Hat’s off to the Ladies at Steeplechase

Hat’s off to the ladies who have spent many hours making toboggans for the poverty stricken people of South Africa. Hat’s on to the people of South Africa who will be sporting a new toboggan come winter time. Mike’s mom lives in a retirement facility in Tennessee and she was telling the ladies about her trip to Cape Town last October. One of the ladies, Jackie Ogilvie, had an idea to make toboggans for the folks here who can’t afford warm things especially for their heads. They have been working hard to make them just in time for the winter season coming up. We are excited that they have partnered with us to show the love of Christ through the works of their hands. May God bless all the ladies and continue to give them the gifts and abilities to serve Him in all they do. Thanks to Monna, Mike’s mom, for sharing the need to all your friends.

A New Twist in Our Schedule

The new twist is only for a day. We are having a party at our place that doesn’t begin until 10:30pm. Yes, it is Super Bowl Sunday, but we will be watching the game live at 1:00am on Monday morning. We have 4 individual volunteers here now and we are going to make chili and have chips and dips just like we would do in America. We are able to get similar foods here; however, rotel and ranch dressing (Hidden Valley of course) were brought over from the states. Danielle is bringing the rotel and the Ranch dressing she is obviously in charge of the comfort foods. Of course, one of the main reasons everyone looks forward to the Super Bowl is the commercials! We are not sure we will be getting them but we hope to. Some of our South African friends, co workers, are over for the conference at Brentwood Baptist and they are going to get to see what all the hype is about. They will be telling us about the commercials if we don’t get to see them. We had planned to take a short nap but that didn’t work out so we will have to make it for the duration. Mike and I are rooting for the underdog! Hope everyone enjoys Super Bowl Sunday.

Three weeks at a glance

As most of you know, when you go away for a holiday you come back with stacks of paperwork on your desk from being gone for a week or two. Well with us being gone a month you can only imagine. We have been backed up with work since we arrived. We had a team from Delaware already on the ground and we have managed to work every day since we have been back. We did get the new property at Living Way and because the college knew they were leaving they left us with a huge mess to clean up. Luckily this team of students has had lots of energy and provision to employ some locals to come along side and help us get it cleaned up and painted so we can focus on getting the classes started. Mike will be talking about all of the details of the property in the newsletter. We did get to celebrate Mike’s birthday. I gave him a surprise birthday party at the office and then we cut out a couple of hours early and went to a restaurant that was rumored to have great cheeseburgers. I must say they were good!
The wedding that God orchestrated was a huge success! It was this past Saturday and the bride and groom are still smiling. It is sad to see them living in such poverty, but at least they got to have a “real” fairytale wedding and honeymoon night. We picked them up the next day and took them back to their shack and it wasn’t long before reality set in. Blessing decided to walk by herself to her dad’s and was wearing her engagement ring and band, when three young men came up to her with a knife and demanded her rings. She refused to give them to them and took off running. She ran to one of the shacks and began banging on the door and the people that lived there let her in. The boys and some girls were laughing because they knew how scared she was. It is awful to have to live in these townships and have to deal with stuff like this every day. Brian had given her the engagement ring the week before and I asked her why she hadn’t been wearing her ring and she said, “Because someone will steal it from me.” I thought surely not, but I was proven wrong, it took less than a week.
This coming Saturday we have an all day seminar on training trainers in thinking skills. This is the last of the Grassroots classes that began back in October. We are looking forward to implementing the course at Living Way. It is designed to help us help the locals how to write affirmations, build up their self -esteem and see beyond anything they could ever imagine. Of course, we always reap some of the benefits.
We are looking forward to the next few weeks as we will begin getting our classes ready to start. Please pray for us to get all of the curriculum written and that we will find other people to help us train. We want to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us and it all starts with the right people for the jobs.

Stuff

I am presently reading a book titled, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box, by John Ortberg. When we were packing in Nashville we were 12lbs. over weight in our luggage and had to leave some “stuff” behind. (Jif to be exact!) When we arrived at the Nashville airport, we realized our scales were not exact and in order to keep from paying overage for every bag, we put all the extra “stuff” in one. This cost $50.00. After all, this was our “stuff” and we didn’t want to do without it. Now we are being asked to pay a penalty in London for our extra “stuff” to board South African Airlines. The fee here is 259 pounds, translated into $ 417 US. Ok, now is my stuff really worth it? Yes! We must make it home with the rest of our “stuff.” The ticket agent advises us we can take a purse/backpack, in addition to the one’s we already have on our back and save the $417 fee. Now we have bought more “stuff” to keep our “stuff” in, ($30 US) but we didn’t have to pay that ridiculous fee!!! This is supposed to be a funny story but at the same time it’s a sad one. We all think we need so much to make us happy but the truth is all that we have won’t go with us when we die. The book is based around playing the game of Monopoly, but it is really about the game of life and when we finish the game those pieces go back in the box. I am reminded that it is not about “stuff,” but it is about keeping our eye on the true prize, Jesus Christ, and looking forward to eternal life.

