Sam and I work with an amazing team to teach Sawyer's class. Recently, the director of our Sunday School realized that the kids in our church may not be fully aware of the connection between Genesis and our church. Basically, Genesis is the NPO established by our church to"get the church out of our walls". Our children's Sunday school classes have embarked on a 6 week journey of discovering what the Lord is doing through Genesis in the community.
On Sunday, our focus was the Care Center (hospice for AIDS, TB, and cancer patients). Sharon Jones, the center's director, shared the story of the good Samaritan with our classes. She explained what it meant to care for the hurting and the abandoned. She also shared the hospice's aim to share the love of Christ and the gospel with each patient.
Grades 4-7 met with patients in the wards. Elaina and her friend had spent each afternoon the previous week making 40 friendship bracelets to give the patients. Some of our students were deeply impacted as they came face to face with the mortality of man and the fragility of life.
Sawyer's class, grades 1-3, met the kitchen staff and got to see the laundry room with the oversized washing machine and dryer. Sam has the privilege of working with this staff on a weekly basis, but for the kids who had never been there, it was cool for them to see that each job is a sacrifice of love. After the tour, Ntandeni, the groundskeeper, took the students to the center's garden. The kids got to plant several beds of spinach and lettuce that will be used to make meals for patients. They were little farmers of love!
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| Care Center's gardens |
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| Sawyer gingerly plants a spinach seedling. |
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| Ntandeni shows the girls how to space the seedlings. |
In closing, Sharon gathered all the classes and prayed. It was moving to hear from her and to see the center's efforts to include the children of our church in spreading their vision to serve and love others in the name of Christ.
You guys are doing such amazing things! So cool that your whole family can participate. Noelle will leave July 8th for Johannesburg. They are staying at the Impact Africa facility. She is very excited since she found out they will be participating in a soccer ministry. Please pray for her anxiety, especially with the flight, and for her pain management. She is the strongest person I know and is accomplishing amazing things, but there is still a lot of pain, and many tears.
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