Enthomjeni (6-30)

Today, we visited Enthomjeni – a care center in another township / shantytown – for their fifth birthday party. This setting was fairly similar to yesterday’s orphanage, but none of the kids lived there all of the time. Also, this place had a computer-training center to educate people in Word, Excel, and other skills required for an office job. There were probably around 200 kids here again today and I spent a few hours playing with them on jungle gyms, watching them play football (soccer), and watching them dance. After a few hours of playing with the kids, the actual birthday celebration began. We had a wonderful lunch for all of the supporters and friends of Enthomjeni and then the kids launched into the program. They sang a few songs, danced for us, a couple of kids rapped, a youth group on a mission trip did a hilarious skit that the kids loved, and then the leadership of Enthomjeni was passed over from Jeanetta, a wonderful lady who moved from America and founded the care center, to Jane, a local young lady who exhibited the leadership ability and spiritual maturity to run the ministry. That was an awesome sight to see, and in a way, our team was reminded that passing over leadership was something that we are working toward by the end of this year. We spent altogether around four or so hours at Enthomjeni and we all walked away encouraged that God had used a grassroots movement in such a way. Our prayer is that He will continue to raise up Jeanetta’s and Enthomjeni’s all over the place to meet the needs of communities and the people living in them who are hurting.