A Sad Day Unnoticed

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry RePrise, the man that wrote "The Hokie Pokey" died peacefully at the age of 93.
The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. That's when the trouble started...

July Update

Time has simply flown by since the last time that we sent out one of these updates. Also, I have been negligent in my motivation to send these out. I have hardly touched the blog either. I will be more consistent in our updates. Your prayers are vitally important to the “success” that we have over here. I know that it is not our success, or that God is dependent on us to make Him successful. But, we want you to know what’s going on so that you will be able to pray specifically and intelligently.

3 Weeks in Roodepoort

From the middle of June to the 3^rd of July, we were in Roodepoort, just outside of Johannesburg, for three weeks of training. We learned some new methods and processes for effective evangelism and discipleship. I believe these have effectively equipped us to do the work that God has sent us here to do. We were blessed with some wonderful Bible study, teaching and fellowship. I feel as confident in knowing what to do and how to do it as I have since arriving on the field. There were more children there than adults. The children had a wonderful time, as this was 3 weeks of fun for them. Anytime you can replace 3 weeks of school for 3 weeks of no-school – it is a wonderful time. They enjoyed being around many new MK “cousins”.

We were incredibly blessed as everyone stayed healthy and neither Jody nor I had any “sick days” with the kids. The temps were in the 60’s and lows were in the 30/40’s. It was cold, but God blessed and we stayed warm and healthy. The food was definitely not taken from our recipe book, but we survived – many times PB&Js did the trick. One Saturday morning, Jody and I made about 11 dozen donuts for everyone. The cook at that camp said that ours were the best donuts she’d ever eaten! We had a good time making them for everyone. We were asked about what would happen the next Saturday.

On one of the weekends, we were privileged to go to the Lion Park. We were able to drive around and see lions and cheetahs. The boys got their pictures taken with some lion cubs. We also fed some giraffe and ostriches. Have you ever seen how long a giraffe’s tongue is? It’s about as long as its neck!!!

Josiah and Caleb were able to return to school without having too much work to catch up on. The boys are out of school for the whole month of August. There is a possibility of doing some camping up in Botswana with another family. We’ll just have to see how that pans out. Jody and I celebrated our 15^th wedding anniversary a week ago, but we decided to do something in August, so it would be warmer for whatever activity we planned.

The Zim Guys

Going to Roodepoort for three weeks meant that I had to leave the Bible study I was doing with the guys from Zimbabwe. When I returned, I found out that they had been picked up by immigration and deported. As Pastor Ben told me this, my heart just sank. Anthony, who I’d led to Christ, and Elvis were bright spots in my week because they had such a hunger for spiritual things. But, I realized that again, God knows what He is doing, and He may have sent 2 missionaries back to Zimbabwe.

From Jody

Hey everyone! Dennis has told you what has been going on during the last few weeks. The training in Roodeport was really great. We were able to see some things from a different perspective, and what it meant to change some of our methods in ministry. We talked about doing good things versus doing the best thing. We studied the book of Acts, and what the early church looks like. We learned a method of training called T4T or Training for Trainers. It is based on the premise of training nationals to train other national with the Word, and basically working yourself out of a job!

With all this overflowing from me, I immediately put into practice some of the things we discussed. For the last two weeks in the village of Moshawane, I have told the Bible story to the women and children like before. This time, however, I have asked those who want to go deeper into the story to stay. I had eight women stay the first week, and six stayed this past Friday. It’s really made me excited to see what God is showing them in His Word.

