True Love Waits

We participated in a True Love Waits training in the hopes that we will be able to present this at the schools that we are currently working with. A larger goal and desire that we have is to train local believers to lead TLW and have them go to different schools throughout Soweto. 

Please be in prayer for leaders within the churches of Snake Park & Lehae Baptist. Pray that they would be excited and interested in participating. On Saturday 30 January we will be presenting this to the youth of the church. Pray that these youth will see the plan that God has for them which includes waiting till marriage to have sex.

France and Daniel presented TLW to us and then the following day we had to present it for them! So, here are some of the basic teachings of True Love Waits... This blog post is rated PG 13.

1. My Dream Family

The purpose of this activity is to have children begin to understand what kind of family they want when they grow up. The children participate in two role plays to show how different families relate to each other. The first family is happy and encourages one another in a polite way. The second family is irritable and does not care much about each other. The youth are then challenged to think about which family they would like to have. Throughout the rest of the presentation, the youth begin to see how they can reach this goal of a happy family.

2. The Multiplication Factor

This section shows youth to what degree in which they are sexually connected to one another. The activity includes a girl and a boy drinking out of a cup of water and spitting the water back into the cup. They mix their two cups of water to symbolize the mixing of fluids that occur when one has sex. This demonstration continues until the boy has slept with 4 girls and is actually sexually connected to at least 31 people (because each of the girls have had prior partners). This shows youth that even if they sleep with only three people, they are also connected to whoever those three partners slept with. This is very powerful! The youth then learn about Adam and Eve and how God created sex to represent the most intimate of relationships in which two people are connected not only in body, but in spirit.

3. What are the choices?

This is the section that I had to present which I was excited about because I bought magwinya (fat cakes, like fried dough) in Soweto to be a part of the presentation. The purpose of this section is to understand that people have to make many choices throughout their lives. Having sex is a choice and one that has many consequences including HIV, STDs, and pregnancy. We also discuss the choice of using condoms and how it is not 100%. An African president made the comment once: "I do not want to trust the future of my country to a small piece of latex!"

In this picture I am injecting the magwinya with "poison" to symbolize that just because someone may look healthy on the outside does not mean they are free from AIDS or any other disease in the inside.

4. Beautiful Water/ Beautiful Sex

The purpose of this section is to learn of God's boundaries for sex and to encourage the youth to make the wise choice to stay within those boundaries.

Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. Proverbs 5:15-18

Youth discuss the meaning behind this verse and how God desires for you to only have sex within marriage. They also discuss how sex and water are similar. For example, water has the power to give life but it can also destroy life such as floods. Sex gives life but when one has sex outside of marriage it has the power to destroy families and lives, leaving everyone hurt. God has put water in the boundaries of the ocean, lakes, rivers, ect. God has also put sex in the boundary of marriage because He loves us and does not want us to be destroyed.

5. What is True Love?

This section is used to teach the youth about true love. We discuss two stories from the Bible to show the difference between lust and love. The first story is from 2 Samuel 13:1-15 about Amnon who out of lust rapes Tamar. The second story is from Matthew 1:18-25 about Joseph who treats his future wife Mary with dignity and respect, waiting for her. The youth then compare the two men, which I would encourage you to do as well. True love is willing to wait for marriage to express itself. Such love is based not on feelings, but on commitment. 

Another activity in this section demonstrates what happens when you have sex with many people. While holding up a paper cut in the shape of the heart, you tear a piece off to show that when you have sex with someone, you give away a piece of your heart, your innermost self. By the time you have had sex with many partners, your heart is in pieces and no longer whole. Is this fair to your future spouse?

What I love about this section is that even if youth have participated in sexual relations, they discover that God loves them and has the power to heal their broken heart. Youth are told about their need to repent and ask God for forgiveness. God will forgive and give us the ability to start a new life with a new heart.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Youth are given an opportunity to make a commitment to God as well as to themselves, their family, country, friends and future spouse and children to be sexually pure until marriage.

Group shot. Standing is Given (one of our leaders from church in Snake Park), Georgia, Amber & Zach. Sitting is me, France & Daniel (our awesome TLW teachers).

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13