The Time has come to an End

The last 2 weeks have been spent with our families for Christmas and New Year’s and we have had a wonderful time with everyone. Now our time has come to an end and it is sad to say its time to go. We have met new friends, enjoyed seeing old ones on New Year’s Eve, and look forward to what God has in store for 2009. We are actually leaving today and want to say thanks to everyone who made this trip such a success. We couldn’t have made it without the support of friends and family. We were blessed to stay with friends in their beautiful home with great hospitality. We were blessed with a car to use for the entire month from a couple we had never met. What a witness and inspiration they are! We were blessed with gift cards from various places, Cracker Barrel for one; you can’t get that kind of cooking in South Africa! We were blessed with our team/church that surrounds us to have great fellowship and plans for the future and we were blessed to meet some people from a small church in Alabama that may consider supporting us this year. The list goes on and on! We have especially enjoyed being at our home church for a month. The candlelight service on Christmas Eve touches my heart every time. Just knowing that Jesus is alive and living within us gives me great peace and joy in my heart!! We will miss everyone and be looking forward to next December, but we know that God is in control and will take care of all things. Much love to all and we ask that you pray for our safety as we travel back to Cape Town.

A Prophet Without Honor

Being home with family and friends for the holidays has been such a blessing for us. We have had time with my parents and brother and nephew and a new addition, Kaylee, who is 2 ½. We have had Christmas with Mike’s children and some one on one with a couple of them. We intend to spend some time this week with Mike’s mom and sister and their family, and we will go back to visit and begin the rounds again on Christmas Day night. This becomes a difficult time because this is our last visit until next Christmas and we love our parents, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, children and grandchildren and realize how difficult it is on everyone. For us the hardest part about being home is the pressure from our families wanting us to be next door. We have family scattered in 3 states and each one wants us to be there for them. We must be where God wants us to be no matter what the cost. In Luke 18:29-30 (“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”) We are reminded that we are to follow Christ for the sake of the kingdom of God and Mike and I know we are to be obedient to His calling. Make no mistake, Jesus promises His followers a hard time: deception, war, disasters, persecution, treachery and death. But it is hope that enables us to resist and stand firm. Mark 6:4 says, Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor. Even Jesus struggled in His hometown. Please pray for us during this time that they would be renewed by God’s love and grace. Pray they would realize their void isn’t us but it is the relationship with Jesus they are missing. Jesus is the only one that can fill the void they all are longing for. When they have this right then all of the other relationships will fall into place. Thanks for your prayers and may God Bless you this holiday season.

Our first week and a half back, and all the foods we have missed!

Wow, I can’t believe it has already been a week. Our first night, we were blessed with “pepperoni” pizza at Mike’s sisters house. Sure we can get pizza and even make homemade pizza’s but we can’t get pepperoni so that was one of those must have’s on the list. Of course the next thing was “Las Palmas” for lunch on Saturday. That was sooooo good! We took Mike’s mom with us but she didn’t understand how much we had missed this place. We met with our team on Saturday night and that was combination of many things we couldn’t get in SA, including a honey baked ham, everything was so yummy! Sunday we left after church to go to visit the kids, grandkids, and my parents. Mike and I made our usual stop in Murfreesboro at Krystal’s. We still have a few favorites in Nashville to visit when we get back but for the most part we have satisfied all those cravings. Being at my parents place for a week we have also fulfilled some of those ice cream cravings; Blue Bell, dutch chocolate and moose tracks. We still need to visit our favorites; marble slab and maggie moo’s but we have some time to do that before we leave in January.
Our visits this week have been great too! We stopped on the way to my parents to visit with all the kids and grandkids. We can’t believe how big they have gotten and some we had to take a double look to be sure they were who we thought they were. Everyone looked great and are doing well. We came on to my parents and have had a great time with them. My nephew was also with us this week and he introduced us to a new addition to the family, her name is Kaylee. Mike and I are now a great Aunt and Uncle. Mike left and went back on Wednesday to spend a couple of days with his kids while I stayed and visited with my family. My brother flew in on Friday and we had one night where we were all together. We drove back to Nashville on Saturday and have stayed put for a couple of days to handle all of our personal stuff this week. We will leave tomorrow to go have Christmas with the kids and grandkids and then return on Saturday. Pray with us that our time here with friends and family will be peaceful and enjoyable as this past week and a half has been.

