Arm their minds

This week’s holiday club was for the older kids between 12 and 18 years and while last week the teaching was around the Christmas story this week we have had a lady who works for SIM (don’t know what that stands for) doing AIDs education. Actually AIDs education was really only a small part of what she did, she started talking about how much God loves us, so much that Jesus died, she explained what the crucifixion was all about really well. She got all the facts out about HIV/AIDs, how to stay safe etc but she based it all on the bible with the main point being that we are super precious to God and therefore He wants the best for us, that means we need to make good choices. She then taught them how to live out the choices they have made like how to stand up to peer pressure and such. We did some hilarious role-plays on how to say no. Also the kids were telling all the chat up lines they’ve heard which was so funny like ‘you’re the only fish in lake victoria’ or ‘without you is like chai without sugar’!!

Bev and Eric who did the teaching were brilliant, really creative in their presentation and all the kids loved them, they were totally engrossed and actually asked proper questions about stuff they didn’t understand which is impressive considering they were dealing with such an embarrassing and taboo subject. One girl Zenna told me that she was enjoying it because they were teaching stuff she didn’t know.

Jeremiah 31:33 says ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts’. I remember writing an essay about arming the mind, that was about socialism but anyway the teaching that the kids heard this week is so so important, AIDs could kill them and getting pregnant could wreck their plans for the future and sleeping around does nothing for their already wounded self-worth. Sitting in the crowd this week was Petronila who is 14 years old and pregnant, she won’t be able to finish school. Likewise Millicent visited on thursday, she is a little older now but used to be in the project until she also had a baby and now can’t go on to secondary school, she shared with everyone how she wanted to go to secondary but can’t now and she is on her own with the kid. It is so important that the kids understand the teaching and remember it, and we’re praying that God writes it on their hearts. Bev said that actions only really change when there is a heart change, if the kids really believe that they are precious to God and that He has a plan for them, they will be so sold out for that they won’t even think about straying to the left or to the right.

So prayer request this week, please pray for everyone who came to the holiday clubs this week that God will indeed write that stuff on their hearts, that they will really know and understand and even feel how much God loves them so that they wouldn’t settle for anything but His best for them. Its so hard for them to believe that they are precious to anyone because they live in such poverty, its super hard for them to see it or to imagine what kind of plans God could have for them so yeah just pray for them that would be ace.

Also please could you pray for my friend Agri from church who really needs a job, he is HIV+ and is fighting off TB at the moment which means he is knackered all the time from the drugs but he really wants a job so he can afford his own place to live rather than staying with his aunt. She only lets him stay out of cultural obligation but treats him really badly. In the long run he would really like to be stable enough for his daughter to come and stay with him again as the family is currently looking after her. Its really tempting to try and figure out a way that I can help but God has challenged me that He is the one who will provide for Agri, maybe I’ll be involved, maybe not but for now my place is just to pray and encourage him and see what God will do. Agri is a total legend, his faith in God is epic, He totally expects God to come through for him.