Saturday we were able to sleep in a bit and we went to visit an orphanage that our church helps support, Rehoboth. The orphanage is for children diagnosed with HIV and who have absolutely no family members to help care for them. It is designed to be a mini village, with 4-5 children in a house with a house mom. There are 10 homes currently with varying ages of kids. The goal is to provide these children a stable, loving, and healthy environment where these children can thrive. Upon arriving we saw a generator and other amenities that our church provided the village. The grounds are modest, but beautiful- macadamia nut trees nestled among the hillside.
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| The view from Rehoboth |
We were greeted by Alfons and Yvonne, the couple that run Rehoboth. They had tea and coffee set out for our team and gave us a brief update on how God has been moving in Rehoboth this year. Alfons told us how God told them that they needed to build another village of equal size on the adjacent property, even though they had only money for one house. So after lots of prayer and heart searching they found a builder that would build for them- even though they didn't have the money for the entire project. They encouraged the builder to "walk on water" like Peter in the New Testament and trust God to provide. Later when times got tough the builder reminded Yvonne to "walk on water"even when full of doubt. It was truely amazing to see and hear their incredible faith.
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| the first house built at Rehoboth's second village |
In order to have another village, they were also going to need another water well- which would be expensive to drill and could possibly be done incorrectly and be a waste of money. In the Zulu culture, whenever they were to drill a well, they would send for witch doctors to perform and tell them where to drill. Obviously this wasn't an option. Science was a valid option- they could hire professionals to come take readings and measurements and tell them where to drill. However, Alfons and Yvonne knew that this was God's project and they new He had a plan. So they gathered the entire village to pray near an old dried up water well and asked God to show them where to drill.
After praying collectively, they spent time to just listen to God. Listen to the Spirit... and then share what they heard. Yvonne felt God telling her that the well needed to be drilled right where Alfons was standing. She thought that was a little absurd, but then someone else heard the same thing from God- drill right where Alfons is standing. Someone else heard God say "3 meters"... when they measured 3 meters from where that person was standing- it was right at Alfons' feet. They knew that this was the spot.
Later in the week, several people felt God telling them they needed to drill 150 meters deep. They hired the people to drill the well, and they were very skeptical- after all, they were the professionals and here are people telling them where to drill and how deep to drill- all without science. They drilled for several days and the day that they were to make it down to 150 meters was a Sunday. They left for church and when they returned, the drilling had stopped. This could be a very expensive mistake or a great manifestation of God's provision. Sure enough- not only was there water at 150 meters, right at the spot Alfons was standing during the prayer, but it was water in abundance! The drilling people couldn't believe how much water was coming from that well. So powerful.
It is amazing to see the wonderful things God is doing at Rehoboth. We saw pictures of the children when they first arrive at the orphanage- malnourished, neglected, hopeless and now they are healthy, vibrant, and full of life.
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the kids- Russ was tackled by about 5 boys and they wrestled for a couple hours- until they were all worn out. We gave t-shirts out to the kids and just played with them. They had a blast and so did we.
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| russ playing with the kiddos |
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| Rehoboth village and our mission team |
Once our entire team was worn out, we headed to our rooms to rest and recover before dinner. After dinner we had a short devotional and planning with the entire team before heading to bed- exhausted. Russ and I were blown away by Rehoboth. If it's God's will, we'll be returning someday- possibly for a 3 month short term mission. We'll see what God has in store for us.
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