The video of this is really bad, but you can at least hear my farewell address to our youth here in Namibia. Has been a great year and a half here, and has been great to see how God has done amazing things with the youth here.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
We want to See Jesus Lifted High
A group of my youth wanted to sing and add some motions to this song.
God of This City
The youth liked this song as well, but for me, it was my last song of worship for our final youth meeting, as I explained to them that God is the God of this city, Grootfontein, Namibia. And that he still has unfinished work to do here, and that they are the hands and feet of Christ to continue what God has started.
Awesome God
Here is a video by a couple of my youth doing an interpretive dance they made on their own for our final youth worship rally.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Portion of Video From Final Praise and Worship With Youth
Going to share a few video's from our final youth meeting here in Namibia. Just some snips of praise and worship and some video's of the youth performing.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Coming Home
Hello from Namibia, still rainy Namibia. We have received over 10 inches of rain in the past month alone, more than we got all of last year in our town together, and it is still raining! Praise the Lord, as the water table here was very low going into the new year.
Many of you have already read and heard the news I am about to share although this e-mail is a little different, and your e-mail is in our main list management system. So I apologize for you getting yet another e-mail.
Our family was supposed to be here in Namibia for another 6 months or so before coming home on furlough, but our plans have changed a bit. As many of you may know our house has been on the market for nearly three years. When we left the states we had a lease to own contract and felt sure that the sell would come through. Last June, the buyer lost his job, and could no longer pay the rent. He moved out, and we put the house on the market. We then had to use our savings to pay the mortgage while it was empty for nearly six months. In December we had some people move in to rent, but the rent was $300 less than the mortgage. Needless to say we have used up all of our savings, and the house has still yet to sell.
We have prayed and discussed this issue with SIM, and our prayer for the last two months was if God wanted us to stay he would sell the house, but if he wanted us to come home early, then the house would not sell. So we are content that God is leading us to come home earlier than planned.
We will be moving back to our home in Winston in late June, early July. We will be leaving Namibia May 13th, arriving in Charlotte May 14th. We will be in Charlotte for one week doing post field interviews with SIM. We are not cutting ties with SIM nor missions, we are coming home to see what God is wanting us to do next. We still feel called to missions and full time ministry. We will then travel to Brian's hometown of Creedmoor, NC for a week, then to Kristen's hometown in Philadelphia for a week. SIM is then requesting that we go to Michigan for two- three weeks for post field counseling, as we have went through quite a lot this past year in the field, and they highly recommend this counseling time for our family. We will then travel back to Winston-Salem and for the month of July, travel and visit donors and churches that have supported our ministry work. We hope to know by the end of July what that next step is so that we can let you all know, since you are all such an important part of our ministry.
Again, we cannot thank you enough for all of your prayers, encouragement, and financial support of our ministry here in Namibia. God has done many great things in the past year and a half since being here in Namibia, from starting with only 10 in weekly youth Bible studies to now averaging over 100 the last few weeks. They have heard the word of God, God is changing hearts, and people are coming to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, and some of these will go out and work for the Lord here in Namibia for years to come. That is what the Great Commission is all about, and we are thankful that we all, including each of you, have been a vital part of what God is doing here in Namibia.
Many Blessings to you all, and we will give more updates the closer May gets to us.
Many of you have already read and heard the news I am about to share although this e-mail is a little different, and your e-mail is in our main list management system. So I apologize for you getting yet another e-mail.
Our family was supposed to be here in Namibia for another 6 months or so before coming home on furlough, but our plans have changed a bit. As many of you may know our house has been on the market for nearly three years. When we left the states we had a lease to own contract and felt sure that the sell would come through. Last June, the buyer lost his job, and could no longer pay the rent. He moved out, and we put the house on the market. We then had to use our savings to pay the mortgage while it was empty for nearly six months. In December we had some people move in to rent, but the rent was $300 less than the mortgage. Needless to say we have used up all of our savings, and the house has still yet to sell.
We have prayed and discussed this issue with SIM, and our prayer for the last two months was if God wanted us to stay he would sell the house, but if he wanted us to come home early, then the house would not sell. So we are content that God is leading us to come home earlier than planned.
We will be moving back to our home in Winston in late June, early July. We will be leaving Namibia May 13th, arriving in Charlotte May 14th. We will be in Charlotte for one week doing post field interviews with SIM. We are not cutting ties with SIM nor missions, we are coming home to see what God is wanting us to do next. We still feel called to missions and full time ministry. We will then travel to Brian's hometown of Creedmoor, NC for a week, then to Kristen's hometown in Philadelphia for a week. SIM is then requesting that we go to Michigan for two- three weeks for post field counseling, as we have went through quite a lot this past year in the field, and they highly recommend this counseling time for our family. We will then travel back to Winston-Salem and for the month of July, travel and visit donors and churches that have supported our ministry work. We hope to know by the end of July what that next step is so that we can let you all know, since you are all such an important part of our ministry.
