Alright, so I know I haven't written in a while, but it has been crazy here! So much has gone on and yet it seems like there is nothing new.

Well, my house visitation team just lost one our ladies. We decided to keep visiting her family, but they have decided to move to Cape Town. So we no longer have that family to visit. There was other 2 women that we visited, Thelma and Mandeesa, and both of them asked us to pray for them to get jobs, and God answered our prayer. They both received very good jobs, but they work all the time, and so we can no longer visit them. Then another woman we visit, Roberta, also received a job. And last but not least, Gloria, the mother of the child that needed help, also received a job. So, good news is God answered all our prayers. Bad news, we no longer have families to visit. Our house visitation team is back to square one. We are in the process of finding new people to visit and see what God wants us to do.

He actually already has 2 big projects that have come up within this last week. Our whole team knows this woman in the township. We call her Auntie Matilda. She is crazy and she is fun. This woman loves the Lord and takes care of her community. Well, this past week the back half of her house caught on fire. Thankfully no one was hurt. Since this happened, we now have some work to do. We spent a good bit of our week cleaning up and painting her house.

The second project we have is starting a bible study with a group of kids who go to a feeding center. Amber, one of our leaders, met this woman last year who ha a dream of starting a feeding center. Long story short, they did it. It is called Khulisa. Every morning, Noma makes breakfast for the kids. Now she has a dream of starting a bible study for these kids. She wants to do more than just feed them food, she wants to feed them life eternal. My house visit team and I have decided to take this on. And it is going to be a challenge, because at least half of the kids speak little or no English.  So, starting up this next week, we are meeting with them on Wednesday, and beginning a bible study for a group of young kids. We need to love them, and show them how important they are.

Please be praying for that!

Now.... For some really BIG news!!!!! On Thursday of last week, we found out what our outreach locations are... starting in January. There were 3 options. We all ranked them from what we wanted most to least. The leaders continued to pray over them, and then began to place us in our teams. The three options were staying in Jeffreys Bay, go to Swaziland, or go to Port Elizabeth (P.E.). I wanted P.E., and that's what I got!!!! Yay... I am stoked! We have the opportunity to work with a church called Lighthouse Family Church. They have many different ministries that are up and running that we can contribute to in so many ways. They have a large youth ministry that we can make an impact on. They also have started a few orphanages, then they also have outreach ministries that go out into the community. They go into the townships, to the poorest of the poor. They go meet peoples needs, love people, and SHOW the world around them who Christ is. I am soooooo excited for this opportunity. I will be on a smaller team of 15 people total including our leaders. Pray for unity to form between the smaller teams.

Now... in order for me to be here for the second half, I need to finish raising my money. I have most of it, but there is still the last bit that needs to come in. I need to raise $1000. That's all I have left, and really that is nothing. God can make that happen so easily. I am asking you, all of you who read this, and support me, and care about this work that God is doing, to help. You are apart of this trip just as much as I am. Prayerfully consider giving to this cause. All you have to do is go to left hand side of my page, and click the support me link. Make a donation by credit/debit card. Just follow what the page says. Thank you everyone. Everyone who is praying for me, everyone who has supported me financially and in any other way. You all help make a huge difference. Thank you all so much.

Talk to ya soon!

-The Roth

An answer to a prayer... well, at least that's what I think now. This week was a little difficult to be honest! The first part was normal... visiting with some of our friends in the township. Monday and Tuesday we were with a friend named Hester! She is a crazy wonderful woman to hang out with. There are absolutely no words to describe her!!! =) She let us know that she needed help with her garden out beside her house. We didn't even know that it was a garden, that's how bad of shape it was in. So we told her we would get to work on it. The next day, we came back with supplies: carrot seeds, spinach seeds, and beet root seeds (all by request). We spent the next couple of hours working on this
garden. Or at least... Davie and Sarah did. Jess and I were busy playing with the kids. Hester decided to start a creche (daycare) on Monday. Crazy Hester!!!! So that's how our day went!

