Being involved in the OVC programme for Living Hope has meant that I do not have time to be part of the Red Hill ministry, where I was based for the last 7 months I was here. I have missed being in that community and seeing the children and teenagers that we were working with and that I started to build relationships with. I have had to balance and increase my compassion to cover all the communities we work in, but secretly I know that Red Hill does hold a special place in my heart.
So it has been great to be a part of a Red Hill teenage girls discipleship group with a fellow volunteer, Lesli, who started this up while I was back in the UK. At the moment it is just two girls who turn up regularly on a Saturday afternoon to the church in the top camp. We do a bible study and play games and try to build up a deeper relationship and honesty with them, because good, Christian role models are so desperately needed in the community where almost everyone around them lives in hopelessness, despair and the behaviour that goes along with it. Once every two months we plan to have an 'outing' where the girls decide what to do and contribute something (R5 = less than 50p). This last Saturday we went down to the beach and spent the morning hanging out and swimming and then had a picnic lunch. It was great fun, especially with the local penguins to watch and laugh at! My favourite moment was when Lesli offered one of the girls Ladyfingers (sponge finger biscuits?) after lunch and she honestly thought we meant ladies' fingers. She asked if the fingernails had been taken off! And her face as she watched the rest of us biting into the biscuits was priceless! It was only after she took her own first bite that she said with suprise, "It's a biscuit!" Love it! Another memory I will keep for a long time is that the girls decided to write letters to Lesli, myself and each other. On the front of the envelope of my letter was written 'You are an inspiration to me.' When I read that, my heart was so thankful to God in that moment, for bringing me here to be able to know these girls and come alongside them for a part of their lives. I hope and pray that I am able to share a hope for their future and see them fulfil the potential that God has so richly blessed them with in their lives.
