Kosi Bay…just like home but hotter

Kosi Bay is a remote location in South Africa near the Mozambique border. As the name indicates, it is located on a coastal bay that boasts a breathtaking beach minus the tourism onslaught. Our 1-1/2 hour drives to various schools down the only main paved road (and numerous other off road locations), takes us through herds of cows, goats, flocks of children and women carrying loads on their head. We’ve had many humorous moments with all these “locals” – usually stares as we drive by…a car full of white people! J

We also get to meet some neat people. We are staying at a mission complete with camp-like housing that is run by a wonderful Afrikaans family. Pastor Lourens and Jean have 3 of their wonderful teenagers staying here who have a friendly help to us, as well as their cute dogs Bruno and Luther. We also have some Zulu brothers and sisters who have been working alongside us and befriending us.

We’re looking forward to getting some snorkeling and beach time in on the weekends. It’s nice to be around palms again, make it feel more like home. L

Kosi Bay School Presentations

Our task here for the first 3 weeks of March is to do presentations using the Book of Hope for schools and students of all ages in the area. But our overarching task has been to connect with South African teachers at those schools to offer them a new curriculum that Book of Hope and our partner ministry here, Reaching a Generation, has developed specifically for South African schools.

Historically, the Book of Hope has been promoted as a gift for children, but also a teaching resource for teachers. It even comes with a teacher manual that helps a teacher overseas walk through the Book of Hope (and Scripture!) and teach it as character curriculum and how to deal with life issues.

Now, we additionally offer a curriculum for South African Life Orientation classes. This is a course that is offered to every South African child from kindergarten to high school. It is supposed to cover basic topics such as relationship issues, health issues. Think of it like a health class, personal guidance class, and other random things rolled into one. However, the school board of

South Africa

does not offer a textbook for the course, so teachers are left to come up with lesson plans out of nowhere! So, we have been speaking with the teaching staff at these schools promoting the material and gathering names to have a workshop in the area.

Imagine being able to teach a course that is Biblically based in the public school system – a course that will address the issues of family, health, HIV/AIDS, character, etc. from a Scriptural standpoint. It’s a neat open door. Many have been receptive since this is a rural area and they have few resources. With classroom sizes averaging 50+ children and barely any books to teach from, this has been a welcome resource so far. So keep us in prayer as we speak with educators, that they may be open to this material.

We have also had the opportunity to do more Q&A sessions with high schools. I love these times because you get to be real with them and interact more. I also love how the sessions usually start out with teenagers making fun of us and our accents…but then they end with captivated faces and nodding heads as our team shares more about their own personal struggles. Being transparent becomes crucial here…if I can persuade a kid to give up his crazy lifestyle in pursuit of abstinence or point them towards Christ as the ultimate hope after the effects of that crazy lifestyle, I feel like I have been purposeful here. Teenagers are the same everywhere. And everywhere they need Jesus.