Family Time

One of the things that I am working on this year is making sure that our family has more family time.  Last year, we hit the road running so to speak, and it paid its toll on me later in the year and on the family.  I was trying to minister to everyone with a need, and trying to reach so many youth each week, that my family time suffered.  I learned that there will always be many needs for ministry here, but God will take care of it in His time, not mine. 

This year I am focusing on the heart of our ministry and that is Youth, and God is already blessing it.  We have gone from averaging 30 kids last year for Saturday meetings, to now averaging 80 kids.  Needless to say, trying to manage worship, fellowship time and Bible study with 80 kids is a daunting task, hence the need for focus.

Another change this year is making sure to have good family time during the week and whenever we get free time.  One weekend a month, the youth we minister to, are sent home from the hostels.  So we are now using this weekend to get out of town on the farm to relax and just have good family time together.

This past weekend was our first out-weekend. We have a wonderful German family who has a farm about an hour north of us and she has given us a warm open invitation to use her farm whenever we need to.  This weekend was great. 

Namibia has had a record amount of rain this year, and on this farm a river runs right through the back of their house.  Now, it is normally completely dry when we go and full of horses and goats, but this time it was full of 3 foot of water.  So we had fun swimming, canoeing and kayaking in the river.  Cameron is only 6 and has never tried to kayak before, but he took to it really quick and we had fun kayaking up and down the river together.  We tipped over a few times, but he knows how to swim and it was all part of the fun.

We also enjoyed cooking and eating outside, rides on the farm, watching the sunset, catching frogs, and just having fun together as a family.  There was no t.v., Internet, cell phone, or anything to distract us, and it was good to laugh and play together.

The ministry is of the utmost importance to our entire family here in Namibia, but being able to keep our family together and tight makes the ministry much more enjoyable as we do it together for the glory of our King!