What a day

Here is Nobubabalo, one of the ten beautiful ladies who received their sewing certificates from D. Alberta Mayberry, United States Consul General at our Saturday July 17 completion ceremony. The women looked stunning in the dresses they had designed and made and cries of joy and laughter filled the room as they received their certificates, bibles and yes, after six months of hard work, their sewing machines. Alberta was brilliant as she shared though poor, her mother made her feel like a princess at the prom with a dress she had sewn all through midnight. Later from her experience of sewing a dress for her mother's birthday, she also learned that what you sew you rip until you get it right. She urged them to excellence in what they do.
Social worker Buyiswa Oobo described her life from an attempted suicide when she was younger because of a mother that had abandoned her, to her life now, a university graduate with a Masters in Social work and a Social worker for World Vision. With God's help your dreams can come true she encouraged them. We all joined Rev.John Thomas as we prayed for their hopes for a better life and for some, a successful business to come true. It was a day to remember in this year, yes, one of the happiest of my life for Evangeline Ministries

My Life and HIV and AIDS

This photo was taken four years ago with a volunteer at an HIV and AIDS Day organized by the False Bay Hospital. It brings back special memories of my early days in Cape Town filled with the promise of a wonderful ministry among people who live with HIV and AIDS. Much has happened since then, ups and downs of course, but I still get so pumped up at the opportunities and the moments of such meaning for my life and those of the ladies. In my last blog I wrote about new projects for the women. Today another splendid one came their way again. Today I also met with women who are interested in working with us to train women from another settlement. But the moment for me was on Sunday at church when I met, for the first time a young woman from Cameroon. When I told her that what I did, she sat down with me and told me the story of one of her family members, diagnosed in January and dead three months later. It happened so quickly she said, tears filling her eyes. maybe if she were there her aunt would not have died. Why did she refuse the anti-retro viral drugs? And so on we chatted about this disease which I never expected would give me a chance to do something meaningful with my life. I am so grateful and as we prepare send of another ten women in two weeks, there is much to celebrate.