Beat The Drum!

It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. For those who don't know what Beat The Drum is, it is a program based off of the movie "Beat The Drum" (If you've never seen it, go and rent it! The movie addresses HIV/AIDS, abstinence, myths about the disease, and how God plays into all of it). The program consists of teaching material meant for teens.

From Jeffereys Bay, the AIM team traveled to Somerset East, which is about three hours north. We met many other missionaries there, like MXP (Missions Expeditions) and LXP (Leadership Experience), and many of the Somerset locals. Overall there were about 120 missionaries in Somerset for Beat The Drum, which is crazy because Somerset is such a small town! From there we took a couple days to review the material, break into different school groups, and get organized. I was with a group that went to Johnson School. Johnson is a black school that is located in the townships (the really poor community or the slums). There were 5 groups going to 5 different schools in the area and a couple groups who went around the community to farms and the prison there.

So we actually started teaching on Monday. We showed the movie in three different class rooms, so that most of the school could see it. I was assigned to an 8^th grade class. My partner, Nelisa, was awesome! She was a local and had actually attended Johnson when she was in school. It was awesome having her as a partner because she knew her way around the school and spoke Xhosa (Ko-sa) to the kids just in case they couldn't understand my "American" accent. At first, it was difficult to talk to the kids because they were nervous and were afraid to talk. After a couple days they loosened up and began to talk. It was really sad because when they did talk, it was mostly discouraging. I felt like they weren't really listening or just didn't believe me. For example, we were talking about the myths of AIDS and one kid thought I was lying to him when I told him that it was a myth that if you sleep with a virgin you will be cured of AIDS. It was tough. However, I really felt the need to ask them to be abstinent. God really pressed it on my heart to ask the students to close their eyes and raise their hands if they wanted to chose to abstain from having sex until marriage. I was hesitant to even ask because I honestly didn't think that any of them would raise there hands. But God had touched those kids and 14 out of the 20 kids stood. I was awesome!!!!!! I had no idea that God could work that much in on classroom! Also, on that Friday, every single one of my class got tested for AIDS. It was such an amazing experience. I even got tested for AIDS so that I could be an example for them because a lot of them were really nervous.

Overall, the experience was so great. I had never done anything like that before, so it was a whole new experience for me. God just showed me so much love through the tough times in Somerset East. It was such an awesome feeling leaving Somerset, knowing that you helped such an AIDS stricken community. The percentage of people that have AIDS in the Somerset area is the highest in South Africa. I just hope that the people in Somerset can still turn to God when we have all left.