Now let's go to the end of our week. On Thursday, we decided to stop by and see sweet Evalyn, the woman who had a stroke, because we hadn't seen her in over a week. We walked in to a house full of people. They were cleaning and fixing things. The smell was gone, and I looked over to the room where Evalyn stayed, it was open, and she wasn't in there. I immediately began to freak out in my mind. One of the ladies we had never met before came by and sat with us for a moment. She told us that Evalyn passed away on Saturday. My heart stopped. I loved this woman. She was so precious. We would come in and sing songs of praise over her. We read her scripture. We sat with her when she didn't even have the energy to speak. My whole team developed a deep love for her, and as we heard the news... all of our faces just dropped. But we knew it was an answer to a prayer. She was healed, but in an unexpected way. She had no more pain, and was dancing with the Lord! But this moment was just silence, and there was pain within us as our hearts broke. But we sat there, and continued to speak with her family. They informed us about the funeral arrangements. We all knew that this was not a loss, it was a victory. Christ has so much work for us to do here... right now with this family.

So, in an awkward silence, we asked if there was any way we could help. This woman, Violet, began explaining all the family
that was coming in to stay with them, and they didn't have enough money to feed them all. So we asked what we could buy. As soon as we started running out the door, she came running after us. She wanted to tell us that she has never interacted with white people like this before, except in her work. None of them ever seem like they care.

WOW! How do you react to that? My heart is completely broken for her! So, we went on our way, and bought them a good bit of food, which cost us next to nothing! As we returned with it, they brought us back into the house, and started crying. They were so grateful and overwhelmed by something sooooo small for us to do, but it was HUGE for this family. These women just began crying and thanking us for this. But we tried to point out to them that it wasn't us that did that, it was Christ. We told them how Christ made us all equal. No one is higher than the other! They didn't know what to do with it. But it was such a good moment. We prayed with them, and then heard something going on in the back. We went out to check, and one of the husband's was outside beginning to  build an extra shed/shack for the weekend. Davie started helping, and then we decided we would come back the next day and build it for them. We got the other house visit team, and a few leaders to come with us. We spent the next few hours building, and as we finished, we just hung out with the family. It was a wonderful afternoon, and we had so much fun and joy brought into our lives. Serving others who have needs... well there are no words to express the joy that comes from the Lord in that! The funeral is tomorrow, and we will continue investing in this family the way the Lord wants us to. He works through brokenness so well, so there is no telling what can happen here! Pray for this family. Pray for my ministry team. And thank you for keeping up with what's going on!

I'm out for now!

-Roth

Beat The Drum... the most exhausting week ever!

Wow... I don't even know how to begin this one. Let's start with day one, Friday morning, our whole team rolled out of Jeffreys Baii, but we didn't all leave at the same time. We had to leave in shifts. A 5 am crew, 6 am, and the lucky 8 am people. I was blessed just to be leaving at 6, but God is good and faithful and made it easy for me. So, after a 3 hour drive, my van load arrived in Somerset Oos. After everyone arrived, we had our first welcoming meeting: basic information, dinner, meeting with our teams and worship. Day 2 was just training, and Day 3 was church and that evening was opening ceremonies of Beat the Drum. The entire community was invited and so many people showed up!

Day 4, MONDAY, was the big day... time to teach! But the problem was... I did not feel ready! I was teaching a class of 11^th graders at an all black, Xhosa school. I had one other person teaching with me, Max. Funny story, he has the same birthday as me, but is 2 years younger, so he was born on the same day as Stephen! CRAZY! But that's besides the point. So, we have this class together, and the first day wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. We got to show the entire school this movie called Beat The Drum. Then we had an hour with them to start through the workbook and beginning our AIDS awareness program where we preach abstinence.

Day 5, TUESDAY, was interesting. I didn't feel like Max and I made much of an impression on these students after day 1, but as we came in, the students were so welcoming. They were ready to learn and remembered all we had talked about the day before. They weren't responsive during teaching the day before, but I guess they just had to gain our trust before they could open up. This was a big thing. We didn't get to finish our lesson from the day before, so the principle let us have an extra hour with the students! PRAISE THE LORD! It was so nice. Max and I finished talking about values with the students, and somehow the Lord was changing how they think. Then for the second hour, we split the guys and girls up for this lesson. With the girls, we dealt with issues that girls struggle with, and he moved in amazing ways!

