Gogo Emily

We spent 5 days last week working a township called Extension 23. These are villages of government houses 12 x 15 feet big. A 61-year-old lady named Emily lives in one of these houses – along with 15 children who would otherwise be homeless. What is advertised as a Daycare has turned into an orphanage with more children than she can fit (4 more children live down the street with another elderly woman). J-Life has a team of workers at a newly planted church in Extension 23 and has committed to partnering with Gogo Emily to construct another building on her property to help house the children she has taken in. The kids in her home range from 2 years of age to 13, and the older ones still attend school during the day, then return to help care for the younger ones.
On Sunday we saw an awesome example of a church BEING the church, as well as meeting for a service. ACTS Church in Vereeniging planted the church in Extension 23 and Sunday morning saw the two congregations come together in the township to clean up trash, finish some water piping at the base, and create a sidewalk of old pavers in front of Gogo Emily’s house. I was able to hang out with some of the kids afterwards and try to get to know them through my EXTREMELY limited Zulu and the English they are learning at school.
Over the rest of the summer, we plan to keep in contact with the team in Extension 23 and with Gogo Emily to keep up with the progress on the orphanage.