Blog 3

Day 5

Dumela!  I do not know where to begin about our day.  I will sum it up as a day of gratitude.  

We split into two groups today, one who painted a mural for the preschool at Mooiplaas and the other who learned more about Mooiplaas and worked with the children of the preschool. 

Our mural painters got their supplies to paint a mural about 16’ long and 9’ high.  The mural was designed in happy rainbow colors which is perfect for the children.  The Ditshego director, Faith, asked our team for a mural that said the words “Wall of Hope” and represented the idea of hope for the children of Mooiplaas. The painters were made up of part of the Resurrection team along with some staff from Ditshego.  The painting crew worked shoulder to shoulder and created a beautiful mural for the children.  There was gratitude for being able to create something that would bless the preschool students.

The other group toured the Mooiplaas settlement where all of the children and families who are served by Ditshego, as well as some of the teachers and staff, live.  It is a settlement that was originally a farm which was sold and became a trash dump. There are about 50,000 people who live in the settlement.  Some houses are made from salvaged bricks, most from salvaged sheet metal.  The team made home visits where a jar of dried beans, legumes, pasta, and seasonings were shared that could feed a family of four.   There is gratitude that Resurrection has the vision and the means to help support the families of Mooiplaas through the preschool and gratitude for the opportunity to serve Jesus by sending mission teams to areas where there is such need. 

The afternoon was spent finishing the mural and teaching the children about people who help us, such as firefighters, medical workers, teachers, and police.  There is gratitude for the time we spent with the children and for all the love they shared with us.  

In seeing everything that we saw today, there is gratitude for all that we have.  Part of our devotion today came from the Wesley Covenant Prayer,  “Put me to doing, put me to suffering.  Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you.”  We lived this out today and throughout this trip.