Day 6, WEDNESDAY, God decided to take me way out of my comfort zone. I thank Him so much for that now. I was asked Tuesday night to lead worship for the entire BTD team. We met for devotions and worship every morning. I am still terrified of leading worship... but God thought I was ready apparently. So, I led! And I don't remember how it went exactly, because when I get in a moment like that, I just let the Spirit lead. It was so refreshing to let him really let go in me too! Then after that, my team prayed for one specific thing among our school: courage for our students to speak out. Let me just tell you, Satan decided he did not want that and attacked the school. They had no water, and normally they would send all of the kids home. The principle decided this was too important for the students to miss out on. PRAISE THE LORD!!!! So, we start teaching, and they opened up and became completely vulnerable with us. We explained purity and abstinence in a new way. They asked me if I was married. I said no. Then if I had a boyfriend, and again I said no. Lastly, they asked me if I was a virgin, and I said yes! I have never seen a group of students so shocked. Completely befuddled by that fact, they asked Max, and he said that was a virgin too. They didn't know how to react to this. These students have been told and believed a lie that if a guy didn't have sex the sperm would go up his spinal cord and into his brain. Once it hits your brain, you become mad! We told them truth and broke that lie from their lives. They also started thinking about abstinence. It was a rollercoaster of a day... and it still wasn't over. That night we had a youth rally for all the students at all the schools we were at, and over 500 students showed up. I was in a drime that night, there was amazing worship, and amazing teaching. But none of that matter. Hundreds of decisions were made to give their lives to Christ, and there were also soooo many decisions to remain pure from that moment on. God moved in awesome ways.

Day 7, THURSDAY, was a good day with my class. Again, we went to the school and there was no water. We actually wnet early in the morning to teach so they could go home early because of the water crisis. Satan tries to defeat us, but in the end he got walked all over by the glory of Jesus!  So, Max and I went in knowing exactly what we were supposed to do that day. The Holy Spirit led like crazy. Our lesson was talking about what true love was, and the difference in lust and attraction. We added onto what we talked about the day before and then gave a call to salvation. I'm not putting numbers out for numbers sake, but to bring God glory in this. He did everything. 9 out of the 15 students gave their lives to the Lord! God is so good! Let's just say I had a party that day celebrating new brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Day 8, FRIDAY, was mass chaos. Nothing got done the way it was supposed to. We didn't get to teach our class, and I had a horrible headache. Max had to leave a day early, and Satan decided to attack in another way. So, nothing got done on this day for any class, but from what I heard, God had already won the battle on the days before! There were multiple calls to salvation and to abstinence! This day wasn't even really needed! That afternoon was free HIV testing and hundreds upon hundreds of people showed up for this! It was a hard day, because there were some people who were positive, but in the end... there was so much freedom in knowing the truth. So to end off the week, we had a closing ceremony and it was precious. God showed all that he did, for HIS glory. So many entered into the kingdom of heaven, and so many chose abstinence. God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good!

This was my long exhausting week in the beautiful town of Somerset Oos(East). I loved every minute of it. And I pray that God brings me back there. This is a very brief version of what happened here. Beat The Drum in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed reading!

Love Y'all!

-Roth

Well, I have been living in community with others for an entire month now.

It's not as easy as I thought it would be. On Thursday, Tag, one of our leaders, placed a challenge on us that we had to partake in: we were not allowed to buy anything for ourselves for the next 24 hours. Other people had to buy it for us.

AHHHH.... This is so hard for me. I hate letting people buy things for me.

Rules: We couldn't buy anything for ourselves. And we have to ask for one thing during this next day. So, we had to ask for help. That meant if we had to go to the doctor, others had to pay for it. If we wanted a soda, other people had to pay for it. If we needed anything at all... others had to pay for it. For me, I don't mind paying for other people's things. I just have trouble relying on others. I like being independent in that sense... at least when it comes to my friends and my peers. It is really hard for me to ask for help. It's hard to even ask my parents for help. I hate feeling inadequate.

This challenge was teaching me specifically to lean on others. And it is showing me the meaning in a kind of off-the-wall way. One thing we need to survive is money... and that money buys us the things that are essential... as well as the things we want. Now because of our needs, we have begun to lean on money rather than leaning on the body that is supposed to help support us. I got through this challenge just fine. I asked for some vet coek, a South African specialty that I love. So, one of my teammates bought one for me, and the other got me a fanta. And I gladly bought things for my friends when they were in need. That one day challenge was no problem.