Almost Home

I am writing this on the London to Chicago flight, on our way back for Christmas. The first flight from Cape Town to London flew by. We slept almost all of the way. London to Chicago has been quite the challenge. We have watched all the movies we want to watch and we still have 4 hrs to go. It has been a day flight which makes it seem so much longer. Our last 2 weeks have been spent training for business in agriculture and learning about training our minds to have positive affirmations in all that we do.This is part of the grassroots training that we plan to use in Living Way to train others. We celebrated Thanksgiving with all the trimmings. We had about 13 people, 10 Americans, 2 South Africans and 1 Canadian over to our place and we had a fabulous time. We made a couple of turkeys, and sides and everyone brought something to go with it. We also got to watch a football game (it was a week old but that was ok) and then Danielle brought A Charlie Brown Christmas just to help us kick off the season. We didn’t have black Friday, thank goodness, but we did go Christmas shopping on Saturday. We have had a couple of Christmas parties this week and everyone was telling us that we better come back. We got an awesome letter from Khumi, she runs the bag business , and I laminated it in order to preserve it. It made us want to cry. She has been such a light for me and Mike and a joy to be around. We also said our goodbyes to our Zimbabwean friends and gave them a box of traditional “crackers” for Christmas. This is a South African family tradition. You get these cheap gifts wrapped tightly in a tube, then everyone pulls on the wrapper,like a piece of bubble gum, and the crackers make a popping sound when you open it and a silly gift falls out of the package. It sounds so simple, but we know this will make about 24 people who can’t afford gifts at Christmas very happy! We got all of the volunteers sorted before we left and look forward to some new ones when we get back. We both have to have strategic plans in place for 09, so we have been working on this while we fly. By the time you read this we will have already had a pepperoni pizza from Roma’s and been to Las Palmas for lunch (neither of these can you get in South Africa). We have been looking forward to this for a couple of months. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and being at home for the holidays. The hardest part is we left a beautiful summer day to come back to winter. As we land in Chicago, there is snow on the ground. Oh well, it wouldn’t seem like Christmas if it wasn’t cold and snowing.

“God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called!”

We can be tempted to say, “This is what I do for God,” and stay there. Some people are called to a specific task for a lifetime, but God may call us to a new work. When He does, we can learn from the church at Antioch: A church that runs members off is one that follows the Spirit’s direction.
If we stay in the same place for a lifetime that is ok, as long as we are in God’s will, but if He asks us to move we must be obedient to the call. I am so thankful He called me to a new work. When God intersected our lives in 2006 I knew our lives were about to change. How much? I didn’t know. Looking back I can see now a lot. Brentwood Baptist has been instrumental in helping us to achieve all God has for us, it certainly is a church that follows the Spirit’s direction and we are very grateful to be a part of it.
I have been asked to take the lead for our Savings Clubs in 2009 and don’t feel that I have the qualifications to make this happen. I know with Christ, I can do all things and realize I must lean on Him for all of this to happen. A friend of mine told me this quote, at the top, a while back to remind me that He does the calling and I must trust Him for the equipment. I believe in my heart that this is exactly what He is doing with me for 09. As I talked this over with the manager of Living Way, Richard, a couple of days ago he basically made the same statement in a different way. He said 5 years down the road when you look back on your accomplishments here in South Africa, you will be amazed at all the things you learned that you didn’t ever dream of doing before. This is so true, I have been given so much opportunity for growth outside of my realm of dental hygiene and it truly brings joy to my heart. Who would have ever thought I could learn how to do so much with a computer, but I have. I had no intention of ever going into farming, but I am learning. I never dreamed of managing a bakery, but I am going to. I never thought I could take the lead to train trainers to present Savings clubs to churches and support group facilitators, but I intend to. The list goes on! I was certainly not equipped when God called me to do these things but I was willing and obedient and for that He has blessed me with so much. I ask that you pray with me as I have lots to look forward to in 09. Pray that he will equip me with all I need to serve Him.

