Getting Adjusted To Our Surroundings

Today was our first full day in South Africa. Still reeling from the events of yesterday, we decided to take it easy this day and just get acclimated to our new surroundings. Most of us took advantage of a late morning’s start to relax and get cleaned up. Nick, always full of boundless energy, got up and walked with the children to school; which was around 7:00 am.


Then Nick, Richard and JD (John David, an American who works with Agathos and has been living in Loskop for almost 10 years) met with the 14 coaches and the head of the Soccer Association in a small hut to discuss the upcoming tournament. Through a Zulu interpreter, all of the details were ironed out, which took quite a while. And, Nick was placed on a team called Ever Smiling for the tournament.

We began meeting the Agathos staff and the children’s caregivers…local South African women with beautiful smiles and hearts of gold. Everyone is here for the children and each other. We learned that there are 23 orphans in the village(age 1-18) and 4 Zulu caregivers. A majority of the orphans have numerous siblings or cousins with them. Of everyone, only 3 have tested positive for HIV…a little boy named Kwanelli(almost age 2), his mother, and another caregiver. However, the HIV virus sometimes takes months and years to show up, so we continue to pray that the number does not increase amoung the orphans.



After lunch, we gathered together under the trees for, first and foremost, a time of worship and devotion. We are so blessed to have Ryan with us to lead us each day in worship through song. Brian then shared a short devotion with us from a book he’s reading from Brennen Manning about Lazarus. Then Richard went over our schedule for the next 2 weeks. We will have a variety of opportunities to serve God, Agathos, the children and the community while we are here. You will hear more about these later on as our time progresses.

After our meeting, we hopped in the van and headed to a local town 20 minutes away called Estcourt. We first went to a computer store to upload yesterday’s Sunday’s blog and then to a grocery store to pick up a few snacks and needed items.

Back at Agathos, we had dinner and a short time to hang with the kids. Ryan and Pastor Welcome (he lives at the cottages…When we first met him, he said, “Welcome.” We said, ‘Thank You.” He laughed and said, “No, that’s my name!” He plays his joke on all of the missionairies!) led some worship songs for the kids as they sang and danced. Then, it was time for the children to bathe and head to bed…we did the same not long afterwards.

* Submitted by Becky