Dark Clouds?

We had a great week end. The camp was Covenant Life Ministries, a large group for Sunbury, 120 people. We usually run 60-80. This particular camp was a family camp. They arrived sporadically throughout the evening on Friday in hopes of a perfect weekend. Saturday we all woke up to a dreary day. The weather was threatening all day long. Rain was in the air and the sky showed no signs of sun only dark clouds. I will say it didn’t dampen their spirits. They had planned several hours of outdoor games in the afternoon, every kind of race you can think of. As I watched the thunder rolled and the games went on. There were those that participated and those who cheered from the veranda. Their spirits still were not dampened, they persevered knowing the storm was hanging over us. It began raining just after they finished their frivolity. As I walked home this was my view. It was as if God was saying, “see, I am always here with you.” The sky darkened again and the rain came in torrents.

It encourages me to know that He is always there. I’m sure it encourages you as well. We all have clouds, a little rain and even storms in our lives, but as children of the living God we persevere In the knowledge that storms come and go but we never walk through them alone. He is with us and if we are too weak to walk through them He will carry us as long as we need him to. What a great and compassionate Father we have.

I hope your day is blessed knowing you are a child of the King.

Would you pass the test?

Do you ever wonder where your heart truly lies? What if you had to make a decision that would cost you? Would you choose to be cautious or would you be bold and stand for what you know Christ would do? I must admit that I sometimes wonder what I’d do. Of course, I’d like to believe I’d stand firm in my conviction. But I guess until the test is given I will continue to wonder.

This is the Durban North Baptist Church. Like most small churches they struggle financially. They were here this weekend for a family camp. The curriculum was the last session of the alpha course. If your not familiar with it’s content, it teaches the basics of the gospel. It’s an out reach for non-believers and helps new believers ground themselves in what they believe and why.  

Here at Sunbury we have a minimum camp requirement you must have 60 campers. If you have less there is a minimum charge of R 15,000 which is the basic charge for 60 campers.  Unfortunately this church only had 41 campers.   As I spoke with the church leadership this past week they were concerned about the financial burden.  As with all churches they felt they need a meeting with the church board to make the decision. I thought that they would cancel the camp.  To my surprise they decided to come.

Hmmm.  Why ???  Well it seem that one of the couples that had signed up to come were part of the Alpha course and we’re not believers.  The leadership of the church decided that R 15,000.  was a small price to pay for the possibility that God was doing a work in their hearts. So, standing on their conviction that they are here for the purpose of leading souls to Christ they made the hard decision. What a blessing to see convictions in action. By the way before the camp left today they told me they had two decisions for Christ.

 God at work through his body the church. I hope this blesses you as it does me.
  So I say to you, and myself, “Stand firm and be bold, God is at work.”

I love it when a plan comes together!

Wow I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve blogged.  Time passes so quickly and we have kept ourselves busy around the camp. We are continuing to work on Boaz. It’s been about nine weeks.  Seem like a long time to do one little house, but when you can’t only get supplies once a week it slows things down quite a bit.  

    This past week, on Thursday, the Pinters arrived.  They are  a young couple with three children and have committed to work at Sunbury for two and a half months while the Hoffman’s are in the states.   I believe their departure is just before thanksgiving. They are a delight to have here. Children always brighten things up don’t you think? They are such a blessing.

     As we look all around us and see the beauty and the scope of God’s creation we are reminded of how mighty and powerful He truly is. Our problems are like smoke in the wind as we keep our eye fixed on him. We are so often in the valley looking up at the mountain and can’t imagine how we will over come it. What we need to keep in mind is that we in our own strength can’t.  Well...we are praising God once again that He has moved a presumably un-movable mountain. I heard just this afternoon that the Hoffman’s have their Visas in hand.  Yep , their three year visas have been approved. This after they were told all visas were on indefinite hold as per the South African government. So, once again our God has moved in his time and in his amazing way.  “Is there anything to hard for our God“.  There was an show on tv years ago that’s catch phrase was , “I love it when a plan comes together. Well I say, “I love it when Gods plan comes together.”  We aren’t sure just when the Hoffman’s will return, but our plan, Lord willing, is to be here until Christmas.  I guess we’ll how that all plays out.

     Please continue to pray for us. There is still much we can do here to help.  Also. If you do read the blog please  let me know, it could be a comment or a thumbs up just so I know if anyone is reading it.  Thanks 😘

Let God bless you today be in his word.

Break Time!

It’s our break time, we actually have several a day, and this is the view as we sit and sip our coffee.  Isn’t it beautiful 🙂.  The dark blue you see is the Indian Ocean.

You can actually see it better in this picture. I’m in awe of the complex beauty that surrounds us every day. Are you? Do you take time to not only notice but appreciate the glorious wonder that surrounds you each day? WOW. How amazing is the mind of our God.

