Our team partners with a church in the black township, Tokyo Sexwhale, called Ithemba. Ithemba in Xhosa means hope. Pastor Gundu and his wife Emily have recently just resigned from Ithemba and Gundu has taken a new pastoral job in a town a couple hours away. His wife, Emily and 2 children however are still here in Jeffrey’s. Emily is a principal at a local adult school in the evenings and as a family are not in a position where she can leave her job as it is their only source of income. They have now been separated for about a month, and are hoping Gundu will come back at the end of this month. Over the course of the month I have had a lot of opportunity to be there for Emily. I could only imagine how lonely and scary doing all she does alone and really felt it on my heart to spend as much time with her as I could. So Holly and I have made it to her house once a week to visit, pray and encourage her as well as to cook up some American food for her and her children. My schedule doesn’t always allow much room to go into the townships and visit with people as much as I would like so the time I do have I value greatly. So my Friday afternoons have become Cooking with Emily time. We have only had the opportunity to cook something with her twice, but both times it was delicious by the grace of God. Cooking here in Africa is never quite the same, as the ingredients are different, all the measurements are different, the oven cooks differently, etc. Our first cooking session consisted of Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. And last week we cooked pizza as requested. It was the first time that I have ever made my own dough and it turned out great, after praying over it before I put it into the oven. More than just the cooking, our time is filled with encouraging one another to press on even though our work during the week is hard. I always feel blessed leaving her house and look forward to our continued cooking times together. Yesterday I received a text from her saying how much she enjoyed our company and feels so blessed by the AIM team. Keep Emily and her family in your prayers. Again a small thing reaping huge blessings.
I love you all and am missing home always.
Pressing On
Heather
Emily and I making Cheesecake.
Emily’s youngest, Mkatwa.
Me and Makuto.
I’m glad to see you hanging out with a native African and being bonded through Christ. I don’t know why it works out this way—that we are blessed when we help others. God makes it worth the while for all involved. Keep up the great work.
Love,
Lynette
I pray for you that the Lord will continue to give you these seemingly small moments of blessing. You are an amazing woman, and He is using you in amazing ways. Love you.
Hi Heather! I’m so happy to see and hear how God is working and answering prayer. You are a living example of what it means to persevere through the challenging times of life and ministry. God is using you in a great way and it is such a joy and privelege to watch God work and see you grow in the process. I love you, and will continue to pray for you and your team.