This is a video clip of my youth choir singing Chris Tomlin's version of Amazing Grace. We were supposed to sing Blessed Be the Name, but at the last minute they decided they wanted to sing this song, so that is why they have the music in their hands.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Attack of the Flying Mosquitos
We finally got some measurable rain yesterday. We got close to a 1/8 of an inch! That doesn't sound like much, but it was a lot for here and much needed. It really cooled things off a lot. The kids were actually complaining about being cold yesterday morning, and for the first time I pulled the covers over me in bed.
It did not stay cold for long, but it was only in the 80's for the highs and that felt GREAT!
The big problem with the rain was that it stirred up the mosquito population big time! Last night before bed Kristen and I killed around 20+ in the house, yet we did not get them all. Hannah fared well in the arms of her mosquito net. They don't seem to like my blood, so I ended up with two bites, but Cameron and Corbin must have had "blood donor" written all over them. They woke up this morning looking like they had the measles. I think we counted over 20 some on Corbin.
Therefore, today I went and purchased two more mosquito nets and put them over their beds. Tonight should be a better night for them. We did have a praying mantis trying to help eat them last night, but even he was no match for the army that was in the house.
We also met a couple of new people this week and had them over for dinner last night. One girl is a US Peace Corp nurse working at the State Hospital and the other girl is from the UK and she is a physical therapist also working at the State Hospital. They told us how blessed they were to make new friends and were excited to come over last night. They also are looking forward to learning how to play Settlers of Catan, which is a great board game.
Anyhow, my week gets kicked in to high gear tomorrow with all my ministry work, so I am looking forward to that. Also my new youth choir will be singing their first song in Church this Sunday. I am going to record it and try to post it on the blog for you to listen to as well.
Blessings to all!
It did not stay cold for long, but it was only in the 80's for the highs and that felt GREAT!
The big problem with the rain was that it stirred up the mosquito population big time! Last night before bed Kristen and I killed around 20+ in the house, yet we did not get them all. Hannah fared well in the arms of her mosquito net. They don't seem to like my blood, so I ended up with two bites, but Cameron and Corbin must have had "blood donor" written all over them. They woke up this morning looking like they had the measles. I think we counted over 20 some on Corbin.
Therefore, today I went and purchased two more mosquito nets and put them over their beds. Tonight should be a better night for them. We did have a praying mantis trying to help eat them last night, but even he was no match for the army that was in the house.
We also met a couple of new people this week and had them over for dinner last night. One girl is a US Peace Corp nurse working at the State Hospital and the other girl is from the UK and she is a physical therapist also working at the State Hospital. They told us how blessed they were to make new friends and were excited to come over last night. They also are looking forward to learning how to play Settlers of Catan, which is a great board game.
Anyhow, my week gets kicked in to high gear tomorrow with all my ministry work, so I am looking forward to that. Also my new youth choir will be singing their first song in Church this Sunday. I am going to record it and try to post it on the blog for you to listen to as well.
Blessings to all!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Hunting Kudu
Today my Pastor took me north to bushmen land to hunt Kudu. I have not hunted in a long time, but never like this. Hunting in the woods back home is one thing, but hunting in the bush is difficult at best.
The bush is full of snakes, scorpions, thorn bushes and thorn trees. But it was a great experience. As we were out hunting we came across two giraffe grazing, a male and a female. They were not scared of us at all and let us get really close.
I had a great shot at a bull with large horns, and we tracked it after the shot for an hour and a half, tracking its path of blood and tracks. The shot must not have penetrated well, because we never found it. So just before dark, around 6:15 three more came up to a water hole, and I got my first Kudu. This meat will feed us for at least 6 months, and it is great meat!
We also ran across some wild boar as well. It was a long hard day, 12 hours to be exact, but a great experience.
Here are some pictures of the bush, the giraffe, wart hog and my kill.
The bush is full of snakes, scorpions, thorn bushes and thorn trees. But it was a great experience. As we were out hunting we came across two giraffe grazing, a male and a female. They were not scared of us at all and let us get really close.
I had a great shot at a bull with large horns, and we tracked it after the shot for an hour and a half, tracking its path of blood and tracks. The shot must not have penetrated well, because we never found it. So just before dark, around 6:15 three more came up to a water hole, and I got my first Kudu. This meat will feed us for at least 6 months, and it is great meat!
