Merry Christmas to all our friends and family! Hope you had a wonderful and blessed day. We surely enjoyed our Christmas and we are thankful to be in the States. We ate a lot, laughed a lot and sang a lot of Christmas carols.

We are enjoying our time here with dear friends and we will soon start traveling a bit and we are looking forward seeing more friends.

Sorry for this update to be so late. Sooo much has happened in the last 2 weeks.

• On December 5^th we had our last Christmas party. Somehow the last one ended up being way more chaotic than the previous two together. (?????) But it still went pretty well and the kids had a blast. I think we had a blast too! It was nice to see the kids so excited and having fun.
• Jumbo led an all ladies vision trip with a few of the ladies being wives of NFL players. We enjoyed listening to all their fun stories and it was great watching the Lord working in and through them during the trip.
• We moved house! Well, we have everything packed into boxes and out of our old house; waiting for us to return to Swaziland next year. (We are moving to another house in Manzini.)
• We are on our way to spend Christmas in the States!!! We will be there for a while. We will hopefully be able to rest some, and then we will also visit a few of the CHC sponsoring churches, visit the AIM and CHC head offices and attend a mission conference in Alabama.

 

 

Thankgiving

This afternoon I am just thinking of one of the best holidays there is – Thanksgiving!!. I love the whole idea of thanksgiving and what this day stands for. So even if we do not celebrate this holiday formally down here in Africa, I am still asking myself the question: What am I thankful for. So here is a little list.

·         I am thankful to be alive and living in this exciting time of tomorrows history

·         I am thankful to Father God for just being Him and that He is part of every aspect of my life.

·         I am thankful to be married to the most precious wife in the world

·         I am thankful for all the people that is helping out

·         I am thankful to have a great D-Team and staff

·         I am thankful for a happy thankful faces

·         I am thankful for the ladies cooking everyday to feed the children

·         I am thankful to see change and be part of it in the lives of the Swazi kids

·         I am thankful to every person that is supporting us personally and the work down here

·         I am thankful for great friends – Here and over the water

·         I am thankful to be able to live my dream here in Swaziland

·         I am thankful that we can help so many people in need

·         I am  thankful for the Lords provision

·         I am thankful for health

·         I am thankful that I can pay the rent every month

·         I am thankful for humor and people that makes you laugh

·         I am  thankful that the Lord has not given up on the World

·         I am thankful for organizations like Adventures in Missions and Children's Hope chest for wanting to make a difference .

·         I am thankful that the Lord is still in control

·         I am thankful for the rain and the sunshine

·         I am thankful for every person that has build into our lives

Well I am sure there is still more things I am thankful for, but this is a few. Please share some of the things you are thankful for so that we can bring joy to each other and remind each other that live without being thankful is a wasted live.

Happy Thanksgiving.

It had been pouring the whole week and Friday morning we had to decide about canceling the party or continuing with it; most probably in the rain. The D-team decided: Let's do it!

Well, the sun didn't start shining just because we decided in faith to continue with the party! The rain continued to pour down and it ended up quite an eventful day! I decided to play it safe and not drive out to the carepoint on Friday, but then Ncobile (driving the D-team van) had a little collision with one of the AIM vans right in front of the office. Thirty minutes later another driver knocked an electricity pole over across the road from the office! By then I was freaked out and I didn't want to drive any where!

By Saturday it was still raining and we loaded in the rain. At the carepoint we put the jumping castle up inside the building and this created some excitement for the kids. They showed up in all kinds of winter wear, (I promise you; it has been colder this past week than what we are use to during our real winter!) but the rain didn't really stop them. We did have fewer kids than originally expected, but we still had a bunch. The D-team did a great job of keeping them busy inside with games, dancing and competitions. And then when it was time for a really yummy lunch ... the rain stopped! We were so thankful! The kids could go outside and enjoy their nice Christmas meal.

 

 

The church structure got some damage on the roof, Gift's Car port blew over, Pastor Gift's House got some minor damage and the Centre was without electricity. As I was driving to the centre I noticed that a significant number of the electric poles were either broken or leaning to the ground. It must have been quite a wind.

Pastor Gift and I then did a few quick home visits to see what has happened in the Community. In short one of the Gogo's , that cook at Nsoko, house is in tatters. The roof was blown totally off and the whole family was wet to the bone after the storm. They had to hang out everything they owned to try to get it dry. The family tries to look brave, but I could sense that this was really a huge disaster for them.

Then also the house that 2 orphans were living in was also flattened to the ground. Pastor Gift says that this touched him the most, because not only do they have no extended family, they also do not have a place to stay anymore.

Thank you to all of you prayed for me after my accident and for the Christmas party this weekend and thank you for all the encouraging messages we received! My body is still sore, but I have no visible bruises (praise God!!!) and I am feeling much better! And the Christmas party went really well! We have seen and experienced God's faithfulness and goodness continuously throughout this weekend!

We had lots of help leading up to the party and by early Friday afternoon we had everything ready! The AIM Real Life team helped by packing gift and candy bags and they also decorated cakes ... a lot of cakes that my poor mom baked! (Yes, we even have my mom here this year helping!) The team and my mom are a huge blessing to me. We also had a team from a South African church that came to help us. They decorated the inside of the building and they even put up a Christmas tree! It was the first time we had a Christmas tree! It was so fun.

The kids arrived with much excitement on Saturday. For a lot of them it was their first time to see the huge playground and they immediately ran to it and started playing. It was more than satisfying hearing the laughter of kids playing and running around. Lunch was of course another big favorite and the kids enjoyed their big plates of food. After lunch they received their gifts, candy and cake! It was awesome to see their little faces.

 

 

 

 

                           

She is doing okay. She is sore and bruised, but still the trooper I know she is. She still ran the Christmas Party although she had all the reason not to be there. We will give an update on the party Monday.

A Drunken driver was speeding and he and she were in a partial head on collision at a sharp turn on the gravel road to Thembeni. The other driver is still in hospital and is not looking so good, luckily there were no passengers in his car, because I am not sure if they would have made it. His car was pretty smashed up.

There are a few things I am very thankful for:

·         That the Lord protected both drivers

·         That the Lord has shown in even this He is always in control.

·         That Kriek was driving our Pajero, because if she were in a smaller car she would have gotten hurt much more.

·         For all the prayers of friends last night so that she would be able to go to the Christmas party.

·         For all the phone calls from friends – it really means a lot.

Kriek's car needs to go to the shop to get fixed, but we know even in this the Lord will provide.

Here are a few pictures of the 2 cars.

The kids rehearsed throughout the week, the parents and guardians were invited, we printed programs for them, we printed certificates for the kids and we rented them graduation gowns. We even had refreshments for afterwards!

I was amazed at what the 2 teachers had achieved with the kids and I was so proud of the kids! (I even thought that the kids' English skills were better than their cultural dancing skills!)

 

 

I don't think we can! I think God has to reveal Himself to them, and many times I think He wants to use us. People need to see something different in our lives. Something that they don't have, but want! People need to see our passionate faith in God, especially when times are hard. People need to see our passionate love relationship with Him where it is not about rules or laws, but where we follow Him with our whole being because we love Him. People need to experience God's love for them through us loving them, accepting them, caring for them.

People need to see that our God is real!! First we need to LIVE the Gospel and once people start asking questions, we can SHARE the Gospel of the Good News with words!

"For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power." !!!!!!!