12 Feb 2004
4 USA volunteers' work with the orphans
at the Life-Child care centre in Malelane, South Africa -

When I say sweating it out, I really mean it literally. The district of Malelane, is probably best known as the southern gate of the Kruger National Park, the gateway towards the Eastern part of South Africa and Mozambique and lastly its extremely hot summers, which also makes it ideal for farming with sugarcane, bananas and other fruit farmers. It could probably be counted amongst the areas known as the "fruit baskets of Southern Africa".

Although Schoemansdal, an area further south towards the Swaziland border, experienced drought and heat waves during 2003, a team of 4 USA volunteers, Sarah, Matt, Joey and Joy,Ý came as a refreshing breeze to many of the burdened AIDS orphans and community members. For the past 3 months, these youngsters have unselfishly been helping out one with oneÝ of Doctors For Life divisions, Life Child. They concerned themselves with caring for approximately 40 AIDS orphans, which attend the day care centre, run by Mrs Ndlela. It is one of DFL's 28 day centres where orphaned children - mostly due to AIDS - find shelter, food and education.

This is some of their brief reports about their duties...

Sarah and Joy write:

"There is a Christian school that is located on the premises. We assist in the school Monday thru Friday from 7:30 to 2:00. The school is not for the orphans only, it is also for anyone that wants to enroll their child for a fee. They use the ACE learning system, which allows the children to learn for themselves. The ACE curriculum is an American Christian based curriculum. It is not the traditional teaching style. While assisting in the school, we just rescore the work that the kids have scored already. The kids have to speak English in school, so we help to correct anything that they say wrong. Everyday except Sunday, the kids have a bible study at 5:30 that we teach. We do different arts and crafts with them. We also teach them new songs. In the time between the ending of school and the bible study we cook and eat and if its not too hot we play with the kids. That is basically what we do!"  

Matt tells us the following:

"Thus far my responsibilities on trip have been to oversee the building of a new Ýorphanage with my partner, Joey. This has included: meeting with several Ýgovernment officials about supplying the site with water, getting price quotes Ýfrom several material suppliers, having official building plans drawn and Ýapproved, all the while communicating with Doctors for Life and getting Ýinstructions for the next move! It has been very stretching in that, it forces Ýone to stay on top of things and to make sure that those who promise to do a service - do it. I haven’t done this on my own, mind you. There is another Ýgentleman that has been working with us who has had some experience in this Ýfield: Samuel. He has filled in the gaps where I couldn’t have (especially Ýwhen it comes to ordering materials), and he gathered together a small manual Ýlabor crew to dig the foundation, lay the concrete, and build the building. As Ýof right now, he and his crew are digging the foundation. He says that if Ýall goes well, the whole project should take no longer than one or Ýtwo more months! Being placed by DFL was, I thought, a mistake at first. But Ýnow I see that where God places you, God will sustain you, give you wisdom, Ýfavor, everything you need to accomplish what He wants! Eph. 3:20 keep it real dude.Matt"

And lastly Joey states...  

"I make shower water for the team in the morning, mixing hot with cool water to make a soothing temperature. I preach a ten minute sermon to the school every Thursday before classes, all done in English with no translator. I spontaneously and randomly play with the children and am drawn to interact with them. I hold the wee one's a bit.  

I ride around with Matt to go shopping for food, get estimates for the building project for materials end expenditures, talk to various municipalities to aid with the project and take Mrs. Ndlela on chores around town. I drink Aquelle water to boost my immune system..."  

Allthough they all sound a bit modest in what they do, I can assure you that the efforts and hard work they put in is especially appreciated by the orphans, who have shared their lives with the volunteers for 3 months. Unfortunately the children had to say goodbye to their new much loved friends as the team had to move on to our daycare centre in Wasbank, to assist with the needs of the children in that area. Please remember to keep these volunteers and children in your prayers.