Another year has flown by and today we were meeting to discuss how we will be doing 30 Christmas parties (THIRTY!!!!!!) before December. We will kick off on November 8^th and the last one will be November 30^th. (And in between we also need to celebrate Thanksgiving and Clara's 1st birthday!!) So needless to say, it is going to be a lot of fun, but also very hectic. For us it is so important that we do this well, because these precious children need to know that there are people who care for them and want them to have a great Christmas. And even more important, they need to be able to celebrate Jesus and what He has done for each one of us.

We are planning to give the kids a good meal, some fruit, donuts, chips and a gift. We want them to have fun, play and celebrate Christmas, and feel special! (95% of them will not get a gift at home .... or even eat a special meal on Christmas day!)  So here is our challenge .....  We only have funds for the kids with 'special friends' in the States and Canada who has been sending money regularly, but we have a bunch of kids who are still waiting to be sponsored. We really want these kids to be part of the celebrations! We cannot (and will not) send them away. So will you please consider helping us to make this a special time for all of the kids at our carepoints. Let's all celebrate Christmas together ... even if we are celebrating Christmas in November!

If you would like to make an online payment, you can click on the right of this screen where it says 'Support Jumbo and Kriek'. Delete Jumbo's name and type in BENSWAZI. And follow the rest of the instructions. You are also welcome to email either Scott Borg ( scottborg@adventures.org ) at AIM or Ben Savage ( bsavage@hopechest.org ) at Children's HopeChest and ask them how to send your gift. Please email us at jumbo@adventures.org with the amount of your gift so that we can access the money in a timely fashion.

Thanks again that we know we can make this need known to you. Thanks for all the support this year.

I stopped at a carepoint ..... no bright smile welcoming me ......

I identified a body ...

I smelled death ...

I listened to the heart breaking wailing of a young mother burying a child ... for the second time ...

I sang God's praises with His people .... 'cause He IS still a good God ...

I saw our Swazi staff being the pillars in the communities they work in ....

Bringing hope to the hopeless ....

Bringing joy in a time of sadness ...

Being light in the darkness ...

Bringing the gospel of Truth ....

Speaking life ...

Bringing comfort ...

I giggled at something stupid .... 'cause if I didn't, I would break down and cry and not get up again ...

I walked with mourners to an open grave ....

I watched the sun come up over an African funeral .... knowing that there will always be a new tomorrow, a new day ....

I prayed that this will bring glory to God ... in the lives of the family ... and the lives of many people who have been touched by the life and death of this boy

I heard a story of a 7 year old boy who used to get the kids together at his homestead and preached for them .... getting them together for prayer each morning before school ....

Today has been a very hard day for me; for all of us. Maybe one of my darkest days since we have started working here in Swaziland. I feel like packing up and leaving this country. I feel like I am done! Done fighting a loosing, hopeless battle. I am heartbroken, I am speechless, I am so angry. I don't even now how to share this with you. We live in an ugly world, and I no longer want to be part of this.

My favorite little boy, the cutest little thing I fell in love with in 2007, little Mamba, went missing today and was found dead in the bushes a few hours later. He was only 7 years old.

The cold facts: He was killed by his stepfather. Hung in a tree. Then the stepfather committed suicide. Coward!

I don't understand any of this. It is so unfair! An innocent boy? Why?

Hmmmmm, I remember ..... you crept into my heart that first day at the carepoint. You with your bright amazing smile. You were so cute and chubby (and almost always naked!). Your name meant 'snake', and your grandmother was warning me that you will bite me, just like a snake. But you smiled at me and jumped in my lap. You never bit me .... but you did try to bite the other kids that came too close to me. We shared many fun moments after that! Playing, sharing candy, laughing. Your face always light up when you saw me stop at the carepoint. You were the highlight of my visits at your carepoint. You became a legend.

We want to thank all of you for all the financial support, encouraging messages and prayers we received. We were blown away by the reactions we received and by God's amazing ways of provision.

After an eleven and a half hour surgery (instead of 4 and a half), Jumbo's dad is doing great! They moved him out of the ICU this afternoon into a normal ward. He is already walking on his own, watching Wimbledon tennis and he might even be discharged on Saturday.

Four weeks ago Jumbo's dad went for surgery to freeze a nerve around his jaw that has been giving him trouble. At first we thought the surgery was successful and he had no pain for two weeks, but then the pain came back and it was worst than ever. He can hardly talk, sleep or eat, because the pain is excruciating and constant. Friday he went to see a neurosurgeon, and the neurosurgeon immediately saw what was wrong.

Bottomline .... He needs surgery in his brain where they will have to collapse part of his brain to get to the affected area. Then they need to put a cushion between the hyper sensitive nerve and the blood vein. The shocking part of this diagnosis is that this surgery will cost nearly $30 000 (R200 000). Jumbo's dad has no health insurance, so we can only trust God for the money.

We cannot let Jumbo's dad live like this, so we are looking at all options to see how we can make this happen. We sincerely ask for you prayers for God to open the right doors or provide the funds that we are lacking, so that Jumbo's dad can be pain free.

We are so thankful for the way Warren is investing in the lives of the children by loving on them, visiting them, and meeting needs. We are seeing God's provision through them!

Jumbo and Steve left this morning for Johannesburg airport to pick up the team. Maybe an hour after they have left, Jumbo gives me a call .....

Jumbo: 'My car is on fire.'

Me: 'What do you mean with "My car is on fire"?'

