MAY//PLAYLIST

RATANG//BANA

We spend Wednesday afternoons playing with friends in a little green oasis in the center of Alex. We tell Bible stories, play cards, make crafts, and compete in some pretty heated Duck-Duck-Goose. The Lord is allowing our numbers to grow, so we now have about forty kids coming each week. These clever, hilarious, sweet children have become true friends, and I love them dearly!

BIBLE//STUDY

Tandiwe, Amanda, Nomhle, Doreen, and Thambi.

Wednesdays are the best days. We do design work in the office, head into Alex to hang out with orphans and vulnerable children at a non-profit called Ratang Bana, and finally have an evening bible study with some teenage girls who live in our neighborhood. Although these girls come from more modern and affluent households than our friends in Alex, they are still plagued by very traditional problems like polygamy and deep-rooted superstition. They have a very earnest desire to follow Jesus, but have been taught many false ideas. Months ago on one of my first nights with them, Amanda said matter-of-factly that when she died she would have to watch all the bad things she'd ever done on a big television screen, and she'd get into heaven only if the good outweighed the bad. Sadly, this is the reality of Africa. Jesus is known by many and twisted by many. He comes in countless flavors, almost none of which are biblically sound. Africa believes in God, just not the one true God who gave His beloved Son to bear our sin and reconcile us to Himself. Needless to say, we parked on Ephesians 2:8 for a long while: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourselves, but is a gift from God. We're now working our way through the Big Story, seeing how God's redemptive hand has been intervening from Creation to Christ to now. What a journey!