keeping it simple

This last month has been pretty busy for me so I'm sorry for not being in contact!

Earlier this month, I had the chance to travel to the Eastern Cape in South Africa which is a much more rural area than Cape Town.  The purpose of the trip was to work with and document some child headed homes. (It’s a project that we’ve been working on for a while and will continue to because the issue is very heavy on our hearts) The trip didn’t quite go like I thought it would, but I think it was really important for my relationship with God to go on this trip. 
 
God spoke to me a lot about simplifying my life, and taking out the things I don’t really need.  We slept in mud huts, (which I actually love doing!) had dinner cooked on a fire for us, and had water fetched from a community faucet every day.  I don’t think I need to live a life that simple, but I do that think cutting out a lot of things in my life that I simply don’t need, and instead placing things in my life that I do really need, like more time focusing on God, are important.  

When we arrived at the child headed home we discovered that the children's father had just passed away un-expectantly so it had just become a child headed home and the whole extended family was there.  It was a sensitive time, and we didn’t spend as much time as I would have like, but we did get to pray with the whole family, (20 people) I think God uses those little situations we find ourselves in ways we could never imagine. 
 
I know I’ve talked about the issue of child headed homes a lot, but the more I dig into it, the more heart breaking it becomes.  It’s an issue basically ignored by the government, and the local communities try to cover up the fact that they exist.  What often happens in the communities is the kid’s in these homes are distributed throughout the community and become household slaves, and usually are served the smallest portions of food and mistreated badly.
 
We as a church NEED to pray into these issues if we want to see change!  Please, get together with your bible studies and spend a little time in a group praying into the issue of child headed homes.  God says in his word when 2 or more are gathered in his name he will be there also! If everyone who receives this newsletter spent 10 minuets in prayer for child headed homes a day for 1 month that would be hundreds of hours of pray from all over the world.  Change can happen, justice is possible, mercy is a prayer away, and we as a church are capable of all this!

Pray people will take their HIV medicine, a lot of times people don’t take it consistently because they don’t see the affect of HIV right away so they don’t see the need. If they take their HIV medicine they can live much longer lives and their family’s wont be left behind.
 
For more on what we are doing as a ministry visit:  www.avoiceforthevoiceless.co.za and see the current projects page. 
 
For pictures of the trip go to thoughts on photography and shooting in the Eastern Cape

For giving:

Patricia Robinson
Missions Accounting Coordinator
YWAM Tyler
PO Box 3000
Garden Valley, TX 75771-3000

Make your checks out to YWAM. Make sure you don’t write my name anywhere on the check for legal and tax purposes! Write my name on a sticky note that is not on the check or a note card!