Saturday, July 3

Today we had the TOV conference! The day started off great, with delicious eggs made by Julie for breakfast and a few rounds of Uno in the car with the boys got me awake and ready for the day. Because we set up a majority of the things yesterday, we didn’t have quite as much work today. We set out the food and I fixed the decorations. The girls started showing up around 9:15, even though they couldn’t come in until 9:30. They were just so excited to be there! We started off the same as yesterday – escorting the girls to their seats and serving them, but just juice today. Joyce started off with a prayer and a prize drawing, and then we got down to business. Julie was the first to speak, and she talked about the girls’ value and worth in God’s eyes. She did such a wonderful job! Then it was my turn to talk about peer pressure, temptation, and how to overcome these. I was a little nervous because I haven’t faced too many situations involving peer pressure, so I lacked examples and was worried that the girls would struggle relating to what I was saying. However, they all seemed to pay attention and were very interactive when I asked them questions. They seemed receptive, and I hope they were because what I was talking about was extremely important. After my talk, we did more prize drawings, sang some songs, and served the girls some fruit. Lynda, mom, and Fabiola also spoke. Fabiola and Joyce did a very interesting activity where the girls wrote down their sins on a note card. They wrote small sins and big sins, such as lying, stealing, cheating, gossiping, etc. Many even wrote about how they had already sex – one had already had a baby, and one was pregnant. It was hard to see so many girls write about their sex before marriage, because they didn’t understand how much a treasure it is. After girls wrote down their sins, they pinned the cards to a large wood cross at the front of the room. This symbolized that they were giving up their sins and God was going to forgive them. After this, Fabiola did an alter call and many girls accepted Christ for the first time. Then Karen spoke about the importance of purity and read the girls the purity vow they could take. I was so excited at how many girls stood up to sign this vow! I pray for them, that they would have the strength and willpower to remain pure until marriage, as they vowed to do so. When this was all done and the girls had received their gift bags, we headed down to the restaurant for lunch. Mom and I sat with two girls named Maisie and Diana. Maisie was 12 and Diana was 16. Maisie was more shy, and didn’t talk much but Diana told us her story. Her mom died in 2003 during childbirth of twins. About a year later, Diana’s dad gave up all the children to foster care/living with family and moved to Swakop. Diana now lives with two couples that adopt children and she has 9 other “siblings.” After we finished lunch, the girls were all very eager to have their pictures taken, so we got lots of pictures! We then headed back to Tresford and Fabiola’s to unload, and then we came home. Our team walked to the grocery store and mom and I bought some diet coke, cereal, and hot chocolate. We still have a lot of snacks left, so we didn’t really need to buy a lot of food. After dinner, we played a few rounds of Yahtzee and I am now in bed. Goodnight!