Thank you father for all you bless us with. Open our eyes to see you filling our lives with your glory.

Boaz Progress Update

Just a few pictures of the work is progressing in out little cottage, Boaz, before and after. Well not quite after, there are still a number of things to do. This is the sleeping area. I think it’s interesting they still put the electricity on the face of the walls  🤔 I guess there’s no choice since it is all concrete block.  Just makes things look messy to me.

It’s a low ceiling so low that we decided to paint the crown molding the same color of the wall hoping it would make the walls look higher.  (of course when I say we I mean Howard when it comes to the painting)

I think it did help a bit. We, Carlene and I, chose a three tone pallet. I’m pleased with how they blended.

The color here didn’t photograph the best.  The picture above is more accurate. We decided to repurpose a couple of old beds to help save some cash. All we needed was a can of spray pint to give it a little clean up. We used a gray wash for the baseboards.  I know it looks a little brown, but it’s not really.

Howard built a couple of “closets”  I think closet need doors, but I gave in to Howard’s idea. NO DOORS.  He did agree to give me a couple of drawers, a little give and take.

Now the fun part a shopping and picking out the bedding. I decided that the greens seemed blah, so I decided to add a pop of mustard. What do you think?

Today I picked up a couple of throws to layer on the bed, a mustard color similar to the rug, and ordered two paisley throw pillows to be made. What you see there is the sample fabric.

Hope this gives you a little idea of what we’ve been doing the past month.

The blessings of iTemba

A while back I told you about a camp that was here, iTemba, I also said I let you know more about the group. ITemba is a non-profit Christian organization that reaches out to a community in close proximity to Pietermaritzburg. It is a poor community and I was told that has the highest aids rate in South Africa. It is a tribal community which means there is a chief that is the head of everything.

The iTemba organization provides so much for this community including education in parenting , day care, pre school, kids clubs for all ages, teaching them how to use what they have in the best way. Basically they are showing them the love of Christ.

Once a year they bring two groups of kids to camp. The first camp is for younger kids.  I’m told that on the day of registration the kids sleep on the sidewalk so they have the best chance of getting to come. They bring 60 kids each camp period so if you want to be one of them you gotta get there early. Camp here is very different from the camps our kids are use to. It’s only one full day and two half days so a total of two days.  They are busy from the time they get off the bus to the time they leave.  Some of the kids have never even experience a real shower before and they were excited about that. Can you imagine? The camp is paid for by the iTemba group. What a treat for kids that would never be able to experience camp any other way!

This picture is of the second group ages 13-18. They were so much fun to watch. The pool was a particular favorite of theirs, it didn’t even matter that is was cool and the pool isn’t heated. They also took the kids to the ocean one morning and had a sack lunch on the beach. These leaders are the ultimate when it comes to organization.

On the last day when this picture was taken the kids formed a circle and asked the our ladies to come into the center, then one of the kids, who spoke for the group, thanked them for all they had done to make their stay so nice. Then I was asked to enter the circle and a different young person thanked me for hosting and spending time with them. They were so polite and appreciative. It was a great camp!

These two groups of kids really touched my heart as did their leaders.

So that is what I know about the iTemba group. Reaching families for Christ though service.

Time is getting short, but not too short to answer questions

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in awhile so much to do and time is getting short.

Sooo
Last Sunday after the camp was gone and we were finally relaxing, the buzzer for the gate rang. 😐

It was ESKOM, the electric service here, they were here to read the meters...on Sunday? Yep it seemed a little odd to me so I went down to get the scoop. There were two people in the truck, a young woman and a young man. They told me they just needed meter reading, that was ok with me, but I stayed while the gal did the readings. Once she was back in the truck she asked me about the camp and what we did and what we taught. I explained that it was a Christian Camp and we facilitated camps for and Christian organizations as well as churches and we had a Bible School here as well.

The young man asked , “do you mind if we ask a few questions?”
Me “not at all”
So these are the questions they asked :
Do you believe there is only one God?
Do you believe Mary was a virgin?
Do believe there is black magic and is it a bad thing?
What do you think about churches that teach things that aren’t in the Bible?
     Should we leave a church like that?
Do you think there is a purpose for everything that happens?
Do you think that people are where they are for a reason?

We had a great conversation and before they left they told me they were sure God had me there at that time to talk with them. Before they left they asked me to pray for them. From the conversation I think they were believers, but it’s hard to know. That is one of the things I love about being here, it doesn’t take much to talk about the Lord. People are so open and usually they bring it up.

When was the last time your meter reader asked you about God, His word and the church. Eyes are being opened, hearts are being touched. God is at work and I’m blessed to be a part of it. We just have to love the opportunities available here.