Fruits that Last

Happy New Year! We hope you had a great end to your year as we celebrated the gift of Jesus coming to earth and another year he has blessed us with. We ended off the year with a bang with our last Women of Worth Conference for the. year in November, Kids Camp and Teens Camp in December and the graduation of our Genesis students. It was a great finish to the year and we are grateful for all God did.

In November we held our last Women of Worth Conference for the year. We had a wonderful time fellowshipping and learning with women from so many different churches and enjoyed catching up with some of our alumni who attended as well. It was also encouraging to see so many attending one of our conferences for the first time and to hear how God encouraged and challenged them through it. We look forward to see how God continues to help us grow relationships with different local churches through these conferences so we can continue to serve them and come alongside of them in ministry.


We are so thankful to have been able to host our camps at a larger campsite this year as we finally have emerged from the many restrictions that limited us for the past few years. This helps us in a huge way because we were able to focus on ministering to the +- 40 kids and +-70 teens rather  than spending so much time on catering and logistics.



One thing that I am thankful for when it comes to our end of year camp is the counselors that come and help out in ministering to the campers. Our theme this year was 'back to the basics' and our focus was on the book of 1 John. I along with Jabu, a former Word of Life student and intern, were  
the main speakers for teen camp. Jabu did a great job in teaching the students through the book of 1 John. Jabu as well as Tolamo and Conrad who were our speakers for Kids Camp are from Central Baptist Church. I share this because I am excited to see what the Lord has been doing in Jabu’s life. He is now pastoring and mentoring guys like Tolamo and Conrad and it is so encouraging to see the Lord grow him to be a man after his own heart.It's also been encouraging to have many of our other alumni and other young adults who were once campers themselves also serving at camp and to see the work God is continuing in their lives. We don't always see the fruits in campers lives immediately but over time, God takes those seeds that are planted at camp and produces fruit and for that we are so grateful. We also praise the Lord for the 2 kids and 8 teens that did make a decision to trust in Christ as their Savior and others that made committments to living for him.

We are so thankful for the amazing interns we had last. year. Having so few people on staff right now, it is such a huge blessing to have these interns who help us carry the load. It's also been a joy to watch God work in each of their lives and see them grow in so many ways. We are excited to have 4 of them continue with us this year as well as welcome 3 new interns to our Joburg team and 2 new interns to our Durban  team from last year's graduating class.

This year is going to look a little different as we have decided to put a pause on the Genesis Program (formerly Discipleship Training Center) due to a lack of a staff. We trust and pray that the Lord will provide more staff in his timing so we can resume this program and really give it and the students the attention they deserve.  Our goal is to serve with excellence which is why we will focus on our local church ministries, camps, missions trips, and intern program. Looking forward to seeing what God does this year and praying that he would produce much fruit.

Thank you for continuing to be a part of our journey and a part of what God is doing here in South Africa. We are so thankful for your care, love and support. You are a blessing to us.

Please Pray...

- For wisdom as we continue to adjust to being a family of 4

- For the Lord's wisdom and guidance as we kick off various ministries for the year including youth and young adults at our church. Pray for a year of fruitful year

-For wisdom for us and our team moving forward

- For Ashley to recive her visa quickly.

- upcoming leaders training conferences (Feb 4 and Feb 11)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Camps Near & Far

Image
It’s been a while since our last update and so much has happened since we arrived back from furlough. Thato took a trip to Zimbabwe to help with some camps alongside the WOL Zim team, we assisted with our church’s Holiday Bible Club (VBS) as well as a winter camp alongside one of the churches we partner with in the East Rand.    Our team also continued with our annual camps happening at Potchefstroom (True Word Bible Church) and Mozambique (Trichardt School). The biggest thing that has happened over these past few months though it that we welcomed our third baby girl, Aliyah Mphonyana (translated ‘little gift’ in Sotho) 3 weeks early. We are thankful for the smooth delivery of our sweet Aliyah on Thato’s birthday (June 4) The pastors cooking for the campers Zimbabwe I had a privilege to go to Zimbabwe after coming back from furlough to help teach at camp. The trip was great ias we were able to meet with Pastors and have fellowship with them as well as teach the word of God to ...
Read more

There & Back Again

Image
It's been a month now since we returned to South Africa and have been settling back into a normal rhythm. We are so thankful for the time we had on furlough to reconnect with friends, family and supporters. It really was such an encouraging time and though it was quite busy with lots of traveling, it was also refreshing. We started out our time with some downtime with our family over the Christmas holidays. It was a wonderful and special time especially since it was the last time we were able to spend with Ashley's Pop Pop before he went home to be with the Lord in March.  We officially began our furlough the first week of January as we caught up with friends and supporters and shared in churches in Abaco, Spanish Wells and Nassau (3 different islands). We were so overwhelmed by the love, generosity and care we felt as we visited with different people and churches. It was also encouraging to see God at work in each person's life and their own spheres. Our time in the US was...
Read more

Weeping & Rejoicing

Image
The Lord gives & the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This last month has held some really high highs and some really low lows. There has been weeping and rejoicing. But through it all, we continue to say through tears and smiles, "blessed be the name of the Lord". Just a few weeks ago, Thato and I joyfully received the news that in less than 7 months, we would become parents to our first baby. We were ecstatic and so thankful for this gift the Lord had given us. However, the excitement was short lived. Just 5 days after discovering I was pregnant, we were told by the doctor that we had a miscarriage. Though we had only known about the pregnancy for less than a week, we were devastated to hear that we had lost our baby. We struggled to understand exactly why the Lord had allowed this but we continued to trust that He is good and faithful and that he would use it for our good and His glory. Our hearts still hurt but we are thankful for the Lord's lo...
Read more