Yesterday I spend a few hours with our Swazi discipleship team at one of the care points. It was amazing to see the interaction between the team and the children; and the relationships that were formed. I could see that they were excited to see the team again. And I could see that a relationship of trust was formed. The attitudes and behaviors of the children have changed so much.

The children came with pride to show the team their new school uniforms, their new back packs and the work they did at school for the day. (Fall school break just ended and the children went back to school this week.) The team looked at everything, made encouraging comments, played with them, laughed with them and just loved them. Some of the girls even started cutting and cleaning the nails of the children.

I feel like the team is stepping into a parental role for the little ones and they are friends to the older children. Many children have no parents; some died because of AIDS, but some was just abandoned, thrown away. Some still has their parents, but the parents are struggling to be good parents.

And now the team is stepping in! It is amazing to see. They love the children, they provide some consistency, they are teaching them about hygiene, they show interest in them.

A few weeks ago the team celebrated their 1 year ‘anniversary' of working at the care points. They were really excited about the celebration. They had a moment of silence, they spent some time in prayer thanking God for His provision and goodness throughout the year and then they ate Kentucky Fried Chicken!

We thank God daily for this awesome team. Please pray for them as they are teaching and loving the little ones.

We just wanted to let you know that somebody broke into our 2 cars at our house last night. The thief got away with about R3500. I, Jumbo, forgot my wallet in the car last night for the first time! Luckily the thief took out the money and left all my bank cards and driver's license in my wallet and left the wallet for me on my porch. So praise the Lord for that.

We also think that they tried to poison Max and they kicked him in the side, but luckily after I took him to the vet he is doing better. He is a brave dog.

Please pray for us, all our staff, all missionaries here in Swaziland, our ministries and for our protection and safety. Now it feels like the attacks are starting to get personal!

When was the last time you blessed a complete stranger?

About a week ago Jumbo and I had dinner at a restaurant in South Africa. Our waiter was an older African man. I could sense that he had a gentle spirit, but he also appeared uncertain of himself. He or God or something touched my heart. I asked Jumbo if we could bless him by leaving him an extra large tip. We put the money in the bill folder and started walking out. Jumbo just told him to ‘keep the change'. As we walked out the door I glimpsed back at him; his reaction almsot made me cry. His mouth fell open, and then he started smiling! It was one of the nicest things I have seen in a while.

Oh, what joy did it bring to bless this guy! A thankful face is one of the nicest things to see. God also loves a thankful heart, and I think therefore He will bless us many times with little (or big) surprises. Let us ‘enter His gates with thanksgiving' while we bless His (forgotten) loved ones around us.

With this I also want to add that we do not realize how God is using all of us to reveal Himself to people and bring life and truth to His Word and promises. For example: Last week we met some refugees and our friends felt that they had to give them some money. The refugees started crying as they thanked our friends and they told us that God (at a church service the day before; after giving their lives to Christ) promised to provide for them. They didn't know how He was going to do it, but here He was showing them that He does what He promises! What an amazing testimony!

Update on my friend's baby who is in the hospital: Early this morning she phoned and all that she said was, "My baby is dead, please come and take me home."

Please pray for this mother and her family as they grieve the lost of a baby boy.  Please pray that God will show them that He is still God and that they will be comforted by Him.

Have you ever been surrounded by hopelessness, sadness, despair and death?

My friend's baby is in the hospital, AGAIN. He has been in and out of the hospital for quite a while now without any doctors being able to tell us what is really wrong with him or how to treat whatever is wrong with him. They just keep telling us that "he is too weak". His mother, my friend, is HIV positive and we think that the baby might be too; we are still waiting for his test results to come back.

I have just been with them in the hospital; he is weak and skinny and I am not sure if he has long to live any more. When I took his little hand, he gripped my finger. I picked him up, held him for a while and spoke life out over him. But I am not sure if my faith is big enough!

Please pray with us for this little baby and for his mother. Let's pull our faith together and wrap them up in prayer and God's presence!

Just a quick update about the baby Jumbo wrote about last time: Unfortunately the baby didn't make it. It might sound harsh, but we know that he is in a better place now.

There was a few requests for a photo of the baby that the World Race team and Pastor Gift found. I got the photo from Aaron Bruner's blog. He is a World Racer down here in Swaziland. The Mother is realy not doing well and is in a desperate state, the baby is also not doing to well. Please pray with us for the baby and the mother. - this is the baby that I wrote about in the previous blog.

I, Jumbo, am a pretty slow processor when it comes to feelings and emotions. Gary always wants to know, "Why do you never look excited?" I always say, "Bro, I just don't show it".

