Mieze and the Child Sponsorship Program

Today I am going back out to Mieze. This is a children's center that Iris oversees and now uses as a model for other children's centers. We don't like to call them orphanages, as no child is an orphan. The center has goats and chickens and is a beautiful model of a somewhat self-sustainable center. Today I am going with the Medical team and just going to help out. They do basic wound care and all sorts of stuff. I assume you never know what you are going to get.I pray it is nothing too gross, then again pulling a tooth is gross to me. Tonight I have a farewell dinner with the Mozley's. Tomorrow I am leaving at 7am and we are driving to a village about an hour away. Iris has churches all over the place, something like 7,000. In the Iris churches all pastors take in children, most having about 10 kids that they care for. Iris feeds these children, any parentless children where there are no other relatives to care for them, the Iris churches take these kids in and Iris provides food for them. We are going to a village where the church supports 24 kids. We want to make sure the pastor is only taking care of 10, otherwise that is illegal and would cause problems with the government. We want to make sure the other kids are dispersed among the church members. The pastor picked up the months supply of food a few days ago. But we are going to evaluate things and interview each child to find out their names, ages, interests and stories and take pictures of them. Iris is setting up a child sponsorship program. So now we will have detailed information on the children that Iris feeds for those interested to support each month. I will have a translator, speaking Makua and he will translate to English and I will simply write out the information on each child. We hope to really bless them and take candy and just let them know they are loved. This will be a full day and I am looking forward to the adventure. I will be leaving the following day at noon. I will arrive in Johannesburg that evening and am being picked up by a friend!! We are going to stay in a little place called Angel's Rest. I am not sure what we have planned for Saturday, but I have an evening flight out, arriving in Atlanta on Sunday morning at 7:00am. I will post photos and more stories when I get home!