The next day, we debriefed this challenge as a team, and Tag decided that it wasn't over. So this continued, and is still going on. It should end before beat the drum. We're having to learn to rely on our team for little things, such as a coke, so that we can begin to trust them with the big things. But for me, I got another twist on this challenge. Let's just say that living in community, we share EVERYTHING, sickness included. I started to become sick over the weekend, and I tried to avoid being bed-ridden. But the sickness got the best of me, and on Monday I was out all day. This was hard for me. I had to ask for help. That is what this challenge is all about... asking for help! So being sick was the worst thing that could happen, or the best should I say. I was stuck in bed: no way to get food, no way to get a drink, no way to do anything... unless I asked my team for help. When I am at home, it is so easy to ask my parents for medicine, a cold rag, or even chicken noodle soup, but this was not as easy. I had to ask my team for vitamins, for water, for fruit, for dinner, but they came through. They supported me so much, and through something so small, I learned I could rely on my team. I now don't seem to have too much of a problem to ask my team for things that I need.

Slowly but surely, I am learning more and more about community. I know that we need it. As human beings, we all are wired for relationships, for love, for community. And through these next 9 months, I am on a journey of learning more and more about what it is. This is just one simple experiment.

Here's a few Prayer Request:

Pray for growth among my team, and for unity to continue to grow stronger. Pray for vulnerability, so that we can grow together through our weaknesses. We need prayer over our health.  We need prayer lavished over Beat The Drum!

That's all! Love y'all!!!!

-Roth

So this past week was an interesting one. It was different than the norm, even tho we haven't really entered into the norm. There were some people from our team helping with an UCSA camp. Then there was a holiday program that some of the others were helping in at Victory For All. That is where I was all week!

And honestly, let's just say I wasn't thrilled when I found this out. I wanted to do house visits like I had been doing. I was beginning to get to know the families we would be working with, I was seeing God do amazing things, my heart was being broken daily and I was being stretched in unimaginable ways. That is where my heart was.

Needless to say, God has other plans in mind for me. I was working this morning camp. The kids from the township just came as they pleased. They were not disciplined, they came from broken homes, most of them were probably beaten and more than likely raped, especially the little girls. I dont know how to handle this. My heart was not ready!

First of all, kids are not exactly my specialty. I would much prefer middle school to college aged kids. I just don't have much of  a heart for that age group.... Or I didn't have much of a heart for them. That all changed. Day 1 was probably the hardest for me. I was picked along with 2 other of my teammates to do the dances on stage. That was great for me: I was in musical theatre, I loved to dance, I loved to have energy. That part of the week was wonderful. But... I was on stage in front of all these little ones. They saw my face every day, they knew me, and they wanted to hang all over me. It was a hard situation for me. I didn't want them hanging on me, but I had no choice. The next day, day 2, God broke me for them. I don't know why. I don't know where it came from. I just know that I was in pieces when I saw the little faces as they came in through that door. They were so eager to come sit with me, and to sing to Jesus, and to listen to a bible story, and sing worship songs, and jump, and dance, and have the time of their lives.

That was Monday thru Friday morning. Then Monday and Tuesday afternoon, my team got to do  our house visits. HOORAY! Well, let me just tell you now, God decided he was going to tear my heart to shreds. On Monday we went to one lady's house, and she took us back to see her baby. Baby Enza was 7 months old and weighed the amount of a newborn! It wasn't eating anything because the mother wasn't producing any milk, and she couldn't afford to buy it formula. She was feeding it flower and water, which is basically glue. So we told her we would see what we could do. My team and I came back and talked to our leaders and found out that Aaryn met this lady before she came home last year and only had one week to help her. Apparently, she gets money from the government monthly that she spends on things like alcohol and marijuana. This makes me angry and I wish I could do something about it. I don't know what to do here. Long story short, she let us take the baby and put it into an orphanage indefinitely. This woman still needs love, and she needs Jesus. Please pray for her, the baby, and for us to have discernment in how to help her.

That is just a quick update of what has gone on this past week! It has been a hard week for me. I was stretched to deal with lots and lots of broken children. I don't understand their situations and I don't know how to help them. All I know how to do is love them. I also was broken with this situation of baby Enza. I am so mad at the mother, but I need to show her love. I don't know how to do this. Please pray that I learn how. I need help with this. I cannot do it on my own.