We also ran across some wild boar as well. It was a long hard day, 12 hours to be exact, but a great experience.
Here are some pictures of the bush, the giraffe, wart hog and my kill.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Bible Study at the Hostel
Today was my second youth meeting at the girls hostel. Last week was more of an introductory time. There were around 25 girls there last week. Well this week we began Bible study.
I started off with playing my guitar and we had praise and worship for around 30 minutes. Well when we started at 4pm we had about 20 girls, as the girls in the hostel outside heard the singing and worship they began to flood into our room. By the 4:10 there were over 40 girls in the room. The praise and worship was great, the voices of the girls was such a blessing to hear.
So we had a great Bible study after that for a half hour and there was great discussion as well.
Attached is a picture of the girls from today's Bible study.
I started off with playing my guitar and we had praise and worship for around 30 minutes. Well when we started at 4pm we had about 20 girls, as the girls in the hostel outside heard the singing and worship they began to flood into our room. By the 4:10 there were over 40 girls in the room. The praise and worship was great, the voices of the girls was such a blessing to hear.
So we had a great Bible study after that for a half hour and there was great discussion as well.
Attached is a picture of the girls from today's Bible study.
Monday, February 8, 2010
New Children's Church/ Youth Room
This past Saturday the kids, myself and another lady who works in the church fixed up an old garage near the church to use for Sunday School, Children's Church and Youth group meetings.
Cameron and Hannah did a great job taking out trash, moving small boxes and cleaning up some used children's chairs that we found.
The room was painted, the ceiling repaired and painted, we found some rugs to lay down and a pick nick table we cleaned up as well to use. It turned out quite nice. The added plus is that the garage doors open up, so that on the hot days we have some good airflow coming through.
We got it fixed just in time on Saturday for my first real youth meeting. It went really well. We had 18 kids show up, which I am told is good. It is normally only around 4 kids that come on Saturday's. This is because the Boarding School kids are not allowed to come to church on Saturday's, only on Sunday's. This is why we have the Wednesday Bible studies at the Boarding Schools.
Kristen and I started a children's church this Sunday as well with the 6 year old and under. We had over 25 kids in our new room. The first of the month is communion Sunday, so we showed them a video of the Easter Story and explained what communion is and why we (the church) have it every month. The kids seemed to enjoy it, and were amazed to watch a movie in our garage. I was able to purchase a portable projector a year ago and it works well here with taking it places for times like this past Sunday. I will be using it to show the youth the "Passion of Christ" in the next few weeks.
Here are some pictures of the new room!
Blessings to all!
Cameron and Hannah did a great job taking out trash, moving small boxes and cleaning up some used children's chairs that we found.
The room was painted, the ceiling repaired and painted, we found some rugs to lay down and a pick nick table we cleaned up as well to use. It turned out quite nice. The added plus is that the garage doors open up, so that on the hot days we have some good airflow coming through.
We got it fixed just in time on Saturday for my first real youth meeting. It went really well. We had 18 kids show up, which I am told is good. It is normally only around 4 kids that come on Saturday's. This is because the Boarding School kids are not allowed to come to church on Saturday's, only on Sunday's. This is why we have the Wednesday Bible studies at the Boarding Schools.
Kristen and I started a children's church this Sunday as well with the 6 year old and under. We had over 25 kids in our new room. The first of the month is communion Sunday, so we showed them a video of the Easter Story and explained what communion is and why we (the church) have it every month. The kids seemed to enjoy it, and were amazed to watch a movie in our garage. I was able to purchase a portable projector a year ago and it works well here with taking it places for times like this past Sunday. I will be using it to show the youth the "Passion of Christ" in the next few weeks.
Here are some pictures of the new room!
Blessings to all!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Work Day in Omulunga
Today Cameron and I went to do some lite construction work in Omulunga which is right out side of Grootfontein. There is a government school there and another SIM missionary feeds around 700+ kids there every day. So we were helping to repair a door, a wall and some holes in the floor of the cooking area.
