10-13th May

Thursday 10^th May

Thursday was a pretty standard day, not really much to report! In the morning I went an taught crafts again for an hour in the morning so I mainly did tidying up and talking to the girls, then after that I did admin until the afternoon. It was quite good to have a change and see how the office is run and to get to know the people who work there better.

In the evening we went to see Heavens Gates and Hells flames again but we took the girls from PCC, they really enjoyed it and one of them became a Christian which was really exciting. Two of the girls have also had their babies this week so getting to see them was awesome as they are so cute!

Friday 11^th May

In the morning I went to PCC and I helped to make cushions and I made an awesome one for my room as well which was good as I used my time more productively. We then went to a church service at 11:00 which happens once a month to pray for the HIV and Aids situation. I stayed in on the worship which was amazing. It was led by 3 Zulu women who have massive voices and were just improvising and harmonizing all over the place, so I obviously fitted in easily with my amazing singing talents… We then and looked after the kids from the crèche for 2 hours while the service was going on. This involved having to do crafts and play games with 30, 4 year old Zulu children who couldn’t speak English. I was in my element… [or not]. After finishing crafts with the girls and making lunch I set off on a big task - the laundry. This was the first time I have lost my temper while I’ve been here! If we want to wash our clothes we have to get the laundry key, which means we need to find the cleaner who could be anywhere in the entirety of gateway. We asked her to drop the key off at 2, it was now 3 an there was no sign of her. Mike and I had sorted everything according to colour and were ready to go. She was no where to be seen – I got mad. I had a usual Jessica-style rant and then things were fine again!

We had such a good time in the evening. Larry and Sheila from PCC church had invited us over for pizza and board games [my fave!]. They are originally from London and have lived here for around 7 years and they were just so friendly. They made us feel so at home and of course beating everyone at a charades style game is always a bonus to an evening.

Saturday 12^th May

On Saturday we had to get up at 6, I wasn’t happy about this at all as I was shattered from the busy week and I wasn’t looking forward to what was ahead. I had given into the peer pressure of going abseiling. We made our way to Howick falls [which look amazing] to meet Geoff and absail the 109 meters down the waterfall edge! We went in pairs, Anna and Kate first, Anna was pretty much having a panic attack an was going mental and Kate had to talk her through it the whole way down. Next was mike who is amazing at things like this an got down no problems. Finally it was Rob and my turn and I was freaking out. I kept it together though and managed to get myself over the edge. It was amazing, I only had one mental ‘omg ROB HELP ME’ moment and then I was fine. The back drop was phenomenal and I just felt so fortunate to be in such an amazing place and so grateful for how much God has blessed me. I got tired of doing the leg walking down thing, so instead pretty much just sat in the harness like a chair an lowered myself down [it hurt my crutch no end]. It took us around 20 minutes in total and it was so good!

After that we were all shattered so we grabbed 5 pizzas [cost 10 pounds altogether!!] and then went home for naps and showers. In the evening we were all well tired so we got the departed out on DVD which was a good watch and sat in our beanbags wrapped in blankets, good times!

Sunday 13^th

Sunday was a pretty normal day, we went to church in the morning and heard all the amazing stories about Heavens Gates. Turns out around 3/4000 people became Christians and there were tones of ace testimonies. It is so exciting to see how God is working here! In the evening we went to watch the last night of the production however I went in the prayer tent instead and then was on the response team who pray for people who came forward. There was a good looking guy that I though I would go and pray for but sadly he got snatched up and I was left with yet another crazy zulu woman. I had to try and write her name and address down on the form an had no idea what she was saying. Once that was done I asked if she wanted us to pray together, she said yes, so I began, ‘father God thank you so much for…’ an in that moment she went ‘same to you’ and just walked off! So I got totally ditched mid prayer! haha!

In the evening we went to mug an bean in the evening [again] with the people from church which was good to hang out with people an get to know them an it was also fun playing the Jessrob guess the sugar game.