BEAM

BEAM, as I've mentioned to many of you before, is a small organization started by a white South African couple whose hope is to restore the spiritual climate of the country by reaching thewomen and children in the townships through practical needs. They offer food, computer skills, tutoring, life skills, education, therapy, spiritual mentoring, and play. Their facility is small and under a lot of financial stress as the government isn't always supportive or reliable with its funding. They are located in the heart of Nellmapias which is an extremely poor township in Pretoria, just 20 minutes away from where we live. Crime is high there and many of these children have been exposed to a way of life that is simply unheard of. Flooded with children between the ages of one and fifteen, many of these children call each other family. The majority are without parents and live in one room tin houses along the dirt roads of their town. Children take care of children and death is as typical to them as the common cold is to us. In art therapy, the children will draw everything from guns, blood, violence, sexual parts, and pictures of them crying for hope.

 

But God is moving. There have been young boys who have come to BEAM with no other intention other than to get a free meal. But through the unconditional love of Christ pouring out on them through the people that work there, they have come to know the Lord. Their lives are changed and hope is real to them. They want a future and talk about the excitement of getting an education to make something of themselves one day. They are young boys who have been drenched with the violent and wicked reality of a fallen world and are now saturated with the love and hope of Jesus Christ. I am brought to tears when I think of how God's work in their life will now affect so many more lives simply

 by the beauty of their testimony.

I pray the same and more, for the many other children at BEAM. Please pray with me so we can work to change the future of Africa together, in Christ.