Beat The Drum was fantastic. I taught lessons on abstinence, decision making, consequences of sexual relationships, and other topics along those lines. The week opened up my eyes so much. I never knew that AIDS and HIV had such an enormous impact. In Africa alone there are over 30 million people infected & there are over 11 million children orphaned as a result. Like I said… ridiculous. After planning lessons and speaking and doing various games with high school students in the school I was assigned to (Cookhouse), we had night sessions showing the movie Beat The Drum. We also did worship and preaching frequently. At the end of the week 108 students from Cookhouse went to our HIV testing held at a community hall downtown. I am not sure of the stats but I heard about alot of negative tests. Praise God! Honestly BTD wasn’t my highlight of the past couple of weeks. It was great though.
God has been pressing on my heart alot of challenges. He has made it clear to me that this trip is all about forgiveness, realizations, and restoration. We have been studying two books, Celebration of Discipline and Victory Over Darkness. So far we have read about… get this.. forgiveness, self identity, identity in Christ, restoration, and confessions. These are no coincidences, I know this is God. All the scriptures I have read over the past couple of weeks have been about the one thing I struggle accepting about Him the most: unfailing love. It seems a bit overwhelming, dealing with my past and all, but I am super excited that I am finally doing so. Confessing to my teammates, parents, and discipler has taken huge burdens off my back. Confessing to God has completely rejeuventated me. Sore spots have been hit, ones which I have ignored all too long. It’s great! It is incredible what God can do when you surrender yourself completely over to Him.