Again, we cannot thank you enough for all of your prayers, encouragement, and financial support of our ministry here in Namibia. God has done many great things in the past year and a half since being here in Namibia, from starting with only 10 in weekly youth Bible studies to now averaging over 100 the last few weeks. They have heard the word of God, God is changing hearts, and people are coming to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, and some of these will go out and work for the Lord here in Namibia for years to come. That is what the Great Commission is all about, and we are thankful that we all, including each of you, have been a vital part of what God is doing here in Namibia.
Many Blessings to you all, and we will give more updates the closer May gets to us.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Educational Outreach
While we have served here in Namibia and specifically in our rural town, we have certainly preached the gospel to hundreds of people. But we have also tried to be the hands and feet of Jesus in reaching out to our community by buying housing supplies, clothes, eyeglasses, giving out food, medical aid, and many other ways as well.
One of the local government schools in December told me how poorly their children were doing in mathematics and English, and asked if there was any way to help them. The government can not afford to help them with needed supplies, much less supplementary learning materials. So I sent the word out over e-mail and thanks to New Hope Presbyterian, Clemmons, NC, and some other individual donors, $1400 was raised to help the school out.
Last week I received the funds, and while doing business in the Capital was able to buy a trunk load of supplementary mathematics and English learning material. I delivered the materials to the school this week, and the children, teachers and office staff were overwhelmed with how much we were able to purchase for them.
Many thanks to all of our donors for this special needs project.
God bless you all!
One of the local government schools in December told me how poorly their children were doing in mathematics and English, and asked if there was any way to help them. The government can not afford to help them with needed supplies, much less supplementary learning materials. So I sent the word out over e-mail and thanks to New Hope Presbyterian, Clemmons, NC, and some other individual donors, $1400 was raised to help the school out.
Last week I received the funds, and while doing business in the Capital was able to buy a trunk load of supplementary mathematics and English learning material. I delivered the materials to the school this week, and the children, teachers and office staff were overwhelmed with how much we were able to purchase for them.
Many thanks to all of our donors for this special needs project.
God bless you all!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Our Youth Group
Youth group is still going great and I wanted to share a few pictures of what it looks like. I took a few pictures of the kids as they were filing into church this past Saturday afternoon. Again, it was raining like cats and dogs, but the kids still made the 2 mile walk. It was a rough day for me, I have been struggling with Bronchitis for the past two weeks, and barely made it through the hour and a half of praise and worship and Bible teaching time, but God is good and he got me through it.
Thanks for all the prayers for the youth ministry here. The kids are learning so much and have been so dedicated to youth group meetings this year. I can really start to see a big difference in the attitudes of a lot of the older kids and especially the boys. The boys struggle with lots of issues, from anger, to depression. If you could only imagine growing up in a home where at the age of 11 you are responsible for caring for younger siblings, cooking for them, getting them to school, caring for the house and much more. It is a lot of responsibility and a hard task for us parents in our culture back in the US, but this a a cultural norm for children here in Namibia. So once you understand this, you can see why so many young youth struggle with such problems at a young age. There is not much time for fun and being a kid, it is time for being the man or woman of the house.
So please continue to pray for our youth and our ministry to them for the glory of God.
Here are some pictures from this past Saturday's youth meeting.
Thanks for all the prayers for the youth ministry here. The kids are learning so much and have been so dedicated to youth group meetings this year. I can really start to see a big difference in the attitudes of a lot of the older kids and especially the boys. The boys struggle with lots of issues, from anger, to depression. If you could only imagine growing up in a home where at the age of 11 you are responsible for caring for younger siblings, cooking for them, getting them to school, caring for the house and much more. It is a lot of responsibility and a hard task for us parents in our culture back in the US, but this a a cultural norm for children here in Namibia. So once you understand this, you can see why so many young youth struggle with such problems at a young age. There is not much time for fun and being a kid, it is time for being the man or woman of the house.
So please continue to pray for our youth and our ministry to them for the glory of God.
Here are some pictures from this past Saturday's youth meeting.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
They Came Through Wind and Rain
God blew me away yesterday. Just before 2:00pm yesterday a huge storm blew in with high winds and lots of rain and this was right before our youth group meeting started. Just to give you a picture, the kids have to walk alomost two miles to the church for youth group.
So I figured that I would not have many show up for youth group, but 65 kids, yes 65 kids, walked through the wind and rain yesterday to learn more about God! Praise the Lord!
Once again we had a great time in fellowship, praise and worship and time studying God's Word!
So I figured that I would not have many show up for youth group, but 65 kids, yes 65 kids, walked through the wind and rain yesterday to learn more about God! Praise the Lord!
Once again we had a great time in fellowship, praise and worship and time studying God's Word!
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