The cooking is all done in three large kettle pots by boiling water with wood fires. The kids eat a substance that is like grits, made of corn meal and vitamins and minerals are added to it.
We worked a half a day and got most of the work completed. Cameron was a great worker today and the kids in the school loved watching him mix the mortar for the brick laying and for the holes we prepared in the floor. He is now a full fledged missionary. At one point some of the older kids that were watching us work called Cameron over and started asking him questions about where he was from and about his family. He was not shy at all and had a good conversation with them. I was quite proud of him today.
Yesterday I also had my first meeting with the Hostel (Boarding School) girls and it went really well. The girls get three hours of free time on Wednesday afternoons and could go in to town or do whatever, but 25 of the girls decided to spend an hour with me in Bible study learning about Christ! How cool is that! I am really looking forward to working with them each week.
Here are some pictures of our work today.
God bless!
The cooking is all done in three large kettle pots by boiling water with wood fires. The kids eat a substance that is like grits, made of corn meal and vitamins and minerals are added to it.
We worked a half a day and got most of the work completed. Cameron was a great worker today and the kids in the school loved watching him mix the mortar for the brick laying and for the holes we prepared in the floor. He is now a full fledged missionary. At one point some of the older kids that were watching us work called Cameron over and started asking him questions about where he was from and about his family. He was not shy at all and had a good conversation with them. I was quite proud of him today.
Yesterday I also had my first meeting with the Hostel (Boarding School) girls and it went really well. The girls get three hours of free time on Wednesday afternoons and could go in to town or do whatever, but 25 of the girls decided to spend an hour with me in Bible study learning about Christ! How cool is that! I am really looking forward to working with them each week.
Here are some pictures of our work today.
God bless!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Church and Sunday School
Sunday was my first day I guess on the job. This Sunday I joined the praise and worship team to assist in leading worship. It was good, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Attendance was down a bit due to it being the end of the month. Most people are paid at the end of the month here in town. So there are a lot of people that come in to town from surrounding areas to visit, and then a lot of the local people leave town to do the same.
So this weekend it was quite crowded in the streets and little stores.
At the end of the service I had a chance to address the church and youth to share about our family, share about how God called us here to serve and then to share the my vision for the youth group going forward.
One of my plans is to start a youth choir. So I had around 30 kids that expressed interest in the youth choir. So I am beginning to work on music for them, and we start practice this coming Friday afternoon.
After church one of the youth found a chameleon outside and grabbed it. You would have thought it was his pet because it was so tame. Corbin even had him on his head, although he did not cry, I am not sure he liked it on his head all that much.
Lastly we ended the day with Sunday School. Sunday school is different here. Rather than it being during church time, it is later in the afternoon at 2:30. Sunday school is only for the younger kids age 7-12. Youth and adults have small group Bible studies that meet in homes through out the week. We had 24 kids this past Sunday for Sunday school. We started taking them through a study on the ten commandments, played some games and had praise and worship. Cameron and Hannah joined us and they had fun as well. The kids were excited that they came as well.
Here are some pictures from the day.
Attendance was down a bit due to it being the end of the month. Most people are paid at the end of the month here in town. So there are a lot of people that come in to town from surrounding areas to visit, and then a lot of the local people leave town to do the same.
So this weekend it was quite crowded in the streets and little stores.
At the end of the service I had a chance to address the church and youth to share about our family, share about how God called us here to serve and then to share the my vision for the youth group going forward.
One of my plans is to start a youth choir. So I had around 30 kids that expressed interest in the youth choir. So I am beginning to work on music for them, and we start practice this coming Friday afternoon.
After church one of the youth found a chameleon outside and grabbed it. You would have thought it was his pet because it was so tame. Corbin even had him on his head, although he did not cry, I am not sure he liked it on his head all that much.
Lastly we ended the day with Sunday School. Sunday school is different here. Rather than it being during church time, it is later in the afternoon at 2:30. Sunday school is only for the younger kids age 7-12. Youth and adults have small group Bible studies that meet in homes through out the week. We had 24 kids this past Sunday for Sunday school. We started taking them through a study on the ten commandments, played some games and had praise and worship. Cameron and Hannah joined us and they had fun as well. The kids were excited that they came as well.
Here are some pictures from the day.
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