Miracle in Moshawane

I must tell you what has also happened in this village. Before I left to go to Roodepoort, I was called to go to the home of one of the ladies in my Bible Study. Her son, Onkarabile (Own-kah-rah-bee-lay), was very ill. When we got there, we saw a nine year old little boy who had suddenly lost the ability to walk or even hold up his head. No one knew what was wrong. Of course, the first thing you suspect here is AIDS. The mom had taken him to the clinic, but had not received the results. We prayed over him, and left. While I was in Roodepoort, a missionary friend, Eulee, and Lorato went to see what the test results were. They said he had TB, but I was very perplexed about this. The clinic had given him medicine to start for the TB, and sent him home. My missionary friend is a nurse, and she said she didn’t think he would live very long. I was heart-broken. I thought he would be dead before I got home. Eulee and Lorato decided to go see him again the next week. Meanwhile, at training, we had been learning a storying method called “Creation to the Cross.” Part of this story is about the power Jesus showed to us while he was on earth. Trust me, He still has the power! Wednesday night of that week, I was awake in the middle of the night, and God brought Onkarabile to my mind. I began to pray, and I really felt like I was doing battle on behalf of this little boy. I claimed the power of Jesus over every sickness and every disease. I don’t know how long I prayed. I eventually went back to sleep. I didn’t know it, but Eulee and Lorato went to visit Onkarabile the next day. Eulee text messaged me, and I called her. Onkarabile was holding his head up and smiling! Eulee said, You WILL see him again!” I was shouting Hallelujahs! When I got home from Roodepoort, Lorato and I went out to see how Onkarabile was doing. We pulled into the yard, and Lorato said, “Mma-Moruti (that’s me), we are witnessing a miracle!” I said, “Where is he?” We got out of the car and Onkarabile WALKED out of the house! I was shoutin’! My God has the power over everything on this earth. I want Him to receive all the glory! Continue with me praying for Onkarabile’s complete and total healing and recovery. God wants to do something through this boy’s life. I can’t wait to see what it is!

Prayer requests

Mosime(Moe-see-may)- A five-year old little boy also from Moshawane who has had some kind of seizure. We still don’t know what is wrong with him. Please pray! He is near and dear to my heart! Remember, our God has POWER!

Ext.39- Another place where Jody is working. We’ve seen some accept Christ, but still have not been able to get a group started there.

Pray for Dennis has he reorganizes his priorities and groups to fall in line with the Roodepoort teaching and directions.

Pray for Dennis and Jody as the make a new commitment to language learning.

By the way - gas price here is $5.37 a gallon.

Just Some Pictures

The boys getting ready to take Mother's Day pictures.

Is all that stretching, hiding, and posturing necessary?

Happy 13th birthday to Andy.

We are proud of you!!!

Melody likes to get her picture taken.

Bethany loves her momma!!

As cute as she is, there definitely is another 'part' to her personality -

you can see it in those eyes!

June Update

It is hard to believe that it has been so long since our last correspondence. The Lord continues to show his faithfulness to us each and every day – just through the things that we might call little. We hear stories from other missionaries about their tribulations; from children breaking their leg, not setting right, surgery to re-break the leg to others getting robbed and car-jacked. In our 4+ years here in Africa, we have yet to have any of those kind of experiences. We know that this is a direct result of God’s mercy, protection, and many of you praying daily for us. For your prayers, we cannot thank you enough. I am beginning to understand the love that the Apostle Paul had for the church at Philippi when he wrote, “every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.”

These weeks seem to be traveling by faster and faster. I have had the opportunity to preach in the churches that I have worked in previously and renew the friendships that we left nearly a year ago. I find myself amazed at how God is able to draw believers together upon initial gatherings or in the reacquainting of relationships. In my weekly Bible study with some young men, I have grown to love these guys and their desire to grow and know the Lord. After one of the Bible studies, one of the guys named Elvis (yes, Elvis), said that “we need to do this 3-times a week.” When was last time you have heard that kind of yearning for the study of God’s word.

The work in Extension 39 is not going as well as I would like for it to. I am beginning to feel and see that this is very dark place where the work will become harder and harder. Ex. 39 has a nickname borne out of its prevalent immorality. This immorality has victimized the young man who I really wanted to work with in this area, as he was a resident and could have been a strong link into this community. We will press on and work in conjunction with Jody’s and Lorato’s work.

I am also teaching Evangelism at Mmabatho Baptist Church. This is a fun night as attendance has grown each night. In our last meeting, I was greatly encouraged as a lady shared about a witnessing encounter she had. I was sharing with them on how to use their testimony and that it needed to be up to date. People want to know the difference that Jesus in making in your life right now. That is exactly what she shared. It was neat to see them practice on each other sharing their testimony.

FROM JODY: Hello all. Hope everything is going well for each one of you. The work here is still going on. We have begun to visit Ext.39, and have seen a few accept Christ as Savior. It is a battle, though. There is so much darkness there. Please continue to pray for these people. I would also like for you to pray for something very specific. Would you please pray that a church planting movement would happen in Ext. 39? In a couple of weeks we will be having some extensive training on church planting movements. In one of the books we are reading, I have seen the utter necessity of bathing everything in prayer.

