Volunteers, Volunteers, Everywhere

We have had our normal winter in South Africa, summer in the USA, of volunteers and we are slowly but surely decreasing them each week. I made an interesting comment long ago about it being easier to raise an 18 year old than it would be to have a baby. Well, God loves to humor me and uses it quite often when I make silly statements like this. Having one 18 year old was all I was referring too, but as always I usually eat my words. Over the last couple of months we have had as many as 20 volunteers between the ages of 18 to 23 at the same time. We are very thankful that we are only given what we can handle! By the end of this month we are always ready to see what’s in store for August. This is our 3rd year for winter/summer break and I must be getting older because it is getting harder. This is always an opportunity for stretching and being able to give all the glory to God for seeing it through. Philippians 4:13 says it best, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

World Cup, Check! Holiday Clubs, Check! Huge Soccer Tournament, Check!

The last 4 weeks have been exciting yet tiring for most of us at Living Hope. We had 4 straight weeks of Vacation Bible School along with soccer almost every night the first week and then tapering off as they got into the finals. We did get to have a little fun going to the U.S. Consulate to watch the USA games and it was such a blessing to be around a lot of Americans during this time. We had about 60 volunteers, both local and international, during this time and we also had 3 teams here helping with the clubs. We watched a lot of “football” (soccer), but nothing compares to American Football. Last Friday was the grand finale with about 750 kids playing matches for 3 hrs. We wrapped that up with the final game on Sunday. Mike was pulling for Spain, so he was happy with the finish of the World Cup. Most of the people in South Africa were for the Netherlands because of the Dutch background in this area. It is all quiet now and you can’t believe that all this took place over the last 4 weeks. We had covers for our side mirrors on our car and today we decided it was time to take them off. So everything is officially over!! Whew……..