Answered Prayer

We have great news to tell. We have a new home for Living Way! We have been praying earnestly for this land and Pastor John and The general manager of Living Way, Richard Lundie, met with the board on Monday to decide on who would get it. The school for the handicapped was the other main player in the decision. Initially, when negotiations first started, they wanted us to share the property equally with the school. We both knew that we might be able to share right now but within a year or two both parties would be able to fill the site. This would have left someone having to look for another space. During negotiations a couple of weeks ago, the school for the handicapped told the city council they would fight hard to get access to all of the property and did not want to share it with us. This left us all feeling like we might need to look somewhere else because they had brought a group of people from the Western Province Dept. of Education to back up their proposal. On Monday when they met, the school for the handicapped miraculously withdrew their offer and we were awarded all of the property. Richard and John were very surprised but very excited. We did agree to help with some work creation for some of the handicapped but they would only take up 1 or 2 classrooms. There is no other explanation except God heard our request and answered our prayer. We have asked so many people to help us pray and we want to thank you for your support. We now have begun the real challenge of putting the property to work for the Glory of God. It is His to give us and we want to be good stewards of what He gives. We have 1 more hurdle that could take up to six months and that is for the city council to decide on the length of time we can lease the property. We want to begin making it our home with tidying up and putting some root downs, so pray for them to come up with that decision quickly.

How God has Answered Our Prayers

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:5 (NIV)
Lord my God, You have done many things—Your wonderful works and Your plans for us; none can compare with You. If I were to report and speak of them, they are more than can be told.
—Psalm 40:5 (HCSB)

This was one of the devotions from Brentwood this week and it got me thinking. As we are preparing to come back for Christmas, we are reminded of all the things we are thankful for and how God has answered our prayers in the last 10 months. Our blog has become our journal so I will look back over it and sum it up in one. As the scripture speaks above, there are more than can be told. This will be longer than normal because we couldn’t fit it all in a newsletter.
• Provision-God has been so faithful in providing all of our needs. We have been blessed that he has raised up people in our church, people outside of our church and members of our family that have supported us either financially or in prayer. He has met every need just as He promises.
• Relationships- This has been one of our biggest prayer requests. We wanted to have meaningful relationships with the local people. We could get involved with the church and be in a cell group, but this isn’t the group we felt God wanted us to be in. We felt called to building relationships in the townships. We thought we would be building relationships with the Xosha speaking people from South Africa but God has had a different plan for us. When we moved in to our flat we needed some help getting our furniture up the stairs, and so we asked someone at our church if they knew of anyone. The maintenance man told us of a young man named Washington from Zimbabwe, who was helping him, some at the church. We met Washington and asked if he had someone that could help him. He said he would get his brother-in-law, Brian, who was really not his brother-in-law by marriage as you will read later on. We picked them up at the church and brought them to our house. We didn’t know anything about them but quickly learned they were hard workers and desired more for their lives. We have had weekly acquaintances with them and about 15 to 20 others every week since then. About a month ago, we learned in most of the African cultures that couples that want to get married have to pay a “bride price” to the girls’ parents in order for them to get married. This has resulted in most people living together and having children because they can’t afford the price. At church last Sunday, the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart the need for this particular couple, Brian and Blessing, to get married. They have a 3 yr old son, Keith, who we want to see grow up in a home with parents who are married. As we stood in the atrium after church, I talked with them about work and they told me they wanted to earn extra money so they could pay their “bride price” so they can get married. I shared with them about the Holy Spirit impressing that same thing on my heart and we are moving forward to plan a wedding for them in Jan 2009. We have asked them to make a list of all the things they need. I spoke with Pastor John today and asked him if he would be willing to perform the ceremony. He said sure and we can find a dress, and have a reception at little or no cost to them. God is so good. I don’t remember “wedding planner” in my list of gifts, but I am really excited. I believe they will be the model for the marriage God intends for all the Zimbabweans that are living together in these same situations. We may also begin a cell group with them after the first of the year. We are still seeking the Lord for the answer to that prayer.
• Protection- In a place where people are fleeing because of all the crime that takes place, we have been protected and secured by our Loving Father. We faithfully ask for this in prayer every night!
• Blessings of friends and family from the States- We have had multitudes of people from the US here working with us, not only from our home church but from all across the country. We have had many special requests sent to us via the Brentwood Teams that have come. Last but not least, we were very fortunate to have Mike’s mom and sister come to visit us for 10 days in September.
• Beauty- Words can not describe the beauty of Cape Town, South Africa. We prayed for God to send us somewhere near the ocean or where we could at least see the water, and he gave us 2 oceans to look at! He has given us a beautiful place to call home for now.
• Ministry-We initially prayed for separate ministries, but soon realized after we got here that the Living Hope ministry would take both of us to get it running smoothly. I believe God has answered that prayer for us as we are fine tuning it in preparation for someone to take it over after the first of next year. The Living Way ministry has so much potential for each one of us to flourish in our own capacities and we have been using our gifts and talents to get Living Way off the ground. As you read our newsletter, you will see all of the accomplishments of this year with both ministries. We are still praying for the property for Living Way and they have a meeting this Monday to possibly determine the outcome. It isn’t looking good for us to gain the entire property because they want us to share it with a handicapped school. We feel like we could use the whole property. God knows what we need and don’t need and it is in His hands. Please pray for Living Way and for us on Monday. The scripture says I couldn’t begin to tell you all the things God has done for us and this is so true. The individual blogs that have been written since we got here tells most. We are just so thankful and so blessed that God is using us in a mighty way for His Kingdom and His Glory. We are looking forward to visiting the states in December and hope to see as many people as we can. May God bless each of you that reads this!

