Time is such a funny thing that we never really think about till we want more of it or we want it to pass by quickly. Time is what we have on this earth, time is what we have with the people we love, time is what we have. At this moment in life I would of loved to spend more time with the people I care about most. Thinking about how silly I was growing up I used so much time on my friends and not enough with my family. Where are those friends now, well they are no longer part of my life. Those chapters have been closed. Being here apart of this team I have come to realize that more than anything I wish I had a group of friends like this, supportive, encouraging, and just there for each other like an oddly placed family. Time has for sure flown by way to fast with this special group of people. I wish I had more time to figure out what God had wanted me to learn last semester. I know I learned a lot but to tell what it is exactly I couldn’t do. The time I spent with my team was by far precious. The only thing I would have changed was I would have invested more time into each person, I felt like I was so lost and confused (still am) on what God was trying to show me, so caught up in my own world that I didn’t focus enough on the people around me. Now God knew what He was doing by placing these people in my life for a certain period of time then taking them away, He knew what values, behaviors, attitudes, and ect. I would have learned from these people. I can praise Him for placing them in my life for this period of time. Time is something I wish I had more of with my beloved Aunt Vicki . She was placed on Hospice around December 20th 2008 and was told she had 4-6 weeks left to live. She has as of January 13th 2009 passed away. She was suffering from cancer and had been for a couple of years now. The good thing is she is no longer in pain. Being away from my family during this time is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do on this trip. Not being able to be there while the whole family was saying their last goodbyes and morning together. I could only pray for my family , it’s a lot different when you’re an ocean away from the people you love most and can’t see them in a time of need. Thinking about the time she had on this earth and how it boiled down to those last moments. What would be going on in your head if you were told you had a matter of weeks, days, hours, mins, or seconds to live. Here in Africa there are people who are dieing daily of HIV/AIDS who know they only have an X amount of time to live. I can’t imagine what it’s like to know, your time has come to say good bye to the ones you love. Looking back on your life and everything you’ve done… was it worth it? Was the schooling, hope, jobs, relationships, friends, conversations, money, values, and exedra worth it? Everything you invested your life into worth it? I pray for everyone reading this that it was worth it. The thing I admire most about my aunt is the fact that she knew what was coming and she still had solid faith in God. She believed He was there with her till the end. She had just sent me a package full of ministry supplies ( bible coloring books, story books, crayons, and glue) for the kids at Ithemba. The girls who work at the clinic are praying that the patients who have HIV/AIDS can find that same kind of hope that my Aunt had even though she wasn’t healed. Faith and hope that God is still there with them even during these times, and the knowledge that He isn’t the one who caused any of this. http://www.stevensandgrass.com/obituaries/tribute.html?urlName=Vickie-Sue–Moles-Charleston-WV-2009&urlID=85010466
Time is what I have here in Jeffery’s Bay, time with the people I come in contact with and time doing what God has called me too. I am praying that God can use me and my team during this time, that we can start seeing even the slightest fruit from the last teams that have come through. I believe that God is not giving up on Jbay and nor should we. There are days that are so hard to keep going, to find motivation to keep building relationships with the people around me. With the street kids who after telling me they want to quit smoking glue are high on it a day later, to see them as the beautiful children they are, then change in an instant into a wild barbarian out for vengeances when another kid takes their hat. To know that there’s nothing I can do to change them, that God is the only one who can change someone’s life with that effect. I want to see these people not relying on us but to rely on God. Yeah at times it will be tough, but to see them push through with Christ’s love, knowing He isn’t the one who is doing these horrible things to them. I feel the kind of hope we have to offer the world is not a kind of hope that says everything will be easy but a kind of hope that tells truth with love.
