June Update

This picture was taken on Mother’s Day a couple of weeks ago. It is hard to believe that there will be another little girl in the photo next year. Jody had an appointment and the doctor did a scan and it looks like another little girl. It’s hard to imagine what the house will be like with some more little feet running around. The Lord has truly blessed our family. In the almost 2 ½ years here in Africa, none of us has been seriously sick with even a cold or flu. I did not ever imagine that I would be the father of 5 children. Jody and I realized that for 10 years we had house of full of boys. There will be a time after Caleb leaves the house, at 25, that I will be a minority with 3 girls in the house. The Lord is faithful.

It seems like a long time since we have talked. To be honest, there is not a whole lot to talk about. For the last 2 months, I have not been involved in a lot of activity. With Jody having morning sickness all day long, an Easter stay in the hospital, being involved with the volunteers with AMTM, and having a strained back, my activities have been very limited. For about 7 weeks, Jody could not step foot into the kitchen, however, she needed to eat every 2 hours. That meant that I could not leave for any extended amount of time, and I had to find something for her to eat. She really wasn’t hungry, didn’t really want to eat, and she could not tell me what she wanted. Try and figure that one out! I am still perplexed. It also meant that Bethany was under my supervision. Jody was able to do some things, but she was very limited in her activities. After AMTM, we enjoyed Jody’s parents at our house for a couple of days. I spent 4 nights on the couch. This did something to my back and I am just now getting comfortable with sitting on a chair.I have preached a couple of times in those weeks and am in the planning stages now of some conferences and seminars in the next couple of months. We are still working in Unit 15 (a subdivision of over 1000 homes) on trying to find a house to start a Bible study. Several meetings have been planned, but have been cancelled. I am working with Ben Poo of United Baptist in getting a building built. They asked me to be on the building committee. I reluctantly agreed saying that I really did not know anything much about building a building. I am preaching the next 2 Sundays at Mmabatho Baptist Church. I continue to meet with Calvary Baptist Church working through Purpose Driven material. They really want to find out who they are and what God wants them to do and be about.

Well, hello! I want to say first of all that I am so thankful for all the prayers that have been offered up on my behalf by all of you. I definitely felt them! I’m feeling much better these days, and am actually excited about having another girl. I can’t believe I’m going to have two daughters. After having three boys (who I love dearly), I begged God for the one I have! I never dreamed He would give me another!
The work in the village is still going strong. We meet on Friday mornings to do our Bible stories. They have to sing some too. It’s just not a “church” meeting without a few songs! Lorato and I were asked last week to visit a sick family member of one of our ladies. We found out later that the family had been trying to find us for three weeks! The woman who is sick has just had a baby a couple of months ago. When we walked into the house, I felt like I was looking at Ricki all over again. It was very sad. This woman wanted us to pray for her. Lorato told her we could not just pray for her, but that we also had to share with her what we have. We shared the gospel with her, and she said she received. I pray that her decision was genuine. Only God and she can know that. Please pray for her and her family. We went back last Sunday, and shared the gospel with the woman’s mother, sister, aunt, and cousin. They all prayed the sinner’s prayer before we left. Discipleship is such a key issue. These people honestly don’t know what the Bible says about so many things. The Bible stories that we tell are such a basic discipleship, but we have to start somewhere! Please continue to pray for us as we go, and pray for the Moshawane (mo-shah-wah-nay) village. We love you!

-- Blessings --