Fashion Show in Ocean View!

This week, on Tuesday morning I had a unique privilege to be a judge in a fashion show held here in Ocean View. It was the brilliant idea of the support group leaders at the Living Hope organization to hold an event that would encourage and love on the women and they came up with this! The large room was decorated in many colors and with flowers everywhere, even surrounding the long runway for the show. There were a few support groups there, but the largest representation in the show was Granny Jacoba's elderly group that meets twice weekly to encourage one another. They are a hilarious group and Kieren is loved by them all. Then my HIV support group members came to watch and another group of woman from 'Mountainview,' which is a township right near Ocean View that is much worse off with poverty and violence than the View. It is mostly filled with 'rastafarians' who don't work, smoke a lot of marijuana, and hurt their wives. So this group of women is a new group who are learning to trust one another and open up to God. Granny's group modeled first and had a BLAST with it. They were dancing and strutting their stuff! It was awesome! Of course Granny got the highest marks from me, but with my scores combined with the other two judges she was not crowned one of the Princesses, Queen, or 'Miss Personality.' Granny will always be MY miss personality :)
Then the younger women had their show, and at first only three ladies were signed up to walk, but as the show progressed more just kept jumping into the fun! We all clapped for them and cheered them on as they strutted down the runway smiling away. It was incredible. Then we crowned our winners for the younger women and those who were crowned queen and princesses jumped up and down, hugged their friends, and actually CRIED they were so happy and humbled. Honestly, it was so beautiful just to have a moment where they felt special and beautiful.

I seriously LOVE days like Tuesday where I reminded WHY we do what we do here, and how important it is to make people feel beautiful and special. Praise our God!

Love,
Sarah

The modeling runway with one of our elderly 'models' strutting her stuff

All the attendees having an impromptu dance party in between events!

The younger 'models' who were crowned at the show!  The two in the middle were the ones who cried when receiving their prizes!

A woman, Joanne, who lives in Mountainview who I have worked with before.  A beautiful woman who loved the day!

Uh oh, it's Granny Jacoba strutting her stuff.  You KNOW she loved this event!

Granny's best friend, Auntie Katie walking the runway at the end of the show.  That is NOT her real hair, but she swung it around like a top model!

The three winners of the elderly fashion show.  Beautiful!

Miss Personality.  Seriously.