Haniville Township, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

It has been my first couple weeks working at Walk in the Light and it has already been so transformational. I can’t even put into words the impact that this experience is already having on me. I can honestly say this is the first time in my life that I KNOW I am right where God wants me to be. My prayer is that He will just use me as His instrument there.

We have been doing manual labor in the mornings such as clearing out about an acre of land to be used for gardening and this week we will be building a house. It has been painful, physically, and every muscle in my body is sore but it feels so good to help. The man whose house we are building is name Mandla and he is paralyzed from the waist down because his daughter’s boyfriend stabbed him. He lies in his bed all day, has to wear diapers, and lives in a room about the size of a standard bathroom in America. Amazingly, he is still positive. He is able to smile and he has no grudge or bitterness towards his daughter. Can you even imagine?

In the afternoons we hang out for a while after lunch and then meet with a different group of people each day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we meet with the “gogos” which are the older women who work in the gardens and some of the other women from the community. So far we have played games with them, sang and danced with them and discussed their joys and struggles in life. They are so willing to do activities with us and to teach us Zulu songs. On Wednesdays we meet with the younger youth and do a small Bible lesson followed by games and activities. It is almost like a VBS with them. Last but not least, my personal favorite, is working with the senior youth on Fridays. The senior youth are between the ages of 14-21 and they are just so amazing to me. There is a group of boys Sihle, Njabulo, Tash, Snesh and Ncena who are done with high school but can’t afford college and don’t have a way to get to a job so they have nothing to do all day. They come to Walk in the Light and help us with whatever we are doing, play soccer with us, and talk with us. They are such amazing young men who have so much under utilized potential. I love spending time with them. As a group we have really focused on the senior youth and have already had a barbecue, soccer and slip-n-slide day with them as well as taken some of them to a movie and dinner. When we went to dinner with them, the boys asked how to use silverware. Just an example of something that is luxury to them, and completely normal to us. It has been such a joy working with the senior youth and we are going to do much more with them in the next couple of weeks.

Working at Walk in the Light has been way more than I could have ever imagined or expected. I feel such a love and passion for the people of Haniville already and I am dreading the day that we must leave.