The first story...finally!

Oh man, so many good stories! This summer God did amazing things! He freed people from fear, from insecurities. He healed broken hearts and bodies! He changed lives! God is so good! It's amazing to look back and think of all the things He did!

As a summer intern, I had the opportunity to work with different groups coming from the US to South Africa for short term trips. We worked in the communities of Diepsloot, Kya Sands, Msawawa and Thabo Mbeki. These are all squatter camps, or shanty towns. People live in small shacks (probably about the size of a moderate sized bedroom) that are just built almost on top of each other. Aside from the poverty, there are so many issues that go on. Violence is a constant. Although some communities are worse than others, it's normal for crime to arise when the sun goes down. Break ins, beatings, robberies, and rapes are just some examples of the things that go on. These people are fighting addictions to alcohol drugs, dealing with abuse of all sorts. Children and women seem to be the main targets. Most woman don't fully understand love, let alone the perfect love of our Savior. They are treated like property and usually are not respected.
The first story I want to share is about woman who felt this. She was afflicted by her drunk of a husband, she couldn't even fathom someone loving her unconditionally and she was searching for more.

Miriam was sitting at her shack with her husband, her friend and one of her husbands friends. Of the four, she was the only one who was not completely drunk. As my group was walking along the street, Miriams husband  approaches us. We made small talk for a time but had no intentions of staying long (it's fairly useless to share the Gospel with someone who is that drunk). But he invited us in and for some reason I felt like I needed to go in - although everyone kept walking. So I go in and begin talking to his wife. As we spoke I felt led and shared about God's love with her. I explained how God's love is so different from any love we could feel or think of. His love is unchanging and never ending. Right then, it was like everything around us (drunk men yelling included) disappeared and it was just the two of us. I was able to share the full Gospel with her and she committed her life to Jesus! I gave her a Gospel of John and invited her to church and then had a time of prayer with her. She told me that she was going to come to church, that she would read John and most of all pray for her husband, that he would quit drinking and come to know Jesus.

There were so many women like Miriam who came to know Jesus this summer! God changed so many lives! So, there are alot of stories to come and pictures as well. For more pics, you can check out my Facebook. Just search Joanna Java Hammar, and you should be able to see them! For today, here' s some pics!

  

{So this is Joburg Beer. Just one of the many brands of beer found in the communities. As previously stated, alcoholism is a huge problem in these camps. Joburg Beer is especially interesting because of the way it's made. The grannies, or gogo's, find the wheat or whatever it is, chew it up, spit it out and let it ferment out in the sun. Joburg Beer is like cloudy (it kind of looks like skim milk) but yet chunky at the same time. So yeah, gross. Notice the helpful hint printed on the side of the carton}