Jesus tells us to have faith in God and to pray believing that it will be answered. I will be the first to tell you if you are in Gods’ will and you are asking according to His purposes they will be answered. Mark 11:24 says, “All the things you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you will have them.” These are just some of our answered prayers.

What’s going on in our World?

Last week after we finished with our entrepreneur class on Wednesday, we spent 3 days in the classroom. We thought we would be learning how to help change the mindsets of the underprivileged and poverty stricken people, but what we found out was like being in Fiji all over again. It was about first changing ourselves and the way we think. Fiji was considered heart surgery where we had to forgive anyone that had done us wrong or caused us to have bitterness or anger in our hearts. As we were able to break down all those walls around our heart, we were able to mend those relationships and then able to have the relationship with Jesus that He truly desires for us to have. This last teaching is mind surgery and helps us to change the way we think so we can then help others. It is 3 mths of training, both classroom and at home, and it so amazing how much negative influence we have all around us. We first have to see the negative self talk in order to appreciate the positive that will come out of it. It is part of a course called Pacific Institute out of Seattle Washington and this particular course is called Grassroots. I would highly recommend it if you want to see the glass half full instead of half empty!
Now this past week we have had a team here from South Carolina and spent time with them. Thursday we spent the day checking out a small bakery that is being set up for an entrepreneur program. They invited us, Living Way, to become part of their program. We would first be trained on how to make the bread etc. and then we would train others to run their own bakery. This organization called Siyabonga Africa (www.cpcsa.co.za)
actually donates all of the equipment. It is an absolute gift from God but we are waiting on His timing for an answer for the property, so we can get projects like this started. I will keep you posted!! Starting this past Friday we have begun different work projects in the community to help fix peoples shacks that have started falling in. Some of us worked on a single woman’s bungalow where the ceiling was falling in, and some of us put in a small garden for her so she would have some vegetables to eat during the summer. The garden got finished but the ceiling did not. It turned out to be a lot more than we expected so we are going to go back tomorrow and try to complete it.
As I write this Ephesians 2: 8-10 comes to mind. We are God’s masterpiece created in Christ Jesus to do good works, but thank goodness we are saved by grace through faith and this is not from what we do, but is a gift from God. When we are in God’s will we want to serve Him, and all these things we get to do are privileges to further the Kingdom.

The Entrepreneur class this week

We began our week with 5 of the 9 entrepreneurs from our last class. Mike and Richard met with each person over the last couple of weeks to help them strategize how to run their businesses. Doing it this way helped us weed out the other people who realized they didn’t want to be entrepreneurs. Every time we teach the class we improve on our skills as facilitators. We have had a great week and today is the last day of Phase II. In the class each day we opened with prayer and shared a devotion. Throughout the class we used Biblical Christian Principles to back up our teaching. The first Phase (one month ago) we found that our Christian brothers and sisters in the class, including a Pastor, were not fair in negotiating amongst each other during the game. Two of the groups bankrupted and the third one won out of greed, but would have eventually bankrupted had we continued playing. Our last game we played yesterday, everyone worked together and came out as winners. As leaders, we are very excited to see they had learned how to negotiate and rely on God’s ways to run a business. I believe that Living Way has truly made an impact on the lives of these 5 people and they will in turn share these teachings with others in their communities. Join us in praying for this class to succeed and that they will impact their communities and change behaviors.

USS Teddy Roosevelt visits Cape Town

The aircraft carrier, USS Teddy Roosevelt, was docked in Table Bay last week and the first of this week. Mike and I drove downtown Sunday to see the carrier only to find it was anchored about 5 nautical miles off shore. The photos don’t do much for it but it was great to see it sitting out in the bay. The helicopters were transporting supplies from the shore to the ship and I took a few photos! Ok, a lot of photos. They are on there way to Iraq on active duty for 7mths, but stopped over here to do some PR. One of the things the Navy planned to do while they were here was to allow a group of guys to come and serve at Living Hope for a couple of days. However, due to windy conditions they couldn’t get off the ship so they only got to come for a couple of hours on Tuesday. Some of them helped out on the grounds moving heavy bricks and concrete blocks and some of them toured the healthcare facility and Masiphumelele. (One of the townships we work in) While the guys were here the Consulate General, Alberta Mayberry, showed up to say hello and thanks for all they were doing. She is the new appointee for Cape Town and is from Texas. It has been great to see lots and lots of Americans this week and we felt really safe having them all around us!!!!!!

