Upon arrival we were split in to school/ community teams, where I was placed in a group of about 20 people. My team was assigned to a high school called Cookhouse about a twenty minute drive from our base church.

Our first three days, Friday through Sunday, were reserved for learning about AIDS, planning our lessons, and getting to know our school teams. Over the week-end we started uniting as a team, and could tell that God was going to use us in a mighty way.

We arrived at Cookhouse on Monday morning excited to show the movie, Beat the Drum, to all of our kids. As windows of the town hall were being blacked out, some of my teammates and I prayer walked the building. Finally around noon the students started trickling in, only about 1/3 of our students showed up. Still very excited for our first day with these kids we started the movie, about 20 minutes before the end the dvd stopped working... Technical difficulties are never fun, but as discouraged as we were, we pressed on. Praise the Lord!! The next day, we were given permission to show the movie to the entire school, grades 8-12, in their classrooms.

On Wednesday, instead of going to my 10^th grade class, I helped out with an 8^th grade class. I had planned on sitting back, and allowing for Abongale to do what she had planned. God had His own plans, which I was not so ready for. Abs is fluent in Xhosa (Kh o sa), and knows very little English. She told me that I was talking, and she was translating but would in put as needed. The kids were hard to get through to and I had to speak very slowly because of my crazy American accent. God swerved the conversation between facts and myths about AIDS and His word. I shared my testimony and about a friend of mine currently struggling with the disease. They all seamed into what I was saying, as God through me, explained Jesus and why He died on the cross. Praise the Lord for those words!! 25 out of 27 of those kids accepted Christ that day!!

On Friday, everyone that we ministered to through-out the week were invited to join us at the Youth Center to get tested for HIV/AIDS. Only about half of my 10^th graders showed up, it was a little heart breaking that they weren't taking it very seriously. Fortunately though, almost all of the 8^th graders that had received Christ came to get tested. As far as I know, none of them came out positive, Praise God!!! I feel I should tell you a little fact about Cookhouse.... This small community of about 1000 has the highest AIDS rate in South Africa, and the highest in the world. 1 out of 4 these beautiful people are already infected, and if it doesn't end soon the entire community will no longer exist.

Please keep Cookhouse in your prayers, as many of the kids accepted Christ and chose abstinence while we were there. Its going to be a long and hard road for these kids, but I trust that the Lord has set them free and will keep them safe.