Who said you will never change?  Who said there are no second chances with God?  Who said it’s too late for you to be a born again?  Who said you have done so many wrong things that you cant even repent to God and say sorry?

NO!  You can change and be someone else and still be loved by God. God gives second chances to us so many times and one thing you have to know is that its never too late to repent or to meet with God because he invited us to his house and God loves you.

Well, allow me to tell you about me.  Who I was, how did I meet God, who I am now, who I still want to be, and how Bridges Academy played a role in my life.  Bridges Academy played a big role in totally changing my life in so many ways.  It made me become a Christian and it gives my life a new meaning of who I am really and why I am on this planet.

For as I have often told you before and now, saying it again even with

tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.  PHILIPPIANS 3:18

WHO I WAS

Firstly, it used to hurt me when I think of myself before I became a Christian because I just can’t go back and clean the mess all over again.  I was a girl who always hid herself, meaning I hid what was inside of me because I was so afraid of what people would say about me.  I was so afraid of telling the world what I wanted to say.

I was someone who always felt that she was in the darkness and no one else cared.  I was always dreaming about life, and then I started to develop hate. My name changed to Anger and my second name was Short Temper.  It wasn’t nice because no one wanted to be my friend. I was totally blind when I finally took a look at God’s word.

I was a smoker and an alcoholic and my heart was full of blood because it had holes in it.  It was because of the pain that I have gone through without a father and a mother.  I was a dirty piece of paper with so many questions.

I didn’t have a relationship with the Most High, a man called God. My life was falling apart always. Nothing was going well for me.  In all of that, Bridges Academy carried me until I came to the point whereby I just had a breakdown and I felt like God was calling me and was actually talking to me, telling me to stretch out my arm and reach His hand.  I just felt something moving inside my body.  I just felt His warm hands touching me and I prayed with out knowing what I was saying on 18 May 2009.  That’s when I met God and I promised to be his friend always.

WHO AM I NOW

I am a child of God because I am coming from above. I am a girl of two words you might wonder, what’s that?  But wait and listen. I am a girl that tries to be brave enough, but I’m a girl who is misunderstood with her intention.  I am a child trying to make a statement but will I be pushed aside?  I am afraid of being committed to challenge authority.

I am always trying to be me but I struggle with faces I meet.  I smile not because I am told to but because it’s what’s inside of me.  I may be hurt by you, but you will never see tears coming down my face.  I don’t pay that much attention to what people are saying about me but to what God says about me.

Azile Jama

http://andresinafrica.blogspot.com/p/newsletters.html

Yanga is celebrating her birthday his month and also finishing 10^th grade.  She has been here for 4 years.  Her older sister matriced last year and she is looking forward to finishing in the next two years.

Yanga is a fun loving kid who seems shy at first but loves to laugh and have fun.  She has reall blossomed here at school.  As new teachers and volunteers arrive it can be difficult for them to learn the kid’s names.  She goes by many names and will answer to all of them happily.  She loves watching movies and spending time with her family when she is at home.  When she is at school she loves being in Xhosa class with Mr. Simayile.  This is because she loves her own language and Mr. Simayile is a great teacher.  She has also enjoyed learning about God and the academy is special to her because this is where she accepted Christ.

One day Yanga would like to go to university and study to be either a nurse or a social worker.

In grade 10 this year Mimitha is enjoying her 3^rdyear at the academy.  When thinking about Mimitha’s time her I think about a student who has taken the difficult times and challenges and made them into good by learning a lot from them.  It can be a challenge for our students to adjust here especially depending on their support from home and family.  It is not hard to imagine that that there is conflict with 37 girls who live in close proximity most of the time!  But Mimitha has really grown this year especially and stuck with things even when they have been hard for her.  “My faith and walk with God has been made strong”.  She knows that it is going to take a lot of hard work to get where she wants in life.  “But the thing I want most is God’s will for my life”.

She loves history and would one day like to be a lawyer.  But really she wants to go on to university to continue to learn everything!  She loves watching movies, sleeping, and reading books.

