Lighthouse Shelter Outreach

From the perspective of one of our DTS students:::::

Laden With Clothes...and a Small Dose of Sunburn!
This week was entitled Lighthouse Outreach. We were all excited for a week break from classes to get out and do some practical work! Well I think its safe to say we all envisioned holding babies, playing with children, and having a jolly comfortable time. Well we were in for a surprise when the Shelter staff decided we’d be better used to organized their clothes shed. This shed is a small inferno used primarily for holding cardboard boxes and dusty bag after bag of mis-sorted clothing, and specifically this week, for creating a sweat-box for 3 American, 1 Dutch, 1 Canadian, and 1 Sychellois (We have one guy from the Seychelles- I asked him what he would be, and I was wrong with my initial guess of Seychellian haha). After the first day, we were all exhausted and perhaps even slightly disheartened at the week that lay before us. The clothes were masses in numbers, and needed sorting in gender, sizes, season, and then finally into outfits, pajamas, and one-sizes to compile “kits” for new children that come to the Lighthouse. (In short it took us 3 days to sort just the Girls clothes and make 120 bags of kits.) That first evening I went for a walk with one of the staff members, and I talked with her about how I felt my attitude needed to change if I was going to make it through the week, and build up my peers, rather than make the week more difficult. So she asked me, “What would I choose to do” if for the rest of the week we had to do clothes, (in regards to my attitude) and I really took to focus this question.

Through this week God really laid in me a focus to serve with joyful diligence. And to work hard at service not for man but unto God, - testing service as a discipline rather than a choice. True service does not measure inconvenience, and that’s something difficult for myself to grasp.




Aside from this week’s 8 to 2:30 daily work at the Lighthouse, we went to Phokeng to play with children and have small groups with them after their dinner. We on Sunday went to a Braai at Derek & Rebecca’s (the base directors) with some of the workers from the Lighthouse shelter, and some Americans (talk about a taste of home!) from Colorado.

Phokeng itself was wonderful, I love spending time here, and I am getting better with names, Praise the Lord! This Monday I asked one girl if she had any homework I could help her with and she said she didn’t, but she brought out this coloring activity book, and it had pages of simple fun math problems and drawing pages, and after a short while we had a small group of children gathered around trying to be the first to guess the math problem hidden behind my hand. So much fun! I am so blessed by these children, and they hardly realize it!

Sustained by the Father,
Lyndah