSURE.
Today, Allison and I hooked up with a guy named “Dennis from Bridges of Hope. She had set this up in the States. We went to another shack town named Phillipi. Their organization is based there. We went to get a tour of the city. We had to sign a waiver of responsibility in case of death and had to agree that we were not taking any expensive items and no money on this trip. Apparently, this city is rougher than Kayamandi, the crime is higher. He said that his mother-in-law came to visit and they got robbed at gun point in Phillipi, their kids were with them too. He said about 2 years ago the government let out thousands of prisoners because the prison’s were over crowded and a lot of them went here. The drive was about 30 minutes. The whole drive, I was staring out my window because there was flat land all around us and there was a sea of never ending shacks! He explained that we were driving the flatlands between the two rows of mountains in the Western Cape and the flatlands were full with shack cities. Back during apartheid, the government would come with bulldozers and knock down big areas of shacks because they didn’t want the blacks to settle down to long in one place. They didn’t want them organzing a rebellion. Anyway, here is where I met God’s appointed warrior for the children of this area. Her name is ‘Agnes. We got to go to her hourse and hear her story. This woman was living in a shack with one room and a bathroom. She also had a shack that had one room in the back. She had taken in up to 5 homeless children in this shack that were on the streets. They didn’t have clothes so she went around asking for clothes. She also took some of her dresses and cut them to make clothes for them. Bridges of Hope found this lady. They ended up supporting her and the five children. They built a decent 3 bedroom home w/living room, dining and kitchen. Also an indoor bathroom. Her home is used as a model “orphan home” that Bridges of Hope has begun to train people. Their plan is more homes in Phillipi like this rather than orphan institutions. It was pretty amazing. If any of your have heard of this organization, they are doing great things in S. Africa and if you every are faced with the opportunity to support them, they are legit. Before I forget, the first man I met in Phillipi remaned me, he said my new name was Nomfundo which means education. Allison was renamed Nolita, which means light, leader, sun ray. Well, we got to do some home visits there in Phillipi. The first home we visited was a woman who wanted us to go there and pray for her daughter who was paralyzed and brain damaged by a viscous rape attack when she was 12 years old. Man, was that hard to swallow. She is in her 20s now. When we walked into that home, my nose was slammed with a smell that made me nauscious. It was a smell of the fuel they burn for heat in tin cans, dirty clothes, feces, sweat, body ordor and old food. We walked thru to the back of the home to a room where the mother, the daughter and a brother were all laying in bed. The brother was bandaged on his head. He had been beaten up by some gangsters in the town who accused him of raping someone. We made sure that he had seen a doctor and that the bandages would be changed. We prayed in this house, it was spiritual warfare. We were with Agnes and Elizabeth, two powerful Xhosa women. They were demon killers, I could tell. The prayer in that house was powerful and awesome. We brought the light with us and the darkness was peeled back…JESUS reigns!!!! Then we went to visit a boy who had TB and was very sick. That house was filled with love. The feel I got there was warmth and that they were a tight family. We prayed there, it was awesome. I was praying in the background. They prayed together and I felt nudged to cover in the back. I standing there, praying, my head was going off into another direction. I was like God, how are you going to use me. What can I do. I even felt like I was doing the motions and not really in the prayer. Then, He just nudged me to sing in the spirit, put my hands in the air and praise Him while they were praying. It wa POORING…POORING rain outside and the sound of the rain was magnified by the tin roofs….so they prayed louder, I sang louder. It was kewl. After they finished, I was still singing in a low tone in the back, then they started singing in Xhosa a song to Jesus. What was kewl is that me and Allison had the same song in her head that I was singing while they were praying. She didn’t hear my song cuz of the rain. She too felt the Spirit nudging for song and praise. After this visit, we left Phillip back to Stellenbosch.
Today, Allison and I hooked up with a guy named “Dennis from Bridges of Hope. She had set this up in the States. We went to another shack town named Phillipi. Their organization is based there. We went to get a tour of the city. We had to sign a waiver of responsibility in case of death and had to agree that we were not taking any expensive items and no money on this trip. Apparently, this city is rougher than Kayamandi, the crime is higher. He said that his mother-in-law came to visit and they got robbed at gun point in Phillipi, their kids were with them too. He said about 2 years ago the government let out thousands of prisoners because the prison’s were over crowded and a lot of them went here. The drive was about 30 minutes. The whole drive, I was staring out my window because there was flat land all around us and there was a sea of never ending shacks! He explained that we were driving the flatlands between the two rows of mountains in the Western Cape and the flatlands were full with shack cities. Back during apartheid, the government would come with bulldozers and knock down big areas of shacks because they didn’t want the blacks to settle down to long in one place. They didn’t want them organzing a rebellion. Anyway, here is where I met God’s appointed warrior for the children of this area. Her name is ‘Agnes. We got to go to her hourse and hear her story. This woman was living in a shack with one room and a bathroom. She also had a shack that had one room in the back. She had taken in up to 5 homeless children in this shack that were on the streets. They didn’t have clothes so she went around asking for clothes. She also took some of her dresses and cut them to make clothes for them. Bridges of Hope found this lady. They ended up supporting her and the five children. They built a decent 3 bedroom home w/living room, dining and kitchen. Also an indoor bathroom. Her home is used as a model “orphan home” that Bridges of Hope has begun to train people. Their plan is more homes in Phillipi like this rather than orphan institutions. It was pretty amazing. If any of your have heard of this organization, they are doing great things in S. Africa and if you every are faced with the opportunity to support them, they are legit. Before I forget, the first man I met in Phillipi remaned me, he said my new name was Nomfundo which means education. Allison was renamed Nolita, which means light, leader, sun ray. Well, we got to do some home visits there in Phillipi. The first home we visited was a woman who wanted us to go there and pray for her daughter who was paralyzed and brain damaged by a viscous rape attack when she was 12 years old. Man, was that hard to swallow. She is in her 20s now. When we walked into that home, my nose was slammed with a smell that made me nauscious. It was a smell of the fuel they burn for heat in tin cans, dirty clothes, feces, sweat, body ordor and old food. We walked thru to the back of the home to a room where the mother, the daughter and a brother were all laying in bed. The brother was bandaged on his head. He had been beaten up by some gangsters in the town who accused him of raping someone. We made sure that he had seen a doctor and that the bandages would be changed. We prayed in this house, it was spiritual warfare. We were with Agnes and Elizabeth, two powerful Xhosa women. They were demon killers, I could tell. The prayer in that house was powerful and awesome. We brought the light with us and the darkness was peeled back…JESUS reigns!!!! Then we went to visit a boy who had TB and was very sick. That house was filled with love. The feel I got there was warmth and that they were a tight family. We prayed there, it was awesome. I was praying in the background. They prayed together and I felt nudged to cover in the back. I standing there, praying, my head was going off into another direction. I was like God, how are you going to use me. What can I do. I even felt like I was doing the motions and not really in the prayer. Then, He just nudged me to sing in the spirit, put my hands in the air and praise Him while they were praying. It wa POORING…POORING rain outside and the sound of the rain was magnified by the tin roofs….so they prayed louder, I sang louder. It was kewl. After they finished, I was still singing in a low tone in the back, then they started singing in Xhosa a song to Jesus. What was kewl is that me and Allison had the same song in her head that I was singing while they were praying. She didn’t hear my song cuz of the rain. She too felt the Spirit nudging for song and praise. After this visit, we left Phillip back to Stellenbosch.
posted by Adelina at 5:19 AM
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