Jumbo: 'Just what I said. My car is on fire and I can't stop it. You have to bring me the other vehicle, please'

Me (in my mind): 'What ??????? !!!!!!!!! The car is on fire! Will it explode? Because that is what burning cars do in movies!'

So I grab my sleeping child, jump in the car, and head towards where Jumbo (and a burning car) is waiting for me!

Of course I was overreacting, because that is what we women do! Seems like it was just a wire or something in the engine burning. So Jumbo's dad and I took Jumbo another vehicle, Jumbo called the mechanic to come get the broken one, and he is once again on his way to Johannesburg.

What a start to a crazy summer. If this is the start, it can only get better, right? Friends, we need your prayers to make this a great summer, please! Please pray for safety on the road, please pray for us to not be discouraged by the things that (will) happen, please pray that we will see God provide in amazing ways .... even if we are standing stranded next to the road. Please pray that we will not allow the enemy to steal our joy!

If your prayers were like rain ....... I want to be soaking wet and dancing in it!

Kriek

38 years ...

Yesterday we celebrated my amazing husband's 38th birthday! We stayed home for dinner and I cooked him a nice meal. Tonight we will have a couple of friends over to have a braai and to celebrate some more.

6 months ...

Clara was 6 months old yesterday. She is such a joy and we are enjoying parenthood. She continues to amaze us daily. She is loved by all and she is so easy going.

5 nights ...

... before our first summer team arrives in Swaziland. This will officially be the start of a crazy summer for all of us. So thankful for all the help we have this summer!

6 WR's

We have 6 AIM World Racers in the country and they helped out last week with profile updates at a couple of the carepoints. It was such a big help to have them. Clara and I got to spend some time with them at the carepoints. They gave me some food for thought; so here goes:

Whenever we hear stories from the World Race, or read their blogs, it is all about the miracles, the 'wow' and the amazing stuff that they have seen. So I felt kind of bad having them do plain old boring profile updates! Taking pictures of the kids, coloring and playing with the kids; that kind of thing. Who wants to do the boring? The ordinary? This really made me think!

For me, most of the time missionary life is all about the ordinary! I still have to wash Clara's bottles every day, I still have to cook, clean house, do the laundry ... do tons of admin work ... blablabla. I don't get to see amazing miracles of people getting healed or raised from the dead. Most of the times we don't even get to see the 'fruit of our labor'. But this doesn't mean we DON'T see God working around us. God is doing amazing things here in Swaziland and we praise Him that we can be part of it. He provides in amazing ways .... staff, vehicles, school fees, school shoes and uniforms for the kids ..... and lots more!

PS Seems like the World racers are having a great time here in Swaziland! They feel like they are part of a bigger picture! So cool!

Hope all of you experienced a blessed weekend as we remembered what Christ did for us through His crucifixion and resurrection. (Praying that God will bring a new, deeper meaning to this weekend; praying that God will break through all those religious stuff we have been taught ...... and hoping that this remembrance will be an everyday occurrence; not just this past weekend.)

5 months (and 2 days) ago God gave us the most precious gift; our sweet Clara. Thought we would share a couple of ministry and personal highlights with you from the last 5 months. Let's start with Clara!

She is just so stinking cute and we are amazed by the overwhelming love we have for her! We could never imagine that it would be possible to love somebody as much as we love her! We can truly NOT imagine our lives without her! She is growing way too fast and my (Kriek's) heart is hurting that so many of you will only get to meet her when she is 6 months old ...... My heart is also hurting that we don't get to see so many of you on a more regular basis and that you are not part of our daily lives. But we are also thankful for the people God has surrounded us with and is serving with us. We know that Clara is one loved little girl! (And I am sure she knows it too!) She has the most adoring cheeks and smile; sometimes she even has this little mischievous smile! She LOVES eating her cereal; and don't you dare clean her little face before she is done eating! We think she is teething; lots of drooling and chewing going on! Oh, she discovered her feet last week and these days she will often just stare at them in awe as she moves them. She also enjoys her little jumper thing; not sure if we have the height wrong, but in stead of jumping up and down, she keeps kicking with her one leg and then she spins in circles. (But spinning in circles does not bother her at all!) She loves music and she doesn't mind when her mommy sings off key to her! But she also discovered that she has a voice, and she is not scared to use it ..... sometimes a little bit too high pitched for mommy and daddy's taste! She  doesn't mind being handed from one person to the next and hanging out with team members, while being dragged from carepoint to carepoint; or from the one social event or staff event to the next.

In the beginning of March we took a little break and we went to visit dear ministry friends in Jeffreys Bay, SA. We attended part of their training and one evening we got to sit under some prophetic prayers. It was powerful. The guy also prayed over Clara. He prayed that she was going to be a discipler of many; many tribe, tongue and nation! Wow! 'Give us wisdom, Lord, to raise this child in your Word, in your service. '
  

Also during our time in Jeffreys God spoke to Jumbo and I about 'repairing our life line'. To us this means: 1) We have to slow down, 2) rest at His feet, 3) create community, 4) stop taking responsibility for things that are out of our hands; this is God's ministry. We have been saying that we need to spend more time with God, but now it is really time to start acting upon it! So one of the things we are doing: a prayer and fellowship night at our house each Tuesday. So a couple of us get together, have dinner, sing a few songs, pray, share, or listen to a message ... whatever we feel the Lord leads us to do. We have really been enjoying this.