Seeing fruit!

What in the world do I write after the month we just had? What do I tell? Where do I start? There were so many highs and lows; tears and laughter; frustration and fun; seeing God’s goodness and begging Him for His presence … I don’t know, maybe I will just share a few of our favorites with you.

 

Our family had a few additions! We now have 2 dogs! One is an orphan dog, Junior, that was sitting at our gate one day. We took him in and fed him, but after a while he left us. He came back and it looks like he is here to stay this time. And then we also have Max, our cute Rhodesian ridgeback puppy! He is growing too fast and one of these days he will be a monster! But we love Max!

My sister also had a baby boy, so we are a little nephew richer. I had the privilege to go and visit them for a few days. He is really a peaceful little guy.

We led teams; from college students to adults. (I love you Auburn!) It was nice to spend more time out of the office than usual and to be with the children. Oh, we received bunches of clothing from 2 churches in South Africa and we could sort through the clothes with the teams and we could hand it out at the care points. It was so much fun! Dressing those little bodies in new outfits and seeing the smiles and excitement on their little faces! I think this was my ultimate favorite day! I also spend hours with my favorite set of twins that day. It was so good to just hold them and play with them. We also received 1000 toothbrushes and 1000 toothpastes from friends in the States and we have started handing these out.

We started building a new kitchen at one of the care points and some of the teams helped to start a big garden at the same care point. We had a team training the care point teachers, we had a medical team looking after the physical well being of the children, and we had an appreciation dinner for all the ladies at the care points. (Thanks Vanguard!)

Tom Davis, president of Children’s Hopechest, was here with family and friends and Jumbo took them to a new location. They started a new care point where about 150 children are now being fed daily.

God also showed us in practical ways (through the lives and love of dear friends) more of Who He is and of Who He wants to be in our lives. He is for us and not against us! He is fighting for us!

Through all the good that was happening we also had some troubles. Of course! The enemy was surely not happy with what was happening. We had a lot of vehicle problems and we had some relational friction … But if I look back over the last almost 2 months, I can say that we are seeing the fruit of the work God is allowing us to do here! And it is an awesome reward! We are seeing the Lord open more and more exciting doors. This will lead to the expansion of the ministry and feeding of more children.