Sibusiso  

Sibusiso is another grade 10 student this year and is in his fourth year at the academy.  We have really seen is grow up.  If you know Sibusiso then you know a couple of things about him.  He loves to laugh and have fun.  He is a talented athlete and student.  And most important is that he can out eat almost anyone!  Definitely enjoying the metabolism of a teenage boy.

Sibusiso, affectionately called Sibu is also another student taking physical science.  He would also like to do engineering of some sort.  He loves his math class because he loves working with numbers.  He is on our school’s basketball team and loves to play sports.  He also loves to write and write his own songs.

Here at the academy the goal is not only to develop the academic side of our kid’s lives but also to impact them spiritually.  Sibu knows a lot about God.  He knows the right answers and he knows the Bible.  But he is still deciding whether this is for him or not.  Somewhere along the line for all of us we have to decide to make God the Lord of our life.  Pray for his walk with God and his salvation.  He has a lot of good questions.

Sive Nogaga  

Sive with her Aunt and best friend Mimitha

Sive is now in her second year here at the academy working on finishing up her 10-grade year.  And also celebrating her birthday this month.  She is a beautiful girl with a heart for serving the Lord.  She is the leader of the chapel service here at school and is quite the organizer!  She does the bulletins and makes sure the worship group is ready to go.  Since coming to the academy Sive says she has learned a lot about God and that she has a personal relationship with Him.  There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God and she feels the joy of knowing Him as her personal savior.

Sive is also a very gifted student.  She is one of a handful of students who are taking physical science with Miss Stephanie this year.  She would like to go on after high school to become a chemical engineer because she says that she loves chemicals and loves Miss Stephanie’s class where she learns about them.  When she is not learning about science and chemicals she loves to read, watch movies, and eat junk food.  All of our girls are into fashion and styling but Sive is very into this and you ask her, she never leaves her room without looking her best!  But she knows that beauty comes from the inside and is working on developing her godly character.

Looking forward to seeing where Sive will go in her future. Knowing that God is continuing to develop her.  One of her favorite verses are James 1:2-4.  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Our other new student this year is Emelie.  She came mid year so it has only been a few short month that she has been with us.  She is bright, outgoing, and has made some good friends already.  I have seen her in some difficult situations that would be easy to shy away from being ‘the new girl’ but she has not.  She has taken those times and made them into something.  You can tell that she has a lot of drive and ambition.

Since being here her favorite subjects are arts and culture, where she learns about South African cultural history, arts and projects, social sciences, etc., and math.  She has also loved all the activities that are available at the school.  Riding bikes and walking along our bike course and making use of our library.  While she is at home in Gugulethu she likes listening to music and reading.

When finishing from the Academy she would like to study graphic design and make up artistry.  It is great that she is a new student to us in Grade 9 and will have 3 more years to develop and decide where God would have her.

Pray for us as we get to know her more this year.  Each child has a story to tell and a journey that they are on.  She has learned since being her what it means to walk in Faith and pray that she will continue to do that and trust in God.

Bongeka is also a new student to the Academy this year.  She is from the Gugulethu community.  The orphan and vulnerable children programs that run in Phlippi and Gugulethu refer the students here.

She is in Grade 9 this year and even though she has only been here for less than a year it is clear that she will be one of our students who excels academically.  Her favorite subjects are learning languages and math.  She loves studying math because she would like to be an accountant one day.  Oh, and possibly start her own clothing line.  Who knows maybe she will get to do both!

It is not a requirement for admission that the students be Christians and followers of Christ.  But it is of course or prayer and desire that once they are here they will come to that saving knowledge.  Bongeka is one of our students who did not come to school believing in God.  But she has accepted Christ as her savior and says that her life has been changed since being here.  She says that she has also become more independent and is learning to rely more on God.  She has also been learning a lot about humility she says and that one of her favorite verses is Matthew 6:1-4.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Please join us in praying for Bongeka as a new believer that she will continue to grow and that her life would be marked by her devotion to Christ.