Love you all!

-Roth

Well... I have been here in this country of South Africa for only a week, and my world has already been rocked!

My first week was training camp... and I don't really have much to say about it. It was sooooo hard. We were roughing it! Hahaha.... I can rough it.... But for some reason this just seemed really hard. We were using port-a-johns, sleeping in tents, showering with a hose and freezing cold water, and in the blistering hot weather of GA! This week was hard and it pushed me and stretched me in more ways than I could ever know. I missed my friends and my family so much. They were only 30 minutes away from me and I couldn't see them. My bed, my shower, and my toilet were only 30 minutes away. I just wanted to be there, not where I was. I was surrounded by a group of people I didn't know or understand. They didn't know how to meet my needs and I didn't know how to meet theirs. I felt alone and unwanted. The enemy was speaking pure lies to me, but
I decided to choose IN with what I was doing. And soon enough things got better. I began to connect with my team through crazy, absurd team builders. Friendships began to immerse and now we are on this incredible journey together.

So, we arrived in Africa late Tuesday night. It seemed so surreal, and I have no idea what is about to come. My team spent the first couple of days getting over jet lag and getting to know the town we were in. Those were an interesting couple of days and I don't even know where to begin. I just remember one incredible moment: I was on the beach with a few people just admiring God's incredible creation. We stood at the water's edge of South Africa, in the Indian Ocean, and we were facing Antarctica. I think that was the first moment that I realized exactly where I was.... IN AFRICA!!!! It was a precious moment, that's for sure.

Next thing you know, we are all packing up to head out for the weekend. We were going camping in THE BUSH of S. Africa. CRAZY!!!!! Here, we cooked every meal over fires, slept in barely nothing shacks/ cabins, didn't shower the whole weekend, and were put to the test! It was freezing, about 2 degrees Celsius, which is only like 30 something degrees F. Let's just say, our team was pushed to the limit. We did a few more team builders, and were united in the fact that we wanted to come back home to USCA, the place where we live! Hahahahaha.

WE SURVIVED THE BUSH OF SOUTH AFRICA!

Now, on Sunday night we returned to USCA, and had about 30 minutes before dinner. We unloaded and got settled back into our cabins. We had the option of going to this thing called Nations Celebration. And I decided to go, but the only problem was getting a shower and getting settled within the 30 minutes we had before dinner. The only time we had was before, but somehow God made it happen. I showered and got settled into my cabin in less than 20 minutes. We ate dinner and then we were off to Nations Celebration. It is at a church called Deo Doxa, which is maybe 5 minutes away. I walked in, not knowing what to expect, and God just blew me away! This Sunday Night service was just all the nations coming together to celebrate the Lord. There were people from all over the world who came into this little room. We sang songs in English, and then there are a few in other languages as well. I LOVE SINGING SONGS IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE TO THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE! There is something about it that just brings me life and joy. I love knowing that God hears it all the same, no matter what language. I just remember the first song that wasn't in a language I understood, everyone ran to the front and starting doing a dance for God. So, our crazy little American selves decided to join in. We ran to the front and danced with everyone to our God. We gave Him praise through our voices and through all our movements. Nations Celebration now holds a special place in my heart, and I cant wait to go back every Sunday night we get a chance to.

Now, the next thing that happened was on Monday. We found out what our ministries were going to be. I was placed into HOUSE VISITATIONS! At first, honestly, I was really sketchy about it. The first day we went to visit people that our leaders knew and kind of get a feel for what we were going to be doing. It was really awkward and weird for me. I didn't like it very much. But I told myself I would give it another chance the next day. I told God he lad to blow my away, and sure enough he did. Tuesday rolls around and we are still with our leaders walking around, getting to know the township. We went back to one lad named Noma, who we met the previous day. She brought us over to her neighbor, Evalyn. Evalyn had a stroke about 4 or 5 months before and her family was taking care of her. This woman was in awful condition, basically paralyzed. Somedays are good and some days are really bad. She was stuck in her bed and the stinch in her room was almost overwhelming. Poor Evalyn was just going to the bathroom right where she slept because she couldn't move. You could see the wetness of her bed just running up to the top of her sheets. We prayed over her and her health. As we prayed, we layed our hands on her and showed her love. She kept saying "Baie dankie," which is Afrikaans for thank you, and "Enkosi", which is thank you in Xhosa! She was mumbling with every once of strength she had in a different language, and she began crying. As she was crying, we decided to sing over her, so the chorus of How Great Is Our God blessed her life, shortly followed by Amazing Grace. This woman broke our hearts from the moment we walked into the room. When it was time for us to head out, she mustered up enough energy to reach her hand out to us and grab each of our hands and she thanked us multiple times. Needless to say, we would be back to visit Evalyn.