We’ve also been continuing to go to Moshawane village. About four weeks ago, I experienced one of the hardest situations since we’ve been here. An eight-week old baby girl died at the government hospital because of an error by the nurses. She was the grand-daughter of Maboka, the lady in whose house we meet. It was heart-breaking. I’ve never seen such grief here. Please pray for the mother of the baby. Her name is Peni (Penny). Also pray that Peni will grow stronger in her faith, and desire to make better choices in her life.

Personally, I have had to have some tests done on a lump I found. Praise the Lord! There is no malignancy. Email me if you want to know anymore that that!

Thank you all for continuing to pray. We appreciate it so much.

The kids are all doing well. Pray for us as we continue to home school Andy. Some days are a struggle. He turned 13 on May 11^th. Wow! I have a teenager! Any advice? Josiah is asking to be homeschooled next year. We are still considering what would be the best for him. He continues to do well in school, and has lots of friends wherever he goes. Caleb is the artistic one out of the bunch. He really does have a great gift for drawing. We’re hoping to get him some art lessons if we can.

Bethany is such a joy. We have to play “girl games” all the time. Meaning games that little girls can play. She loves her sister, and her brothers (most of the time). Melody is a mess! She’s cute and knows it! Her latest word is “blue.” If you ask her, everything is the color blue. She also has been going through the “taking all her clothes off” phase. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t winter here! She’s so funny, and we laugh at her all the time.

Thank you for praying for our kids. We all struggle sometimes with being homesick for the ones we love and for home.

April Update

It’s hard to know where to begin because I really don’t remember what I have said to who and who knows what I have said and who has been on our blog to see some of the news that has happened. So, I will quickly recap what has happened this year and then I will get things together and you will start receiving these updates on a regular basis.

Our Return - I am sure you remember that we returned to the field on January 18^th. We have since got our house up and running and is in working order. Since that time, the house has been painted. No longer is it a light purple and gray, but now it is a lovely “Africa Stone” beige trimmed in Forest Green. It looks a lot nicer – we think. We have not have the rolling blackouts, as we were promised, as much as we experienced our first week here. We should be on some sort of schedule for 2 hours every other day, but we have yet to see that. The electricity has been out a couple of times, but it is because of ‘normal’ unscheduled power outages.

Dennis Return to the States - I was back in the States for 18 days during the last 2 weeks of February to complete my naturalization process. It was really unfortunate that I had to return just one month after our return here. But God is good and His timing was exactly perfect – even in the midst of my ‘unknowingness’ . I am now an American citizen and I have my new passport and everything. Now, I have to go through the process of getting my South African visa transferred to my American passport. I dread going into the Office of Home Affairs and finding out what ‘hoops’ are going to have to be jumped through to get that accomplished.

The Boys – Caleb and Josiah started their school terms respectively just 3 days after we arrived back in South Africa. They will finish this first term next Friday and will be out until May 12^th. They usually have three, month long breaks in April, August. and December. I think they like their breaks broken up throughout the year. Josiah has focused on playing soccer this term while Caleb has been learning how to play cricket and continuing his swimming. They have both been doing very well in their studies. Yesterday, April 1^st, Caleb said that we had a regular parent-teacher conference with his teacher. So at 6:00 pm Jody goes to his school. She calls me and says no one is there – no teachers, no parents, no one!! She comes and tells Caleb that no one was there and he responds by saying “April Fools!!” Now, he didn’t plan that out but Jody and I just laughed after she told me that he was quick enough to think that. He is reminding me a lot about myself – I don’t know if that is a good thing or not!

We continue to homeschool Andy and he should finish his 7^th grade year on schedule with those of you in the States. He turns 13 on May 11^th – it’s hard to believe that we’ll have a teenager in the house. He enjoyed this last meeting that we were at as this was his first year to be included in youth activities and could stay out late. He had his own key to the room that we stayed in. He acted quite responsible in his activities.

The Girls – It’s hard to believe that Melody is already 17 months old. She definitely has her own cute personality. She is literally running around finding the need to stay up with her brothers and sister.

Bethany is 3 ½, and is all the “girly girl” that Jody prayed for. She is learning lots of things. Her favorite thing to do right now is play (My first) Uno. We have to play everyday. She has also learned the passage of Scripture we have been learning as a family. She can pretty much say it by herself. We are very proud of her.

