07.27.2009
Hello from South Africa!
We made it! It has been one month now since we left the states and we are enjoying every minute of it. We are staying at the Ywam base in Kruger, White River with an organization called Ten Thousand Homes. The staff here is absolutely amazing and has been so accommodating to our needs.
We are currently getting plugged into three different communities here; Kabokweni, Mbonisweni, and Dwahlini. Ten Thousand Homes supplies feeding programs at each one of these places for the orphans and vulnerable of the communities. We usually send two to three hours at each community getting to know the children and the native volunteers from the area. Playing games and singing songs seem to be what they most enjoy. These kids are blessed with extremely beautiful voices and bless us with them every time we arrive.
At Kabokweni there is a beautiful woman named Mrs. Elizabeth and she is doing great things for the community there. She puts on a feeding program twice a week which is usually pop (like a thick grit or cream of wheat) and meat stew (tripe or beef). This is taking place right out of her back door and before the feeding she gathers the kids in front and they sing songs and pray. After the feeding the kids have free time where we all go to the area in her backyard where they sing, dance, and play. There are plans in the making to build a learning center in this area where the kids could come to get help with their school work and just come to be loved. The area has already been cleared and we are waiting for the building plans to be revised. God is definitely doing great things there and we can feel it every time the children embrace us for a moment in their lives.
At Mbonisweni we have connected with a young pastor named Stimbiso. He is taking the youth of that community under his wing and doing an excellent job of guiding them. There was a mission team here from Orlando earlier in the month that raised the money to construct a house for a family in the community. The family is broken due to mental illnesses and Aids. Mimi, the mother of the family is mentally disabled so the Aunt was helping taking care of the two younger kids; a boy the age of 12 and a young girl that is 8. The Aunt has a girl of her own somewhere around 6. Unfortunately, the aunt periodically falls ill from AIDS and her daughter has to leave her home to stay with the mentally challenged mother, Mimi. She does not work, and receives a government grant of the equivalent of only $50/mo. The Orlando team are working long hours as we helped them construct this house in two short weeks. Great Job Orlando Team! There is a feeding program in this area once a week. We feel that the true heart of this community is going to be the youth. They are doing great things and the numbers are amazing. At Stimbiso’s church they have a youth group of about 50 or more and they are all in the choir. When they sing God is their spot light and it never fails that Goosebumps engulf my body and tears flood my eyes. You can feel the power of God in them.
Dwahlini is the newest community that we have reached out to. We started last week with a feeding program and skits from a mission team visiting us from Denver, Co called Kings Kids. We got to help with the cooking which was a blast. They kind of just through us in there maybe to get a laugh but they were very impressed! It was a great ground breaker for us. They showed us how to make POP. Wow that takes a while and a lot of work. But they invited us back to cook again. The house there is ran buy a group of about 9 ladies with the same goals in mind; to feed the kids and to share God’s love. We look forward to continually build a strong relationship with these ladies. There is a lot of room for future growth, help with studies, art and crafts, housing etc… Keep this in your prayers.
We just helped put on a Youth Sports Day at Mbonisweni where the kids from Kabokweni came to challenge Mbonisweni. The girls competed in a game called net ball which is like a combination between basketball and ultimate Frisbee then at the end of the day a quick game of soccer. The guys had a small Soccer tournament with three different teams. The last game came down to penalty shots with Mbonisweni coming out on top. It was a great thing to watch seeing two communities come together and compete against each other. We continue to see God work in miraculous ways and are reminded that God is everywhere!
We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the support and prayers and helping us to share our love with the communities here. With love and Gods will we can continue to bless the lives where we go.
06.16.2009
The journey has begun! We have officially left our home in DFW and have arrived in New Haven, Connecticut to stay a few days with Aaron Garrison; a film maker following our progress. We will be leaving here on the 18th to visit London for one day and then we will continue onto South Africa scheduled to arrive on the 20th. We want to send a big THANK YOU to everyone back home. We could never have made it this far without the love and support of all of our family and friends. We want to give a special thanks to our Hope family. Without all of your support and encouragement we're not sure we could have come this far. It has been such a pleasure getting to know each one of you and you will most certainly see us again sooner than you think! We'll have pictures and videos to share as well. We also want to give a special thanks to our family back home; Dennis Emery, you played the biggest role in our journey and we are so grateful that God has put it on your heart to care so deeply about what we are doing. Also Angie Miller- we appreciate your hospitality over the last month or so. We love you all so much and we ask that you please keep in touch with us via e-mail and facebook. God bless you and we will pray for all of you in our absense!
-A and R
05.16.2009
The website is almost finished! Ryan and I have officially set our departure date for June 15th (just three weeks away!) We're so excited to embark on the long journey to South Africa and to see my family again. We're tying up loose ends and saying our goodbyes, but the bitter-sweet experience of leaving home behind promises an exciting tomorrow. We want to give a special thanks to all the members of Hope Christian City Church for all the love and support we have received from our church family. We also want to give a special thanks to Aaron Garrison for all of his support through all of this. It has been so special to us that you have cared such a great deal about our well being when making these difficult decisions. We also want to give Aaron some recognition for the film he is working on about South Africa and the beauty of preserving it's culture.
We want to give thanks to all the friends and family who have personally invested in relationships with us. We will miss you guys. And a final big thanks to God for always making a way. He is bigger and the plan is greater than i ever imagined.