Later on, we started heading home for supper. As we are walking and talking, we run aross this woman. She looked at us and just stared (which is normal because we are white Americans walking around the slums). So our group stopped to talk to her. The first thing that came out of her mouth was, "Do you know J-Z?" hahaha.... Apparently if you are from America, you know all the famous people, or so everyone around here thinks! Well, we decided to continue talking to her for a bit. We found out their names Ethel and Eunice. Ethel is blind in one eye, and so we prayed healing over her. Ethel told us about Eunice, she has seizures, so we also prayed healing over her life. After all of this was over, we were about to head home, Ethel begins tring to tell us where she lives, but her accent was so heavy it was hard ot understand her. We finally kind of figured it out. She lives in a blue house across from Zama Zama tavern. She told us to come visit her, so we would try.

Now for Wednesday, here's an excerpt from my journal:

"So today was wonderful! Except at first- honestly... I was really discouraged. So- today we went to go find this woman we met yesterday, Ethel. We went to where she told us to and she wasn't there. We couldn't find her and no one around knew who she was. We kept asking around and praying for her to show up- but we had nothing. We had no lead... literally we were clueless- and we had no idea where we were. We started walking back in the direction we came. We have all these really annoying kids hanging all over us- holding our hands, singing and kind of getting on our nerves. So- then we went to this creche(daycare) with one of our leaders. She knew some people there. And the whole time I was just antsy to leave and to get going on my own. So our big group split into 2, as we will be for the rest of the time, and we just started walking in opposite directions. My group was clueless and lost, but we kept going. So as we were walking, we went to go see Evalyn again and we prayed healing over her. She is so sweet! Evalyn was in great shape- compared to yesterday that is. She was talking... a lot! Praise the Lord! She spoke more clear and a good bit louder. She had so much more energy than yesterday, and she was speaking a decent amount of English! It was so good and it brought us and her so much joy. Then we left and continued walking through the township. We turned left down one street and all the kids that were hanging on us earlier saw us and immediately ran up to us, jumped on our arms, backs and legs! So we picked them up and went with them to the house they were playing in front of. And as we were there, we went up to the door and knocked... hoping ot be welcomed in- and we were. As we walked in, 3 women were sitting there: Thelma, Madisa, and Precious were there names. We started talking and this wonderful conversation developed with Thelma. She was incredibly welcoming and asked us why we were there. We told her we were missionaries from America. Through the conversation, we asked her if she went to church, and she responded no. But she replied that she wants to go. We told her she could come with us when we figured out what churched we would be going to. We also told her about Nations Celebration at Deo Doxa. We invited her and she will come with us. (just a little info: when someone in this culture says they might do something, they WILL do it). We got her number and told her we would call her to let her know when we go. She wants us to come back and visit- and we want to!!!!"

So that was a nice long excerpt from my journal. WOW... this is a long blog, and so much has happened. I hope this gives you all a glimpse into my world  in Africa so far. This place is amazing and God is moving in miraculous ways!

Just a few more things. Please please please pray for these women who I have talked about above. They are opening up in ways that we could never imagine... and its only been 3 days of ministry so far! Pray over Evalyn's health. Pray that we find Eunice and Ethel. Pray for Thelma and her family to be open to what Christ wants to do in them... especially Thelma. God has big things planned for her... I can see it. Pray for my team's safety. And pray over the Beat the Drum ministry. If you don't know about it, I have an earlier blog that you should check out. We need a minimum of $1500 to come in. So please prayerfully consider giving. Check out the other blog to find out how!

Well, I love you all, and have many updates with lots of amazing information and stories that need to go up. So continue checking my page. God is good all the time, all the time God is good!

***Giving myself away***

-Roth