Day Fourteen - Blog Post by Jason Barthelemy

Day 14 – Jason Barthelemy

Today we wrapped up our time of ministry at the Aurora Primary School. It was a half day at the school so most of us were in classrooms in the morning until 12. At 12 there was an assembly with all of the students before they were picked up by their parents or put on a taxi to return home for the weekend. The goodbye with the students was quick and for most of our team it hasn’t hit that we won’t be seeing these students anytime soon. Grace Dymski’s 17^th birthday is today and she was celebrated by the entire school as they sang to her during the assembly. 

After our half day with the students, Neville and Veronica took our team to a fantastic lunch at an Afrikaan restaurant which featured bread and a variety of jams, meat pies, pizza and fatcook. It was a great meal. After our meal we went back to the school and were given a tour of the boys and girls dorms. The majority of our team hadn’t looked at these dorms since the students were there. We also toured the garden and heard how the West Shore Free Foodless Feast events has provided the ability to grow vegetation and livestock in order to help feed the students at Aurora.

We then walked about a mile to a shanty town to see what the typical living conditions for the students at Aurora are like. It was amazing and humbling to see how these people get by day to day. Most of the homes are smaller than a typical bedroom in the United States and these structures would provide modest shelter for a handful of people.

Our team then enjoyed a typical South African BBQ with the Walkers. Most of us weren’t too hungry since we had a significant lunch a few hours earlier. Nevertheless, we enjoyed grilled Boerewors and birthday cake for Grace D. and Patrick, one of the Walkers’ kids. After dinner, our team wrapped up the night in our typical fashion through time in prayer, reading in the book of Hebrews, reflecting on what God had done on this trip and beginning to think about how we will tell our family and friends about our experience.

Tomorrow morning we begin our long trip back to the United States. Please pray for us as we travel to Dubai and then to Washington DC. We will keep you posted with quick updates on this blog.