Yesterday the Black family and I went down to Nsoko for some meetings. As always I try to get meetings done as soon as possible. We went out to the sight where G42 is planning to build their first Children's Village to determine where the community center must be build. I am very excited on the one side about this project (although I am not showing it), but on the other hand I am questioning myself if we are not moving too fast; what if we won't be able to follow up on our promises? But then I am always reminded about what Seth Barnes says, ‘The kids are dying now - we have to jump in now and do what we can now and trust the Lord.' So I guess that is what we are doing down there in Nsoko.  We are jumping in and trusting the Lord.

After our site visit we went to check in on the World Racers and then I saw Emily Black with the smallest little baby boy I have ever seen. Immediately I could see that the baby was under weight and malnutritioned. He looked like a little toy. I asked the team what happened and why they have the baby. Emily told me the mother is on her last and will be dying soon because of Aids. They contacted the community leaders and they were looking after the baby until the baby will be taken by the police or someone from the community. I just said ‘okay' and left the baby with the team.

We had lunch, we drove home and then it hit me. What is going to happen to this precious child? Who is going to take care of him? If the police takes him they can either put him in an abandoned baby center or in a hospital. If someone from the community takes him, what will happen to him then? This is most likely the poorest community in Swaziland!! So who knows!

Then an even harder truth hit me: This is going to happen more and more and Swaziland is not ready! The church is not ready! Babies like this boy are going to become just another bad thing in a country where bad things happen.

"Please Lord, may nobody ever be desensitized so much that this will be fine.  Lord we need wisdom and courage to take this problem head on. Please help and use us".

It is becoming worse. Swazi's are people with well build bodies, but these days you just cannot help to see the amount of people walking around looking like skeletons. This disease is killing this nation. A lot of people are going to die in the next few years. But we cannot be caught up in this hopelessness. We have to make a conscious decision when it becomes too much; we always have to believe that GOD has a plan for this nation. The only thing that gives me hope every day when I am surrounded by this desperation is to take a moment and to be reminded of the character of the GOD. We serve the ALLMIGHTY GOD.

"Lord, this is a mess, but I have to believe that you will show us the way - I know you will. Amen".

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are  undergoing the same kind of sufferings."

                                                                                                (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Eish (like the locals would say), we are still alive and we are still in Swaziland! We are seeing more and more fruit of what God is doing and we are so grateful. We are seeing changes in the behavior of the children at the care points and this makes us excited. We are proud of the children and we are proud of our discipleship team.

But the enemy is also aware of what we are doing and he is prowling around like a lion, trying to steal and destroy. He is also trying hard to make the fire hotter (read the story of Daniel's friends Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego) and he wants us to run.

Please pray for us, for our staff here in Swaziland and for the local people we work with. Please pray that our eyes will be open to these attacks so that we can resist the enemy and stand firm in faith. And please pray for our vehicles! It sounds funny to pray for a vehicle, but without it we cannot do our ministry and we are struggling with broken vehicles; without end!!!

In closing: Last weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to see the Lion King on stage in Johannesburg. It was awesome! Somewhere in the movie little Simba tells his dad, "I laugh in the face of danger!" And I think we would like to make this one of our life motto's: We laugh in the face of danger!

Tomorrow is the day!! I think me and Kriek are feeling like parties after this past few weeks. We had eight Birthday parties and we will end the year with the big Christmas Party tomorrow.

700 to 900 kids can show up. We can not say before tomorrow, but we are preparing for a 2 day celebration. The Discipleship team and Kriek were making little Candy bags yesterday and today we need to get fire wood, 2 Cows - that still needs to be slaughtered, pots, food, transportation and decorations in place for the big event. Children have been waiting for this day for months, because this is going to be a party to remember for the rest of next year until we do it again.

This is one of the only events where we bring all the children together of all the Care points. So usually we have an AIM team to help us, but not this year!! It is going to be craa…..zy!! The Gogos are ready to cook and the D-Team is hopefully ready for the rest!

Tomorrow at noon the taxi's (Vans) will start to pick up the children and drive them to Walter's Care point (Balekane) where all the festivities will take place. The rest of the day will be playing, watching a movie, competitions and thanking the Lord for the year.

The Big eat will be Thursday when the kids will get Meat and everything with it. The Ladies will be preparing the meal from early morning. One of our supporters also gave some money for ice cream and I know the kids will just love it. After the big eat as Walter calls it the children will start going back to their Care Points and we will hopefully have some time to recuperate.

Please be thankful with us for this year and what the Lord has done thru people from all over the World to help these precious kids here in Swaziland. We will celebrate His birth with new vigor and the knowledge that he wants the best for Swaziland. He is an Awesome GOD!!

Merry Christmas!!.

We have done 7 of the 8 birthday parties. We have 1 left as well as the big Christmas party. Here are some pictures.