It was great to have the Brentwood Team here

The last of the Brentwood Group leaves on the 15th of Oct, which is Walt and Marsha Miller, but the majority of the team is back home and back into the normal routine. We enjoyed being with them and watched each one work in their designated ministry assignments. It was great to have the returning construction/destruction team. As always, when Bill Bedi comes he comes to destruct and construct. They were supposed to put on new cabinet doors at Living Grace but instead they tore out the old kitchen and put in a whole new one. It was great to see the faces of the people that worked there they were so excited. Also, the landscaping team finished the patio out back in the garden. They put in new pavers so the homeless people will have a place to call their own. They are still waiting on some tables to be placed, but these will come in God’s time. The VBS (vacation bible school) team did something new for the first time; they trained all of our Life Skill Educators in 3 days how to have the same kids club for the week. They did a great job!
We took the team leader, Steve Galloway, around one day to all of the locations and it was great to see all of the kids and teachers having a wonderful time. On our Journey we stopped at the bank so Steve could get some cash (Rand) and the machine gave him R400 more than he asked for. The receipt and the amount were correct but Steve said I didn’t need that extra 400. I said to him obviously God thinks you need it for something so let’s wait and see what He is going to do with it. Steve asked if we could buy some Bibles for the homeless guys that helped work on the patio at Living Grace, so we stopped at the Christian book store on our way back to Living Grace. The original price for the Bibles was R129 each but the lady knew me and knew we were missionaries and told us she would give them to us at cost. Ok here’s the fun part of watching God work in our lives. She sold us the Bibles for R80 each and we needed 5 when you calculate 80 x 5 you get R400. Anyone have an extra R400? I think Steve does!!!!!! The other amazing part was he didn’t want to spend more than $10.00 and the going rate for US dollar to Rand was 8.1 that means each Bible cost him $10 bucks. Our God is an awesome God. It made for a great testimony for Steve and me. Many people would call that a coincidence but that is the work of the Mighty God we serve. It was sad to see them go but we know we will be in Brentwood in 8 weeks for the holidays and we will be able to see everyone then. We are excited.

Mike’s mom and sister have come and gone and BBC is here

We had a great visit with Monna and Shay. The weather held out for us. When we planned to be outside sight seeing it would be a beautiful day and when we needed to rest it would rain. They got to visit all the local spots and see all the places where we work. Now they really understand our ministry here and know how to pray for us.
When we took them to the airport on Friday, we walked them over to the departure gates kissed and hugged goodbye and literally turned around and walked over to the arriving gates and met the Brentwood Team arriving for a week. We have had a great time when them so far and today was their first day of ministry. We have a construction team that is redoing the kitchen in Muizenberg at Living Grace. A landscaping team at Living Grace, a smaller construction team at Ocean view working on repairs, a retreat team taking the healthcare workers overnight for some TLC, 2 IT guys working at all the branches and about 20+ Vacation Bible School teachers working with all the Life Skill educators during holiday (kids) clubs this week. There are 31 people in all.
Once again it is always such a blessing to have our extended church family here in Cape Town. It is so neat to see God at work in the lives of the people who come here for the first time. They are so amazed at what they see. I get just as excited about seeing God at work around us and we have been here 8mths now.
Our entrepreneur class is turning in their assignments this week and we are getting geared up for the next class in a couple of weeks. We still haven’t heard about the property for Living Way, but we are still praying for it. Great things just keep happening. One of the team members brought us 10 laptops to be used for our mobile computer training class that we will now be able to get started. He also brought 2 other computers to be used for volunteers that come and for Living Way. We serve such a cool God!!!!!!! Thanks for believing in us.........until next time.

