At the end of September 2011, we organized an outreach day for Westville ecclesia at 'Happy's" school for the disabled. It was exciting to see how young and old were involved in the planning and service of the day. The JYC kids at Westville spent Friday evening making gift packs for the Happy's kids. Each family brought sweets and we packed them in with a few other special treats to give out as prizes for our game day that we were planning. The kids split up into groups to organize the game they would host - bean bag toss, face painting, shooting hoops, ring toss, soccer kick out and more! Posters were made, teams organized and they were ready for the day.
The convoy of about 40 left Westville on Sunday morning and headed over to Umlazi. We were blessed to have a few of our International Joyful Joyful P2P team arrive early to help us with the Praise and Worship session. While we were singing praises, a team was preparing popcorn and juice for all the students. Then it was off to the games for the kids and to tackle repair projects for the adults.
We were so excited to see new people on our outreach day, those that had not come before to the township projects - and it was so encouraging to see how we all were touched by the joy of these kids. After each round of a game, they would receive a sticker, then could cash in their stickers for prizes. The Westville Sunday school students were amazed at what the kids could do - in spite of their disabilities - they were quite successful in getting the ball in the hoop and playing the games.
The adults had a breaking of bread service and some of the older Happy's students (they range in age from 8-24) wanted to sing their song for us. This group of men were phenomenal in their talent. We were so blessed to hear their music. It was touching to break bread in such a humble and downtrodden setting yet to feel that you were top of the world in the people that surrounded you.
Then it was off to work. Repairs were done on doors, walls, gutters and rooms cleaned and bigger projects assessed for future work. The joyful joyful P2P team returned the next week to complete some of these bigger projects and had a musical praise session with them as well.
We are always touched by the kids at Happy's - how they brighten up your day - and the joy and excitement they feel just seeing us arrive to visit. There are so many in need of hugs and physical touch - the love of Jesus in action. I personally cannot wait to see these precious children jumping and leaping and praising God when Christ returns.
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