The hardest thing about leaving...

Is leaving. Which is what made today so incredibly bittersweet. First we went to Lake Eland Game Preserve. Not only did we see zebra, giraffe, impala, wildebeast, warthog and impala, but our guide was at Norwegian Settlers Church on Sunday! It was an impressive way for God to bring everything we are doing full circle.

This afternoon we went to Gamalakhe one last time. Dumasani was so incredible. He cried. His kids cried. We cried. The kids that are a part of Dumasani’s feeding program truly have become our friends. They really adopted us. We were able to present the gospel today and hand out shoes to them. While we have no idea of the exact number of decisions, we know that the Lord has been honored and we pray that those students have been blessed.

Finally tonight, after a wonderful pizza dinner on the beach, we went to Youthworx. I had the honor of preaching. However, all of our students and the Rockwall students led small discussion groups. We talked about struggles. We pray that as we struggle to leave, struggle to reenter American culture, and struggle to remain in the Lord as we have been in Him here, that He would bless and draw near to everyone we met this week.

Work, work, work!

Thursday was a long, but great day. We are exhausted (which is why these posts are getting shorter and earlier). We are entirely thankful though. We were able to spend the morning helping renovate the youth building for Norwegian Settlers Church. We were able to scrape tile off the walls and paint a room orange (but never burnt orange). The church was incredibly thankful!

Our afternoon was at Gamalakhe. It was incredible! Many of the older kids (mistakenly) thought today was our last day. They decided that they would make cards for their “new American friends.” We all have so many cards! And these cards are beautiful! It really shows that we are having an impact on these students, but even more so, it is an incredible encouragement that we are connecting with them. This is highly important to us because we are presenting the gospel to them tomorrow. Specifically pray for Selina tonight. She will be God’s mouthpiece to present his plan of salvation tomorrow! It will be at roughly 9:00 am Central time. Also, all of us are already dreading pulling away from Gamalakhe tomorrow without our new friends!

It's Raining, what do you want to do?

What an interesting day! We had an incredible visit to the Rehoboth orphanage. Because it is a school day and we had to go in the morning with our schedule being full, we could only see the preschool kids. We visited both the baby creche (preschool) and the toddler cheche and then we were able play outside with the older toddlers. Rehoboth has an incredible history and has incredible people working there. For more info on this amazing ministry that Lake Pointe supports, visit www.rehoboth.org.za.

Our day took an interesting turn later on though. We went to Gamalakhe to work with Pastor Dumasani’s feeding program as we had every other day. We knew that today would be different before we even arrived. He had planned to take us to a place where we could play with more all the kids and have more room to run. It was a 5-8 minute walk. At about 4:30, it started a cold, sideways rain. We decided that since we had promised we would be there until 5:30, we would stay until 5:30. Pastor Dumasani asked his kids the title question. Their response? PLAY SOCCER! So we did until about 5:10 when it became a little chilly because of the wind and rain and Dumasani sent his kids home.

We have loved everyone we have met here. They are incredible, but Dumasani is a special man. Few Zulu men really take the time to care about people at all, much less children. He really cares and it is evident that God’s hand is on his life. As Steve Flippo (our missionary) said, “He loves life, he loves Jesus, he loves people.” Please pray for this amazing man of God.

Genesis Care Center

This was yet another incredible day. Our morning began with a great time at the Genesis Care Center. One of our students made the comment that for such a beautiful country (and this is beautiful, with rolling hills, green valleys and a beautiful beach), there is so much physical suffering. The 40 bed hospice facility is filled at better than 90% capacity. It takes four shifts of workers to give care to these patients around the clock. We witnessed a chapel service that another student described said, “I completely felt the Holy Spirit move in that service.” And at least 2 people accepted Christ on the spot!

After lunch (a hamburger with a pineapple on it), we went back to Gamalakhe. This time, however, we arrived in time to actually cook the food (or at least try) for our feeding program. We cooked and served the food, continued the story of Paul, and played for a while! Yet it felt like we had barely arrived when we declared it was time to leave! The kids are really responding to us. They were all following our van out of the neighborhood and waving at us and shouting goodbye to us! It is already so hard to leave each day, we cannot begin to imagine what Friday will be like.

We want you to know that the prayers are very appreciated. Our team has been a joy to work with. Little to no complaining, great attitudes and a sense of teamwork have been amazing to see. We know this is not by our own strength, but completely of the Lord! Thank you!

Gamalakhe, just rolls off the toungue...

Today, we were able to experience the place that we will spend most of our ministry time. Gamalakhe. It is a township about a 15 minute drive from where we are staying. In Gamalakhe, we had the privilege of Dumasani. Dumasani is the pastor of the church in Gamalakhe. He also plays the accordion as he leads songs, and boy did he lead today! We heard roughly 10 or 12 different songs in both English and Zulu. These kids love to sing and all they sing about is Jesus! Even though many of them do not have a relationship with Christ, they know His holy name, and are hearing it in Word and song. They are also getting to see that Jesus loves them as we are making sure that we feed them (as the meal we provide is likely the only time they will eat today), and let them know that we are feeding them because of Jesus' name!

Our group is amazing. I love the students and leaders who are on this trip. They have had the greatest attitude! Our leaders have been amazing, in that I asked them to help me make this as much the students' trip and project as anything else. But our students! They have continued to step up in tremendous ways!

Our morning started with a Toms shoe drop at Give a Child a Family. GCF is an agency here in the area that takes abused and neglected students and works to place them in a family. Every one of the GCF kids comes from an abuse, neglect or orphan circumstance. We were able to give roughly 30 pairs of shoes to every single student who is of school age! They were so excited! IT is amazing the work that God continues to do here!

Phone Number

Our "in country" phone number is 011-27-82-370-0259.