Seems like forever

Ok, so it seems like forever since I wrote anything. I know it has been 3 weeks or so. After returning from our long adventurous drive, we jumped right back into our ministries head first. We have had 3 teams here and another individual volunteer to come in during this time frame. Pastor John had asked me if I would cover for his PA while she was on holiday for 2 weeks and I told him I would. What I didn’t foresee was all the work that was about to come over me. A US AID conference was planned while Tracey was away and I was the person who had to be sure all the I’s were dotted and T’s were crossed. It was a 3 day conference with some high profile people and needless to say the pressure was on. With the help of a lot of people it was a great success. The conference itself was helping to network existing HIV/AIDS organizations with the funds from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and US AID. It also gave some of the smaller organizations an opportunity to link up with bigger organizations to begin sharing the same information on a new database that would help them to gain knowledge and understanding of how the funding works. All of this ended last week.
This week we have started our second Entrepreneur class. We learned a lot from the pilot class we completed in August. We have 10 people in our class this time and we are setting different boundaries with them to be sure they really want to be entrepreneurs.
The biggest news for Living Way right now is we may finally have a place we can call home. (This is the work creation, & economic empowerment program for those that don't remember) We are in prayer for this awesome property that has been put before us but we have to go through a lot of hoops to be able to call it ours. It is unbelievable and words cannot describe it! The fire marshal came to our offices at Living Hope last week and sited us for numerous things but one of the big ones was the sewing class and computer class that we have in the multi-purpose centre. They basically shut the class down because of the wooden flooring and all of the extension cords running to the computers and the sewing machines, but we at Living Way, wanted to work hard at figuring out a way to allow them to still be able to have class. Mike and Richard have worked diligently with John to try and get temporary residency for these 2 classes at the new property. We received the go ahead today to move in temporarily. However, this doesn’t mean that we have the property because there are other people still trying to bid on it. For those of you who know the history of all the buildings of Living Hope, this would be another one of those miraculous stories that we tell on our tours. Richard, Mike and I have already picked out our offices, so you could say we have named it and claimed it!!! We will keep you updated but right now we need your prayers for the property. They will let us know in 4-6 weeks.
Lastly, Mike’s mom and sister are flying in this Wednesday to stay for 10 days so we will be flying under the radar at work and spending some time with them. We are very excited to see them and look forward to sharing with them all of the things that we love about Cape Town. We thank you for your continued prayers and support. Blessings!!!!!!

God’s Favor

We have been so blessed to have been able to take a week away from our ministry to regroup and have some quiet time together. Mike had seen a place on the east coast called, hole in the wall, and we decided to take a week and drive 16 hours up the eastern coast of South Africa. What I would consider the eastern coast would have been equivalent to leaving Miami and going towards Hilton Head. Because Africa is so big we hardly made the turn north from Cape Town. We were hoping to go far enough that we would find some warmer weather, but we really didn’t get far enough. We only had a couple of days that we were able to wear shorts. We left out with the only agenda of staying at a friend’s house for 3 days. The rest of the time we trusted God for His leading. Our 1st day of driving we went to the very tip of Africa called Cape Agulhas. (This is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet) The first night we reached a place called Mossel Bay. We had no idea where to look for a place to stay, but we saw an information sign (i) and pulled in there. They gave us a couple of places and the 2nd place we looked at was great. The receptionist told us how much it was and Mike said the lady at the (i) told us it was a lot cheaper and she gave us the rate from (i). The next place we headed to was Plettenberg Bay where our friend has a house. On our way there we stopped by an Ostrich Farm where Mike and I sat on an ostrich, separately, of course! You could ride them if you wanted to but it looked very difficult so we passed. We stayed at Richard’s place for 3 days. It was nice, but cold, so we built a fire in the fireplace, read, hung out and played games. We left from there heading to Coffee Bay where hole in the wall was located. This was the longest part of our Journey it took about 10 ½ hours. We had a little car trouble, not mechanically, but finding a place on any of the roads for help was almost never, including gas stations. It just so happened where we had the trouble we were coming into Port Elizabeth, where all the car makers were. We got off at the first exit and found a repair shop right away. Unfortunately, the part that flew off our car was not in stock, but they assured us that we would be ok. We continued on our journey and arrived just before dusk. Again we didn’t have a reservation but figured we could find a place. There wasn’t a lot of choices and the first place was nice, but I thought we should go out and check the other hotel to have a comparison. When we walked back out to the car we had a flat tire. Two things here; first we decided this was where God wanted us to be and 2nd we were so taken care of because we drove about 61 kilometers off the main road and there was no place for us to have had it fixed. The hotel arranged the next morning for one of the workers to take the tire to his village and have it plugged. It was all fixed in no time! We did go over to hole in the wall, but after seeing it, Mike wasn’t sure that this was the place he was thinking of. It was still beautiful and worth seeing. It was a large rock formation with a big archway through the middle of it where the water gushed through.
On our 3rd day there we had not booked the room for that evening and we found out our room wasn’t available about 12:00. We had the option of another room but we decided that we would start back and drive about 4 hours to the next city. We asked for ideas about where to stay and one of the guys at the hotel made a suggestion, called ahead for us, and gave us a map. We packed up quickly and headed south. We arrived in a town called, East London, and the place that he suggested was a little pricey for our budget. The girl at reception told us she would give it to us for less than ½ price and we told her we would take it. We have just been so amazed at how God’s favor has been over us and as I write this we are on our last nights stay at a place called Knysna. We again didn’t have a reservation but planned on visiting the (i) for information and suggestions. The (i) was already closed and so we began driving around the area. We found a beautiful place but again it was too much so we asked the reception if she knew of another place. She told us but we weren’t sure we could find it. We headed towards the direction she told us and we got out and started walking. There just happened to be an (i) internet information and I said lets go see what this (i) is all about. Turns out the (i) came through for us again. God has a new sign (i)! We have truly been blessed and are rested and ready to get back to work. This time away has given us the opportunity to go through a Spiritual Guidance book together and allowed us to see where we need to set boundaries and focus on more specific ministries. Thanks for following us through this journey. We appreciate your prayers and support.

