WOW!! The past week has been amazing!! I went in to the week thinking that I'd check out this program called Cherish, and then go to the hospital and care point for the rest of the semester. But God had different plans...Let me tell you a little about Cherish. This is an 8 week program similar to Beat the Drum, but longer, more intense, and designed for girls. There are 3-4 schools involved, and each school has about 30 students that participate. A day per school, in their classrooms from 2-4, Monday- thursday  afternoons. Cherish focuses on Purity and our worth in Christ.   It's a safe place for young high school girls to come together and talk about pressing issues, such as; sex, STD's, and AIDS. It is a Christ centered place of girls encouraging girls. This program is designed to raise up strong female leaders in the community.    

 Okay, so now that you know a little about Cherish, this is the program I'll be working at throughout this semester. After the 8 weeks, we'll take some of the students from each school and do a leadership class/ program. I'm not exactly sure what that entails quite yet, but will fill you in when I find out. It will end in local girls teaching local girls the Cherish program next term.  That first day, when I thought I was just visiting, I met three of the most wonderful girls,  Swazie (24), Gugu (18), and Phumlile (22), who are the Swaziland natives that are running Cherish. AIM employs them as the leaders, which is great because right now its almost impossible to find a job in this beautiful country.

This past week my teammates; Alene (19), Alyssa (23) and myself (24) have gone to the AIM office everyday and met with the girls. This semester we each have to disciple a local girl, and God placed us perfectly at Cherish. The six of us will be doing a bible study over the ladies of the bible, every Monday and Wednesday morning.  This will be an awesome opportunity for each of us to disciple the girls and create lasting friendships. These girls are all so much fun to be around, they're very loving and accepting, and have the "Jesus shine". I'm so excited to see how God works in and through us these coming weeks.

I'd like to ask that you keep the six of us in your prayers, that God would truly be the center of our ministry. We're uniting in an awesome way that only God could orchestrate. Pray that that unity only gets stronger, and that Christ would stay at the center. Also for open, softened hearts of the girls that we'll be working with for the coming months.

Thank you all for your prayers, I think of you (all of you) often. Back home at Calvary Chapel Fort Worth in the missions meetings there's a saying that often goes around.  I don‘t quite remember our wording, but its something like this. "Some are meant to go out and love in other places, some are meant to stay behind as prayer support, but both, after Christ, are the most important for a missions trip to be successful."  I maybe the one over here, experiencing Swaziland  and its amazing people, but without your prayers and support I wouldn't be able to be here to spread the gospel. So thank you for being one of the most important parts of my ministry,

I pray that God will richly bless you for all you have helped do in Swaziland.