BEAT THE DRUM
SOMERSET EAST, SOUTH AFRICA
OCTOBER 9TH-18TH, 2008
Adventures in Missions is joining with other Jeffreys Bay organizations, churches and friends to bring Beat the Drum to Somerset East and WE NEED YOUR HELP.
HISTORY OF BEAT THE DRUM
Millions of souls in Africa are currently under the curse of AIDS/HIV. The movie “Beat the Drum” is the catalyst to our response. A multi-faceted approach was developed that continued with a massive campaign to train young people in AIDS prevention, mobilizing people, volunteers from Africa and the US to break up into teams to go into high schools to train the learners in biblically-based AIDS prevention under a brand new project called, Beat the Drum.
MISSION
To serve the Somerset East community by primarily bringing the message of abstinence through the Beat the Drum project and giving them hope through meeting-felt needs in the community.
PURPOSE
To educate on HIV/AIDS
To prevent and STOP HIV/AIDS in the community
To care for our community
EXPECTATION
To see the movement of God
To see believers, Churches and ministries join hands in unity to serve the community
PRAYER NEEDS
Continued prayer for community outreach week.
Families of the community
Finances
HIV/AIDS positive people in the community
Home visitations
All volunteers
Curriculum facilitation
Lasting impact and real value
For God’s spirit to be poured out on the people attending
Opening of their eyes to the knowledge and truth with understanding
The Truth of the Word of God
For the overall smooth running of our program
So yeah, me and my whole team are going to help out with Beat The Drum. It’s a very cool oppourtunity. However, as God has been teaching me lately to “expect the unexpected” He has plopped another sweet chance into my lap. Although I am really nervous about it all you at home are giving me the support I need to pursue this chance. Last night the leaders on our trip decided to throw a little get together for us at their group house with bonfire, smores, and some worship and stories. About an hour into it maybe, Holly (a leader) stood up and spoke very briefly about Beat The Drum again and asked for a show of hands of who on our team was open to working with adults and prisoners. Immediately I shot up my hand. My name was written down along with about ten other people. I was ecstatic. I’ve been wanting to work in prison ministry since I applied for this trip, and I was so happy I was finally going to do it if they decided I could. But Then….
Holly called out, “Ryan, Sydney, and Victoria”. She wanted to speak with us in private inside the house for a few minutes. My first response was to say uh oh, it reminded me of the days in highschool when I had to have a chat with the principal for being late so often haha. Then as we all looked at eachother, and then her she told us that the leader team had chosen ryan, sydney, and I for an optional oppourtunity. She told us that all the leaders felt that the three of us had very “chill, laid back personalities” and an oppourtunity camp up in a smaller town outside of somerset east to introduce Beat The Drum to there. She said that it would be the first time that Beat The Drum would be done there, and that Ryan, Sydney, and I would be in leadership positions and working alot harder and be alot busier in the small town throughout the week. She continued to tell us about it and mentioned that we would be working with the MXP and LXP teams if we did decide to be a part of it. (MXP & LXP were the teams that helped out with the B2B camp last week). I am still kind of unsure, but the way I see it is God gave me my personality and giftings for a reason and it is no fluke that my name came up for the B2B camp and this smaller version of Beat The Drum. I think this is God’s way of telling me to “STEP IT UP!”
My cold has gotten worse, and it is really slowing me down. So please continue praying for me. Also for endurance, energy, sufficient rest, and spiritual warfare within my team.
We are doing this “experiment” where we can not buy things for ourselves. We have to buy eachother everything. So if I want a coffee, my teammate buys it for me. If they need to pick up their laundry, I buy it for them from the cleaners. It has been going on for three days and we are doing okay, but its frustrating not being able to buy our own stuff. Its all about dependence though, and being able to rely on eachother. Its working. I am ready for it to be over though. They told us the experiment will be continuing until further notice.
