JULY

July was a month of firsts for the Vulnerable Children program!

Our FIRST ever Vulnerable Children camp and our FIRST ever Vulnerable Children graduation!

We are so grateful to God that he is advancing and growing our program day by day.

We have been spending a lot of time as a team brainstorming strategies to better empower our families. Our heart and vision for this program is to come alongside our families and help meet their basic needs, but even more than that we seek to empower them to be strong, healthy and self-sustaining, and to live out God's great plans for their lives! We eventually would love to see our families no longer need assistance because they have the tools and confidence to have a job and the skills to take care of their family on their own! When a family comes to that point it is time to “graduate” them from the program. And we have decided that when a family comes to that place, it is very necessary to CELEBRATE! So we had our first graduation for Vivian* last month! Vivian and her daughter, Zodwa*, have been in our program for several years now. Vivian has given her heart to Jesus and is following him with her life. She has found successful, stable work and is now at a place where she can take care of her family without any assistance! She is such a wonderful mother and is a light in her community!

We held a graduation ceremony for Vivian, to honor her for her faithfulness in following Jesus and taking care of her family in hard times. A handful of women from our team, as well as, a few women from the community, gathered at her home to celebrate her graduation. We celebrated her becoming financially independent with cake, tea, a song and prayers. We presented her with a certificate of graduation and then spent time praying and encouraging her. It was very meaningful for Vivian. We are so proud of her and excited for her future!

AUGUST

August has been a good month! We are enjoying so much seeing the fruit that has come from the VC camp last month. There is a growing openness and hunger in so many of our families to know more about the Father! We have also been seeing so much happening in our VC kids' lives. Here is one fun story about two of our VC kids!

"One day at kids club Lily* was telling me about her friends in the area she lives who really need to hear about God’s love. She told me she wanted to have a kids club for them! I joyfully agreed and told her to ask her friends if they were interested. She got right to work setting everything up! Two weeks later we held our first kids club. Lily and her best friend, Vuyani*, led most of the meeting! Beforehand, I asked her what we should do at the club. She said she wanted to go through the stories in the bible starting with Adam and going in order. I brought my storybook bible and she led the story about creation! Her and Vuyani also led the kids in a prayer time, teaching them how to pray! It was so amazing to see all 25 kids jammed packed in her shack, listening intently to her and Vuyani! And we have had the club every week since then! God is raising up these once vulnerable children to be strong, radiant leaders in their community! This is one of our visions for the VC program; 'to see groups of spirit-filled kids discipling one another!' Praise God!"