This year, missionary Jaemin invited to guide the teachers from 25 Khayelithsa preschools with Montessori skills.  We decided on phonics for the year’s training.  Helen led monthly seminars and Ms. Wendy and Pinky visited the preschools every Tuesday.  It was a great blessing for Ms. Wendy and Pinky as well, because they could see how far they have come with their own training with us.  Also, it was clear that their knowledge and skills (especially their love for children) were encouraging Khayelitsha teachers greatly.  Our main intention was for the Khayelitsha teachers to build stronger relationships with the children and enjoy working with them. Therefore for the first four months we worked on communication skills such as listening and giving directions to children.  At the evaluation, we could sense that the children were not the teachers’ struggles and frustrations any more, but the relationship and working together has made children a step closer to being their pride and joy.

Mthandazo saying “Your heart matters.  Your suffering matters.  You are precious to Jesus.”

The people above are the people who are living in a country that was once called the Rape Capital.  These people are considered to have a very lenient approach to child rape.  They understand that gang rape is a common occurrence in the society because it is considered a form of male bonding.  Actually, these particular people are good, hard working people.  They have jobs and at night they come to the Bible College to better themselves.  Some of them are pastors and community leaders.  I want to fight for them against such disgusting reputations, but statistics (every 17 sec a woman is raped in SA) don’t help me.  I presented the “I’m Precious to Jesus” Campaign to them and showed them how we can change by communicating openly instead of persecution and educating the community members.   After a two and a half hour presentation, one of the men who is self-employed and married with two children said, “Everyone comes and tell us that they are our enemies and we need to send them to jail, but you tell us that we need to love them as well.  Thank you.”  We have been dealing with rape problems with hatred and anger for so many years and we have achieved 14% conviction rate in South Africa.  Now, it is about time for us to give up and resort to the way of Jesus.