I feel like if Jesus were to be born again, it would be in 2020. When I read the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus, there is just a lot of weirdness going on in their land then. Girls are getting pregnant and angels are announcing these things (Elizabeth, Mary), Judea is filled up with people due to the census that the savior has no place to be born but a manger, the kind of messiah the Jews are waiting for isn't the one who comes and the way he comes, isn't the way they anticipated (born as a baby when they wanted a warrior), shepherds get to know about this birth first, Magi visit following a shining star, Herod gets angry and kills all male babies below two years, baby Jesus and parents escape to Egypt. I feel like it's a busy time, there is so much confusion, grief, disappointment, surprises, fear, questions and no answers that are good enough to explain what is going on but most importantly it's the time the savior is born. A time when a lot of God's prophecies were fulfilled.
Doesn't it just sound like now?
This year has taught us life differently, what we thought would be hasn't been. The things we are used to have been taken from us, we have lost friends and loved ones. Our safe spaces were no longer safe. We have been forced to stay home and for some of us home isn't the place we love being stuck in. We have had to come up with creative ways to thrive and survive, make a living when we can't go to work. It's been a lot. But we have learned that some of the things we thought we needed to live are unreal. We have learned to build relationships from afar, to love those we can't hug and not to take people and things for granted. We have learned to trust God because, when all else we know how to do fails, we trust that God will do his thing.
At Voices Awake we have learned that God provides. We have also learned to trust him and bask in his presence. This is why we celebrate his birth.
"A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn'
oh, night divine, oh night when Christ was born."
Thandie and her daughter Keziah.
Thandie wrote you a letter.
Dear friend,
I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our savior. Last year, my Christmas holiday was great. In the morning I went to church with my family and we had lunch at home. We had rice, chicken and vegetables, a very wonderful Christmas meal, but we did not have Fanta to finish it off well. I spent the whole day at home since we had already had a Christmas party at Voices Awake. This year, I hope it will be amazing because I will celebrate Christmas with my baby Keziah.
Voices Awake is an organization that really improves the girl child education. I am one. I have benefited from Voices awake both physically and spiritually. I have also been helped emotionally after I got pregnant in grade 11 and now I am back to school after giving birth. Voices Awake provides for my needs and my baby's and I am grateful. Voices Awake is paying for my school fees, my meals, my clothes, school supplies, even when I need to go to the hospital. Before my baby had a baby sitter, I would drop her at Voices Awake when I go to school, they would care for her, until I got done with school and picked her up. I would come in the afternoon for lunch and to breast feed my child. I never paid for anything, they provided my baby with everything even taking her to the hospital for check ups.
Voices Awake is providing assistance , spiritual and guidance and counselling to girls coming from poor families, some who drop our from school because of early pregnancies like me, peer pressure and lack of parental care.
I am very grateful for the support you give Voices Awake because you are making it possible for girls like me to live the life we are living and also to get a second chance.
Once again, I wish you a Merry Christmas and happy New Year. May God bless you.
Yours sincerely,
Thandie.
2 years ago Thandie was impregnated by a boy who had earlier dropped out of high school. Thandie left home to get married to this boy and they were living together. Her aunt followed her and got Thandie out of that marriage. She came to Salima where we met her as she was trying to run away from her Auntie's house back into the boys home. She fell into the Voices Awake trap and we started involving her in our activities, by and by she started easing into our programs and we started learning her fears. She needed people to help her raise her baby so that she goes back to school and she needed support for school. We told her we would support her pregnancy, her birth, her baby, get her to school and provide all that we could in supporting her. We started following up on the pregnancy and when she had given birth we were there, we have never left her since. After a few months of breastfeeding we enrolled her to Cornerstone Christian High school, where she is completing her grade 11 this year after redoing it. She has portrayed a deep change in character, commitment to her education and raising her child well. She has to juggle parenthood and school but look at the letter she just wrote to you as proof of how good her English is.
Just like Thandie has said, I am also grateful for your support, especially this year, that has been a lot of things. I am grateful that through it all, you did not leave us. There is nothing we are able to do without you. Thank you so much.
Have a Merry Christmas and an amazing New Year that's full of possibilities. Everything we are doing for these girls and so many more people around us, is what baby Jesus, our savior was born for. Be encouraged as you support us that it is not in vain.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ and the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,[f] you were doing it to me!’
Matthew 25:34-37.
Christmas party with rice, chicken and Enjoy juice. Gifts included clothes and sanitary hygiene products.
Mentorship Program