Dennis’ Ministry and Notes – Things have not necessarily gone as well as I have expected. I’ve had to start and re-start a couple of times already. As I have said earlier, I had to leave a month after we got back and then we were gone for a week to Johannesburg area for our Annual Missionary Training Meeting. I am scheduled to teach Personal Evangelism at Mmabatho Baptist on Wednesdays – since the beginning of March. I didn’t return until after the first Wednesday of March. Then the church was starting to prepare for Easter and Easter conferences. We weren’t here the first Wednesday after Easter, so probably next week I will start.

Extension 39 is looking very promising. There was not any progress in that area while we were in the States, so it looks like we’ll start over. I will have to work some things out with the young pastor that is living in that area before we can continue with him. I will let Jody tell you what she is going to be doing there.

We have been invited to 3 weeks of training and instruction in June. That means that we will gone for 3 weeks to Johannesburg area. That will be quite the undertaking as we try to carry on with life as normal as possible. We’ll have to work with the boys teachers to get 3 weeks of assignments.

I’ll be meeting with the pastors and leaders this week and next to discuss the possibilities and strategize for the next several months.

Jody’s Ministry and Notes – Wow! It has been a long time since I’ve done this! As Dennis has told you we’ve been back for about two and a half months now. I started praying before we ever went to the States that God would show me what was next for me in ministry. When we got back, I went to the same village I had been working in before, to visit. They were glad to see me, and I them. After that, Dennis had to go back to the States, so ministry was on hold for a few weeks. During that time, I was still praying about the work here that God wants us to accomplish. I started to think about how great it would be if Dennis and I could work together, but I knew that would have to wait until the kids were a bit older. I then thought about going into Ext.39 and doing what we did in the other village with asking the spiritual questions and just talking to people. We would be like a tag team! Well, a few weeks later we had some missionaries at our house, and Dennis started talking to them about what he thought we could do in Ext.39, and it was exactly what I had been thinking! (I had not mentioned anything to him before that.) I also called the lady that goes with me to the village, Lorato, and she said God had put Ext.39 on her heart too when she started praying with me last year! While I was talking to her, another thought came to me. I know God was broadening my horizons. Why not teach the women from Moshawane village, where I’ve been up to this time, how to share their testimonies and tell Bible stories, and then take them with us to Ext.39. The excitement really started going through me then. So, I need you all to pray for me, Lorato, and Dennis as we embark on this new adventure/ministry. Pray that the women in the village that GOD wants to be a part of this will be ready and excited to do something they’ve never done before, but are willing to do it for the Lord. Pray also that hearts in Ext.39 will be tender as we begin to ask the spiritual questions, and gain some insights into the spiritual level of these people. We will start this on Friday of this week.

I also wanted to thank you all for covering me with your prayers while Dennis was away. Many things happened, but we were all safe. I think the biggest thing for me was that I was able to sleep soundly every night. I was not afraid or uneasy at all. I know that was because so many were praying. Thank you all so much. I love you all.

Prayer Requests – Jody’s Dad – He is still needing to regain his strength, but is doing OK. Please pray that he will be able to fight off any infections he may have so that his body can work to get back to normal. Thank you for continuing to pray for him.

This Update – throughout this update, we have mentioned many things – as the Lord brings us and these things to your memory, wherever you are, voice a prayer for us.

Again - we are grateful for your remembrance of us.

How You Can Pray

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Comment and tell me if this is working ok.

She Did It !

One of things that Bethany learned to like while we were in the States is the children's show Dora the Explorer. We bought a couple of DVD's for her when we returned.

This short 13 second video is of her singing the closing song - "We Did It".

Mostly Easter Pic's

Check out my Slide Show!

How neat is this - I just found this from another blog.

Oh, Say can you see....

Well, as of 2:40 pm on Monday afternoon, I am an American citizen. What a relief to finally get through the process. I will have been here for 18 days and totally processing time with fingerprints, interview, test, and oath is only about 2 hours. But unfortunately everything cannot be done at one time or in one day. But I am thankful that this part is now complete.

I will file for my passport today, however I will not be going down to Houston to do that.

I am flying tomorrow morning from Shreveport to Atlanta (4 hour layover) and then to Johannesburg and then 4 more hours home.

Thanks for your prayers and we'll talk to you from the other side in a couple of days.