Days, Weeks, Months

I am so amazed at how quickly the time goes by. 2 weeks ago the Brentwood Music Team was getting ready to catch a flight to Cape Town and as I reflect on this past week they have been gone 5 days and already back at BBC on Sunday. We had a great visit with the 5 guys and had them over to our place one night for internet/phone connections. They worked very hard while they were here and did some incredible work in Belhar and Muizenburg. They, along with Avril, put together a South African Idol (almost like American Idol) in just 5 days. It was awesome. WE are truly blessed with the talent in America, Nashville and specifically in our church. Until we don’t have something, we can’t appreciate what we’ve got. We miss this soooooooo much!!!!!

We have another team that arrived on Saturday from Seattle Washington, for a week and a half, and this is their first time here. The team leader came in May 2008 to see where they would best fit at Living Hope. We have adopted a new township in the last 6 mths, in Overcome Heights, and this is where he felt God calling them to be. Mike and Avril lined up the itinerary for the team over the last couple of weeks and their first day today was incredible. They went door to door knocking inviting people to a free AIDS testing with our support group facilitators and lay counselors from Living Hope. Along with the invitation to come to the Aids testing they prayed with people and asked them if they wanted to have a relationship with Jesus and led 5 people to the Lord. They also had some crafts available for the adults and then for the afternoon they had kids club with puppets, crafts, a bible story and a snack. Mike and I joined them at the beginning of kids club and they had about 85 but by the end there were at least 135. The team brought 150 t-shirts to give away but they weren’t sure they had enough so they are going to reward those who come on time tomorrow and pass them out at the beginning!!!!

Mike and I have now been here for over 6mths. We can’t believe it! We have things we are still trying to put together for our team that should have been done months ago but things just take more time here. Like our phone and internet connection. Ha! Another thing that takes so much time is relationships. Every Monday morning we meet for devotions at the main office. We have a rotation among the employees each week and Mike and I finally got asked to participate in the rotation after 6mths. Mike spoke about two weeks ago and today was my day for devotions. God used me to talk about healing a wounded spirit. There are so many folks dealing with so much pain and unforgiveness here, and the issues here are much greater than we could ever imagine. We continue to thank God for allowing us the opportunity to share some of the things we learned in Fiji and ask Him to continue to use us as his vessels to share of God’s healing and His love and to continue to build our relationships. Thanks for sharing in our partnership here and we continue to ask that you pray for us as we seek to do God’s will for our lives.

Pastor John Thomas and President Bush

On July 15th 2008 John Thomas, founder of Living Hope, got to spend 25 minutes with President Bush in the Oval Office. The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funds about half the running costs of Living Hope and President Bush was keen to meet John when he visited America. No matter what people think about the way the country has been run, we have a moral President in office right now that truly cares for the poor.
Living Hope is the only church-based charity which is funded by Pepfar: Pastor John thanked President Bush for his vision in creating Pepfar and told him he believed it would be his legacy. Pastor John encouraged him to consider setting up a foundation which would continue the work of faith-based organizations, particularly Christian organizations, which would empower the church to reach out further; with less political influence. “He responded very warmly to that.”
President Bush spoke of his former alcoholism and how “he never went through a 12 step program, but a radical 1 step program where God changed his life. John said, “The words he used to describe his conversion were real and significant. John told him about Living Hope’s strategy of reaching one child at time, and about the enormous problem of vulnerable children-from aged three upwards-being sexually active. He also spoke about how “Aids is rooted in poverty and that we had to deal effectively with poverty and morality.” When John got ready to leave President Bush said, “It was his desire to come to Fish Hoek Baptist Church and Living Hope, after his Presidency.”
John also told President Bush about the strong connections Living Hope has with churches in America, especially Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

The other picture is Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee, who visited Living Hope March 2008, Easter Weekend.